Two more years since he'd left the Normandy, or was it three? Garrus couldn't remember. He took out two more mercs from his perch on the wards on Omega. He'd been there for days, taking them out systematically, but he was reaching his limits. Hyped on stims, running low on ammo, he was having trouble keeping a grip on reality. He'd been awake for almost 4 days straight. At one point thought he'd heard Wrex's voice, and called to him, before he realized it was a Krogan merc and took him out. He was starting to run out of options, and moved from wondering how he was going to get out of it, to accepting he probably wasn't.
"At least I can finally join her," he said. In some ways, it would be a relief. After his team was killed, and he was betrayed by Sidonis, he felt his purpose lost. He'd let her down, and was numbly going through the motions of living.
Another day went by, or was it two? He must have passed out at some point, and awoke to the sound of mercs trying to open the door he had barricaded. He took them out, and took their ammo. Nearly delirious, he took aim again from his post. It looked like they were making a finally push to take him out.
"I'll take as many as I can with me, bastards." Some mechs, a few more mercs, humans. Suddenly his scope focused in on what looked like Shepard. He jerked his head back, looking down at the small group. He brought his rifle sight back up. It looked like her, but different. He didn't recognize the other two humans with her. He shook his head, he must be near death, or was he dead already? He wanted the vision to go away and took a well-aimed shot at her shoulder – concussive rounds. She jerked back, and then gestured to her team and started taking out the mercs who had made it into the base. She disappeared, and startled by the vision, he tried to re-focus on the next wave of mercs going over the bridge. He could hear Krogans outside his door, trying to get in. This time it sounded like they were successful. He continued to aim at the waves of mechs coming over the bridge. The door opened and he turned to shoot, but it was that maddening vision of a Shepard look alike again with 2 humans, this time pulling guns on him.
"Archangel?"
She even sounded like her. He motioned for her to be quiet, then took out a pesky human merc attempting to hide behind a beam. Determined to confront her and make her disappear once and for all, he walked over to the back wall and sat on it, slowly putting his gun down and taking his helmet off so he could get a better look.
He looked at her, perplexed, "Shepard. You're dead."
"Garrus," she gasped and dropped her gun. She ran over to him, "What are you doing here!"
He looked at her flatly, "A little target practice."
She grabbed his arm and attempted to give him a hug, "It's me, Jane. I'm here, we're going to get you out. I can't believe it's you, you're Archangel."
He looked down at her. It was frustrating, how realistic this hallucination was. Maybe if he just went along with it, it would be over soon. Either that or he was dead already, and this was where he was ending up.
"I need to get out of here." He said.
She looked at him searching his eyes for a way to get through to him. Miranda's voice broke through, "He's hyped up on stims. I don't think he can process what's happening."
Shepard nodded, "Must be it. Come on, let's get the hell out of here."
They took out more mercs and then split up, Shepard leaving Miranda with Garrus, admonishing her, "Keep him alive." It had been her mission to find him since she woke up on the Cerberus base. She wasn't going to let him go, now that she had the miracle of finding him again.
Joining him back upstairs she thought they were home free, whittling out the remaining mercs, but the gunship appeared, and to her horror, she watched a missile explode in his face.
"Garrus!" she let out a blood curdling scream that shocked Jacob into action. He put all his gunfire on the ship as Shepard stood up and they took it out. Miranda picked off the remaining mercs rappelling down to their floor.
Finally safe, she crawled over to where Garrus was bleeding blue on the floor, not moving. "Garrus," she wailed. And he gasped, gurgling and taking his rifle in his hand. "Oh my god!" she screamed, "Get some medigel!" she yelled at Miranda and Jacob, who was sitting down next to her, applying some to his neck and face.
Miranda stood over them, "He's not going to make it," she said matter-of-factly.
Shepard helped Jacob keep applying medigel and growled at Miranda, "Shut the fuck up and call Joker to send the shuttle. He's going to make it, and if he doesn't," she looked up at her, "I'm off the goddamn mission and you'll never see me again."
Garrus woke up in a medbay, looking around, disoriented. He tried to get up, but the pain in his face and neck were excruciating. He groaned and put a hand up, feeling bandages.
"Garrus, lie down please, you're just coming out of anesthesia."
He let his pounding head fall back on the pillow and opened his eyes to see Dr. Chakwas. He laughed, then stopped, feeling pain on the right side of his face. He hadn't seen her since the day she came to tell him Shepard was dead.
"Are you dead too?" he asked her.
She checked the monitors above him, "No, nobody's dead. Although you made a good try."
He looked around him. He was definitely on a ship. "Where are we?"
"You're on the Normandy."
"Spirits, I am dead."
Dr. Chakwas gave him her attention and patted his arm, "This is a rebuilt Normandy. You're in the medbay. Shepard brought you here after you were hit by a missile on Omega. I had to do surgery on your face. You'll have bandages for a while, but it will heal. Scars will remain, but I think you'll be functional."
She looked down at him as he shook his head back and forth. She smiled kindly at him, "I know this is a lot to take in. You're still recuperating from dehydration and over use of stims as well. I've got most of your lab values in normal range now, though. Good thing I took courses on Turian physiology. Plus the Cerberus cybernetics will help healing and function immensely."
"Cerberus?"
"Yes, this is actually a Cerberus ship. They rescued Shepard-"
Garrus held up his hand, "Why do you keep talking about Shepard? She's dead."
Dr. Chakwas sat down next to him and took a deep breath. "No, she's alive. That was her you saw on Omega. She was in a coma for two years, Cerberus obtained her body after the SR1 was destroyed and rebuilt her. We're on a mission to go after the Collectors. They are responsible for the attack on the original Normandy, now they're attacking human colonies. We're trying to – I shouldn't be going into all this now, you've only just woken up."
"No, I want to know, none of this makes any sense."
She sighed, "It does sound pretty convoluted. The important thing is, you're here, Shepard's here. As soon as I release you, you can go see her for yourself."
He put his hand up over his eyes, Could it be true? She wasn't dead after all? It didn't seem possible. He thought over everything Dr. Chakwas had said. Cerberus rebuilt her? What did that mean, was she a sort of hybrid clone or robot? He felt he was spinning, and turned and went back to sleep, reeling from everything that had happened.
Hours later he woke again, this time more lucid, quizzing Dr. Chakwas on what she had told him before. Now he noticed the Cerberus symbol on her uniform. It was hard to believe Shepard was working for them. Hard to believe the Jane he'd loved was somehow back. As soon as all the remaining tests were done and he got dressed, Dr. Chakwas let him go after notifying Jacob to arrange a meeting.
Garrus walked out and made his way to the conference room, looking around at the new crew and the new ship. Familiar, yet different. He faltered at the conference room door, afraid of what he would find. He heard voices inside, and again one that sounded like her. He opened it and went in.
"-tough son of a bitch." Jacob said.
Garrus recognized the human male that had been with her on Omega. Then he looked over and saw her. It was Shepard, but somehow different, not her. He hesitated. He was the only alien he'd seen on a Cerberus ship. What if this was all a trap of some sort?
"They wouldn't give me a mirror, how bad is it?" he asked her.
She folded her arms, "I think it will scar, but I'm partial to handsome Turians with scars."
He cracked a grin, "Oh, don't make me laugh. My face is barely holding together as it is."
She took a few steps towards him, but remained silent.
Jacob cleared his throat, then saluted Shepard and left. As the doors closed, Garrus closed the gap between them, staring down at her.
"Dr. Chakwas tried to fill me in on what's going on. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it."
"Me too, actually." She reached up and tentatively placed her hand on his chest, "I missed you so much, Garrus."
He reached out and grabbed her into a strong hug as her wet tears fall on his shoulder. He held on to her, leaning down and taking in her scent, feeling her skin. He reached his hand up and worked his fingers into her short dark curls. "It really is you," he murmured.
She nodded and they stayed in an embrace. Finally he pulled back to get a closer look at her. "Your hair is short." He said.
She laughed, "I know, I'm trying to grow it out. It all fell out apparently, after I was spaced." She updated him on how she'd been nearly suffocated, her body recovered by Cerberus. Her extensive surgeries, the mission and how she'd found him.
The whole time she talked he held onto her, not wanting to let go of this dream that was his new reality.
She took a deep breath and hugged him, "How about we get out of this conference room and go up to my quarters where we can talk more," she looked around, "I've disabled the Cerberus bugs in my room."
He nodded, and they left, his arm around her, not wanting to let go of her for an instant.