The Renegade Adored

Dirty, narrow alleys separated squat, dingy houses, with barely enough room between each house for trash to accumulate. Rats scampered away from Garrus, unnerved by his alien scent.
"Never thought I would miss Vorcha," said Garrus, staring at the vermin. "A flamethrower would be a big help here."
Hayden laughed sharply at that. "It's been done," she grinned darkly. "The lesson didn't stick."
"Where is everyone?" The streets in this part of the city were unnervingly quiet.
"Either at work," Hayden checked her pistol, "or hiding inside, watching to see where we go." She walked up to one of the houses, almost identical to all the others on either side, and knocked once on the door. There was a pause before the door opened, and they walked inside.
There was a mechanical whirr, and a young man in a wheelchair approached them. "Hey, Sparks." He would have been tall, standing. His hair was dark, his eyes strangely light. He smiled in welcome, but didn't seem to be looking at anyone in particular.
"Charlie."
The young man grinned. "Just like old times." The door closed behind them, then a steel safety door rolled over the opening "Word on the street is, you and Fangs here have something going on. Gonna introduce me?" He brushed his hair out of his eyes, never took his eyes off Hayden. "Never thought you'd be one to go for an alien."
"People change," said Hayden calmly. "Fangs, this is Charlie. Some people call him Fetch, since that's what he does."
"Pleased to meet you, Fangs," grinned Charlie from his wheelchair. "They used to call her Sparks 'cause she moved so fast. Now they call her Sparks 'cause she starts fires."
Hayden's eyes narrowed, and her back stiffened. "We need to talk, Charlie."
"So we do," Charlie's smile never faded, and it struck Garrus as slightly unnatural. "Come to the back. Does Fangs get to listen in?"
"He needs to make a personal call."
Garrus frowned. "Is this really the time?"
"He's got the only secured terminal with an offworld link in this geographic region. Unless someone else has set up on your turf?" Hayden questioned.
"Hardly," Charlie grinned, and pulled a small remote from the side of his wheelchair. He pressed some buttons and a door slid open just behind him, revealing a terminal setup that looked like it had come right from the Citadel. "Help yourself, Fangs. We'll be in the back room." Charlie spun the wheelchair and headed to the rear of the house.
Hayden followed him without turning around, leaving Garrus standing behind her, and swearing in Palaven under his breath.
Garrus walked into the room, and closed the door. He didn't want to make this call, but he knew he had to. He wasn't a very good Turian, but he was still a Turian, no matter how he felt or who he loved. And he loved her. "Dammit, Hayden," Garrus growled quietly, and clenched his fists. He couldn't help it, but he loved her. He pulled up his omni-tool, and opened a connection so that he could make the call.
Hayden heard the door to the comm room close as she entered Charlie's office, and relaxed slightly. Garrus would eventually be able to hack Charlie's system and spy on them if he wanted to, but they were clear for a few minutes at least. "What did you call me for?"
Charlie wheeled himself behind the desk, a rickety old one built of plywood scraps. The bottom of the desk was open, and she could see his mangled feet resting on the footrests of the wheelchair. "You were the one who wanted to make Collazo's crew pay. Well, the remains of the crew got out, and they plan to pick up where they left off. I thought you might care."
Hayden didn't answer.
"Sure took your sweet time getting here, though."
"So you just wanted me to come take of everything for you. Just like Trace used to do."
"Not all of us can fight like you, Sparks." The bitterness in his voice didn't stop him from smiling. "Not all of us want to."
"That's fine," she said flatly. "If they didn't learn their lesson last time, I'll take them all out. Everyone who had a hand in killing Trace."
"Good girl," said Charlie mockingly, still smiling at her.
"Did they learn anything from the last time, or are they still holed up in Wolf Run?"
"If they were smart," Charlie smiled, "they wouldn't still be in this backwater shithole, would they?"
Hayden sighed. "I'll go out there, then. I'll take care of it." She stared at the wall behind Charlie's head, not seeing him. "Will I need to come back for anything?"
Charlie kept smiling. "What would you come back here for? I didn't want you come to come out in the first place."
"Right. I should have listened to you. When you said that the first time."
Charlie shrugged, still smiling. "We all make mistakes. You don't need my help for anything, do you?"
"Never did," Hayden said, still staring at the wall. This was harder than it used to be. She hadn't realized how much it hurt to feel things.
"Are you crying, Sparks? You never used to cry." Charlie's smile slipped for a second. "People really do change."
"Not that much, Charlie." Her voice was still flat. "I still don't understand, and I still don't think it's fair. So I'm still going to kill them all, and nothing is going to stop me." She looked at him for the first time, her eyes cold and icy blue.
Charlie smiled again. "Good. Good girl." He leaned forward, his hair falling to cover his face, his hands resting still and quiet on the arms of his wheelchair. He heard Hayden turn, and start walking away. "You're not going to say good-bye?"
"You know how I am about words," said Hayden viciously. "I don't say things I don't mean." She walked out of his office.
The door to the communications room was still closed, and Hayden wiped her face before she knocked on the door.
Garrus opened it, his eyes still on his omni-tool. "Hey," he welcomed her. "Something weird is happening, I just got cut off, and now I can't connect at all." He looked up at her. "Everything okay?"
Hayden nodded. "We've overstayed our welcome. Let's go."
Garrus stood up and looked around, but didn't see the man in the wheelchair. The door to the office was closed.
Hayden rolled back the security door, then stepped outside, after checking that the street was still deserted. The sun was going down, leading into the long Southern twilight. They started walking. "Do you remember where we left our bags?" she asked.
Garrus nodded.
"Think you can find it again?"
"Yes, why?" he asked suspiciously.
Hayden grinned. "Because we're going to have company very shortly," she said, pulling out her pistol. "And I can't run at full speed if you're covering me."
Garrus could hear it now, the low hum of vehicles approaching. He pulled out his assault rifle. "So I should meet you there?"
"Yes. Take the next right, and start running. Fast."
He nodded, and at the next corner, they split up at full speed. Machine gun fire ripped out, tearing up the street behind them, a few seconds too slow. Garrus didn't waste time firing back, just ran down the unfamiliar streets, using his innate sense of direction to find the bridge leading back to the half-demolished building where they had hidden their bags. Turians are fast, sleek. They are built for the chase, with stamina that equals their strength. He quickly outstripped his Human pursuers, who were all on foot. The ones in the cars had gone after Hayden.
Turians are fast. But Hayden had the benefit of being intimately familiar with every inch of the ground they were chasing her over, and the buildings above it, and the tunnels below. Also, Hayden was a Vanguard. She didn't have to run if she didn't want to.
Hayden jumped, used a wall to launch herself into the air, flipped, and fired a biotic blast directly beneath her, propelling her higher. The blast rocked the street below, loosening the wall of an already damaged building. She pulled herself up to the rooftop, fired a few shots at the convoy chasing her to make sure they were still following, then turned and ran. The cars drove down the street, trying to parallel her path, and one of them took the turn too fast, hit the weakened structure, causing it to start collapsing. With screams of terror, they left the car, barely escaping as the crumbling building crushed the vehicle.
She laughed. It had been a long time since she had treated the Reds to a good show. Usually, they were the ones cheering her parade of destruction. Not this time. She jumped from one building to the next, prompting an outburst of gunfire and squealing tires as they turned to chase her.
"Getting slow in your old age, Sparks!" someone shouted at her.
Hayden grinned to herself. There was a lifer down there, someone who remembered her from the old days. Well, they were in for a surprise. She took off, running for the joy of it. She jumped to another old building, then across to another. This street was a dead end, and she made sure they saw her double back and head east instead. She heard a laugh or two, and knew that they thought she had been surprised by the dead end. She ran down the side of an abandoned factory, eliciting shocked yells from people who'd never seen her do that before. She cut across the factory parking lot, accompanied by a hail of bullets that never came close. She was in more danger from the ricochets than from the shooting.
She put on a little more speed, for the obstacle that was coming up. She heard a triumphant shout behind her as she turned a corner, and saw the giant hole. There were no walls handy, and the pit, the result of an industrial explosion, was too wide and too deep for a normal person, or even for the child that she had been.
Hayden jumped, deliberately not putting her full strength into it. She wanted to keep some secrets still. She cleared the pit, not as cleanly as she could have. She turned and laughed at the furious Reds chasing her. The cars swerved, to take the path around, and she whipped up her pistol and put a few well-placed bullets where they would do the most good. "Forgot I was armed, didn't you? Assholes."
She heard a lieutenant yelling orders, and they started shooting back at her. Hayden laughed and took off again. She heard them shouting her position to each other, and shouting that Garrus was cornered. She smiled. She put her pistol away and headed east again, towards the river. It hadn't taken her very long to catch up on all the changes in the city since she had been gone. There hadn't been very many.
She heard the cars, speeding ahead across the streets to cut her off from the bridge so that she couldn't join Garrus. Hayden smiled to herself, and wondered what Captain Grey would say if he knew how far she was going for this prank. She doubled back abruptly, running across the old fishing dock, with the Reds in full chase after her. There was one warehouse still standing, and she headed for it, but not inside. She jumped, and grabbed a windowsill. It was enough for her to get off the ground, and she continued climbing, until she was all the way on the very top.
Her pursuers slowed down, not wanting to get too close. They milled around, just watching her as she watched them. She was standing on the very center of the warehouse, her hair wild in the wind. Someone pushed his way to the front of the crowd of Reds. "What are you up to, Sparks? You have nowhere to run."
She smiled, glad that she recognized him. He was one of the crew. "I'm not running from you, Blackie. I just wanted to make sure my boyfriend got a good view." She looked across the water, and saw the glint of Garrus' sights, heard the sound of gunfire and knew that he was holding his own.
Blackie laughed. "I'm gonna rip the Turian's eyes out, Sparks."
Hayden shook her head. "You're forgetting something." She started to focus, and knew they could see the eerie blue glow of her biotics.
"Oh I know about your freak powers, Sparks. Still won't stop a – " Blackie stopped, and backed away, suddenly unsure.
Hayden jumped off, gathering everything she had, and aiming straight down. "You forgot where the levee was." Her charge rocked the earth beneath her, and the artificial levee, old and never repaired, cracked. There was the ominous noise of the earth shifting beneath their feet, and the odd sucking noise of rushing water. Hayden listened, then started to focus again.
"No, Sparks, stop! Are you crazy?" Most of the Reds knew enough about her to start running. Blackie considered taking a shot, but chose to run instead.
With a wild scream, Hayden slammed into the levee again. It wasn't built to withstand such energy, and began to crumble. Hayden smiled wickedly as the water rushed in. "Time to show off another new trick," she said to herself. Wrapping herself in her biotics again, she forced herself back up, levitating herself by the sheer force of her will. She lifted herself out of the water, and grabbed the warehouse so that she could climb back up to the top. When she reached the top, she threw herself down, panting with her efforts and watched the scene below with an unholy joy.
The backup barriers went up automatically to keep the city proper from being flooded. Of course, this meant that the Reds who had been chasing her couldn't drive out of the range of the flood. Since this area was still officially deserted and had no residences, there was no override. Hayden pulled out her pistol, and began casually shooting the screaming Reds in the water, and any who tried to climb the barriers to safety. She tried to save a bullet for Blackie, but she saw his body get sucked into a wave of black water, and washed out to the ocean. Hayden sighed in disappointment.
"Three left," she murmured to herself, and smiled again.