Original prompt from the Kmeme:
So I just redid my final playthrough, and when I was running for the beam I looked behind me and noticed that Garrus and Javik were not running with me. They stayed behind. So this got me thinking. Why the fuck was there no cutscene where Shepard told them to stay the hell back? So I want a heartbreaking scene here guys. Shepard about to do the final run to the Citadel, and then she swaps shit up and tells Garrus that no, you
Come
Amidst the whir of flying bullets and the deafening roar of the Reapers' attacks upon London, the Conduit waited. White-blue light humming in the distance, calling to her.
Come, it said. Here the world ends.
Garrus was at her back—her six—as always. His heavy breathing echoed through the comm in her ear, distantly reminding her of their nights together. Perhaps it was wrong to think of how smooth the leathery skin between his scales was in the middle of an unfolding Armageddon, but Shepard was far beyond caring. If time could stop—could rewind—Shepard would have done it in a heartbeat.
But there was no time.
She halted dead in her tracks. Garrus nearly tripped over her as he scrambled to do the same; to their left, Vega stumbled to his own stop, looking over at his CO breathless. The Lieutenant was a good man, a good friend. Truly, it should have been Garrus who noticed first, but somehow Shepard wasn't surprised to see the understanding in Vega's eyes mirroring the confusion in her turian's.
"What are you doing, Shepard?" Garrus yelled above the din of battle. "We have to move!"
"Not this time, Garrus." Behind them, Vega looked away.
A stubborn fire burned in the turian's eyes. "Like hell! If you think I'm going to let you go this one alone, then you've truly snapped!"
"You and I both know this is a one-way trip!" Shepard snapped.
"You're right. That's why we go it together or not at all."
As the pair stood, glaring, sizing one another up, the battle raged around them. Far away, someone was yelling over the comm that time was running out. Overhead, the Reapers loomed closer and closer.
"As your Commander, I order you to get your ass on that shuttle!" Shepard flung an arm out to one of the remaining ground vehicles the Alliance had left.
"And as your boyfriend, I'm telling you to shove that order!"
Despair filled Shepard's heart, made it difficult to breathe. The Conduit hummed behind her, pulsing in time with her frantic heartbeat. In that moment, she thought back to an old story she had learned during her younger days spent in classes: a story about lovers who had fought through adversity to be together only to die together in the end. Her teachers had always spoken of the beauty of such a connection—the epitome of "tragic love" and the archetype for human relationships for many.
Bullshit. All of it. In that moment, Shepard could only think of how much she would hate herself if Garrus were to die here. Only one of them needed to enter that beckoning light; only one of them needed to make the sacrifice. It was unfair, of course, because given the option she knew that Garrus probably felt the same way. No matter what, Shepard would never have allowed her lover—her best friend—to enter darkness alone, and yet here she was, asking him to do just that.
"Please, Garrus," she said, voice barely a whisper.
The look in his eyes broke what was left of her mangled heart. "Don't ask this of me, Shepard. Anything but this."
When she raised her face, tears glimmered at the corners of her eyes. "I'm asking, Garrus. Live—for you, for me, for all of them. The Normandy needs you…the galaxy needs someone like you when this is all over."
"It needs you, too, Shepard."
She smiled, shook her head. "No. I think this galaxy is done with me." The Conduit affirmed that fact. "I cheated death once…but now…"
Come, it said. Limited engagement. Last call.
Garrus leaned down to press their brows together, their stunted breaths mingling in the sparse space between their faces. Shepard cupped the scarred half of his face in her gloved palm, her mind thinking back on every tender moment. If the world ended today, she wanted the memory of his love as the last coherent thought in her mind. Fuck everything else. This moment mattered. It was all they had left.
"I hate you," he murmured.
"I love you too," she replied, taking a step closer to the waiting light. Shepard hesitated a moment, looking down the only path left open to her. A lifetime spent trying to find the right way, and here was the last option: salvation; death. The cloying scent of battle—blood, shit, ash, sulfur—filled her senses completely and Shepard let it flood her veins, let it be her armor.
She looked over her shoulder one last time, a replica of her cocky grin on her lips.
"I'll be saving you a seat at the bar, Garrus. Waiting for you…some day."
Welcome, it said. We've been waiting.
/
A/N: I wrote this because the prompt idea intrigued me, but I'm not actually convinced by the content of this story. Honestly, I don't believe there's any way that a romanced Garrus WOULDN'T have followed Shepard into that beam. No matter what she could have said, his only response likely would have been: "All right. Now let's move, I've got your six."
But it is what it is, I suppose. Not my best work, but hopefully not my worst.