Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Shepard sipped on her hot chocolate and admired the view from her outside seat at the café. It’s not often she gets to go to Earth, and she has never been to Paris before. So if she wants to take a break from her assignment and stare at the Eiffel Tower standing off in the distance then she will. It is early summer and the weather is beautiful, the sights are beautiful, and her pastry and hot chocolate are delicious. If she didn’t know better Shepard would think she was on shore leave.
But she wasn’t. She was here for a mission. Sighing away from the view she looked at her datapad.
Mission: Apprehend Archangel and return to the Citadel
Description of target: Turian
Last known location: Earth, France, Paris
Honestly, not a lot to go off of. Sometimes she thinks the councilors give her the most impossible missions just to fuck with her. Human’s first Spectre was a joke to them. Whenever she asked for more information they would make a remark like “I thought Humans were adaptable, so adapt.” “Humans are ambitious so go out there and find more information.” So that’s what she did.
Everyone she talked to while tracking down Archangel told her three things: one, he was a he. Two, he was a damn good shot. And three, he only killed bad guys. Looking at his victims Shepard saw that her witnesses were right. He only killed people who prayed on other people. He liked to play hero , it seems. Although heroes stayed within the law. Vigilante maybe, like Batman. The super old Batman that used to kill people.
Even though Shepard didn’t know who Archangel was she had an idea of his mark: Desmid Torrias. Torrias is a weapons merchant known for his lack of scruples. He once started a war on a Turian colony world so he could sell weapons to both sides. There were no survivors.
Given what she knew of Archangel, as small of information that may be, she had a good feeling that Torrias was his target. She had a meeting with Torrias in a few hours so she took her time, enjoying the scenery and the drink.
*4 hours later*
“So what makes you think this Angel guy is after me?” Torrias asked Five minutes into their meeting. Shepard arranged a meeting with the weapons merchant in his hotel room. Top floor penthouse facing the Eiffel Tower. Expensive. Shepard wondered how many people had to die to afford that type of luxury. The thought made her sick and so did the man across from her.
“Your profile fits with his preferred targets.” Shepard calmly explained.
“Look little Lady-“
“Spectre!” She corrected harshly.
“When you are in the line of work that I am, you get used to people trying to kill you. That’s what they are for.” He pointed to the small army of Krogan that lined his office. “I don’t need a woman like you to protect me. But I do need a woman like you for other things.”
The way he said that and the way he stared at her up and down had Shepard seeing red. Actually red, there was a small red dot dancing on Torrias’s forehead.
She leapt towards him bringing him down to the floor right as the bullet shattered the glass of the window and bore into one of the Krogan guards.
“Stay down.” She growled at the weapons dealer as she pulled out her sniper. She set it up at the window and looked towards where the shot originated. Most people wouldn’t be able to calculate the bullet’s trajectory and find an origin point based on only one shot. But that is why they made her Spectre.
She swept the scope of her rifle over where she predicted where the shot was- and there he was. Taking apart his own rifle from a window of an abandoned warehouse at a distance that would make the shot impossible, was a Turian.
She took a step back and threw an object out the shattered window. Then she ran and jumped out the window herself. She didn’t have far to fall as she landed a few feet away on a hoverboard she “borrowed” from another Spectre “friend” of hers. He probably won’t miss it.
She zipped through the Paris rooftops as she made her way to the abandoned warehouse she saw. She arrived just in time to see the Turian sniper jump from a rooftop to another farther away. She sped towards him on her hoverboard.
“Archangel, you are under arrest by order of the Citadel Counsel.” She called over him. She saw him pull up his Omni-tool and sparks began to fly from her hoverboard that she was standing on. She jumped from it and landed on Archangel bringing him down on the rooftop he was running on.
She rolled away from him and got up. She charged towards him before he could get his stance. Turians were harder, better, faster, stronger than humans. She wouldn’t have many opportunities to subdue him if she didn’t take the option now. He was just starting to get up, his hands and knees on the rooftop as she aimed a kick at his unarmored side.
He reared up on his knees and grabbed her ankle. He flared out one mandible slightly, a Turian smirk. He was ready for her and she fell for it. He twisted her ankle and pulled her off her feet onto the hard rooftop below her. She kicked his gloved hand where it held her ankle and he released her. She got up and the two stared at each other. She moved again trying to get to him. He used his superior reach to keep her from getting too close to his body. She used her size to move inside his reach as she nimbly dodged away as he swiped at her and planted some blows to his side.
The sound of a skycar made them both stop and look up. A skycar full of Krogan and machine guns were approaching them, fast. The Krogan opened fire peppering the roofs of the buildings close to them well before they got in range of the two. It was clear Torrias’s guards were not going to distinguish between the man who shot at their boss and the Spectre that tried to warn him.
Shepard pulled up her omni-tool and Archangel ran the opposite way of the oncoming skycar. The hoverboard zipped to life and Shepard jumped on it when it came close. She raced towards Archangel and pulled up next to him as he ran. She matched his speed and he jumped on the hoverboard with her. The hoverboard wobbled a little bit but held strong. They zipped down towards street level hoping to lose the skycar. The skycar stayed on their trail as they maneuvered in between buildings still shooting at them. Shepard pulled up back into the sky and turned towards a non-populated area. The ground level was better suited to losing their pursuers but the chance of civilian casualties was higher and Shepard wouldn’t allow that.
The skycar, and the bullets, were getting closer now and try as she might, the hoverboard was not meant to outrun a skycar with two people riding it. Bullets peppered their shields as Archangel fired his assault rifle towards the car. Some of the Krogan pullets clipped the hoverboard and they went down. Shepard grabbed Archangel and turned her body in the air so she could cushion his fall. She didn’t know if it worked as the world went black before she even felt the ground below her.