A/N: This was originally part of the previous chapter, but I cut it into two so I could polish this part more. Thanks to Stutch, GoG Toxic and Teenage Wastelander for the words of encouragement. It really helps a lot to know people enjoy my story.

Chapter 5: Old Habits

The warehouses of Omega were dark and cold places, but it was anything but quiet. The howling of generators tore through the air and echoed into the maze like labyrinth of the tankers and other scrap that littered it. Pipes and vents would often let out hisses of steam that hung like a stale fog in the cold air. Vorcha would usually amass here in numbers, and junkers would often brave the odds of being eaten by the vermin like scavengers in search of valuable salvage. High above, the catwalks were even more perilous; derelict walkways that would give without warning, sending people plummeting to their deaths. Garrus flinched at the thought as he slowly navigated said catwalks in the dark, stalking the second squad of mercs that were still patrolling the catwalks. In the distance, the main warehouse office sat like a spider in the web of the catwalks, suspended high above. Like a castle in the dark, it was bristling with defenses, one way in and one way out. On one side it had a crane, which would usually move the container tanks around, but this one was connected to a platform on one end, probably as a makeshift elevator.

These parts of the station, while still under the reign of Aria T'loak, were considered no-man's lands. You stick your claim to a territory, and so long as you paid the pirate queen her dues, you kept it until someone else stronger kills you for it. It was like a feudal system of sorts; A monarch ruled over his vassals who were free to kill each other so long as it did not affect their dues. Garrus always had an interest in the ancient Turian kingdoms, and he was fascinated at how Earth had a similar concept in something known as the Dark Ages. A lawless time where those in power prospered and the weak and the poor were at their mercy.

His mother would tell him bed time stories of champions who defended the weak from the abuses of the strong. It was then that he decided he would be a defender of justice, becoming a soldier of the fleet and then eventually making it into C-Sec on the Citadel. Of course, it wasn't as ideal as the stories had romanced it. Ideals had no place in a world full of regulations and accountability to superiors, who were at times as crooked as those he was sworn to defend against. It was when Garrus realized that protecting and serving were the last things on his employer's 'to do list' that he decided to do things on his own terms. These days the champions and knights of old had far fewer modern equivalents, but Garrus was adamant that he would make sure there was at least one more. And if he couldn't be the dark knight to Omega's lawless kingdoms, he would be the avenging Archangel who would bring justice. Garrus was snapped from his musings when Kasumi's voice came into his ear piece.

"So Garrus, are you going to let me and Legion in on your little plan here?" she said quietly, "Tell me we're not just out here to kill mercs."

"I didn't think you had a problem with getting your hands dirty, Kasumi." He replied, the second eclipse squad coming into his sights. He crouched low as he advanced. "And no, we're out here for Shepard's sake…" He paused as he pulled out his knife, "Killing mercs is just a bonus."

Indignation was apparent in her voice. "I'm a thief, Vakarian, not a murderer. I kill as a last resort, not for sport."

"Well I'm not exactly having the time of my life out here, Miss Goto." His voice was a hushed whisper as he saw the squad round a corner. He sped up his pace a little to keep up, lightfooted as a turian wearing heavy armor could, not that they'd here anything beyond a gunshot with the generator droning on. "Look, there's a time and a place for this: Not here and not now."

She didn't reply, and after a while of silence, Garrus cut off the link. He didn't enjoy this. He stalked along behind the hapless squad, his blade singing for blood.

The squad walked in a similar formation as the first one he encountered, though he let out a small inner sigh of relief as to how this one lacked females. He twirled the knife in his hand and reached out towards the batarian taking rear guard. No, he didn't enjoy this one bit.

Kasumi bit her lip as she watched the blip that was Garrus, approach the small group of eclipse blips. Every few seconds, he would approach one of them, and the others would go on. A few seconds after staying together with the eclipse ones, the Garrus blip would leave it and catch up with the rest, eventually leaving a small trail of eclipse blips in his wake. Despite everything she had done to aid Shepard in his mission, she had only killed in self-defense or in the defense of others. Call her a hypocrite if you will, but she was hardly a murderer, or even a vigilante. She was still deciding in her head which one Garrus truly was. She had seen the look in his eyes when he was sniping enemies in battle. It was the same look whenever he was laughing or being relaxed. Should she be afraid of him? In a ship full of people on the edge, he would always be one of the few she would classify as balanced.

She looked over her shoulder to where Legion was fiddling with the communicator. It was a funny thought that she would be more afraid of a turian who was not here with a geth in her immediate vicinity. She looked back at the holo-map once more to find that Garrus had moved on to the last blip. Her eyes widened when she saw the eclipse one started to run away and the Garrus one was the one not moving. "Garrus! Are you alright?" She began with alarm as she started monitor the frequencies for any alarms. She found a distress call from the eclipse merc and jammed it immediately. She turned to Legion and said "Something's wrong, get ready for anything!"

Legion merely nodded and put down the communicator, drawing out his Widow-maker. "Query: Has something happened to Garrus-Comapanion?"

"I don't know, but I think it's bad." she replied, frantically pushing buttons and communicating Garrus again. "Garrus! Come on, don't be dead!"

"I'm fine." Garrus' voice was calm and collected. "On a side-note, I didn't know you cared."

Kasumi sighed, he probably was fine if he still had that smarm in his voice. "What happened?"

"To the merc? Oh, I just let him go."

"Oh." She had to take a few moments to register that, then her eyes grew wider, eyebrows rising in surprise. "Wait, what?"

Garrus looked on as the merc ran faster than the wind itself, disappearing in the distant darkness. "You should see this guy run, never thought a human could go that fast." He said, whipping out his omnitool, he changed frequencies and he saw Kasumi's incredulous expression.

"Why?" she began frantically, she was half expecting him to have shot the man down while running away, but the blip just kept moving. "I can jam transmissions but word of mouth is another thing."

"I like being spontaneous." Garrus said, sheathing the knife and pulling out his sniper rifle in one hand. His gaze turned towards the office in the distance, an island of light, high above in the catwalks in the otherwise dark warehouse. He saw the merc he had let go run towards the main office. "Besides, I need him for the set up."

"What set up?" Kasumi asked, her voice wary.

"Operation: Dark Knight." The merc was halfway there. "I need you and Legion to sit tight and wait for my word."

"Well this isn't sudden at all, Garrus." Kasumi replied in annoyance. "Oh, and 'Operation: Dark Knight'? What?"

"I usually make things up as I go along." He glanced at the merc he had let go again and he was getting close to the office. A few of the guards stationed there had taken notice of their alarmed comrade. "I have to go, I'll keep in touch."

"There'll be words later, Vakarian." Kasumi replied before she cut off the communication on her end.

"Sigh, what was the term Shepard used about me and the ladies?" He asked himself as he unfolded the sniper rifle and aimed down its sights, tracking the running merc. "Ah yes, he always did say that I was a regular Cassanova."

Winslow James had heard the stories. He was already dead for months now; the story had spread like wildfire on the station when it came out. It took the 3 previous big bosses of the Blood Pack, Eclipse and Blue Suns to do him in, but he was killed then and there. He was supposed to be nothing more than a boogeyman to scare the new recruits with and an example to the rest of Omega. Well he said boogeyman had just massacred his entire squad, except for him. He had disarmed him, painfully he might add, and just stared him down, not saying a word. He didn't know why, but he had to get away from here. He tried raising the alarm on his comm, but he was being jammed.

"No, no, no…" He said as he tried one more time, the same error message popping up. He didn't want to die; he just wanted some quick and easy money. Sure he offed some folks here and there but who cared for some nobodies all the way out here? He looked up and saw he was fast approaching the main office. Fuck it, he'd yell if he had to. "HEY! HE'S HERE!"

His voice must not be carrying over the noise of the generators, he thought, and he ran faster. His lungs ached but he yelled again. "FOR FUCK'S SAKE, HE'S HERE!"

He was waving his arms in the air like a mad man as he yelled, the guards were alerted to his presence and started to congregate on the walkway he was on to meet him. "The hell is wrong with you!" one of the other mercs, a batarian yelled back. The others were looking on in mild amusement. Winslow wasn't held in the highest regard among the mercs, even his own squad didn't show much respect for him, if any at all. "Where are the rest of your squad, and who the fuck is 'here'?"

"ARCHANGEL!" He was nearly there.

The batarian laughed out loud, he was about to berate James when there was a crack in the air, and his head exploded in a shower of gore that splattered over the surrounding guards. There was a moment of stunned silence as the headless body fumbled a bit, before dropping on his knees and falling flat on the metal floor with a thud. The guards started to scramble, but no sooner had they reached for their rifles when a second shot ripped through the air trailing smoke behind it. The concussive round landed right smack in the middle of them. The unlucky ones merely crashed into the metal walls and railings, shattering bone and tearing flesh. The even more unlucky ones were sent over the edge to fall to their deaths. The remaining guards who were still in one piece got into defensive positions and started to unload in the direction the shot came from. The squads on the ground level had noticed the commotion and were scrambling towards the office.

Winslow fell to his knees. They were all going to die tonight.

Zarrhen Jantar held onto his desk as he felt something shake his office. For a salarian, he was built like a rock and quickly rose as a Captain in the Omega Eclipse for his skill in battle since his recruitment. He always did prefer firefights to drug making, but his intelligence and skill in the field had worked against him. He grinned inwardly as he now got exactly what he wished for. "What is going on out there?" He demanded, getting up and reaching for his rifle on his desk. He cocked it and his armor produced a flickering aura as his shield activated around him.

His 3 lieutenants were all frantically going away at their omnitools. One of them approached him, an asari. "Sir, we're being jamme-" She was cut off as the office shook again, knocking her towards him. He caught her then laid her roughly aside on his desk.

"Damned useless, all of you!" He said, approaching the door, his other two lieutenants made way for him and they all gathered behind him to follow his lead as he marched. The shooting was fierce, but by the time he had approached the door, it had stopped. The door suddenly opened, causing the group to pull up their weapons in preparation for combat. It was a human eclipse who staggered in, one hand desperately wrapped on a gash on his neck that spurted blood as he walked. Jantar merely looked on. "Well? What the hell is happening out there?"

"Ar- Ar-…" he gurgled as he started to choke on his own blood. He staggered a few steps forward, towards the captain. "Arch-…"

Jantar grew impatient and swatted the dying man aside, but he had heard enough. There were whispers behind him; apparently his underlings had caught on too. One of them, a salarian spoke cautiously. "He was dying sir, probably just delusional with blood loss."

"I recognize him, Winslow James, not the sharpest knife in the drawer." The asari chimed in, "Filnar's right, it can't possibly be him"

The third one, a human, spoke, "Yeah, he was-"

"Enough!" Jantar said, turning to them in fury, but what scared them most was his manic smile. "It doesn't change the fact we're under attack." He turned to face the door and waved his omnitool, disabling the lock so anyone could come in. "We go out there, we'd be playing into his hands." He began, walking back to his desk and flipping it over, creating cover of sorts. The office was spacious, littered with tables and drug making equipment, with one way in and out. His underlings began flipping over tables and desks as well, knocking over equipment and creating formidable defensive positions.

Jantar picked up some gas canisters and a few bottles of chemicals, spreading it in the area in front of the door. Taking position, they trained their guns at the door waiting for anybody arrogant enough to walk through. A pull of the trigger and the bastard would be set ablaze in a chemical fire. They would shortly spray the corpse down with the fire extinguishers and see if the dead man was hallucinating or not. If it was, he'd land a hell of a promotion.

Seconds seemed to stretch for an eternity as they trained their guns on the door. The human swallowed audibly and the salarian was shaking slightly. The asari, for her credit, was only whispering something under her breath; probably a prayer. Jantar grunted as he switched to incendiary rounds.

A few agonizing moments later and everything was still quiet. The human lowered his guard and said, "Maybe they already took him-" He hadn't finish his sentence as the grill of the vent above them fell down, along with a grenade right next to him. "-out?"

"TAKE COVER!" Jantar roared as he ducked behind his desk. There was a loud bang as the air ripped, sending smoke, debris and gore scattering everywhere.

Garrus jumped down from the vent shaft, landing in the smoke as he quickly took in his surroundings. The squishy sensation under his step told him he got one or two of the bastards with the grenade. Rifle at the ready, he spotted a shell-shocked salarian stagger out of the smoke, and he filled him full of thermal rounds. The salarian's shields fizzled and the corpse dropped. Garrus then heard shots and felt them whizz by his head. He dove behind one of the desks and reloaded his gun as the thermal rounds tore away at the desk. Looks like they were setting up a surprise party for me, he thought as the smoke cleared and he saw the layout of the room. He peeked out from cover and quickly drew back his head as shots started to pepper the desk. He raised his rifle and blindly fired back towards the general direction of the mercs. He heard a crackling sound and realized the desk was starting to catch fire. Inferno rounds, brilliant.

Dashing from his position, he slid behind another desk as a few shots crashed against his shields. Pulling up from cover, he searched for a target and fired back with a few bursts when he saw the asari lift her head a couple of tables away. She ducked, narrowly avoiding his shots and another merc, a salarian, popped out of cover on the far side and began spraying cover fire for his comrade. Garrus felt the heat of the thermal rounds as they flew past him, ducking into cover. He heard a small boom as they hit the gas canisters in front of the door, igniting the chemicals into a purple flame.

"Nowhere to run, 'Archangel'!" Jantar yelled, laughing psychotically and again shooting the desk that the turian was hiding behind. It slowly started to catch fire. "Your resurrection will be shortlived!"

Garrus smirked behind his cover and reloaded his rifle. Looks like this one is a talker, he thought. It was two against one, both his opponents seemed pretty capable, and his cover was about to become useless again. He needed to move. He raised his rifle to blind fire again, but he cringed as he felt it got shot out of his hand, going up in sparks a few feet from him. "Oh for the spirits' sake..." Taking in a deep breath, he waited for the tell-tale click of an empty clip and jumped over the flaming desk, fire licking at his shields.

The asari came out from cover to shoot suppressive fire as Jantar reloaded, training her sights on Garrus.

Landing with a roll, Garrus pulled out the sniper rifle from behind him with his left hand and unfolded it with a shake. He got to his feet and trained the Mantis onto the asari, who was also about to squeeze the trigger on her rifle.

Time seemed to stand still as the two met eyes. Hers was filled with murder while his was almost sorrowful. He pulled the trigger a split second before she did, catching her square in the chest with a concussive round that sent her flying into the wall, crashing into a crumpled heap.

He had barely recovered from the recoil when suddenly, Jantar jumped over his desk, rifle at the ready, and ran towards Garrus, blasting away with gunfire and obscenities.

Garrus was caught by surprise, the barrage going past his shields and catching his right arm on fire. He yelled in agony as the Mantis started to fizzle in flames and dropped it. The salarian was quicker than he looked, striking him with the rifle butt and knocking him down to one knee. He looked up and saw that grin plastered onto Jantar's face.

"You're one ugly son of a bitch, Archangel." Jantar said, flames roaring in the background, rifle trained between Garrus' eyes. "The name is Zarrhen Jantar, and killing you will cement my reputation forever."

Garrus only grinned back, he had banked on Jantar's mouth buying him a few seconds to recover. Without warning, he bolted up, arms snaking around the rifle and twisting it aside before the merc could pull the trigger. They wrestled for the rifle as it fired shots everywhere, each trying to leverage it over the other. The whole room was starting to catch on fire now as the inferno rounds ignited all that it touched. A few moments later it started to click on empty. The two looked at the rifle, then back at each other, then Garrus pulled his head back and head butted the salarian.

Jantar was dazed, loosening his grip on the gun, allowing Garrus to yank it from him and kick him away. He got up, as he saw the turian hasten to reload the weapon.

Just as Garrus had reloaded the rifle, Jantar tackled him to the ground. The salarian was strong for his size. They rolled around the floor for a bit, each grabbing onto the gun with an ironclad grip. Jantar rolled onto his back, and wedged his foot between himself and Garrus, kicking him off with all his might.

Garrus flew backwards, stumbling onto his ass as Jantar got up with a victorious look on his face. No words this time, and he pulled the trigger.

Click.

A quizzical look came onto his face, wiping the grin from it as he pulled the trigger again.

Click.

Click.

"Hey, lose something?" Garrus said as he picked himself up and held a thermal clip in one hand. He smirked as he saw the dawn of realization on Jantar's face and threw the clip into the fire. Jantar quickly reached for his ammo clips, and to his amazement, he was out. He looked at Garrus with disbelief when the turian produced a handful of clips in his other hand. Without a word, he threw the rest in with the other one.

Jantar scowled, then a smirk crept to his face as he tossed the rifle aside. He had never felt so alive before! "I have to say, Archangel, you are everything the stories say about you and more." He looked around to see that they were surrounded by flames now, the perfect arena for his ultimate victory. "Splendid! Just splendid!"

"I'm flattered but I don't swing that way." Garrus replied as he pulled out his knife.

"Heh.. Heh… Well then maybe you could swing some other way for me." Jantar replied as he reached behind him and pulled out twin combat knives. "Preferably by your neck."

"Now there's an idea." Garrus said, getting into combat position. Jantar did the same and they slowly started to circle each other. "But I think that would suit you much better."