ARCHANGEL.

"Dad, Dad dinners ready! Mum says to get your backside in here now"

The tall man laughed as he came out from under the car, covered in oil and muck, he had a passion for old vehicles her father, he liked to restore them to their former glory. Calen would help her father whenever school studies and chores allowed.

He rested his arm round her shoulders and walked with her towards the house. John Shepard turned to kiss his daughters cheek when he was thrown forward, a gaping hole in his chest. His blood covered his daughters shirt and his bloodied hand reached for her before falling to the floor lifeless.

Everything happened in a blur, she raced into the house, but they had the house surrounded. Hannah chucked her daughter a rifle and told her to run, taking her cousins Amy and Richard with her.

"Mum the Baby!" She ran into the nursery and scooped her baby sister up in her arms, just as her mothers head was taken from her shoulders but a Batarian with a blade of some description, the look of horror forever frozen on her mothers face.

Calen ran, handing her sister Julia to Amy and told her to head for the woods, Richard was the first to go, some webbing came down on top of him and caught him in a net that stunned him into unconsciousness. She shot whoever was near to her, clean kills, which was more than they gave her parents.

She could hear Amy's shout and scrambling through the undergrowth she stumbled into the clearing they would all go to, the clearing that was now littered with the dead and the trapped. Her baby sister snatched from her cousins arms, the Batarian looked at the child then hit Amy so hard her neck snapped. He gave the baby to someone else and Calen screamed firing at them trying to reach her sister, her little sister and cursing herself for not protecting her. She killed three before she was shot and sent hurtling down into the water below.

Shepard woke with a gasp and looked around her, several times to check where she was. The cold she had thought was the water of the Scott River was the air con in her quarters.

"Calen" She heard her name called and looked around, the holographic image of EDI appeared by her door "I am monitoring your stress levels, they have just risen substantially, are you OK?"

Calen got up and took several deep breaths "I am fine EDI, run over how we get to Archangel again?"

"The only way to get to Archangel is to be recruited at the Blue Suns point at Afterlife. They are working together with the Bloodpack and Eclipse, something unheard off"

"Hmm he must be a real threat," Calen went into the bathroom and splashed water on her face. She listened as EDI ran down the list of criminal activities that Archangel and his mercs had disrupted. She was impressed, no wonder he had pissed off the entire criminal organisation on Omeaga. She wondered how he had managed it for so long, and would ask him, once she had got him out of trouble.

She told EDI that was all and stood staring at her reflection in the mirror. After Mindoir she had been fostered by Dr Chakwas, of her sister she never had a clue, she didn't know what had happened to the baby or indeed her cousin Richard.

She had never spoken about it, not even to Karin or Liara. After seeing that poor girl on the Citadel she wondered if that was the fate of her baby sister, to be forever locked in a cycle of abuse and violence turning her into nothing more than an animal.

She banished those thoughts as soon as they entered, it was no good thinking about that, not when she had other things to think about. She had thought about maybe contacting the Shadowbroker with regards to finding her sister and cousin, but after learning that the Shadowbroker wanted to hand her corpse over to the Collectors, that was not a good idea.

She had always kept her family close to her heart, and this had sat ill with her, not knowing what had become of her sister or cousin, maybe when she had dealt with the Collectors she would go find them.

If they were still alive.

Calen returned to bed and lay out on top of it. They would head into Omeaga at midnight, two hours from now, get this Archangel and get the hell away from this crap and head to the Citadel. She wanted to see Anderson again, something normal, something she could relate to and someone she loved dearly.

As the five figures made their way into Afterlife, Calen had to wonder if the place ever slept, true there was no daylight here, it was a space station with perhaps artificial daylight, there was no real sunlight to speak off. The only sound that came from the area was that blasted nightclub, whatever news they heard were speaking of problems with the council races, all squabbling now that the Humans were in charge, She glanced at Miranda and Zaeed, "Guess putting the humans in charge was not my better decision."

"You did what you had to do Shepard" Zaeed told her "If the boot was on the other foot and it was the Turians hunting the Reapers, you can bet your last Credit they'd have done the same."

"Zaeed is correct" Miranda agreed "When the Reapers come, and we know they are coming, we will need all the fire-power we can get our hands on. It took all of fifth fleet to defeat Sovereign and he was just one ship"

Calen went and stood by the viaduct, below a river of lava flowed across the surface from deep within the asteroids core. When she had heard Jokers radio message they had all had their say. Ashley and Wrex advocated leaving the Destiny Ascension, hold the fleet back when the Reapers eventually showed it would do the humans no good too have half a fleet. Ashley had returned to her Humans had always been alone, and the behaviour of some of the Council members had proved that during the year they were hunting Saren. Wrex, well if the council were shit heads to the Humans, they were even worse to the Krogan.

She loved her job and saving the lives of people who might not matter, but as she had said to Garrus once, what the Salarians and the Turians, and the Asari for being complacent about it, what they had done to the Krogan, was bordering on a war crime. Yes the Krogan needed to be reasoned with but sterilising them was no answer. So she could understand Wrex's feelings.

Tali had abstained, saying that she really didn't care about the council as they had treated the Quarians as second rate citizens, nomads to kick when they felt like it but, she also did not want to see people die over politics.

Liara and Garrus had said that this would make Humanity stronger and heroes if they saved they council. It had been the only bad apple between her, Liara and Garrus. Shepard made the decision, one that still haunted her now, but then if she had chosen to save the destiny Ascension then the ghosts would be the same, instead of the Councils faces the faces would be human. She hadn't done it to jettison Humanity into the prime pissing parlour, she hadn't done it because she had tired of the Councils games, she had sacrificed the Destiny Ascension because it was sound tactical acumen.

On one of her N6 training missions, the last one before she became N7, or one of the last ones, she had spoken with a Turian General by the name of Archimedias, and he had said, to her that sometimes we all have to make that decision, its not a case of the needs of the many and the needs of the few, its a case of the bigger picture. Sometimes we have to make the choices that might seem petty to others, but in the long run, it is the bigger picture, and that was why she was going to make the N7 programme, she was going to pass it, because she could make the hard choices.

Sometimes she wondered if she could have done something differently. Listening to the news now, she realised it wouldn't have mattered what she had done, someone, somewhere would have had something to say about it, negative or otherwise. Still hundreds of brave people died that day, Human, Asari, Turian and Salarian, she hoped that they had been honoured. Tapping the tailing she heaved a sigh and made her way into Afterlife.

The recruiter had been Batarian, he had mistaken Miranda and herself for a pair of strippers. Both women had drawn their guns and remarked that theirs were miles bigger. He had explained that Archangel was proving to be a royal pain in the arse to kill, they had taken care of his team but he was like something out of the after world, an avenging spirit, he certainly lived up to his name. He had also said that if one of them died then the others did not collect the deceased members 500 credits, they had their own armour and weapons which was good, and this did not make them members of the Blue Suns, Bloodpack or Eclipse, they were freelancers and that was that.

"Just tell us where to go" Calen grinned a little "We'll do the rest"

"Head out to the main street and swing a right and head to the main taxi rank. They'll take you to where we are fighting the arsehole."

Calen nodded and turned to leave with the rest of her team when she was barged aside by a kid no older than 16 maybe 17 at a push. He was dressed like a street kid, one of the many she had seen on earth and other colonies.

"Is this where I sign up to hunt the Archangel."

Zaeed laughed "You got to be kidding me. How old are you?"

"17, look I know how to handle myself, I grew up here, nothing you can tell me I don't already know and I brought this for 50 creds, what a bargain"

He proudly showed off his weapon. Calen took one look at it and taking it from his hand showed him how much he really didn't know, the weapon jammed and refused to unjam itself. "Do yourself a favour kid, get your money back and if you really want to do something, go back to school or something, Archangel is a killer and he'll shorten your life as sure as a Varren will"

She motioned with her head and they all left, the lad well he looked stunned and stared at the gun. Jacob moved to the Commanders side and stopped her as they got outside the club. "What did you do to the gun?"

"I broke the arming chamber, it was already bad, I just made sure if it."

"Why would you do that? Street punk like that he is going to end up in a gang or dead from drugs"

"Is that what you think Taylor?" She turned to face him, the middle of her brow knotting in anger, "A kid grows up on the slum streets of Omeaga? Trailer trash? And all he's good for is gangs or drugs?" She shook her head "Miranda is right, Omeaga has been the way its been for decades and no one is going to change it, unless Aria wants it changed and she isn't about to do that. If me stopping that kid from throwing his life away for a bunch of people that see him as nothing more than meat on a slab then I for one am very very happy about it."

She shook her head and heaved an irritated sigh then walked off. Zaeed slapped Jacobs shoulder "Nice going Lieutenant" He muttered.

Miranda fell into step next to him "Sometimes Jacob I think your mouth works out of gear with your brain."

Jacob snorted in derision "That kid is going to be dead before he is 18"

"You don't know that Jacob, not every kid on Omeaga grows up to be a gang banger or a druggie or a stripper."

"I'm never wrong about people like that"

Miranda shook her head and left him to himself, catching up with Zaeed and Calen they headed for the taxi rank and then out to a large apartment complex and from the sound of the gunfire, they were in for a busy time

He sat on the floor, catching his breath and giving himself some time to compose himself. He was tired, he was low on food and low on drinks. He was tiring and soon he was going to make mistakes. Still he would go fighting, he owed it, to them and to everyone he had ever loved and cared about.

He removed his helm and ran a hand over his head, sweat beaded his brow, his mandibles flexed once or twice. His blue eyes stared ceiling wards and he sent a silent prayer to the soul of someone he had known once. He asked the Spirits to give him the strength to do as they had done, to show that the scum that polluted the decent people of Omeaga, and contrary to popular belief, there were a lot of good people in this hell hole. It was they who had given him the nickname Archangel. He had looked it up, an old human myth about an angel or something. It seemed quite fitting. He drank from the bottled water and chewed on a protein bar. A shot whizzed passed his head and embedded in the wall.

Heaving a sigh he stared at the balcony before him, and raised his bottle to the body bags he knew was there. Drinking again he put his helm back on, reloaded his sniper rifle and began to kill again. It had been like this for days, maybe weeks or months, he didn't know any more, it was constant and time meant nothing to him. He had not slept, for to sleep would give them a chance to flank him and take him out.

He peered through his scope to see four figures that looked a little out of place here. The armour was different too, not the standard street trash that claimed to be freelancers. The silver helmed figure cut an impressive sight. A woman, human like the other one, her armour was silver with a red...what was that painted on the corner...what humans called a dragon? This was going to be trouble but they waited. What were they waiting for?

He took a moment to asses the situation, the first group had come across and he had made short work of them, this was the second group of the morning he checked his chrono, 3am Omega Standard. The quarter waited then drew their weapons, and started firing on the freelancers, he wasn't going to call them mercs, cannon fodder would have been better. But he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Especially when he heard one of the unlucky sods calls out that they were with Archangel, he had never seen them before but they weren't wrong about helping him. Spirits maybe he had done some good here after all.

The figures made their way across, three biotics and one soldier, he frowned behind his helm as the silver dragon painted armour charged across the bridge knocking anything and anyone out of the way, finishing up with a biotic slam breaking bone into tiny pieces, piercing body organs.

Maybe he was more tired than he thought, because in the years he had seen biotics at work, he had only ever seen one human biotic do that, and she was dead.

"I'm seeing ghosts now" he muttered and just to be sure he fired at the approaching the group. Tagging their shields only.

The leader looked up and shook her head then vanished, well he would find out if they were friend or foe in a moment.

He caught a movement behind one of the pillars and concentrated, as distorted voice coldly said behind him "Archangel?"

He raised a shaking finger, that distorter might work on anyone else but he knew that voice, it had been his commanders voice, the one superior officer he had any respect for. Inside he was shaking, it can;t be her, she was dead, he saw her being pulled into that worlds gravity, he saw her begin to burn up. Spirits this was a cruel joke it had to be.

As the mercs head peered round the corner he took the shot blowing their face off. He turned to see the four humans, guns raised behind him. Their leader had removed her helm. Same dark hair, same grey eyes, face a little scarred, but there was no mistaking it.

He moved to a seat and sat himself down, weariness overtaking him, and if he didn't sit down then he might fall down with shock. He removed his helm and set it to one side. Blue eyes met grey and the grey eyes widened in recognition.

"Garrus?" Calen holstered her Carnifax and vaulted the sofa "GARRUS!"

Garrus caught her in his arms and wrapped them around her, tear's falling unashamedly down his face as he hugged her. This was his friend, his best friend, everything smelt right about her somehow she had survived, by the spirits she had survived.

"Calen" he whispered wiping his eyes quickly "I thought you were dead!"

"I was...its a long story" She stepped back a little "Damn Vakarian" she sniffed "or should I call you Archangel?"

"Hah" he uttered a weary laugh "Its just a name the people gave me, I don't really mind, it suited me and my work but its just Garrus to you."

She nodded and turned to her team "Lady and gentlemen meet the best damn sniper this side of the galactic core. Saved my arse more than once.,"

"Not when it counted though Calen" Garrus told her "Not when you needed it."

"Hey. Garrus, nothing anyone could have done".She changed the subject abruptly "Tell me, how the hell did you manage to fuck off every single merc ganger on Omeaga?"

"It wasn't easy, I really really had to work my ass off to do it" He drank some more water "Tell you what Shep, I'll make you a deal, you get me out of here and I'll tell you all about it over a drink or two and you can tell me how you are back from the dead."

Calen nodded and walked to the overlook "Deal" She motioned with her head "Any idea how we are going to get out of here. I would say charge it and take our chances but you old friend are in no physical shape to do that"

"No but if it gets me out of here, I'll do what I have to do"

She waited in the comms room, pacing and glaring out the window. She was shaking from head to toe, angry and fearful all in one. They had started so well. They had taken out Eclipse with a little help from an altered YMIR Mech.

The Bloodpack, well they had been a tad bit harder, a Krogan that regened faster than any Krogan or Vorcha. She had left Zaeed and Jacob with Garrus, and both her and Miranda had dealt with the Bloodpack as they tried to come in through the back way. When they had locked down the doors they had returned to find the Krogan boss making his way up the stairs.

It had taken all Mirandas energy to destroy the shields and Calen had fired point blank into his head with an incendiary round, that stopped the bastard regening. Especially when both women saw him running round like a maniac as the skin slowed off his face from the head of the round.

They barely had time to breathe when the Blue Suns had attacked. Although Calen had killed the Sergeant by electrocuting him, the gunship was still a danger, she put Jacob and Miranda by the balcony as Blue Sun elite mercs made their way up. She stayed with Zaeed and Garrus, they had taken care of the elite that came into the upstairs room, just as the gunship fired two rockets hitting Garrus's position. Zaeed switched to warp bullets and Calen switched to armour piercing and together they eventually destroyed the gunship,

it was then she saw how badly injured Garrus was, the floor where he lay was pooled with his purple blood. His eyes were closed and as she turned him over, half his face was ruin.

"Garrus!" She cried out and barked at Miranda to have the Normandy have a medical team on standby and inform Chakwas what had happened. She didn't want to hear what Zaeed was saying, that he had lost too much blood, that he wasn't going to make it. "You listen to me Vakarian" She whispered in his ear "There is no Shepard without Vakarian, I've just fucking found you again tweety bird, don't damn well die on me now!"

She heard him take a deep gasp and reach for his rifle, moved it to his hand and stayed with him until they were back on the Normandy, she had been in the comms room ever since. She looked up as Jacob came into the room and saluted.

"Karin and Miranda did what they could for him Commander, the damge was extensive." She kept her gaze fixed on the velvet star filled void outside, fearing the worst "Was touch and go, with some cybernetics though they did what they could however...well I have to say he is one tough son of a bitch"

Shepard looked up as Garrus made his way into the comms room to hear Jacobs last words "I was going for the new look, what do you think?"

She saw the head mask on the left side of his face, holding his face on "Well you know you were an ugly bastard before Vakarian, the scars are just going to make you that much uglier" She grinned depsite herself.

Garrus laughed then winced "Oh please don't make me laugh, even with this contraption on my face could fall off at any moment"

"Then you would be handsome"

"Oh come on, we both know women love scars and mine will be so much more dramatic than yours, means I can have the women falling all over me"

She smirked and nodded as Jacob left them alone. Garrus waited for the door to shut and stood before his friend "I saw a bar, beer?"

"I brought a couple drinks here" She handed him one "Damn Garrus its bloody good to see you again. I saw Tali three months ago."

Garrus perched himself on the edge of the table "They rebuilt you? Miranda told me they rebuilt you"

"Yeah"

"Cerberus?"

"Yeah. Not my greatest moment but right now they are doing what they can to save the colonists"

Garrus nodded and felt her hand in his "When I saw you die...it was all Wrex and I could do to keep Liara from folding but..." his voice trailed off "This is not a conversation for here. I am going to get settled in the gun battery, see if this new girl stacks up to the old one. Could I come to your cabin later? We can talk then"

"Sure Garrus, you sure you're fit for duty? I don't want Karin chewing my arse off."

He smirked a little "Must be good for you Calen, your mum being here"

"Yeah it is."

"I am fit for duty Commander, whenever you need me. Shall we say 19:00?"

"Sounds good, Joker will want to be in on that."

"He's walking better, he came down to see me a little bit ago."

"Cerberus strengthened some of his bones. Can't correct it all but enough to allow him to walk without the braces."

Garrus patted her hand and standing up made his way out the room, It was good to have him around again, but he wasn't the same. There was a ghost in Garrus's eyes, something haunted him, and she recognised the intuition, because when she looked at Garrus she found herself looking into a mirror of herself.