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The sounds of gunfire and explosions stirred Archer from his sleep. The human grumbled in annoyance. He wanted to get back to sleep and Vask must’ve gotten up and helped himself to the television in the living room and started watching some action vid.

Archer tossed slightly in his bed and hugged Vask’s arm as the krogan lightly snored behind him and he tried to get back to sleep.

Archer groaned again, trying to ignore the vid playing in the other room and force himself back to sleep. Eventually he opened his eyes, annoyed and crawled out of bed which was made harder by the krogan trying to keep the human pinned against him in his sleep. After finally wrestling free from Vask, Archer got up and slowly made his way out of the bedroom to turn the television off.

“Wha?” Archer mumbled when he saw the television was already off.

The room was lit with an eerie orange glow coming from outside his apartment and made his way to the window to look outside. What he saw made his blood run cold.

It was a hellish warzone. Buildings were destroyed, fire was spreading, and in a display that made Archer’s stomach twist in on itself, humans were impaled through the chest on large teeth-like metallic spikes.

Archer stood frozen in shock and fear until he saw movement on the ground below and he ducked out of view from the window, slowly peeking out the window. Slowly making their way through the battlefield was a squad of aliens that Archer didn’t recognise at first. They made their way through with rifles raised, slowly scanning through the rubble and fire. They looked similar to quarians, their body being almost a mirror of them but with lights and wires going through their bodies. The biggest difference was the large curved head with a single, shining cyclopean eye.

Archer’s stomach dropped and he struggled to breath as he realised what they were.

“Oh god,” Archer choked as he quickly backed away from the window. There were geth on the Citadel. He tripped over a large, disproportioned shirt on the floor.

“Vask!” he yelled in terror.

The large krogan quickly stormed out into the living room, his shotgun at the ready, “What?”

Archer tried but couldn’t force the words out of his mouth and pointed shakily to the apartment window.

Vask slowly made his way over the window, his shotgun leading the way. He froze briefly at the horror outside before he charged away from the window, just before the window shattered. Archer screamed in shock.

Vask fired back in response before he turned to Archer and commanded before firing again, “Get dressed, and get your gun!”

Archer looked down at himself as he realised they were both still naked from night before and he hastily retrieved his clothes that were scattered around the apartment. He climbed up his kitchenette to retrieve his gun from the top of the cabinets where he left it after his fight with Vask.

“Cover me!” Vask demanded, firing out of the shattered window.

“What?” Archer asked, clinging to the cabinet.

“Cover me!” he repeated, grabbing Archer from the cabinet and pushing him to the window before grabbing his own clothes from the floor.

Archer shakily pointed his pistol out the window and saw the squad of geth, clicking to each other in their electronic language and pointing their guns towards him. He retreated away from the window with a yelp as they started firing at him. He threw up a barrier around himself and fired back in return until his pistol stopped firing as it overheated.

“Shit,” Archer yelled at himself, before screaming out in pain and grabbing his left arm as his barrier was shredded. He threw his injured arm out with a scream and biotically threw the offending geth against rubble, destabilising the rubble it hit, making it fall on top of it and its comrades.

He brought his pistol back up when it cooled down and overlooked the outside.

“We’re clear,” Archer called out to Vask, as he held his arm and winced in pain.

Vask came back to the window and looked out the window.

“Good job,” he said, seeing the crushed synthetics.

He turned to Archer, grabbed his left arm and gently pulled away the hand covering the wound and gave it a look over.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” he said, before ripping off a part of Archer's sleeve to bandage it.

“Why’s there geth on the citadel?” Archer asked, wincing as Vask tied off the makeshift bandage.

“I don’t know. But we can’t stay here.” Vask answered. He raised his shotgun and made his way to exit the apartment, pulling Archer behind him.

“You didn’t learn anything from the rogue Spectre?” Archer asked as he followed the krogan out of his apartment and into the streets.

“I wasn’t with him long enough to learn anything. Just that it was a bad idea for me to be there.” Vask answered, scanning the war-torn streets. “Was there for barely two days.”

Archer walked up to the CRT terminal and started rapidly going through it.

Vask pulled him away and started making their way to an alleyway, near which was the large metallic spikes Archer saw from his window and was the only place without any fire. “Rapid Transport won’t be working during an invasion.”

“Shit, right.” Archer realised before getting an idea and wrenching himself out of Vask’s grip and started going through it again. “But maybe it’ll tell us what places are safe to go. Or at least Avina might.”

He brought up the Citadel’s VI which greeted the pair in a glitched electronic voice, “W-welcome to the Citadel. I’m Av-av-avina. Allow me-,“ the asari hologram flickered out briefly before returning, “your guide.”

“Just tell us where to go, you stupid machine,” snapped Vask.

“The Citadel is cu-currently under attack,” said Avina.

“We know that!” yelled Archer, “Get to the fucking point.”

“Pl-please evacua-a-a-ate to the nearest C-Sec headquarters an-“ Avina said before Archer dismissed her and started going through the CRT terminal again.

“Closest C-Sec joint is in the Lower Wards near the Presidium. That’s the closest one to the Citadel Tower. So it’ll probably be the safest place to be because of the Council.” Archer said looked at the terminal before turning it off.

“The Council would’ve been evacuated before the Geth even landed on the station.” Vask said, making his way back to the nearby alleyway with Archer in tow.

“It’s still our best shot,” Archer said behind Vask, keeping an eye behind them.

As they approached the alleyway, the metallic spikes near its entrance let out a ear-piercing screech as they lowered down the bodies they impaled. The bodies dropping to the ground before starting to stir.

“Oh god, they’re still alive,” Archer said in horror before running up to help them.

“Don’t!” Vask yelled as he tried and failed to grab the human as he ran past.

Archer froze when he reached the stirring human, horrified at what he saw. The person’s skin was a sickly grey with tendrils of wires snaking out of their skin with blue lights flickering. The human groaned before looking up at Archer who screamed at their withered, skull-like face. Its eyes replaced with glowing blue lights.

The mutilated human launched itself at Archer and tackled him to the ground, wildly swiping at him with its arms and trying to bite at him. During the beating it struck the scar on Archer’s neck and shoulder and made him screech in excruciating pain.

Suddenly the onslaught stopped and Archer rolled onto his side and grabbed his scar with a hand, screaming. Thrashing on the ground he was grabbed by his collar and tossed over Vask’s shoulder who dispatched the other twisted human as he charged into the alleyway.

Well into the alleyway, Vask stopped and lowered Archer to the ground who kept letting out choked screams of pain as he held a hand to his neck.

Vask put a hand over the human’s mouth and held him down as he harshly whispered, “Shut up! Or you’ll attract too much attention.”

Archer thrashed in the krogan’s grip, burning tears of pain streaking down his face. He sobbed into Vask’s hand, grabbing onto it with both hands and tried pulling it away, the one that was held over his scar covered in blood.

“Listen to me!” Vask hissed, his hand still covering the human’s mouth despite his panicked struggles. “I know it hurts but if you keep screaming like this you’ll draw the geth’s attention and you will die! So calm. Down. Now.”

Archer, tears still streaming down his face, bit back the screams he desperately wanted to let out. He thrashed a few more times under the krogan’s grip before stopping. Vask slowly removed his hand from the human’s face.

Archer bared his teeth, hissing and laid down his side, kicking a leg in silent excruciating pain. Vask crouched over him holding up his shotgun and watching both ends of the alleyway, waiting for the long, uncomfortably long time for the human’s pain to abate.

Pain abating, still excruciating but not crippling, Archer let out a shuddering breath. He slowly picked himself up from the ground, his blood covered hand back on his shoulder scar.

He leant against the wall, haggard and pale looking down the alley from the way they came.

“What did they do to them?” Archer asked, the image of the horrifically mutilated human burned into his brain.

Vask shook his head, “I don’t know. But they just fall apart when shot. It’s like they’ve been completely dried out.”

“How are they still alive?” panted Archer.

“I don’t know and I don’t want to find out.” Vask turned to Archer, “Can you move?”

Archer nodded weakly, “I think, yeah.”

He pushed away from the wall and the world around him immediately spun. He stumbled and Vask caught him before the human hit the ground. Archer held onto the krogan and turned his head away and retched.

“Take more time,” Vask said as he tried to lower Archer to the ground but he resisted.

“No, we can’t stay here.” Archer said, wiping his mouth.

“Come on then,” Vask said and started walking, holding the human to his side. He handed the human his pistol, “You dropped this when that thing attacked you.”

Archer took it with a shaky hand and tried to keep up but it felt too heavy. Heavier than it ever felt. He kept trying to bring it up to aim but he couldn’t hold for more than a second before it fell back down to his side.

“Don’t overexert yourself.” Vask warned, walking the human down the alleyway, “Just bring it up when you need it.”

“It feels like a ton.” Archer mumbled, stumbling next to Vask with his pistol hanging by his side, blood dripping down his arm and onto his pistol. “I don’t think I can.”

“You just need the adrenaline to kick back in,” Vask said, leading the pair down a split in the alley way, “You’ll be able to bring it back up then.”

Archer weakly chuckled, “You said you wouldn’t mind me becoming a merc like you but I can’t even cross the street without almost dying.”

“We can always work on it,” Vask said, turning a corner and coming within sight of the alleyway’s exit. “Spend more time in the Arena.”

“Don’t see how that’ll help.” Archer mumbled, leaning against Vask, “This is nothing like the simulations.”

“It’s better than a plain gun range,” Vask replied, hoisting Archer more onto his feet, “Come on, still a long way to C-Sec.”

“Yay,” Archer said, tired. “Can’t wai-“

An explosion erupted at the exit, a fireball briefly blocking the exit off before dissipating but leaving fire littering the area around the exit.

Vask stood frozen, his green eyes widened in terror.

“Hey, Vask stay with me,” Archer said, shaking Vask’s arm. He’d never seen the krogan in that state.

A familiar metallic screeching coming from the exit of the alley made Archer’s blood run cold. He snapped his attention to the end of the alley and saw shambling figures through the fire and smoke.

“Vask, come back to me!” He took his hand off his scarred shoulder and shook the krogan, looking back as the shambling figures ran through the fire towards them, deathly grey arms outstretched, “Please! I can’t do this without you!”

Archer faced the horrors running towards him and wrenched his pistol up and started firing. The twisted and dried out humans fell apart at each shot but his pistol stopped firing, overheating again.

“Damn it!” Archer yelled, smacking the pistol in a panic as more of the groaning horrors ran towards him. He threw his pistol at one and biotically threw them into a wall, bisecting them in on impact.

“Vask! SNAP THE FUCK OUT OF IT!” Archer screamed and with a mass effect field around punched the petrified krogan in the face, feeling a large crack in his fist as he did so. Vask stumbled to the ground and with a scream Archer put all his energy into his biotics. With an underarm throw he sent a trail of small biotic explosions racing along the ground, throwing the twisted horrors into the air.

Archer dropped to the ground, head throbbing and mouth dry. He crawled towards Vask, his entire body felt as if it were made of lead and every centimetre he moved feeling like a marathon. His vision faded and the last thing he heard before darkness took him was a roar of rage and the firing of a gun.

***

A dull pain permeating his entire body woke Archer up. His eyes opened to a sterile white hospital room, being tended to by a nervous looking human nurse. He tried to sit up in the hospital but the nurse stopped him.

“Please, Mr Roberts. Take it easy. You’ve been through a lot.” He said, gently pushing Archer back down onto the bed.

Archer looked over himself, an IV was in left hand, his left arm and right shoulder were bandaged, and his right hand was in a cast. Ignoring the nurse’s efforts, he sat up anyway and heard a deep chuckle at his side.

“I told them they won’t be able to keep you down when you woke up,” said Vask.

“So, you’re the reason why he’s nervous.” Archer said, before looking at the rest of the hospital room, seeing several armed C-Sec officers.

“Why are they here?” Archer asked, suddenly on edge.

Vask brought his hands up and showed off a pair of handcuffs strapping him to the chair he was sitting on. “They didn’t appreciate me asking for help.”

Archer looked at Vask before turning to a turian C-Sec officer. “What did he do?”

“Your friend disregarded basic triage, threatened the doctors with a weapon until they prioritised you over the other patients, and threw a doctor when they refused,” explained the C-Sec officer, glaring at the krogan.

Vask smiled at the officer’s telling of what happened, “It worked though and you would’ve died if I didn’t make them help.”

Archer looked towards the nurse, “How bad was I?”

“You broke three metacarpals in your right hand, lost a lot of blood, were in severe shock, and was suffering from severe dehydration when you arrived.”

“How close was I to…?” Archer asked, not being able to bring himself to say ‘dying’.

“Mr Roberts, you’re fine now. That’s all that matters.” Said the nurse.

“Just tell me,” snapped Archer.

“You wouldn’t have survived long enough to go through proper triage,” Vask said for the nurse, “You had half an hour at most when I got you here. The hospital was flooded and it would’ve taken over an hour to get to you.”

“That true?” Archer asked the nurse who nodded.

Archer rubbed his face with his one free hand, and sighed “I want some time alone with Vask.”

“Sir, we can’t leave you along with him,” said a C-Sec officer.

“He got himself arrested to save me. I’ll be fine,” scowled Archer, “Besides, he’s handcuffed and can’t do anything. That right, Vask?”

Vask said nothing initially, until Archer turned and glared at him.

Vask growled and said, “I won’t do anything.”

The nurse quickly left the room and was slowly followed by most of the C-Sec officers.

“I’ll scream if he does anything,” Archer said to the remaining officer before they too finally left.

Archer laid back down and sighed, “You’re not gonna stay on the Citadel, are you?”

Vask shook his head, “No, this stunt got me on C-Sec’s radar. They’ll find out about my shadier dealings and want to put me away.”

“But you’ll give some false info or just enough real info to get off but not enough to burn bridges, right?” asked Archer.

“I could but after this attack security is going to tighten to an obscene degree. It’s going to be a lot harder to find work here and get good weapons,” explained Vask.

“So where are you gonna go?” Archer asked.

“Omega,” Vask answered, “I have a few clan members in a large merc band there. I can get some work with them. Sent a message to them while C-Sec wasn’t looking.”

Archer said nothing, staring at the hospital room ceiling. He’d just gotten the krogan back and was losing him again.

“Come with me.”

“What?” Archer said as he quickly turned to the krogan before he gasping in pain and grabbing his bandaged shoulder as his scar flared.

“Come with me,” Vask repeated, “To Omega.”

Archer remembered back to high school during the Skyllian Blitz. How the entire station Grissom was on getting locked down and the fear and panic he felt during the invasion. Fear and panic he had never told anyone. “But what about the Batarians?”

“There’s plenty of other humans on Omega and they’ve survived just fine,” Vask said, “And you’re more than capable of protecting yourself. Though you’ll need a new pistol.”

“New?”

“You broke your pistol. Overheated it too many times too quickly, your blood got into the mechanics, and also cracked the frame at some point.” Said Vask.

Archer groaned, “That thing cost so much money AND it was the cheaper option.”

“Don’t worry,” chuckled Vask. “They have all kinds of weapons that are a lot more affordable than here.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and the weapons you will be able to find here will be a lot more expensive from this point on.” Said Vask.

“Are guns the only reason you’re going to use to try and convince me to go with you?” Archer asked, looking at the krogan.

Vask opened his mouth to say something but closed it and Archer waved his casted broken hand to get the krogan to say what he had on his mind.

“I…” Vask breathed deeply before continuing, “I can’t stay here any longer if I want to make a living but I still want to see you again.”

“What about my own job?” Archer asked.

“There’s plenty of work you can get on Omega,” Vask said.

“As a merc?” Archer said with a half-hearted smile. “I think recent events made it obvious I’m not cut out for that line of work.”

“You can always improve,” Vask said before seeing Archer raise an eyebrow and rapidly adding, “But it’s a massive trade hub so there’s there’d plenty of dock work on Omega if you want to stay in the same line of work and all kinds of opportunities if you decide to go into a different line of work.”

“Illegal opportunities I’m guessing,” scoffed Archer.

“Nothing’s illegal on Omega. Except for trying to undermine Aria,” said Vask.

“You’re supposed to be convincing me to come with you. How’s bragging about it being a lawless hellhole gonna achieve that?” Archer asked, rolling over in the hospital bed to face the krogan.

Vask leaned forward and took hold of Archer’s casted hand with both hands, and said “No one will hurt you there, I’ll see to it. I promise that. No batarian, vorcha, or even other krogan will hurt you.”

Archer looked at Vask, moved and nodded, “Okay, I’ll come.”

“Wait,” Archer said, noticing something, “How’d you get out of the cuffs?”

“Trick I learned from a salarian I worked with one time,” Vask said with a smile, leaning back into his chair.

“Well, get them back on before C-Sec comes back in,” Archer hissed pointing at the door the C-Sec officers left through. Vask rolled his eyes and begrudgingly put the handcuffs back on his wrists.

“I’m gonna be detained for a few days and I’ll have to leave as soon as possible afterwards before C-Sec catches wind of my lies, so you’ll have to be ready to leave by then.” Vask said before adding, “If your apartment hasn’t been looted or burnt down.”

“Oh, shit,” Archer exclaimed, covering his face with hands as he realised that the krogan was probably right about the state of it, “That TV cost a month’s pay.”

Vask patted the injured human on the back, “Think of it as a fresh start.”

“Put the cuffs back on,” Archer said, his face still covered by his hands. Vask grumbled before following the human’s order.