A/N - My sincere apologies for the delay! I've had a lot of difficulty writing this chapter, which I'm blaming firmly on Garrus being quite sulky about the entire Sidonis situation. It was difficult to weave around the in-game content while still doing justice to it, and no matter what I did to try to distract Garrus, he wasn't having any part of it until Sidonis was dealt with. Hopefully we can all move on now, and future chapters will be up at regular intervals. :)
Garrus paced the length of the Normandy's airlock door, impatient and restless. Shepard wasn't late, yet – Shepard was never late – but he had been awake for hours already, unable to sleep, preparing for the mission. Now that they'd finally docked with the Citadel, he was more than ready to get moving.
He looked up expectantly when he heard footsteps. Tali paused for a moment, watching him with a familiar quizzical tilt of her helmet, before moving closer. Even though Cerberus' redesign of the Normandy gave it more space, her arrival meant he had to stop pacing to make room for her. Garrus felt his mandibles twitch restlessly, as Tali stood a few paces away from him. He waited for her to say something... wondered what Shepard had told her about his history with Sidonis... but she said nothing, and that in itself was unusual enough to make him uncomfortable.
"You know this is voluntary, right?" Garrus asked suddenly.
That damn head tilt again. After a moment, the quarian nodded. "Yes, Shepard told me. She also said you asked for me specifically."
Garrus heard the question in her comment and shifted awkwardly. "I did. I don't know... I mean, Cerberus isn't exactly... You're the only person on board, other than Joker of course..."
"He trusts you."
Shepard's voice interjected smoothly and Garrus looked sharply in her direction. She strolled down the passage towards them as casually as if she were going for a walk in a park, and threw Tali a cheerful smile. "What he's trying to say is he trusts you to have his back, and he's glad you agreed to come along. Don't worry, I speak babbling turian."
Garrus stared down into her smiling face uncertainly, and saw the look in her eyes that made her light humour a lie. That hard glint that said she knew they were walking into something painful, and she'd be there all the way. He nodded down at her. "You took your sweet time. I was about to leave without you."
"After you then, big guy."
With a grunt of satisfaction that they were finally moving, Garrus slammed his palm down on the airlock controls and they stepped through. He fidgeted through the two-minute airlock cycle, before the Normandy's outer door opened up onto the Citadel docking arm.
They'd been lucky enough to dock close to the Customs station, and as Garrus strode down the length of it, he realized in faint surprise that he had never actually expected to return to the Citadel. He found himself glancing sidelong down the corridor, now neatly carpeted and painted, with shiny new advertising calling out to them as they passed. When he'd last left here, it had still been a half-destroyed mess. They'd still been pulling bodies out of the rubble; now it was again a bustling commerce station.
There were clear changes, though, and Garrus wasn't sure how to feel about them. He eyed the two humans in C-Sec uniforms warily as they approached the Customs station.
"Your identification, sir?" the older officer requested politely. The other one gestured Shepard forward.
Garrus silently handed over his ID, and Shepard mirrored his movements. This place had been his home once, and that uniform had been his. Back when he had been Officer Vakarian, dedicated C-Sec officer and loyal son to a demanding father. Back then, his feet had been set firmly on a path that felt like it was crushing him until Commander Shepard offered him another mission.
He watched the Customs officer pause as she realized she was dealing with a former C-Sec officer – that was in his file – and then watched her continue on, knowing she never had a clue he was also a former Spectre trainee. That wasn't in his file, because nobody cared about Spectres until you actually were one. Nobody except his father, of course, who'd had plenty to say when he'd stepped back onto the Citadel after leaving the Normandy, and promptly approached the Council about it. Garrus Vakarian, ally to Shepard, and member of the team that had destroyed Saren? They'd been more than happy to consider him as a Spectre. He would have been confirmed in the position two days after he'd learned of Shepard's death and the Normandy's destruction.
Of course, by that point, he was halfway to Omega, and drunker than he'd ever been in his life.
"Uh, ma'am... You're going to have to see Officer Bailey."
Garrus turned his head slightly to see Shepard smirking down at the confused customs officer who had no doubt just realized that according to their records, Commander Shepard was two years dead.
"Is that really necessary?" he demanded irritably. The last thing he wanted to deal with right now was bureaucratic crap.
The customs official leaned back in surprise, shooting a mildly concerned look over him. Shepard, on the other hand, took his impatience in stride.
"Ease up, big guy, you're scaring the locals," she murmured quietly, leaning into him so that her words stayed private. "EDI's hooked into the passport control system, she'll warn us if any turians are headed off-station in the next few hours. Miranda and Jacob can run interference to see if any of them are Sidonis. We have time to do this right."
There was an deliberate emphasis in her words that gave Garrus pause. She hadn't warned him to behave himself on this mission. She very pointedly hadn't warned him to behave, and the weight of that trust and expectation was heavier than he'd thought it would be.
So he shut up and followed her and Tali into the C-Sec office, where Shepard proceeded to charm the pants off Officer Bailey. It was hard to stay silent as she dealt with the red tape surrounding her 'deceased' status, hard to keep himself from barking off questions when Shepard started asking about Fade. But with her usual charismatic ease, she sweet-talked the C-Sec officer into giving them some background information on Fade, including his connection to the Blue Suns. Garrus could feel the twitch of his mandibles as they shifted eagerly; Shepard spotted it too, and he knew she could recognise the underlying ferocity of his expression. Very firmly, she ended the conversation and led Tali and himself out of C-Sec.
"This forger seems well established here," Tali commented, as they approached a free sky car at the transit station.
Shepard threw him a concerned look. "Is C-Sec security that bad these days? I know I was dead for a while, but things have definitely changed around here. And I've never seen so many humans here in uniform."
She sounded like she didn't know whether she approved or not. Most humans would have been pleased to see their race taking on a more dominant role in the Citadel. Garrus decided it was a measure of Shepard's wisdom that she saw the inherent danger of 'too much, too fast.'
He sighed and climbed into the sky car seat after Tali. "After Sovereign's attack, this place was a mess. They were digging bodies out of the rubble for weeks, and the computer systems were completely scrambled. They took whoever they could get, and humans filled the gap. But I don't think C-Sec standards have dropped that much. They can't, in a place like this."
Tali gave a thoughtful hum. "You think Bailey was right, and Fade has an insider working for him?"
It annoyed Garrus to consider that as a possibility. He wasn't C-Sec anymore. Hadn't been for years, but he didn't like to see it compromised like this.
"Maybe. Probably. It would be easier than bluffing his way past the security watchdog protocols," the turian admitted. He didn't want to think about it too hard. C-Sec was his past, and he owed it no loyalty. The only loyalty he owed now was to Shepard, and his dead team.
Anyone else was fair game, as far as he was concerned.
"So what's your game plan, big guy?" Shepard asked, as she directed the sky car towards the market place in the mid-Ward district, where Garrus had arranged their meeting with Fade.
"He'll have security," the turian predicted confidently. He considered their options, as the sky car dropped to the ground outside the warehouse. There was no way Fade, or his people, could have successfully run this scam without hired guns. "I don't want this to turn into a fire fight. There's too much chance of Fade getting caught in the crossfire before he tells us what he knows about Sidonis."
The sky car touched ground and the engine rumbled into silence. Garrus shot his Commander a sidelong look, and gave her a tight grin. "Let's try this your way first, Shepard."
She grinned back at him so quickly that it was obvious she'd been worried he was running too hot, too close to the trigger. "I'll do the talking then."
When they walked in and the first thing he saw was the hulking lines of krogan heavy armor, he wanted to draw down immediately. Sternly controlling the impulse, Garrus kept his hands held away from his weapons. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tali doing the same, as Shepard strolled forward to greet the krogan bodyguards.
The volus that waddled through the door a moment later was a surprise to everyone.
"Fade?" Shepard greeted dubiously. "You're not quite how I imagined you."
"Looks... can be deceiving," wheezed the volus through its suit. Its head turned ponderously from Shepard to Garrus to Tali, then back to Shepard. "So... which one of you wants to disappear?"
"I'd rather see you make someone reappear," Garrus answered quietly.
The volus shifted awkwardly. "Ahh... that's not the service we provide."
This can't be Fade, Garrus realized with a sudden, sharp frustration for this pointless game. He didn't have time to wade through the layers of protection this forger had built around himself, just to get to Sidonis. He needed to find and break Fade fast, before the traitor got off-station.
Shepard shifted deliberately, catching his attention. Their eyes met in a single moment of tactical review of the situation. The scenario had changed; this wasn't Fade and they had nowhere to go except through the volus. Her head dipped fractionally in acknowledgement and Garrus let loose the reins on his frustration.
His fingers curled around his sidearm, and it was out and pointed at the volus in less than a heartbeat. "Make an exception," he purred encouragingly. "Just this once."
To Garrus' surprise, the krogans didn't react at all. Evidently, they weren't being paid very well.
"Shoot them!" the volus shrieked frantically at his bodyguards. "Shoot them, you lumbering mountains!"
Garrus was fast, and he knew it. But Shepard was faster, always had been. Before he could even aim, she had taken out the two krogans with clean, surgical precision. Garrus twitched his mandibles in satisfaction. Even as the two hulking bodyguards fell to the warehouse floor in echoing thuds, he heard the Commander purr softly, "too slow."
Behind him, Tali had her shotgun out, and all three weapons were smoothly trained directly on the volus.
Fade's decoy seemed to deflate in on himself. "Why do I even bother?" he moaned softly, staring in disgust at the dead krogan crowding up the floor.
Garrus lowered his weapon and backed up; Shepard moved forward smoothly, into the space he'd created for her. She took over the questioning at that point, and the little volus spilled his secrets without hesitation.
The volus, unsurprisingly, wasn't Fade. The real Fade was working out of an old prefab foundry in the factory district, and he was holed up nice and tight with a full crew of Blue Suns. None of this came as a big surprise to any of them, given what Bailey had told them earlier. But both Garrus and Shepard reacted with instant shock when the volus mentioned Harkin.
Garrus' head snapped down sharply to stare at the decoy. "Harkin?"
Shepard connected the dots as quickly as he had. "How the hell did Harkin end up being Fade?"
"Well..." The volus looked nervously between them again. "He got fired from C-Sec a while back. He used his knowledge of C-Sec and their systems to help a few people disappear. Then he made himself disappear, and Fade was born. So to speak."
Fade may have started out as an annoyance, an obstacle he had to work through to reach Sidonis, but this changed things. There was no way Garrus could deliberately walk away once he had Sidonis, knowing Harkin was giving the Blue Suns an access point into C-Sec. It wasn't even his father's voice in the back of his head that drove him. It came from somewhere inside of him that he'd thought had died with Shepard, a place that knew it had to be done simply because it was the right thing to do. It wasn't necessary for the mission, but it was... right. Once he had Sidonis, he'd make sure Harkin's operation here came to a sudden and inevitable end.
He could read the same determination in the Commander; in the sharp, savage lines her body suddenly assumed. He could see it in the cool smile she turned in his direction.
"I'm looking forward to seeing Harkin again," Shepard assured him.
"I'm sure he'll be excited to see both of us," Garrus drawled back at her. "We'll need to go to the Transit station. I can get us to him from here."
Tali was guarding the entrance, her back to them. But he had almost forgotten the volus until he spoke up nervously.
"So, uh... I, uh... I can go?"
Garrus turned smoothly to face the decoy, and considered for a moment. "Sure," he replied calmly and watched the volus' shoulders rise hopefully. "But if we don't find Harkin, we'll be back for you."
The volus' shoulders dropped again. "Oh. Good."
"If you're done intimidating small, defenceless creatures, we're about to have company," Tali called from her watch point. She turned to face them, hefting her shotgun questioningly.
Garrus watched the volus waddle back through the door he'd come from, and holstered his own weapon. "No more distractions. Let's just get going."
Shepard followed suit, and Tali clipped the shotgun back into its holster, letting him lead the way back to the Transit Station. In the corridor outside the warehouse, Garrus immediately spotted the pair of turians heading their way, both in C-Sec uniform. It was strangely reassuring to see the familiar turian outline filling in the uniform, and he spared them a nod as they passed by. They were new faces, both wearing the tattoos of Palaven, so while they nodded back in recognition of a fellow homeworlder, they didn't identify him as the former Officer Vakarian.
"I can call Bailey while we're on the way, and let him know who Fade is," Shepard offered a few moments later, as she slid back into the driver's seat of the sky car.
Garrus buckled himself in a heartbeat before the vehicle lunged forward with Shepard's typical finesse. "I'd rather wait, if you don't mind. A few hours shouldn't make a difference, but if Harkin has ears in the department, it will tip him off."
It felt strange, making that call. He knew shutting Harkin down was the right move, but that certainty ran smack up against the need to find Sidonis that was driving him. The turian shifted awkwardly, but Shepard just gave a nod of understanding. He had the impression that she was treading carefully around him, and that annoyed him.
But she didn't say anything, didn't push. Maybe that was all he could ask of her. She knew the call he was making on this one, and she'd agreed to back him up, even though she didn't like it. Garrus gave her directions towards the factory district, and Shepard guided the vehicle away from the market place.
"Who is this Harkin anyway?" Tali demanded, reminding them both that she hadn't been party to Shepard's first meeting with the man.
"A real slime bag," Shepard replied, her nose crinkling with distaste. "He was C-Sec back when I first met Garrus, not long before you joined the team. The guy made me want to apologise for being human."
"He wasn't the best representative for your species," Garrus agreed, distaste curving his mandibles out. "It sounds like your embassy stopped protecting him now that there are so many humans in C-Sec."
The sidelong glance Shepard shot him was wicked and amused. "You never heard Anderson go on about Harkin, I take it. Once he was made Ambassador, Harkin's days in C-Sec were severely limited. Hell, I'm surprised Anderson didn't just throw him out an airlock."
Behind them, Tali snorted in laughter. "You make him sound like a real charmer, Shepard. Does he really have the smarts to pull off this kind of operation?"
"Smarts? No," Garrus denied. "But he's cunning. Even with the embassy's protection, he was always careful not to go too far. He ran close to the edge, but he was skilled at playing both sides against the middle. He's an opportunist. Now that I think about it, I'm not surprised he ended up here."
"Playing Blue Suns off against C-Sec, and making a profit in the middle?" Shepard nodded thoughtfully, as she followed Garrus' gesture and guided the sky car off the main thoroughfare, down into the factory district. "Yeah, that matches what I saw of him. That volus said Harkin thinks they're protecting him. Sounds like he's not as important to the Blue Suns as he wants to be."
"He always did have an inflated sense of his own worth," Garrus remarked. "Just down there, Shepard." He gestured with one talon towards the old foundry. It was easy to see that this part of the Citadel had taken hits from Sovereign's attack, but because it was mostly intact, it had been left as it was. Looking run down, but essentially sturdy. Last time he'd been on the Citadel, the foundry had closed down due to the owners' financial difficulties. It looked like it was under new management now, though, because even from here, he could see it was a hive of activity.
"Damn," Shepard muttered, and kept the sky car on an obtuse line of approach.
"The main loading bay look pretty busy..." Tali was peering out the windows as they flew over the foundry, and it was her quick eyes that spotted their best option. "Wait, there! Shepard, take us down there. I can only see two guards on that bay."
Garrus shot her a grim look of approval. "Good eyes," he praised. He was already gripping his rifle in anticipation.
"We're going in hot," Shepard agreed, and they all felt the impact as the sky car dropped to the ground outside the loading bay doors.
Even as the sky car opened to let them out, Garrus could see the guards reacting. They were far enough away not to be an immediate threat, but he automatically scanned his surroundings for a good sniping position.
"Garrus!" Shepard hissed sharply. "There he is!"
Garrus spun back towards the doors, his eyes narrowing instantly on the human figure that was lounging in the doorway. Impossibly, he recognised Harkin even as the human identified him and Shepard in return.
"Shepard?" he could hear Harkin ask in shock, and no wonder, really. To the galaxy at large, she was dead. Even without knowing why they were there, Harkin was smart enough to realize that the combination of Shepard and Garrus wasn't going to end well for him. He gestured frantically to the guards. "Don't just stand there... shoot them! Shoot them!"
Without even waiting to see them follow through on his orders, Harkin backed hastily into the bay and vanished through the doors that led into the foundry itself.
"Run all you want, Harkin! We'll find you!" he roared after the disappearing human, as the two merc guards raised their weapons to fire. Garrus slid behind cover, just as Tali fired a shot over his shoulder; she and Shepard were already in position, and firing by the time he got his head in the game.
They had the two mercs outnumbered and outgunned, but the Blue Suns had the superior position. For all that, it still only took a few minutes before Garrus had an opening and took the first one out with a clean, sweet headshot. Shepard followed up a minute later and the second one went down. She met his gaze as she stepped around the crate she'd been using as cover and raised an eyebrow quizzically. He knew what she was asking.
"They'll be ready for us now, no chance of sneaking around. If you think the risk is too high, I can do this alone, Shepard."
Garrus ignored Tali's scornful noise at that gesture; his attention was locked on Shepard. The Commander was regarding him thoughtfully, as if he were some puzzle placed before her.
"We've been up against worse odds before. This may not be critical to defeating the Reapers, but it's still a priority in my book. I don't doubt you can walk in there and do this alone, Archangel." She smirked at him. "But if you want us, we'll have your back. What's the call?"
Garrus exhaled slowly in surprise. He hadn't expected this to be a fire fight, or anticipated that they'd need to walk through a Blue Suns base to get the information he needed. In all honesty, Shepard would have been well within her rights to pull her team out. Wasting them on his own personal mission when they still had the Collectors to track down would have been an unacceptable risk.
He regarded her gratefully and nodded. "I want you."
To his right, Tali made a sound like a choking cat. Shepard just grinned.
"You're such a smooth talker, Garrus," she teased as she moved past him. Garrus blinked in confusion, but she had already reached the bay doors before he realized what he'd said.
"Hey Tali, come get this door open for us. I want to get that little weasel, Harkin, before he goes to ground."
By the time Garrus got his scrambled wits back together again and joined them at the door, Tali was almost through hacking her way past the electronic lock. "You realize what we're likely to face in there, right?" He regarded Shepard carefully, still unsure of the wisdom of her being here. If she got killed here, because of him, with the real mission still unfinished...
Who was he kidding? No pesky army of Blue Suns mercs would take Shepard out.
The look she gave him suggested she was thinking the same thing. "Mercs, LOKI mechs, maybe some Heavy Mechs if they're feeling particularly feisty. They look pretty well dug in here, I think we can expect the worst. But I'll bet there's one thing they won't have waiting in there."
Tali looked up as she popped the lock. "What's that?"
Shepard grinned viciously. "A Reaper. So this will still be easier than my last fight on the Citadel. Let's go."
Shepard's estimation was correct. Harkin had obviously scrambled the troops, but Garrus noticed that the Blue Suns' approach here seemed to match what he'd observed of their tactics on Omega. The Normandy crew fell into a familiar pattern, as they fought their way through the first wave of LOKI mechs. Only once the mechs had been destroyed did the mercs send living bodies their way, and only when the Blue Suns troopers and legionnaires were bleeding on the ground did they send out the YMIR mechs. Garrus had noticed on Omega that the Suns ran their strategies around a cost-benefit basis. LOKI mechs were relatively cheap. Cheaper to train than mercs, at any rate, so they'd throw them away before risking their people. But the average YMIR mech was easily one of the most expensive pieces of equipment a mercenary band would ever own, so they were hesitant to deploy them in the field unless it proved to be absolutely necessary.
Garrus had a habit of proving it was absolutely necessary. At least this lot didn't seem to have a gunship in their armoury.
He also noticed, as they fought deeper into the foundry towards the factory floor, that they were being tracked by the overhead surveillance cameras. The cameras were no doubt there from the days this was a legitimate business, to monitor safety issues on the factory floor. He doubted the Blue Suns had ever expected their base to be overrun, but they were – or Harkin was – smart enough to use the technology to monitor their progress and plan the waves of attack that came at them.
It was the first real fire fight he'd been in with Tali since she rejoined the Normandy, and Garrus was pleased to see how quickly the three of them fell into old patterns. He could catch Tali's cues almost as well as he did Shepard's, so he knew when she was planning a move and could react accordingly. The three of them fought without hardly needing to speak, and it would have been almost relaxing for Garrus, if he hadn't been growing steadily more impatient with how long it was taking them.
By the time they came across an unused office area, he was almost twitching with his frustration. They'd been at this for too damn long; Harkin could have slipped out the back and vanished. It wasn't in his nature, and he'd know he'd be running from Blue Suns for the rest of his life, but the man was clearly a decent enough forger to know he could create a new identity. If Harkin decided this was too risky and he needed to just get out, Garrus would never find him. Or Sidonis. Worse, if the little bastard made the connection, he could warn Sidonis before they ever got near him.
"What the hell is Harkin up to?" he snarled softly as they moved into the office area.
Out of the corner of his eye, Garrus saw the quarian perk up.
"Maybe I can try to hack their system, get some control over those cameras," Tali remarked. "Give me a few minutes, and I'll see how good their encryption is."
Shepard nodded approval, and the quarian vanished into a side room, leaving Garrus and the Commander alone. The room they were in had a lowered blast door over a window that presumably looked onto the factory floor again. Garrus watched as the Commander punched the controls and it opened sluggishly.
"So Harkin's gone finally gone completely bad," Shepard remarked on a sigh, watching as sliver by sliver of the factory was exposed with the receding shutter.
Garrus leaned against the base of the shutter controls. "He was always a pain in the ass. But I'm in no mood for his games." He stared fixedly through the glass window that the shutter had protected, and into the factory beyond it. He could feel his mandibles twitching with his frustration. "If he doesn't cooperate, I'll beat him within an inch of his life."
Saying it, it didn't feel like an idle threat. Garrus wondered whether that should worry him. The closer he got, the harder it was to stay in control.
"You seem to be getting tense, Garrus." The caution in Shepard's voice told him he'd become obvious enough that she had to finally say something about it.
Garrus gave her a frustrated look. "Harkin may know why Sidonis wanted to disappear. If so, he knows why we're here, and I don't want him tipping Sidonis off."
"You still planning to kill Sidonis when we find him?"
The question came out of nowhere, and surprised him. Garrus half-turned to peer down at his Commander. "That's the plan. It'll be quick and painless. Unlike everyone else he betrayed, he'll be spared the agony of a slow death." He offered Shepard a faint smile, hoping that would console her and knowing it wouldn't. "It's more than he deserves, but as long as he's dead, I'll be satisfied."
Shepard was looking at him in concern. He must be running too hot, to make her want to reel him back in like this.
"Garrus..." She paused and seemed to change her mind on whatever she'd been about to say. "Do you really think killing Sidonis will make things right?"
He sighed, curling his talons around his rifle. "I know you don't like it, Shepard, but I have to do this."
"Is there no other way?"
In another person's mouth, those words would have seemed like a plea. In Shepard's voice, they came out as a challenge. Garrus gripped his rifle tighter and looked away from her, from the brazen demand in her expression, and out onto the empty factory floor. "Maybe. But this is personal. I'll pull the trigger. And I'll live with the consequences. All I'm asking is that you help me find him."
Shepard's hand lifted in a soothing gesture. "You know I will, Garrus. You make the call, and I'll do whatever you need. I just don't want you to regret the decision you make here today."
"That's not going to happen."
He sounded sure, and he felt it all the way down. Garrus couldn't cope with the nightmares anymore, he couldn't deal with the crippling sense of failure, of betrayal. This had to end here, now. The only way it could end was with Sidonis' body on the deck, and Shepard had to know that. Didn't she?
He looked back at her and she seemed to surrender the point. Or at least, she changed the topic. "What are you going to do to Harkin if he won't cooperate?"
That was a topic Garrus could contemplate with far less ambiguity. "He's a real criminal now. Working for the Blue Suns. I should just shoot him on sight," he answered contentedly. Even under C-Sec rules, that would have been a justifiable decision. A moment later, he shrugged. "But... I need him alive, so I won't do any permanent damage. Just enough to loosen his tongue."
Shepard's expression was unreadable. "You don't need to hurt him to get what you want."
"Don't worry. Harkin's a coward. He'll talk long before I can really hurt him," he assured her.
She didn't look convinced. He knew he was worrying her, but he couldn't get into it now. Later... later, when they were back on the Normandy. Once Sidonis was dead. He could talk to her then. Right now, it was hard to think much past that point. It was like a bulkhead in his mind, and nothing beyond that point mattered until he reached it.
While they spoke, Garrus had been peering out over the factory floor, narrowing his vision down through the scope over his eye. A sudden movement caught his attention, and Garrus kneeled sharply below the clear plasglass window. Shepard reacted instantly, putting her back against the wall beside it, drawing her weapon.
"Did you see that?" His voice was barely a whisper.
"I saw... something." Shepard's gaze rested briefly on his scope. Garrus sometimes forgot what un-augmented vision was like.
It had been LOKI mechs, he was sure of it. Garrus risked another careful look and saw they had settled behind cover but weren't advancing. "He's getting ready for us."
"What do you think he's got waiting for us in there?"
His scope narrowed back in as Garrus went back to studying the area. "Not sure," he admitted. "Looks like an industrial complex... heavy machinery. Could be anything. Something's in there... probably more Blue Suns. Harkin's kind of trapped himself in a corner. He must have something in store for us."
Shepard nodded firmly. "Well, there's one way to find out."
"Right behind you."
Shepard moved, heading straight for the door where Tali was. The engineer met them with good news.
"Harkin's in a control room at the far end of this area. And I managed to get EDI hooked into their system, so she can keep us up to date," Tali announced smugly. If they'd been able to see her expression through the faceplate, Garrus strongly suspected she'd have been smirking. He felt a savage rush of relief knowing Harkin was still in the complex. He didn't have a clue what quirk of ego or stubbornness or self-confidence had kept the man from running, but he was grateful for it.
Between Tali's shotgun, Shepard's aim, and Garrus' self-admittedly unrivalled sniping skills, the three of them managed to push through the wave of LOKI mechs. Garrus got up higher, careful to keep his flank shielded from shots from the incoming mechs. He was firing rapidly now, only stopping at the last possible second to pop out the heat sink and jam in a new one. He lost Tali for a moment, in the maze of crates, but he moved around quickly enough to keep Shepard in view. Quick enough to see, but not fast enough to stop, a direct shot from a LOKI mech slam into her back.
Shepard went down, and Garrus squeezed the trigger of his rifle, scope narrowed in eagerly on the offending mech. Meanwhile, Shepard pulled herself to her feet and staggered back behind cover.
"I'm all good," she said over the radio, but her breathing was heavier than he liked.
"Stay where you are, I've got a shot lined up and I don't want you in my crossfire," Garrus snapped back mendaciously, and heard her acknowledgement. He took out anything that got near her for a few moments, waiting until he heard her breathing settle into a normal rhythm. "All good, Shepard. What are you waiting for?"
He heard the choked-off laugh she gave as she moved back into the fight. Grinning, Garrus moved with her and Tali, the three of them closing in on Harkin's position. Harkin was running out of mechs to throw at them; the LOKI were thinning out on the ground. Anything he threw at them, they took out.
Garrus could see Harkin in the control station at the top of the factory floor; he moved back down to ground level and regrouped with the Commander and Tali.
"He's up there. Looks like two doors on either side of the control room," Garrus murmured quietly as they crouched behind a stack of crates.
Shepard gave a sharp nod. "We'll take one side, you get the other. I don't want this bastard getting away from us this time."
Shepard and Tali kept moving for the closest door, while he peeled off and went around the back of the control office for the other door. "Go for it, Shepard," he murmured over the radio when he was in position.
The door was closed, but over the radio he could hear Shepard moving. For a moment, he was tense; wondering whether Harkin would pull a weapon on Shepard. It wasn't his usual style, he'd be more likely to run, but what if...
The door in front of him opened, and he caught a solid view of Harkin backing up towards him. Over the man's shoulder, he could see that Shepard had her gun pointed directly at him, and Garrus watched a smirk grow on her face.
"... close, but not close enough...!"
The man spun around right in front of Garrus, and the look of surprise on his face was pure heaven. But it was nothing compared to the vicious satisfaction he got from lifting his gun and pistol-whipping the bastard right across the face.
Harkin fell back, clutching his nose even as bright red human blood poured over his fingers. He was choking on the blood, or the shock of the pain; Garrus didn't much care which it was. He wrapped the three fingers of one hand firmly around the man's shoulder and dragged him across the room, relishing the impact shock as he slammed him full-force against a wall. Fresh blood welled up on Harkin's shoulder where his talons had pierced frail human flesh.
The forger's eyes opened with pain and shock, but Garrus was already there, right up in his face, purring softly down at him, "so... Fade. Couldn't make yourself disappear, huh?"
It was at that point that Harkin seemed to realize he'd misunderstood what this was about. Garrus watched his eyes slide past towards Shepard, then back to Garrus. He saw the man switch mental gears, dragging out his most ingratiating voice and attempting to smile around the broken nose and the blood.
"C'mon, Garrus... we can work this out," he assured him. "Whaddya need?"
Revulsion swelled up in him so quickly that Garrus actually tasted bile at the back of his throat. He stepped back from Harkin, releasing him so quickly that the man fell to the floor. Shepard and Tali were watching, so Garrus felt safe turning his back on the man for a moment. His loathing for Harkin had just skyrocketed and he knew he had to keep himself in check. Losing his temper now wouldn't help him find Sidonis.
"I'm looking for someone," Garrus ground out.
He could hear Harkin climbing painfully to his feet, but his voice oozed smugness when he replied. "Well, I guess we both have something the other one wants."
He thinks I'm here to deal? Garrus felt himself snarling, and he reacted without thinking. Spinning, and taking one long step that had him back in Harkin's face – the man held up his hands in alarm, trying to ward him off, but Garrus had the greater reach. His knee came up sharp, fast and armoured, straight into Harkin's crotch. There was a crunch from a place where things aren't meant to go crunch on the human body and the man... crumpled.
Garrus watched without expression as Harkin collapsed in on himself, retching and gasping for air.
"We're not here to ask favours, Harkin," Shepard explained calmly.
Harkin spent a few moments crawling around on the floor, making broken sounds and strangled whimpers before he managed to gasp out a reply. "You don't say," the forger mumbled, struggling to his knees.
Garrus watched him drag himself to his feet, fighting the urge to shove him back to the ground. "You helped a friend of mine disappear. I need to find him."
Harkin breathed in sharply and spat out blood. "I might need... a little more information than that," he wheezed back resentfully.
"His name was Sidonis. Turian, came from the-"
"I know who he was," Harkin snapped back in sudden disgust. "And I'm not telling you squat!"
Garrus was silent for a moment, wondering at the sudden defiance. It was more than just empty bravado. Harkin knew what Sidonis was running from, he was sure of it. He hadn't known it was Garrus, but he'd known someone would probably come hunting.
Shepard's voice filled the silence, soothing but firm. "Harkin, this doesn't have to be hard."
Turning his head slightly, Garrus could see her standing there in her familiar interrogatory position; arms crossed, her eyes pinning the forger where he stood.
"Screw you," Harkin sneered back at her. His focus widened to include Garrus in his angry glare. "I don't give out client information. It's bad for business."
He has no idea how bad this can go for him. Garrus felt the frustration eat its way up his insides. He was within reach of getting Sidonis in his sights, and this asshole was playing games with them? His hands were suddenly curling claws into Harkin's shoulder and Garrus realized he'd moved forward, grabbed the man. A white heat was burning at the back of his eyes as he shoved Harkin back into the wall. His armoured knee planted itself viciously in the soft, meaty part of the forger's body and he crumpled again. Garrus let him fall, knowing the damage he might have done to all those soft, important organs in the human torso. His mandibles were curled back from his lips, exposing sharp turian teeth as he kicked Harkin onto his back and pressed his boot down onto his throat to keep him in place.
Maybe a little bit more forcefully than needed just to keep him in place.
Harkin was making strangling sounds and struggling. "You know what else is bad for business?" Garrus asked him through the white haze clouding his vision. He pressed down again and was rewarded with more struggling, more pathetic choking sounds. "A broken neck!"
Shepard's gaze was a weight on the back of his neck, but he couldn't bring himself to care. His attention was locked on Harkin, letting the animal behind his eyes show through clearly, and Garrus watched as the man slowly came to understand that it wasn't Officer Vakarian who was standing over him.
Officer Vakarian had died two years ago. All he'd left behind was Archangel.
"All right, all right!" Harkin gasped around his boot. "Get off me!"
He should. Garrus knew he should. But it was so much more satisfying to press his weight down a little more against the delicate throat of this waste of flesh pinned beneath his boot. More gratifying to listen to the broken sounds gurgling past those lips. More rewarding to watch Harkin's eyes widen further with something more than fear, with real terror for his life as Garrus watched and smiled and didn't move.
Shepard moved instead. He saw it out of the corner of his eye, a shift of her weight, and then felt a warmth at his back. Even through the armor, Garrus could feel her hand pressing lightly against him, and the weight of it ate away at the white haze clouding his mind. It sank through the impulse to just snap this bastards neck and be done with it, and it reminded him this wasn't just vengeance.
He had a job to do.
Garrus stepped back sharply, and Harkin choked his way around a free lungful of air.
At least he was smart enough to recognise a turian on the edge of control. "Terminus really changed you, huh Garrus?" There was fear in those words, fear and a caution that Officer Vakarian had never inspired, but Archangel demanded.
Garrus approved of both. "No," he replied blankly. "But Sidonis... opened my eyes. Now arrange a meeting."
A gesture to the comm. unit against a wall was emphasis enough. Harkin looked away from him, to Shepard, and then on to the comm. unit. Garrus could practically see him debating whether to give in or keep being a smart ass, and he jerked his chin towards the unit irritably.
"I'm going," Harkin muttered, choosing the wiser course of action for very possibly the first time in his life.
Garrus listened to him initiate a communication line, and warn Sidonis his identity may have been compromised. It was possible Harkin had some kind of phrase or word that would be sufficient to warn Sidonis to go to ground. Making sure he was well within Harkin's line of sight, Garrus pulled his handgun out and inspected it pointedly.
In the background noise of the comm. link, he could hear the encrypted reply from Sidonis. And in the periphery of his vision, he could see Shepard frowning at him as he continued to study his gun. Garrus glanced up long enough to meet her gaze and saw disapproval there.
"You're not going to kill him, Garrus," she informed him without any room for negotiation.
He smiled faintly. "If I don't, he'll call Sidonis straight back once we leave and warn him to go to ground. They'll both vanish and my team will never have justice."
"Are you sure this is still about justice?"
Garrus blinked at her. "Of course it is. They trusted him, Shepard. We all did. And they paid for that trust with their lives."
Shepard lifted a hand to touch his armoured forearm lightly. It was unusual for her to make physical contact during a mission, and it startled Garrus for a moment. Then her eyes caught his again, and he was trapped by the intensity of her indomitable will.
"You're about to go over the edge, big guy. The other side is a deep, dark hole and I don't want to see you in it. You need to keep it together."
Garrus studied her, peripherally aware of Harkin arranging a meeting with Sidonis, but the bulk of his attention taken up with his Commander. He knew she disagreed with his plan, and it was habit to trust her judgement. But on this... no, on this, he knew what the right call to make was. Shepard didn't understand, she'd never been in this situation.
He broke his gaze away, shaking his head. "I'll be fine, Shepard. It's nearly over now. I need to do this."
There was compassion and concern in her face, but Shepard simply gestured behind him and turned away. Harkin was approaching, evidently having finished the call.
"It's all good. He wants to meet you in front of Orbital Lounge. Middle of the day."
Garrus nodded slowly. He knew what he had to do. There wasn't any other choice, was there?
"So... if our business is done, I'll be going."
The turian reached out one long arm and grabbed Harkin by the shoulder, pulling him in close. "I don't think so," Garrus advised him. "You're a criminal now, Harkin." The warm weight of his gun in his other hand was like an anchor.
The fear blossomed again in Harkin's eyes. "So, what... you're just going to kill me?" He tried for a persuasive smile, and it came out lopsided and unconvincing. "That's not your style, Garrus."
He could feel the pulse of Shepard's attention on him, knew she was waiting, watching. There was no judgement in her, only a silent, steady encouragement that seemed to pulse off her in waves. She was trying to watch out for him, and he got that. He did. There were things he'd have to do this day that might be a problem.
But not this.
Garrus made the call and shoved Harkin back. "Kill you? No."
Harkin and Shepard both exhaled in relief.
Garrus grinned. "But I don't mind slowing you down a little."
The weight of the gun lifted seemingly on its own as he guided it into a sweet shot aimed at Harkin's mid-torso. A gut shot, a slow kill. Slow enough that he'd survive it, but debilitating enough that he wouldn't be making any emergency calls the second they left the room.
It was a two second movement to lift the gun and aim it, but he should have remembered how quick Shepard was. She was there, her hand curling around his gun arm and yanking it back. The force of it was enough to spin him around to face her, features contorting into outraged shock.
"You don't need to shoot him," Shepard snapped at him, and he could see the anger brimming behind her eyes. She gentled her voice, her fingers curling carefully around his arm. "He won't be able to hide from C-Sec now."
She was right. Of course, she was right. She was Shepard. Garrus stared her down, anger and resentment falling off him, and she met him, stare for stare. Understanding, to his resentment. Compassion, to his anger. It ate away at his resolve, and Garrus sighed in frustration. He pulled his arm out of her grip, turning back to face Harkin.
"I guess it's your lucky day," he snarled at the man.
Harkin wiped sweat from his eyes, breath easing tremulously past his lips. "Yeah," he muttered. His face hardened, his tone turned bitter and sarcastic. "I hope we can do this again real soon."
He never did know to quit when he was ahead.
From the corner of his eye, Garrus saw Shepard turn away to leave, and he moved immediately. One long step forward and a sharp movement, and Garrus head-butted the smarmy weasel. The hardest portion of a well-armoured turian head cracked solidly against the far less protected forehead of the human and Harkin gave a low grunt, clutching at his head slowly even as he fell back.
Garrus watched the man crumple to the ground in a long, silent heap. He was unconscious, and would be out for hours. If he woke up without a severe concussion, he could count himself lucky. But he would be alive, and there was no chance of Sidonis being warned off.
Smiling in satisfaction, Garrus turned to follow Shepard. She'd kept walking, though she must have known what he'd done, and it took his longer legs a few steps to catch up to her. There was resignation in the lines of her body, outlined clearly in the sideways glance she shot him.
"I didn't shoot him," he reminded her.
Shepard sighed. "Come on. Let's move."
Garrus chanced a look over his shoulder at the decidedly unconscious Harkin. "Sidonis better be there, or I'm coming back to finish the job."
"I nearly shot him myself," Tali remarked as they left the office. "What a bosh'tet."
Shepard pointedly didn't reply, and maybe that was all he could ask of her. As they made their way back through the foundry, dealing with a few LOKI mechs that had survived or repaired themselves, Garrus wondered whether he was over the line. He wondered who'd established the line to begin with.
All his life, he'd been living by someone else's rules, someone else's expectations. First his father's, which had been arbitrary and unyielding. Then C-Sec's, which were bureaucratic and hypocritical. By comparison, Shepard's rules had always been backed up with firm, solid logic, and she had never hesitated to explain herself to him if he asked.
He didn't know what his own rules were. Not his father's, not C-Sec's. On Omega, Archangel had used Shepard's rules as a guide, and made his own way, followed his own conscience. But Archangel had failed, and Garrus didn't know what to trust when Shepard's suggestions went against his own driving need to kill Sidonis.
He was grateful for the distraction of finally getting out of the foundry. The waiting sky car was a pointed reminder that they were getting closer to Sidonis, closer to justice.
"What's going to happen to Harkin now?" Tali asked as Shepard yanked the sky car up into the air and turned its back on the foundry.
Shepard considered that for a moment, and he felt her eyes on him as if she were expecting Garrus to respond. The turian clenched his mandibles tighter, because if he did answer, she wouldn't like it. After a moment of silence, the Commander sighed.
"EDI, lodge an anonymous report with C-Sec that they can find Fade in the foundry. Make sure it finds its way directly to Bailey," Shepard instructed firmly.
"Understood, Commander," replied the AI.
Garrus regarded her in surprise.
Tali leaned forward thoughtfully. "What if he's already gone?"
"I'm pretty sure Vakarian here took care of that."
There was a rebuke in Shepard's voice that would have worried him once. Now, Garrus looked back at her defiantly. "Harkin's a bloody menace. We shouldn't have just let him go, he deserves to be punished."
Her voice was calm when she spoke, the voice she had begun using when they were alone in the main battery on the Normandy. The one that wasn't entirely the Commander, but something more personal. "I'm gettin' a little worried about you, Garrus. You were pretty hard on Harkin."
"You don't think he deserved it?" Garrus demanded aggressively.
Shepard shrugged noncommittally, her eyes fixed on the controls of the vehicle. "It's just not like you."
He turned away from her, staring blankly out the window. Garrus could feel the frustration welling up in him, the resentment that she didn't understand. "What do you want from me, Shepard? What would you do if someone betrayed you?"
He knew exactly what she'd do. She'd put a bullet in their brainpan.
"I'm not sure," she admitted slowly. Carefully. "But I wouldn't let it change me."
The gentleness of her tone, her manner, was not what he'd expected. Garrus would have figured she'd lay down the law; not this. He shook his head wearily. "I would have said the same thing before it happened to me."
Shepard took her eyes off the controls long enough to meet his for an instant. "It's not too late. You don't have to go through with this."
She was driving them to a confrontation that would end in assassination and trying to talk him out of it. It would have been amusing if it weren't so depressing. "Who's going to bring Sidonis to justice if I don't?" Garrus felt his hands curl into fists where they rested on his lap. "Nobody else knows what he's done. Nobody else cares. I don't see any other options."
"Let me talk to him."
The suggestion was so quiet, so out of nowhere, that Garrus stared at her for a long moment of silent confusion. Shepard could sweet-talk anyone, he knew that better than most. But he didn't want to talk Sidonis into turning himself in. He wanted to deal with the problem. For once in his life, he wanted something conclusive, something undeniable. He wanted justice.
Garrus leaned back, his head thudding heavily against the back of his seat as he closed his eyes tiredly. "Talk all you want. But it won't change my mind." He opened his eyes and stared directly ahead, tired, angry. "I don't care what his reasons were, he screwed us. He deserves to die."
Shepard tilted the sky car carefully as they approached the Zakera Ward's main promenade. "I understand what you're going through, but do you really want to kill him?"
He needed her to stop. He had his mission, it was clear in his mind, and he needed her to back off. "I appreciate your concern, but I'm not you," Garrus ground out.
"This isn't you either," she shot back immediately.
"Really?" he snapped back in immediate challenge. "I've always hated injustice. The thought that Sidonis could get away with this..." His voice faltered as Garrus felt his throat constrict with a kind of blind, white rage. "Why should he go on living, while ten good men lie in unmarked graves? I'm sorry, Shepard... Words aren't going to solve this problem."
They were there, overflying the meeting place before Shepard dropped the vehicle down to the ground. Garrus' gaze sharpened in anticipation of the mission. It was here, it was right here and right now, and he needed to do this right. He could feel the weight of that responsibility pushing down on him, the ten dead friends standing with him expectantly. He scanned the area carefully.
"I need to set up," he told her, gesturing with one hand. "I can get a clear shot from over there."
"You just want me to get him in position?"
"Basically. Keep him talking for a minute. When I've got him in my sights, I'll let you know. Give me a signal so I know you're ready and I'll take the shot." She was watching him intently, nodding faintly in understanding. It was surreal to give commands to Shepard, and he hesitated suddenly. He wanted to say something... something like thank you, because he knew she didn't agree with him but she was doing it anyway... except the words stuck in his throat. Garrus turned away and yanked open the door to climb out. "You'd better go... he'll be here soon."
The sky car felt too cramped and he was glad to escape it, slamming the door shut behind him. Garrus took a deep breath and filled his lungs, letting it out slowly. Shepard meant well, he knew that. She'd be pissed at him for this, but he had to do it his way. Archangel had to finish what he'd started.
Garrus climbed lithely up the catwalk, moving on silent feet across the mesh walkway. Beneath him, Citadel citizens meandered up and down the Ward, and even if they did happen to glance up, they wouldn't see past the glare of lights shining down at them. He was on the other side of that brilliant illumination, wrapped up in shadow with his fairground lit up like daylight.
The rifle at his back was a steady, familiar weight and it was almost soothing to pull it free and assemble it with the speed of long practice. He twitched his head, bringing the scope into focus on the ward beneath him, scanning the crowd slowly. Shepard and Tali were easy to spot. There were few quarians on the Citadel, but there was nobody like Shepard.
Even at this distance, he could read the edginess in her movements. The way she scanned her surroundings carefully. The two women were talking, but their radios were muted and he couldn't hear anything. "Shepard? Can you hear me?"
The Commander turned her head to Tali, gesturing for the engineer to back off. "Loud and clear," Shepard replied calmly, as Tali shifted back to lounge against the sky car. He knew the quarian would be watching events in case she was needed.
Satisfied they were in place, Garrus sited down the rifle's scopes, marking off his distance. The 100m mark pulsed at the bottom of the display as he zoomed in on Shepard, then he went back to scanning the promenade.
Sidonis would be here. Somewhere. Garrus shifted the rifle minutely, widening the range of the scope and caught sight of a turian slumped on a seat further down the Ward. The passersby between them were constant, but that first glimpse was enough for clear identification. The shock of recognition was like ice down his spine and he gripped the rifle tighter.
" All right. There he is... wave him over and keep him talking."
Garrus kept his voice low and calm, refusing to take his scope off Sidonis. He had the bastard in his sights. He wasn't letting him go now.
Some people assumed that being a sniper made you remote from your target. They thought because he fired from such distance, that he mustn't feel the chaos of his actions. They were wrong. Sniping a target was a strangely intimate experience. Despite the distance, the scope made everything feel up close and personal. As Garrus kept his rifle sighted on Sidonis, he could make out every line and stroke of the bastards clan markings. He could see the anxiety in his former friends edgy movements. He could see the caution in the man's eyes as Shepard waved him over and he approached.
The last time he'd seen that face had been when Sidonis lured him away to betray their team. The last time he'd seen that face, he'd thought it had belonged to a friend. Now, Garrus watched him through a sniper scope as intimately as if he stood even closer to the man than Shepard now did. Shepard moved into his line of fire, drawing Sidonis closer to her so that they stood out of the main flow of foot traffic along the promenade.
"Let's get this over with."
He could hear Sidonis through Shepard's mic, which meant he'd come close enough to speak to her. Sidonis was in position, and he waited for Shepard to move and give him a signal, but she didn't.
Garrus gritted his teeth. "You're in my shot. Move to the side."
He knew Shepard's body language, pretty damn well. He knew the defiant lift of her chin, and he could read it from the back of her head, which remained firmly in the centre of his scope.
What the hell was she doing?
"Listen, Sidonis. I'm here to help you," he heard her say. Garrus froze in disbelief.
"Don't ever say that name aloud!"
Sidonis sounded on the edge. Garrus was too experienced to look away from the scope; he kept his attention focussed on it. Shepard's head remained squarely in the centre, and his finger on the trigger felt heavy and frozen.
"I'm a friend of Garrus'." He could hear her words over the radio, but they made no sense to him. "He wants you dead, but I'm hoping that's not necessary."
Shepard, what the hell are you doing? Don't screw this up for me.
The distance marker pulsed at 31 metres, as he shifted again, trying to get a better angle for Sidonis. He could take the shot, but Shepard was too damn close to his line of fire, and if she moved at the wrong moment, it would be her brains sprayed all over the Citadel.
"Garrus?" Sidonis demanded. "Is this some kind of joke...?"
The bastard was down there, in arms reach of Shepard. She was shielding him with her own skull. Trusting that Garrus wouldn't take a shot that would risk her. The frustration was so bitter and fierce it tasted like acid in his throat, and he swore over the radio.
"Dammit, Shepard! If he moves, I'm taking the shot!" he promised her furiously.
He could see her head tilt, and he knew that movement. It was her 'listening' expression. Sidonis must have understood it too, because he began to look alarmed as he realized she was in radio contact with someone.
"You're not kidding are you?" Garrus could only see part of his face, but he saw the quick eye movement as Sidonis scanned his surroundings. "Screw this. I'm not sticking around here to find out. Tell Garrus I had my own problems..."
He moved to leave, and Garrus shifted eagerly. The son of a bitch thought Garrus would come at him from the ground. He'd forgotten Archangel's specialty.
Shepard hadn't. Her armoured hand grabbed Sidonis' shoulder, and at the very instant Garrus got a clear shot and went to take it, she stepped between them again.
"Don't move!" he heard her snap at him.
Garrus flinched back from the image of Shepard's head back in the centre of his scope. Sidonis spun around to face her, shoving her back.
"I'm the only thing standing between you and a hole in the head," Shepard snarled.
"Fuck."
Garrus echoed the sentiment. He could do it, even now. He could take the shot, there was no safety margin and Shepard would be at risk, but he could do it anyway. She knew the risk she was taking, stepping in front of a damn sniper!
"Look," Sidonis answered frantically, "I didn't want to do it... I didn't have a choice."
"Everyone has a choice," Garrus spat out furiously. He knew Sidonis couldn't hear him, but Shepard could. And suddenly this argument seemed to be less with Sidonis and more with the woman he'd considered his friend, and commander.
Sidonis was backing away. "They got to me," he babbled at Shepard. "Said they'd kill me if I didn't help. What was I supposed to do?"
Garrus tightened his finger just slightly along the trigger, but Shepard was still in his sights. The safety margin was too low. His teeth were clenched together so hard he was giving himself a headache, but he knew... he knew, he couldn't take the shot. He couldn't risk her. She had to move.
"Let me take the shot, Shepard," he pleaded. "He's a damn coward!"
Shepard was still focussed on Sidonis. "That's it? You were just trying to save yourself?"
Sniping was never a distant act. But this was too damn up close and personal for Garrus. He didn't want to see inside Sidonis' heart, he didn't want to know what sob story the lying bastard had concocted to help himself sleep at night. He didn't want to complicate a truth he'd become very comfortable with. Sidonis had betrayed him. Sidonis had to die.
In his sights, the other turian moved to the side, pacing. Each movement he made, Shepard echoed deliberately, keeping herself between him and Garrus' line of fire.
"I know what I did." Sidonis stopped moving suddenly, and so did Shepard. His voice sounded tired, exhausted... and familiar. Garrus felt his stomach twist as he remembered that voice from when it had belonged to his comrade in arms. His friend. He remembered what he didn't want to remember. The months of fighting alongside Sidonis. Celebrating victories together; long nights of planning strategy for upcoming attacks.
And now he listened to that voice speaking in barely a whisper, broken and sickened, and even Garrus couldn't deny the misery in it. "I know they died because of me, and I have to live with that. I wake up every night... sick... and sweating. Each of their faces staring at me... accusing me."
He didn't want to hear this. Garrus zoomed his scope in further, striving almost desperately for a clear shot. He didn't just need to end Sidonis. He needed to end him before he said anything more. He didn't want Sidonis to be a real person, complicated and confused. He wanted him to be a villain.
"I'm already a dead man. I don't sleep. Food has no taste. Some days I just want it to be over."
"Just give me the chance," Garrus managed to say around a throat that was clenching his vocal chords.
Shepard was firmly in his line of fire, and not moving anytime soon. But her voice in his ear was soft, and gentle. Too damn close. "You've got to let it go, Garrus. He's already paying for his crime."
"He hasn't paid enough. He still has his life..."
She moved then, half turning away from Sidonis. Towards him. "Look at him, Garrus. He's not alive. There's nothing left to kill."
"My men... they deserved better," he said faintly. In the back of his brain, Archangel was snarling that he take the shot. That Sidonis deserved to die, because even a life of misery was still one life more than his team had.
Sidonis couldn't hear what he was saying, but it was clear enough that Shepard was in communication with him. He stirred himself as if waking from a dream. "Tell Garrus... I guess there's nothing I can say to make it right."
Garrus felt like throwing up. He could see Shepard's face half-turned towards him, filling the scope and he knew he'd never be able to take the shot. She stood between him and murder, and for a heartbeat, he didn't think he'd be able to make the kill even if she stood aside.
"Just... go." His head dropped in defeat, turning away from the scope to rest his uninjured cheek against the cool length of the rifle. "Tell him to go..."
He couldn't bear to look back. Shepard's final words to Sidonis were too audible for him to ignore, but he tried not to hear Sidonis thanking her for saving his life. Promising to make amends.
There would be no amends. There could never be amends. And now, there could never be justice either. Or revenge. Whatever it was Garrus had been after, he'd get nothing now. He sat there for a length of time he couldn't measure, feeling the metallic chill of his rifle under his skin and trying to breathe steadily. He knew Shepard could hear him over the radio, knew the link was still active, but she said nothing. She just waited, her breathing so even and quiet he couldn't hear it.
The sounds of the Citadel shoppers below were muted and ignorant of how close they'd come to witnessing an assassination. Garrus felt so utterly disconnected from them, up here in his eyrie, hidden in the dark. Sidonis was gone when he looked up, and Shepard was back at the sky car.
Climbing back down was a slow process, his body sluggish and almost unresponsive. Garrus didn't know what to think, what to do now. On slow, heavy feet, he approached Shepard where she watched him without expression.
"I know... you want to talk about this," he said as soon as he got within range. "But I don't. Not yet."
She nodded in understanding. "I know it didn't go the way you planned. But I think it's for the best."
Garrus jerked his head, shifting edgily. "I'm not so sure..."
He looked at her and her gaze was so familiar to him. That calm compassion, that silent strength and determined understanding. Shetrusted him. She'd trusted him enough to put herself in the line of fire for a traitor. And he suddenly realized that it wasn't to save Sidonis. It was to save Garrus.
"Give it time," Shepard said quietly.
"Yeah. Maybe that'll be enough... I want to know I did the right thing. Not just for me – for my men. They deserve to be avenged." He looked up at her in confusion, almost beseeching her for some kind of answer. He could hear the frustration in his own voice. "But when Sidonis was in my sights... I just couldn't do it."
Tension eased out of her in a strange, liquid movement, and she smiled. It was a small smile, but more genuine than any he'd seen on her in days. "The lines between good and evil blur when we're looking at people we know."
Garrus thought of the agony he'd heard in Sidonis' voice. Sidonis had known what he'd done wrong and had suffered for it. Was that enough? "There was still good in him... I could see it." He shook his head in confusion, staring back at Shepard in blank uncertainty. "It's so much easier to see the world in black and white. Gray...? I don't know what to do with gray."
"You've got to go with your instincts," Shepard advised.
He laughed bitterly. "My instincts are what got me into this mess."
When he'd left the Citadel to become a vigilante, embracing the thing his father hated most, he'd thrown off forever the shackles of Officer Vakarian, and his old life. He'd thought being Archangel was all he had left. For whatever reason, it seemed Shepard was determined to prove him wrong.
She moved unexpectedly. Suddenly she was right there, in his space, closer than she usually got to him but somehow not invading either. Her gloved hand pressed against his arm, those small human fingers curling comfortingly around his armoured forearm. "Don't be too hard on yourself."
Garrus looked down at her uncertainly. She met his gaze calmly, and without hesitation. There was something there, something he thought he should recognise, but his thoughts were still buzzing and impossible to put in any kind of order. He smiled faintly back at her, and knew it looked ghastly. "Thanks Shepard. For everything. Let's get going. I need some distance from this place."
She gripped his arm tightly for a moment, then let go. "I'm with you."