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Night had fallen on Omega, if it even could. It was forever in darkness, after all. There was always the distinct change of pace, however, when the curtains were closed and the worst of society came out to play. There was one place that they all flocked to - Afterlife. It seemed that the music only got louder as more hours passed, unsettling the atmosphere around it with the loud and thrumming sounds, off-putting and obnoxious to most, but effectively attractive to the wrong sorts of crowds. 

Watching like a predator from above, Odette stared down at the flocks of people moving in and out of Afterlife. A cosy platform to move around, without joining the peasant class below. As she made her way across the station, she was thinking over just what made each individual that she saw tick. 

In some cases she even thought of their weaknesses. The staggering human that was alone was just asking to be mugged on his way home. She closed one eye, as if aiming down at him from behind a scope to take her shot. His languid movements simply made it too easy. 

It was also the realisation that she was itching for some danger.

A creature of habit, she longed for her personal quarters back at base. That was where she would finally relax and unwind in her own way — with music of her choice, read, and then perhaps to write. Quiet, contemplative hobbies that didn’t require her to spend time in the company of anyone but herself. She couldn’t do that here, not until her mission was complete. Until it was, she would continue to feel the itch.

As if by some twist of fate, she caught wind of the voice of a child below. Afterlife was behind her now, but this was still too near for children to be around. Curiosity got the better of her, and she leaned beyond the bars of her platform to get a closer look, and there he was. Callan. 

Wasting no time, she slipped under the veil of her cloak once more, just a shimmer until the light eclipsed and she dissolved into the background. Carefully, and yet surprisingly deftly, she scurried down the scaffolding to the lower ground, right in front of her ex-colleague. Two of his cronies were with him too… If things got heated, her wish for violence might be answered. 

As the trio pushed forward, and Callan was about to close the distance, the cloak shimmered again and the woman reappeared, expressionless, mere metres from him; “it’s time to talk,” Odette said, as blunt as always. 

Callan blinked as his former handler appeared in her usual manner, out of nowhere. Fausion and Kollek remained silent, more surprised at her sudden appearance than their leader was. But they remained composed as he instructed them to be before they’d left the base. Around them the usual crowds of Omega ignored the encounter entirely, every other person pre occupied with their own affairs. 

“Fausion, Kollek, stay here. I’ll return shortly,” The biotic commanded, then turned his eyes to Odette. “Very well. Let’s talk somewhere quieter.” 

“Have you made up your mind? The last time we talked was, stressful.” Callan stated, feeling he’d said just the right word. Confident he was out of earshot of his two underlings, as both the armed soldiers leaned against a wall and waited. 

Walking forwards with Callan, Odette glanced sidelong at him; “if I had made up my mind, you would know about it,” her tone was grim and heavy. She meant it. 

Unable to look at him any more than was necessary, she turned her head forward, catching the small details that littered the place. “You have friends here, then?” she asked, briefly looking back at Fausion and Kollek over her shoulder, she had no effort to put disdain in her stare and instead remained stoic. “You have… A life,” the woman stated. “Are you happy?” 

“Not sure if ‘friends’ is the right term. But they’re loyal, so are the others in my group.” Callan stated calmly. He trusted Fausion and Kollek enough, they were paid well enough and he gave them plenty of freedom when not called upon. 

“I’m much happier than when I was a part of Cerberus. I have actual freedom, the only times I was happy at Cerberus was when I was out on mission.” He added, truthfully. 

Omega was far from a paradise but it offered its own version of safety, well until the last few days when Odette arrived. Part of him did miss her, she being his only real friend while he was in Cerberus. But her arrival was troubling in its own way. He couldn’t think of many scenarios in which Cerberus stopped trying to hunt him down, particularly if they knew he was on Omega. They’d just send agent after agent after him.

“Are you happy in Cerberus, Odette? Honestly?” He posed the question, curious how she’d answer after their encounter a few days before. 

Quite frankly, she didn’t know where to begin with the question. She was happy in the field, as Callan himself had expressed. She was happiest working, and to be given work, and she hadn’t been one to question her work before - nor be questioned about it. Her face gave a telling scrunch as she mulled it over. “I do what I do because the work is important,” she said - like a mantra that had been drilled into her. Unflinching at the implications of it, and the deeper meaning. “I have a purpose with Cerberus. Yes, I am happy.” 

Once more, her gaze shifted to Callan, the little things about his appearance that had changed now that’d found his freedom, she exhaled slowly, thinking on his words, honing in on one aspect. Torture. “You said that they… Hurt you?”

Callan nodded as Odette gave the answer he figured she would give. She’d been a part of Cerberus for a very long time now. They were a ruthless organization that heavily used propaganda with its operatives to ensure full loyalty. It took Callan some time to break away mentally because of this, he’d been practically spoon fed a diet of it since his abduction as a child. Odette hadn’t undergone the severe beatings, torture and mistreatment that he had. Though a part of him still hoped he’d be able to break her away from the savage group and see what he saw all those years ago.

“Yes. As I said last time we talked, if I could remove my armor and show you the scars they left on me. Incisions from surgeries, lashes from torture and injection points from the chemicals they pumped into me. All to make me stronger, more obedient and submissive to their demands.” Callan stated, recalling the moments they’d strapped him and experimented on him or brutalized him when he didn’t perform to their perfectionist standards.

“Even beyond the physical pain they tried to condition me for total loyalty. They took me away from my family when I was a kid because I was a biotic. Then raised me to serve them, to kill without question. Whenever they weren’t treating me like a human lab rat they’d stuff me in a cell until they needed me again.” He added, recalling the facility they’d kept him on. Even after nearly two decades from the day he was brought to that ugly world to be raised as their live weapon.

Shaking her head, Odette practically dug in her heels at his words. She didn’t want to believe him, but there were too many gaps in her own memory to verify his explanation as a lie. Never had she seen Callan, or some of the other biotics for that matter, in any of the other quarters. She would only ever get to see him on assignment. So where was he for the rest of the time? Then there was the question of where his rage came from. “I would know about this, I would know if they were hurting you,” she said, stopping in her tracks - stopping herself from placing a hand on his arm.

Was that what she struggled with so much? That she followed Cerberus so blindly and with such unyielding conviction that she missed what was right in front of her? That she was also blind to the torment. Odette could at least see it now, his truth laid bare in the smouldering embers of his eyes. 

She broke their forward march by making her way to the rungs of the walkway unceremoniously. “I was arrested after you left, I think I told you that. They kept me in a cell for five days. I know that they can be cruel.” Odette explained, watching down towards the lower levels, and the blurring figures that carried on. “But their cruelty… It is for a purpose… This is to better humanity’s position in the galaxy, to strengthen us. Don’t you believe in that?”

“No, I honestly don’t. They’re a human supremacist organization. You’ve seen how they treat aliens, the lack of care and total non association with anyone who isn’t human,” Callan stated with blunt honesty. “There’s a reason whenever Cerberus is mentioned in the greater galaxy it's despised.”

Ever since his arrival on the space station and greater Terminus space he’d been exposed to more alien life. He integrated Turians, Salarians, Asari and others into the Void Angels. Otherwise they would’ve been snuffed out of existence without a glimmer of hope. It had taken time to wash off the incessant anti-alien indoctrination that Cerberus had burnt into his mind. He knew Odette was far from a hateful person like far too many in the organization that Callan encountered. 

“And I am once more sorry that happened to you, Odette. If I could have done it any other way I would have, but that would’ve put you in much more danger. I was always on a leash with them, if I wasn’t so powerful with my biotics I guarantee they would’ve put a bullet in the back of my head.” He added, his tone shifting from sympathetic to certain. Callan saw things in Cerberus which his ex handler never even knew of. They were experts at keeping such disturbing details from their own people. 

“Is that what they want me to do? Put a bullet in the back of your head?” Odette asked, looking to Callan - for guidance, almost. “They sent me here to retrieve a criminal, dead or alive. Yet…” She stopped, bringing her thumb to her lips as her eyes narrowed. “Yet what I want to do is to help you.” She began to slouch over the rail, as if deflating. “I don’t know how. I know what I know, I know how to shoot -- I don’t know how to help you, but I want to try.”

Her face scrunched again, and she straightened up. It stung to show that side of herself, especially since it was such a foreign one. “But I need results. Cerberus needs their results. There is only one way off this station for me. That is with you, dead or alive, or in a bodybag. Anything else is unacceptable.”

“You’re a good person, Odette. Even after all these years apart I still know you are. I don’t honestly know how you could help me. If you leave and tell them you couldn’t get me they’ll be enraged at you, and still send more agents after me until the deed is done. The only thing I can do is keep running further away until I have nowhere else to run. Even then the Illusive Man’s reach spreads further than either of us can imagine.” The biotic replied, speaking from the heart to his former partner. He leaned against the railing next to Odette, his eyes hanging over the filled streets of people unlucky enough to find themselves on Omega. 

“If you want to put a bullet in my head I won’t stop you. But that is the only way I’m going back, in a body bag. If you take me back alive I guarantee I will level every fucking single thing I see with that damned logo on it until there’s nothing left but dust.” He added, staring directly into her deep blue eyes. The assertiveness in his tone blisteringly obvious. 

Unbeknownst to him, Odette had not been listening, and was instead focussing on the drop from this platform to the next, squinting as she worked through the physics of it. Finally, she reached out to grab his arm at last, with as reassuring a squeeze as she knew how to give him, she met his stare with her own - her determination and desperation in her eyes. “So shoot me.” 

With her free hand she grabbed her own shoulder, marking out the spot, “I can take it. Shoot me off the platform. I can survive the drop, but I’ll be too hurt to finish the mission. It’ll buy you time.”

“What? Are you serious?” Callan began to say, protesting the sudden idea. Then rapidly thought over the logistics of it. It was bold, but he had faith in her. Callan always did. Then spoke again with a reluctant nod as he drew his gun. “This is going to hurt, I’m sorry.” 

Then with a firm squeeze of the trigger he fired directly in the spot she demanded he did. The Carnifex heavy pistol roared in his hand, Callan silently wishing he had chosen a less powerful sidearm. His leg lifted her up and over the shallow ledge, to drop below. Around him the people of Omega stared in shock, several starting to run away in fear of more gunshots. As Odette began to plunge over the side he made resounding eye contact with her another time, a rare smile etching onto his features. 

She wished that she was as stoic in pain as she was at any other time, but Callan was right. It [i]hurt[/i]. It hurt enough to take the very air out of her lungs - so much so that she couldn’t even speak while he began to force her over the edge. Her extraction would take her to the nearest Cerberus facility, “See you… [i]soon[/i],” she groaned from behind clenched teeth - hoping that he knew what that meant. 

Odette couldn’t smile back, instead, she screamed from the railing to the bottom. It was her job to sell it, the blackout at the platform, the heavy thud and clatter of the crate that she landed on was the final blow, that Omega was over for both of them. 

Callan broke off the gaze at his falling friend and silently holstered his sidearm. The ex Cerberus human experiment turned gangster walked back the same way he came as the crowds where the shot still echoed dispersed. Violence on Omega was more common than almost anything else, it was rarer closer to Afterlife like they were. As the biotic returned to his two underlings they said nothing to him, then went on their way to meet the Asari arms dealer. 

Callan’s thoughts were filled with Odette, as he hoped she would survive the plan and they’d end Cerberus’ hunt for him. He knew she was one of the greatest agents they had, and it was not the last time they’d see each other.