Garrus Vakarian no longer existed. Not really. Sure, the more trusted members of his squad knew the name. They might even know that he once worked with the legendary human Shepard. But that was a lifetime ago and half a galaxy away. Reapers, geth, rogue Spectres… these things weren't of any immediate concern on Omega, not if you were lucky to make it home at night without losing a few teeth. Here, Shepard was nothing but a bedtime story, closer to fiction than the hard realities the people here faced every day.
Garrus sat with a long, weary sigh, slipping a hand under the helmet to rub his eyes. He dropped the comm unit on the desk before him and settled the helmet back into place, making sure his face was completely obscured. He tapped a key, booting up the voice distortion application. Not a precaution he always took. His contact on Illium didn't need to know who he was. No one needed to know who he was anymore. He was Archangel.
Butler liked to call him "the goddamn Batman," something that he needed about ten minutes to explain one quiet night, the rarity of which was celebrated with a round of drinks. "He's an old human folk hero. Vigilante. Runs around at night, fighting crime." Butler had said.
"Why is he called Batman?" Garrus asked.
"Because he's trying to be scary. Bats are scary."
"Bats aren't scary," Garrus protested, shaking his head and lifting his bottle of quarian beer. "Only an idiot walks around with a bat to fight crime. If I showed up at the Blood Pack base with a bat in my hand I would get my ass ripped to shreds."
The humans burst into laughter, and Butler quickly explained, "No, no, the animal. He dresses up like one. A bat is this creepy animal-"
"Like a varren?"
"No, it's…" Butler had brought his hands together before him as if to describe the animal's size, but stopped abruptly, lips twisting up in thought. He leaned back, nodding quickly, "Yeah, like a varren. But with wings."
"And it sucks blood," Ripper had added.
"Right, that too."
Flying blood-sucking varren roamed the wilds of Earth? Garrus gave a slow appreciative nod, "I could be Batman."
Garrus adjusted his helmet once more before accepting the call from Illium. "This is Archangel."
The screen flickered a moment, before displaying the image of a pretty asari with a low melodic voice. "Archangel. Thank you for taking my call; I know how busy you are."
"Happy to make time for you, Dr. T'Soni. What have you got for me?"
Liara T'Soni smiled politely at the mysterious turian. "Eclipse put out a call. They are looking for both recruits and freelancers."
Garrus arched a brow behind his helmet. "Open recruitment? When's the last time they did that?"
"A little under two years ago," she answered in her usual clipped and formal tone, glancing to one corner of her screen.
After Shepard died, Garrus thought glumly to himself. The commander gave Eclipse, shit, all the mercenary gangs a hell of a time back in the day. Kill off enough of them and eventually you're going to need to boost your numbers again. When it was safe. Garrus slowly sat upright, grinning crookedly. He was Shepard this time. He had them scared. He was a threat. That gave him a small measure of satisfaction.
"They've also been chartering shuttles to Omega. Apparently they're moving larger numbers into your area, Archangel," Liara continued, looking back at him with no expression. "I think you may have upset them."
Garrus chuckled, nodding, "That is a distinct possibility. Funny how explosions can do that, huh?"
"Mm," the asari responded coolly, tapping a few keys on her console. All business.
She'd changed so much. He'd always thought that the Protheans were her passion, and yet here she was, working for the Shadow Broker and doing a hell of a job. He originally had no intention of keeping tabs on her, or anyone, for that matter. He only knew what had happened to his old crew right after the memorial. Tali had finished her pilgrimage and returned to her people. Shepard's fellow human soldier had reported back to the Alliance.
Garrus, meanwhile, just wanted to work. More than that, he wanted to bury himself in it, turn into a machine, doling out justice. But working for the Citadel was a damn joke.
Establishing Liara as his Illium contact was pure chance. More than one influential Eclipse leader called the planet home. Part of staying one step ahead of the mercenaries was keeping informed of their activities on other worlds. He'd paid an Omega information broker entirely too much to set him up with a decent contact on Illium. During that first vid meeting over the extranet, Garrus had fumbled to duck out of his camera's view when Liara appeared on screen. After seeing nothing but an empty room, Liara wisely disconnected immediately, giving Garrus time to collect and disguise himself before calling her back. He still sometimes questioned why he felt the need to hide his identity to her of all people. But wherever her loyalties lied these days (if anywhere) one simple fact remained: she was working for the Shadow Broker. But why?
Archangel drummed his fingers on the desktop. He didn't dedicate too much energy into answering that question since first getting in touch with her months ago. Maybe it was time to change that. "Liara…"
Liara looked back at his image on her screen, her brows pulling together suspiciously, a frown darkening her face. They didn't communicate often, and while the vigilante always tried to be warm and friendly towards her, he had never been informal. If he was about to try and charm his way out of paying her fee, she would not be pleased.
"Dr. T'Soni," he quickly amended once catching her look, putting his hands up in surrender. No. Not the time for a happy reunion. It probably never would be. She'd been hurt, she'd changed, and she might no longer be able to be trusted. Face it, Vakarian, the Liara who saved the universe with Shepard is as dead as the Garrus who saved the universe with Shepard. "Thank you. The credits will be wired to you before the end of the day."
"Thank you, Archangel," Liara answered cautiously, and disappeared from his screen.
Garrus scowled at the black screen for a few moments, and then snapped the unit closed and pushed it away. He pulled off the helmet, flung it into the corner, and paced the room in frustration. Why the hell weren't his scouts checking in? He hated waiting, and he sure as hell didn't want to be left alone with his thoughts after seeing Liara again.
The door rattled, then opened, and Erash poked his head in, four eyes finding his commander. He spoke one word. "Garm."