When the blade sliced through Thane's chest, Shepard had felt the blow herself. The love of her life, who was so terminally ill that she refused to believe how short their time left together really was, fell to the floor. Her whole body seemed to be frozen, or else Kai Leng's head would have been blown straight off by her sniper rifle. Suddenly each fibre of her being was thrown into chaos as the assassin slipped away. Her only objective was to help Thane.
"Siha-"
"Don't speak, don't speak," she said, her usually steady hands shaking as she tried to stop the blood flowing from his abdomen.
"Go after him."
"What? Don't be ridiculous, I'm not leaving you here-"
"Go."
She looked down at her bloody hands, then back into the eyes of Thane. He had to be in pain, but he wasn't showing it to her. He had prepared for death a long time.
"Well, you better be here when I get back."
As soon as she saved the Council's sorry ass for the umpteenth time, she rushed to Huerta Memorial. She was angry for having to go after a bunch of high-class idiots who never helped her out in her goddamn plight against the Reapers, but now her main concern is the condition of Thane.
She rushed into the hospital, trying to keep herself together as she walked through the halls of doctors and nurses. Suddenly a bald one appeared before her.
"Commander Shepard?"
"And who the hell are you?" she snapped, her red scars shining in the sun off of the large windows.
"We have a drell, by the name of... Tannor Nuara. He had been asking for you."
Her heart skipped a few beats. Had. As in past tense.
"What has he been saying?" she said, asserting the present tense in a faltering hope.
"It was hard to understand, some of the words were not clear, like my translation module was not working." Words flashed through her mind. Siha. Arashu. Kalahira. Bits of prayer. "But, Commander Shepard, he has since fallen into a deep comatose state and his Kepral's is quite advanced-"
"Tell it to me straight," Shepard said, grabbing the doctor's collar. It was too easy for her to slip into anger. "Is he going to live?"
"We can keep him on life support, but I am not sure for how long."
He wouldn't want this, she thought for a second. He did not want to be a vegetable, his life ticking on hospital machines. But she was selfish. She wasn't going to tell the doctor to unplug the things that were keeping him alive.
"I am going to give you an order," Shepard threatened, "You keep that man alive, no matter the cost. Got it?"
The doctor nervously nodded as sweat dripped down his face. "Y-yes ma'am."
Everything was falling apart around her. She was done. The doctors could do nothing to save Thane, he was still in the godforsaken coma, probably never going to wake up. The plans to destroy the Reapers now rested solely on her shoulders. Some damned astral projection of a dead child was barking at her about choices and colors and decisions, but she knew what she had to do. She marched forward, toward the spiral of green energy shooting out of the Citadel.
This was it. This was her, ending the war. Ending it all. Sure, her life was going to be the cost of it, but it would save so many others. She was the infamous Commander Shepard, known for being bad, but now she was going to make the ultimate sacrifice and save the galaxy. It was noble. A perfect end to her book, something else Liara can write into the stars.
Her foot rested on the edge. She closed her eyes and thought of Thane. She had never loved someone as throughly as she loved him. It was outright tragic since the very beginning, she knew he was destined to die but hell, maybe she was attracted to that kind of shit. She was sad, because maybe one day he would wake up to a life where she no longer was there, where she died saving a universe she had fought so hard for. But this was it. Her final moments.
Kalahira, mistress of inscrutable depths, I ask forgiveness...
Commander Shepard was successful. Whatever she did up there worked, and the Crucible had brought something the galaxy desperately needed; peace. Everyone was working together to repair the world, synthetics and organics together. It was beautiful.
In a hospital room that was quiet, save for a few beeps of machines, a drell took a sudden gasp of air. His face was blocked by a mask of oxygen and IVs were stuck in his arms. At first he didn't understand what was going on, but the realization came slowly. He could breathe normally. As normal as he could back before Kepral's got serious.
Thane glanced over at the window and saw a fragment of his reflection. He looked... different. His eyes and skin were flecked with shades of green that was different from his original skin color. He felt energy and life flowing through his veins, something he had sorely missed. A nurse happened to walk into the room, holding bags of fluid. She nearly dropped them when she saw he was awake.
"Excuse me," Thane said in a raspy voice, "Do you know where Commander Shepard is?"
The nurse's expression fell. "Sir, you've been out for a long time, maybe you should rest some more."
"I am fine. I would like to see her."
The nurse was silent for a bit, but somehow she felt the need to tell him the truth. "She's dead, sir."
He had only just waken up, perhaps he had not heard her correctly. "Excuse me?"
"Commander Shepard died fighting the Reapers."