Disclaimer:
Mass Effect belongs to BioWare, not me. If it was, I would have made an ending where Shepard and Vakarian got married and retired happily into their love nest... with every decorative glass rigged with explosive microfilaments by Shepard's crazy husband and a certain drunken merc.
She gasped.
Blue.
All she could see was blue.
It's familiar.
Ah, she thought.
I know where I've seen this color before.
She closed her eyes, and images flitted in front of her.
Green trees.
Prairies.
Skyscrapers.
A blue and green sphere, with white lines and dots moving slowly on its surface.
Earth.
It's the color of the sky of her homeworld.
I'm back home, she mused.
But that's impossible. I was up in the orbit, on the Citadel—
The power node, glowing with red light.
The gun she picked up from a dead comrade in her hand.
The Catalyst's words.
"Your children will make synthetics, and then the chaos will come back."
She disliked the ancient AI's smugness, and certainly did not really believe its words.
That's why she decided to do this. To finish them once and for all.
She limped to the node, the silent battles still raging in the background.
She raised her hand and pulled the trigger.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
The protective glass broke.
She straightened herself up and steadied her aim, her resolve as her only fuel.
Anderson.
She fired again and again.
Thane.
The short set the cables on fire.
EDI. I'm so sorry...
The explosion.
Garrus, on top of the Citadel, with the special smile he only gives to her.
White. Yellow. Red.
She opened her eyes again.
That shade of blue she loves the most was still there.
I must be in heaven.
Her lips curled into a weak smile.
"... meet me at the bar."
His beautiful, dual-toned voice spoke as if he was right in front of her, again.
I'll go look for it later, she thought to herself.
Her vision blurred. Hot tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill.
Right now, I just want to rest and enjoy the blue.
Some conversation in the distance caught her ears and woke her up.
"... doubt we'll find anyone in these piles of rubble."
Ow. My back hurts.
"You'll never know, mate."
People. She tried to move. Can't feel my legs.
"Whoever gave us the orders must be out of his mind. If these rubble really fell down from the Citadel, anyone who fell with them won't be as lucky to reach the surface intact. They'd be burnt up in the atmosphere."
Huh. SAR team. I guess that means I'm not in heaven.
Yet.
"True. But the person who is 'out of his mind' is Admiral Hackett, so we don't really have a lot of choice, here. Orders are orders."
Hackett... I have to tell him he's got nice instincts, later.
"Huh."
There they are. I should try calling them.
"Anyway, let's keep—"
"... elp." Her throat was burning.
"Wait. I think I heard someone."
"Really? I didn't hear any—"
Over here. "Water. Help."
"Because you're busy contemplating out loud. The voice came from over..."
Turn around. "Help."
"... here."
Two Alliance privates. Hello.
One of the privates, the clearly senior one of the two, brought out his omni-tool and called his post.
"This is SAR Unit 24, requesting immediate assistance. We found a woman. N7, badly injured. Legs most probably broken, trapped beneath the rubble. Looks like she lost a lot of blood, and still bleeding."
Omni-tools still work, I see. Thank God.
The junior private hastily lifted the pieces of concrete that were crushing her legs, and his senior rushed to her side, taking out his water bottle from his backpack.
"Hang on. Don't talk. Help's coming."
The senior private helped her drink. She downed the water greedily and sighed.
Water. Loving, loving water.
The junior private was staring at her face. He kneeled beside her and pointed at her dogtag.
"May I take a look at this?"
She nodded.
The junior private's eyes widened. He smiled widely, stood up, and saluted her.
"I knew it. I've seen her somewhere before," he said.
The senior private glanced at her dogtag and did a salute as well.
"Welcome back... Commander Shepard."
Author's Note:
My first attempt at fanfictions. Ever. Yay. I hope I can practice not being anticlimactic like I usually did when making multi-chapter stories before this. But then again, I've learned a lot (= read quite a number of books) since my last (obviously failed) multi-chapter story a few years ago. I can do this, go me, go!
Thanks to ninja-v for proofreading and advices! :3