Ch. 26

No one was at the site when he first arrived, so he waited. Back when Omega was a little city built within a mine, there was a school here and a little community garden with artificial sunlight. Once upon a time there were turian flowers, asari mushrooms, and salarian ferns, all mixed together in neat little rows. The lamps had long since been turned off, the plants died, the schools abandoned when all the teachers left after the mines ran dry.

Garrus sat for thirty minutes. Then he started calling. It had taken him another half an hour to get all the way out here to begin with, and Sidonis wasn't here. Where was he?

He wasn't answering Garrus' calls, wherever he was. Garrus growled, and started pacing, scanning the area. Sidonis wasn't in a bad enough state to hurt himself, was he?

If this was some kind of trap, he'd never forgive himself.

Ten more minutes. Fifteen. Sidonis still wasn't answering. Damn it. Something was wrong.

He paced up and down another ten minutes, then he called Butler.

No reply.

"Shit."

He couldn't get back to the Hornet fast enough and he had no memory of the thirty minute drive back. The moment he saw the doors to the base blown open and the bullet holes in the walls, time slowed down to a crawl.

Garrus crossed the bridge, looking up at the building, at the balcony where Vortash and Sensat would smoke. Where Melanis and Ripper would have target practice late into the night. "Sidonis?" Everything was so quiet.

At the opposite end of the bridge lay Weaver, a smear of red blood where he had tried to crawl away.

Garrus fell to his knees, checking for a pulse and found none. "No. No no no."

There was an attack. An assault. Garrus could see it happening in his mind. The old man wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. He ran down here and was the first to fall.

Garrus felt like he was underwater. His heart was pounding in his ears and he couldn't breathe. He somehow got to his feet again, walking past the bridge, into the building. His hand fumbled for his pistol and it clattered to the floor. He left it behind when he saw Erash at the bottom of the stairs. The batarian's face was gone.

Choking back bile, Garrus gripped the railing to steady himself. "Vortash!"

He spotted Krul next, under the stairs in a bloody heap, face down on the floor. Krul was missing a chunk of his chest. He was dead beside a Blood Pack krogan who was missing one of his arms. Krul couldn't go out without taking someone with him.

Garrus hauled himself up the stairs, suddenly feeling very hot, his hyoid bone spasming in his throat. "Anyone!"

Vortash was at the top of the stairs with another merc body. One of his cigarettes was in his lap and had burned a hole in his pants. Garrus pushed the dead merc aside roughly, his hands going to Vortash's throat, fingers pressing again the scar. No pulse. Dead. His fingers came away bloody.

He felt himself starting to tremble uncontrollably. Not now. Not now. He pushed himself back to his feet and kept moving. He stepped over two more dead mercs, moving into the hallway.

He found Butler and Monteague in the bathroom. Butler was on the floor and part of his skull was simply not there, while the doctor was in a stall. Butler was trying to hide him, to protect him. Monteague was still on crutches, which were on the floor beneath his body. Someone put a bullet through Monty's head after killing Butler, and his blood formed a strange butterfly pattern on the tile wall behind him.

The room spun, and Garrus stumbled to the next stall over, heaving over the toilet. Nothing came up.

Not now. Someone could still be alive. Need your help.

Garrus pushed himself up, knees shaking. He stepped out of the bathroom and back into the hall. The whole place seemed tilted. He walked with his shoulder pressed against the wall.

He found Sensat on the balcony at the far end of the hall, in the same exact spot he had left him. He was bleeding, his back against the balcony railing, webbed hand resting over a sucking chest wound. He was breathing, pale, and dying.

Garrus fell to his knees and seized the drell's shoulders. "Sensat! Sensat! Stay with me."

The young man's gaze was glassy, distant. He took on an annoyed expression when Garrus started hollering at him, trying to push him away.

The turian's talons dug into Sensat's arms, voice cracking, "Sensat, please! Stay with me!"

He was too far away, too deep into a happy memory with no desire to be pulled out. He grimaced again at the interruption Garrus was causing, and then smiled faintly when he was fully back inside his mind.

"Sensat... please... please..."

Sensat let out a slow exhale and was gone.

Garrus hung his head and a choking sound escaped him. Not now. He slowly released his grip and rocked back onto his rear.

He had more men. Men that could still be alive. He pulled himself to his feet once more, feeling like the gravity had been doubled.

Garrus dragged his feet, following the path of the balcony back around the base to the other side. He passed more dead mercs, tiptoeing around puddles of blood in various colors.

He stepped back inside, and tucked into a corner at the end of a long, green blood trail was Mierin. He was alive, curled up on his side, shaking with shallow breaths.

"Mierin!" Garrus crossed the room in two steps, carefully sitting the pale salarian upright and propping him against the wall. "I've got medi-gel, hang on..."

The salarian grinned a little when his eyes focused on Garrus, "You think... I didn't already try that?"

Garrus shook his head, "You're going to be fine." He unfolded Mierin's skinny arms from around his midsection. Behind the green blood and torn flesh, he could see that the medi-gel would be useless. Garrus closed his eyes and tried to refocus. "Who did this?"

"All of them." Mierin's black eyes closed. "All of them. Suns, Eclipse, Blood Pack... all of them."

They had banded together to do this. Had Archangel gone too far? He should have seen this coming, he should have been here to stop it. "Where's Sidonis? Melanis, Ripper?"

Mierin looked past him to the adjoining room. Garrus turned and saw Ripper, dead on the floor. Pieces of Melanis were scattered around him, still wearing Archangel's hand-me-down armor.

"They thought he was you," Mierin whispered. "They killed Ripper… and he put on your armor and attacked. I think he wanted to scare them, you know? They... they tore him apart."

Garrus closed his eyes and looked away, covering his mouth with his palm.

"I told 'em it wasn't you… And that you'd be piiissed." He let out a cough that made him cringe. "This... reeeally hurts."

"Don't ask me to do that," Garrus lifted his head, meeting Mierin's gaze.

Mierin stared back at him, then nodded. "Okay." He let out a pained breath, tipping his head back against the wall.

"Where's Sidonis?"

"I thought he was with you."

Garrus' gaze snapped back at Mierin. "He wasn't here?"

Mierin winced again, wrapping his arms back around his middle. "Nope. Can I lie down now?"

Garrus grimaced, then nodded. "Yeah." He gingerly laid Mierin back on his side, listening to him exhale through a tight throat. "I can... go get some drugs? Make it-... take away some of the pain?"

"No. No." Mierin rested a hand on Garrus' elbow. "S'okay. Stay. Please." He wet his lips, "You're gonna kill those sons of bitches, right?"

The turian slid next to him and sat down, "Right." He shifted the salarian's head onto his leg, a weak attempt to make him more comfortable.

"Blow the shit out of 'em."

"You know I will."

Mierin's scrawny hand closed around Garrus' arm. "Come up with something... really cool for my last words, okay?"

"Mierin..." Garrus looked down at him, throat so tight, chest so heavy he could barely say anything. "I'm sorry."

Mierin's hand patted his arm comfortingly, and then was still. He huffed out a few more labored breaths, closed his eyes, and died.

Garrus began to shake. That was everyone. Sidonis wasn't here, but he was dead. They got him and used him to draw Archangel away. Then they killed him.

Everyone was dead. These were his men. He was supposed to lead them, watch over them, and they were all dead.

He slid away from the dead salarian, settling Mierin's horned head on the floor with care. Garrus tried to get to his feet, but collapsed back to the floor. His strength was gone, entire body numb. He couldn't get up anymore. He crawled out of the room and onto the balcony, to an empty spot with no bodies or gore. He curled up in a ball on the clean floor.

This was his fault. He knew something was off. He knew it. Garrus began to methodically pour over every word Sidonis had said that he could remember, every interaction he had with his men before he left. There were clues, there had to be. He did something wrong. Garrus ran through scenarios. In his mind he sat down on the sofa to play a game with Melanis, as if those few more minutes of delay would be enough. He stopped to watch the video. He caught Sidonis before he left that morning and made him stay. He convinced Sensat to go with him to the meeting place. He took everyone with him, and no one died. He was there for the attack and fought them all off, and no one died.

He couldn't stop shaking. Garrus linked his fingers together at the back of his head and rocked himself. Stop it. Stop it. You're stronger than this, don't fall apart. They're coming for you next. Get up.

"I can't," he coughed.

Get up, Vakarian.

He sniffed and wiped his face with both hands. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, but his arms felt like jelly.

Get up. Keep moving. Do whatever comes next.

Garrus had no idea what came next. He was alone. He was lost. He was as good as dead.