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OoOoOo
He hasn't slept in days. Well, maybe a hour here or there, but nothing substantial enough to keep his eyes from stinging terribly. If he is hungry, he can't feel it. He's been a soldier, guardian, protector, and now a renegade. Perhaps there is vengeance in there somewhere. He's been better and there is no friendly face in sight. He should eat, he knows that, but the nutrient bars taste like ash in his mouth. Garrus is determined to see this to the end, but he's already so damned tired.
He won't stop, and the simple fact is he can't. When he does close his eyes, he sees Shepherd. It's always the same. That look she gave him the last time they saw each other. The cold eyes, so far away from the ones he'd known. He's driven himself half mad attempting to put the puzzle together. If there even is a puzzle. Some part of him is desperate for there to be clues and hints. Maybe he's imagined it all, but the time was drawing closer for him to find Shepherd and get the truth. He'd get it one way or another.
May the spirits forgive him for what he was prepared to do.
He's already 'sorted' through some more garbage on the Citadel, but he knows he can't keep it up much longer. He hasn't paid the right people, or kept up with the ever changing seats of government bullshit. He won't get in too deep. Not because he doesn't want to, but time is a factor and he can't let her go.
There are a few tough son of a bitches that he makes regret their life choices, but it is all coming together. He's booked passage aboard another ship back to Omega. He 'liberated' some of Harkin's things. He'd met his fair share of mercs that had wanted to atone and security consultants that were tired of playing by the rules. They had been good men, like his men that had died on Omega. Harkin was a lot of things, but he was well connected with people willing to do any number of things.
Such as secure his new identity and reports.
He had no doubts that Shepherd or someone under her command would be monitoring the station. He felt his mandibles twitch at the memories of finding all those data pads without ever once seeing Shepherd when she did not want to be seen. He trilled softly, his harmonics telling of his amusement and subtle tones of sadness. He had been doing the right thing, keeping away from her. He wasn't the sort of deviant he'd been protecting her from. Now, it kept haunting him of how he could have prevented something like this if only he'd...
He still had no idea what he would have done. However, some part of him cannot help but think that anything would have been better than letting her simply leave. He rubbed his forehead, trying to soothe an itch under his plates he could not reach.
"We will be ready to leave soon," A perky Asari informed him from his right.
Garrus started, he wasn't alone. He flares his mandibles, a poor imitation of a smile, but it seems to appease the Asari who turns to inform more of the passengers. It isn't the most reputable shuttle service, but he'll take it. He'll blend in with about a thousand others or more. They haven't bothered to ask his name, or anything about him. He's paid, and they are happy to take him. He hasn't spoken to anyone, and he knows better than to do so.
He checks his armor one more time. He's had it painted so that he won't stick out like a giant blue sore fringe.
The turian looks around, trying not to call attention to the fact he is scoping out every other person who will be on this rust bucket with him. How many of them are just like the scum he got rid of on Omega? How many of them are the poor and unfortunate that have to go to a shit hole like Omega just to survive because they can't do it here. Not any longer.
Damn.
There are days he simple hates everything and wants to change it. His hopes and dreams are in tatters all around him and now the only thing he can focus on is the very woman he may end up killing.
And, it breaks him inside, every time her has to imagine what her life less face will look like. Knowing that he is the one that will have put her there.
The gun in his hands is familiar, he knows it. The weaponry that has saved his hide countless times and helped him do a few things he would not have been able to do otherwise. He wonders what the Spirits think of a failure like him and he never lingers too long on the subject. Maybe there really are some past redemption, he's seen and done enough to question if there really is anything like atonement.
Then his thoughts inevitably turn to Shepherd and he simply cannot explain it. Humans, he'd watched many in action and he'd never been all that impressed by them. They were soft looking Asari. But, she, was something Garrus had never seen. Someone who knowingly kept themselves down to help others step up.
He wants the truth, and maybe she is the enigma he can never solve. Yet, even if it takes his last breath he wants to know what it is she felt. It seemed petty and so stupid, but he needed to know what else she was really asking him that day they said goodbye. The time before Omega. If she is the monster he hopes she isn't, then he'll tell her the truth. A tribute of respect, before she dies.
The Omni-tool beeps, telling him its time to go. He packs his inspected weapons close to him. He's as ready as he will ever be. It is time to go see Shepherd once more.
OoOoOo
Shepard, her new name and her same name. It is subtly different, but that is what they call her. Garrus wonders why it has been changed. He's barely had time to leave the docking bay, and he's already heard her name twice. Part of him is on high alert, concerned that he might have already been spotted. He keeps his weapon ready at his side for a quick fire, just in case.
He's finally had time to look through some of the data he's collected to keep himself from having to hear an obnoxious Salarian snoring the whole way over. He's still a touch irritated and the poor bastard did not exactly deserve the swift kick the head he was given. His mandibles tighten down, and he clenches his jaw as some other turians pass by him. Garrus makes sure to keep his harmonics from betraying a sound. He still had a lot of ground to cover.
He moved toward the living areas, that would provide the best cover. No area around was exactly 'well-to-do', but he could go to the areas where some of the people took no notice of just one more unfortunate drifter coming into the area. As long as he avoided the new gangs that doubtlessly had started to creep in, he'd be fine. He needed time to observe and plan his next course of action.
According to his informant, Shepherd now 'Shepard' was the person no one questioned or messed with on Omega. Her brash statement of 'being' Omega seemed to be holding true, and that indicated he would be forced to seek revenge against her. She was never out of the company of her guards though. Perhaps it was that same streak of shrewdness he'd witnessed before. Or there potentially could be something else to it entirely.
It had not escaped his notice, however, and neither had it escaped the notice of his informant, that Shepard would have had to have been on Omega during the duration of his stay.
Which meant that she likely knew about him from the beginning. He'd never known her to miss something so large, and even if she had been furious with him, she hadn't taken action against him for a very long time. Garrus wasn't certain what to make of that. The 'Shepherd' he knew would not have let such information go to waste. Had it been out of a sense of nostalgia? Was that the reason she'd waited and done nothing for so long? Had she really not cared what he did as long as he left the merc groups alone? No, that didn't make sense. The Merc groups had been loyal to Aria. However, Aria had been usurped from power quite some time ago. It simply hadn't been made known to the general populace.
Why had they waited? How could Shepard, who had never even fired a gun when he met her... have done all this? That question had him considering the possibility that she was innocent more strongly.
Conflicting data, conflicting dates and reports. It was a cluster fuck of the known spliced with speculation and the unknown entirely. However, the families of his men remained untouched. Garrus found that peculiar. Omega was hardly known for its mercy. Someone had even gone to the trouble, according to his human source, of relocating the widows. Even the children had been given over to nicer areas.
It did not make any sense.
Brutally murder his men, toss him off of Omega, and save the widows?
Garrus growled lowly to himself, bypassing another cluster of Batarians who looked like they were itching for a fight. He ducked behind a loose panel, waiting for them to pass by when they turned down the back alley. If he had some time to blow off steam, he might watch them longer and see what they were up to. However, he still had an aversion to taking jobs at the moment.
His men were still dead.
The Batarians look as if they are trading something, most likely it wouldn't be legal in normal circumstances, but this is Omega and you can get anything you want here. His avian eyes catch a set of eyes, not far from the Batarians, watching them with undisguised curiosity.
He can scarcely believe how easy it is to spot them now. The Duct Rats, though on Omega they are simply called 'the vermin'. They pose no gain for anyone and many of them meet less than savory ends at the hands of anyone who feels its necessary.
Unfortunately, he's not the only one to notice. He'd never had to look far for criminals in this place, and it seems nothing he's done has changed any of it. He hisses low in his throat. His mandibles flare and close in his obvious agitation.
'Get out of there kid,' he thinks with mounting concern that this is about to turn another kind of ugly.
There was a shout of anger, the Batarians moved closer to the child waiting in the shadows. Garrus snarled and reached for his gun, his eye aligning with the scope. He's swearing in his head, trying to figure out if he can pick them all off before one of them gets wise and finds him. Chances are yes, and he's just going to have to take that chance as they pull a frail human child. Garrus can't make out much more than the sounds of their laughter, but he clearly sees one of them back hand the child.
The cry emitted is cringe worthy, and he gently squeezes the trigger. The bullet enters and exits the skull cleanly. It stops the brute that had been about to strike the child again. He knows what happens when Batarians find any unprotected human. They are vicious bastards and they do not show mercy or leniency to humans. Ever.
The group freezes as one of their own goes down. THe kid scampers away, and one of the bastards gives chase. Garrus takes a breath, lining up the shot. It is quick and clean. The bartarian goes down and a sense of ease fills his chest. As if all the concerns he'd been having about right and wrong don't matter in this instance, he just has to help the kid get away.
Four more, with their multiple eyes were looking for him. He'd have to move fast. The shots were fired in rapid succession, no concussive rounds, he had no use for such things on Omega.
Each hit is a solid hit and they go down, blood pooling in the street. Garrus knows he will have to move quickly, even if there is no justice here, there are those that would take interest in the dead Batarians. His blue eyes hone in on the form of the human running away as fast as it's thin limbs can take it. If it was a boy or a girl, he had no idea. Yet, part of him pondered, as he worked his way down a different area to blend in with the masses, if that child wasn't somehow connected to Shepard. It would make sense. No one looked twice at a duct rat.
Why would it be any different for vermin?