The Darkness Has Been Breached
Nature abhors a vacuum- Aristotle.
Chapter 1-Leaving Earth
When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.-Shakespeare
"You're not leaving me behind!" Liara screamed. She was bleeding from a dozen wounds, two of her ribs were broken, she couldn't even stand on her own, Garrus was supporting her. But that didn't matter. Not now. She stared at Cassandra Shepard, standing below the Normandy's cargo ramp. Cassandra walked up, closing the distance between them. Her gloved hand touched Liara's quivering cheek. Her light touch felt like flames dancing on her face. She looked into Cassandra's green eyes, shining like emeralds despite the darkness surrounding them.
"No matter what happens you mean everything to me, Liara. You always will."
Liara's knees gave up. Garrus struggled to hold her up. Cassandra backed up a few steps.
"Cassandra, I...I always will." Her voice trembled with emotion, her last words were barely a whisper. With failing strength, she struck out her hand, like a drowning man reaching for floating detritus, desperate for one last touch, for one last hope, one last grasp for life. But Cassandra was back on the ground. She looked to the conduit and then back at Liara. The night was veiled in obsidian, its black pitch enlightened only by the deadly fire of the Reapers. The wind was cold and laced with the inescapable stench of death. Despair insidiously seeped into everything like cold moisture.
"Go!" She yelled, frantically waving them off. The sudden coldness of it hurt. What hurt the most was that it reminded her of their last moments aboard the Normandy SR-1. Before Cassandra died.
The Normandy took off. Garrus' grip loosened and Liara fell limply to the floor. She watched as Cassandra Shepard ran suicidally towards the Conduit, her body that she knew so well shrinking until it became miniscule, then indistinct from the infernal battlefield below. The cargo doors closed with a heart shattering thud. Tears streamed her face. She'd lost Shepard. For good this time. There would be no miraculous resurrection. Liara knew Shepard was dying, hopefully in her death would be spared some suffering. She deserved that little.
The desperate gambit had been exposed for what it was. The Crucible was incomplete, there was no way to dock it to the Citadel. All of the galaxy's might was gathered in one system, making it easier for the Reapers to wipe them out. It was all over. She would watch as all advanced life in the galaxy would be harvested by the Reapers while she desperately dispatched messages in bottles, praying the next cycle would be more successful than theirs.
"Come on, Liara." Garrus said, grabbing her by the waist, trying to get her to stand up. But she resisted him. "We have to get you to Medical."
Liara said nothing, she lay prone on the dusty floor of the cargo hold, staring at the closed ramp door. The Normandy's engines roared loudly, indicating they were accelerating to escape the Earth's atmosphere. Garrus grabbed her forcefully. He hauled her over his shoulder and walked towards the elevator.
"What's the point?" She whispered, her voice barely audible.
"Come on, this is Shepard we're talking about. If anyone can make it onto the Citadel, it's her." Liara could hear the doubt in his voice, despite his best efforts at masking it.
Liara said nothing. She closed her eyes and wept. Tears flowed like rainwater. She couldn't stop them. After Thessia she hadn't wept, but now she was. There was nothing she could do now. Now that all is lost. Garrus gently placed her on a bed in the medical bay. She curled herself in a fetal position, her head buried in her hands. She ignored the pain coming from her chest. Dr. Chakwas gently touched her shoulder. She shrugged weakly but then allowed the doctor to spread her body out. She continued to cry as medi-gel was applied to her wounds. Dr. Chakwas scanned Liara's body with her Omni-Tool.
"You have two broken ribs but otherwise you're fine now." Dr. Chakwas said softly. Liara opened her eyes. The doctor had already left her to work on another patient. Liara looked around her, the bay was filled with wounded; those with severe burns, those with limbs broken and severed. The smell of incinerated flesh rushed into her nostrils, like the carcass of a draft animal being roasted. The smell made her nauseous. The cries of the wounded horrified her. Slowly she stood and left the medical bay.
Somnambulant she walked over the elevator and found herself on the CIC. She felt strange, the sounds muffled, the floor less solid, the sights less clear, the smells less affecting. She felt like something else was in control of her, gently propelling her forward. It seemed the entire combat crew was in the cockpit, even Traynor. It seemed no one saw her. Even in her dazed state she felt the tension, the anxiety, the fear.
"This is it everyone. The arms are opening!"
She looked out the window and saw in the distance the Citadel's arms opening. She was knocked out of her daze. There was hope now where before there had been none. Hope was coursing through her veins like she was injected with a potent and euphoric drug. She even found herself smiling. It was Cassandra over there. It had to be. No one else could've made it.
"I knew she would make it!" Someone said but it could've been Liara.
The Crucible was towed into place, shedding its cocoon like a butterfly. It was an incredible feat of engineering and cooperation. And Cassandra made it happen. In the cockpit there was nervous hope. There were looks of encouragement, smiles, the air was lighter. It's so beautiful.
"Ten seconds to contact."
The Citadel docked. And then nothing happened. There was a dismayed silence in the Normandy cockpit. How could they come this far only to be stopped? A few sighed at the tragicomedy. Liara felt the hope she had so recently regained flee from her again, like a sadistic thief, pretending to return a stolen bounty only to take it back again.
"Shepard? Commander?"
"I... what do you need me to do?"
Cassandra was alive but her voice... she'd never heard Cassandra sound so weak, so weary. So... Near the end. A fresh onslaught of tears clouded Liara's vision. She buried her head in her hands. It seemed no one saw or heard her. She pictured Cassandra, bleeding and wounded, surrounded by innumerable corpses, crawling vainly towards some insurmountable objective.
"Nothing's happening. The Crucible's not firing. It's got to be something on your end."
"Commander Shepard?"
"I don't see... I'm not sure how to..."
Silence. It can't end like this. She can't die like this. The galaxy can't! To be so close and so far.
"Commander?"
"Joker!" Liara yelled. "See if you can get close to the Citadel. See if you can pick up Shepard's location."
"Roger." Joker said and began maneuvering the Normandy towards the Citadel. He couldn't simply beeline towards it. He had to evade the Reapers, still ferociously fighting in the sky above Earth. Looking out the cockpit, Liara saw a flash of light emanating from the Citadel.
"All fleets. The Crucible is armed. Disengage and head to the rendezvous point."
"We have to go." Garrus said flatly.
"No!" Liara yelled. "We have to get her. She's alive! We never leave anyone behind!"
"I repeat. Disengage and get the hell out of here!"
Joker continued to fly towards the Crucible.
"Joker!" Garrus shouted. "Listen. We have to go!"
"Damn it!" Joker yelled in anguish. He seemed for a split second he would disobey the order, but he complied, turning the Normandy around and preparing for a FTL jump.
"Joker! What are you doing?!" Liara yelled. She banged her fists on Joker's chair. Someone touched her shoulder. She turned and saw Traynor, looking at her with pained sympathetic eyes. Traynor gently nudged her out of the cockpit. Liara let the human lead her outside the cockpit. Traynor put her arms around her and gently held her.
"She'd understand." Traynor said softly.
I know. She wanted to say but she couldn't speak. She cried, sobbing into Traynor's shoulder. Cassandra Shepard was dead. The woman who'd so drastically changed her life, whom she'd fallen hopelessly in love with. And their time together was little more than a bat of an eye, even by human standards. Liara barely registered the collision alarm coming from the CIC and the cockpit. The crew rushed to the chairs that lined the bulkheads and strapped themselves in. Crew on other decks raced to secure themselves.
"Liara! We have to get strapped in!" Traynor said. She grabbed Liara's arm and dragged her towards a chair. Liara was barely responsive. Traynor secured Liara in her chair and then secured herself in the next chair. Liara continued to cry. The Normandy shuddered violently, unleashing a cascade of alarms.
"There's some kind of massive shockwave coming from behind us! Trying to outrun it!" Joker yelled.
The shaking inside the Normandy increased. Like the frigate was in the grasp of an angry giant. Liara saw a bright red light, snake through the ship, head towards the cockpit. In an instant the light was gone. Lights in the ship burnt out, consoles shut down.
"Warning! Critical failure!" EDI said. Was that fear in her voice? "Goodbye J..."
"EDI? EDI?!... Main engines offline! Oh shit! We just got caught in a planet's atmosphere. All hands brace for impact. I'll try to make it look nice. Impact in 10 seconds."
The entire ship was buzzing with alarms. She looked at other crew members. She looked at Garrus, staring stoically straight ahead. Ashley's eyes were closed, mouthing a silent prayer. Liara heard Tali shouting "Keelah se'lai!" Traynor's hand reached for hers. Liara scarcely noticed it. She would welcome a crash. An end to her pain, her suffering. Better to die now than to live her life a widower, to live realizing everything she'd worked towards had failed, to see all life murdered by the Reapers. She closed her eyes. I love you, Commander Cassandra Shepard. May the goddess unite us in death as we so rarely were in life.