Shepard sat back in a darkened room, propped up against an overturned sofa with a clear view out the window. Her eyes darted across the path below her. She was currently in the upper floor of a large house on Omega. The building was situated along a minor skylane on the station, a small bridge extending across it to connect the estate to the major routes. The normally clean bridge was now littered with corpses, a destroyed Ymir mech, and a crashed skycar.
How appropriate.
Shepard grimaced.
Just like my last time on Omega.
The only difference was that now, she had a team with her, guarding her back. Miranda and Jacob occupied the floor below, using small arms and biotics to cut down those who got too close. Garrus was camped out across the room from Shepard, and between the two of them, those below hadn't had to fire a round. The majority of the local Eclipse mercenary group lay strewn about the walkway, bleeding from various body parts. Those left standing had huddled behind whatever cover they could find. It wasn't enough. Shepard sighted in on one who was hiding behind a crashed skycar. Only a corner of his helmet was visible, but it was enough. Shepard squeezed the trigger. The exposed side of his helmet shattered. His body slumped to the floor, blood and bits of grey matter spilling out past his shoulder. As Shepard recycled the bolt on her rifle, another mercenary reflexively peeked out behind his cover, his eyes scanning for the source of the shot. Garrus' next shop stilled their movement. As the newest corpse hit the floor, three more mercenaries popped out to spray bullets at the house. Their aim was off, and their firing was haphazard at best. Shepard and Garrus fired in quick succession. Within seconds, the three exposed mercenaries fell to the ground, now lacking a substantial amount of their initial blood supply. Garrus swore.
"You're slipping 'Archangel'." Shepard taunted. "I believe that puts me ahead."
Garrus only grunted in reply. He'd come a long way since their old mission against Saren, and as happy as he was to see his friend and mentor alive again, he still wanted to show her how much he'd improved. Unfortunately for him, it seemed that being dead for two years hadn't slowed her down a bit.
Shepard allowed herself a slight smirk. Garrus was shooting much better thatn he had when she'd arrived. It wasn't noticeable to most others. It was subtle. Rounds hitting their intended target a hair's breadth away from what should've been their intended targets. An extra millisecond before squeezing the trigger. Before Shepard arrived, Garrus was shooting adequately. Now he was shooting exceptionally. It helped, having a standard to compare against. Shepard grinned.
Even if I do have to turn it down a bit to give him a chance.
"Oh come on." Garrus complained as his next round struck an asari who'd tried to run. "This is just too easy."
battle cries just before a large contingent of blood back mercenaries charged out onto the bridge. At the same moment, intrusion alarms sounded from the basement.
"Get back up here! Cover the stairs!" Shepard shouted to Jacob and Miranda.
She tossed aside her sniper rifle and pulled out her avenger. She moved to the window and began firing into the onrushing horde of krogan and vorcha.
Just before the sounds of combat drowned out all else, Garrus heard Shepard taunt, "You just had to open your mouth, Vakarian."
Having no response, and remembering how he'd done the exact same thing on Nepmos, Garrus pulled out his vindicator, and began to spray rounds in a futile attempt to stem the tide of hostiles.
"Dammit!" Garrus growled.
It was partially because of the pain. The new Normandy, being a Cerberus vessel, didn't come equipped with painkillers for turians. But it was also because, to pass the time while he was undergoing surgery, he was reviewing his visor's footage of the battle and tallying up the kills. He lay in the med bay of the Normandy, being treated for a wound he'd taken when the blue suns had brought in their air support. They'd driven back the blood pack, but the gunship had managed to get a lucky shot while he'd been wrestling a krogan. Even before he was incapacitated however, Shepard had taken the lead on kills. Not only that, but it wasn't even close.
"Spirits, Shepard." He rewound some of the footage, and watched Shepard take Garm's weapon away from him, and then shoot him repeatedly with it. "What did Cerberus do to you?"
Up in her cabin, Shepard was having similar thoughts. She was in the bathroom, staring at her mirror. She ran a hand absentmindedly along her newly acquired scars. She gazed at her reflection in the mirror. As she looked into her eyes, she saw that the normally brilliant green had been mixed with streaks of orange. Slowly, the reality began to sink in.
I…I died.
Shepard felt anger boil up inside of her. Biotics flared along the length of her arms.
"What more do you want from me?" She shouted at no one in particular. Receiving no response, Shepard slammed her fist into the mirror, splintering her reflection. "Haven't I done enough?"
The mirror was cracked heavily. In some places, pieces of glass had fallen to the floor. Shepard starred at the distorted image before her. The way it warped her features. The patches of her that were missing.
How fitting.
"I should have died." She whispered.
Shepard fell to her knees, no longer able to keep herself upright. Images of everyone she'd ever lost, everyone she'd ever let down flashed through her mind. All her failures. All her mistakes.
"Why did it have to be me?"
She would've cried, but Cerberus hadn't though repairing her tear ducts would have been worth the investment.