A/N: Hello and welcome. This is one of my older ideas when I heard Mass Effect 3 was to be the end of the story. I realized there is alot left, especially in the initial aftermath. This story will continue the character options I picked in game (Femshep, paragon path, reapers defeated with best ending on Synthesis, romanced Liara from the first game and didn't stray from it during 2.)
Oh. Some DLC content is expected to be included, mostly Javik.
This is my first fic, please be gentle :).
Klaxons blared in the Combat Information Center of the Normandy. The galaxy hologram in the center of the room has been zoomed in to show the ship's current progress through the relay and the large wave quickly closing on the small orange triangle indicating the Normandy's position.
Garrus watched the approaching wave from the Commander's position at the base of the holo-display as he listened to the reports coming in around him.
"Anomaly distance 150,000 kilometers and closing."
"Engine output is at maximum, estimate 3 minutes to exit relay."
Three minutes. The wave would hit them in half that time. Garrus shook his head and spoke, his gravelly voice cutting through the noise of the CIC.
"We wont be out before it hits. Full power to aft barriers." Garrus reached over and flipped one scaled finger over the intercom switch, "Tali, we have less than 90 seconds before that wave hits, you have anything left in those engines?"
Tali'Zorah frowned from the engine room, her containment suit obscuring the gesture behind her mask as her gloved fingers worked the controls. "You've got everything we have Garrus, if I try to draw any more power from the engines the Mass Effect generator might overload."
Tali's filtered voice floated through the intercom and Garrus winced at the assessment. He looked around the CIC, his eyes locking with Kaiden, who gave an almost imperceptive nod when their eyes met. No choice then. Garrus took a breath before he spoke towards the speaker, "Tali, we'll be crushed when that wave hits us, do whatever you can, we have to make it to the relay." He reached over and flipped the switch off before whispering to himself, "Or die trying."
Tali blinked in surprise as the order came down. She looked over at Engineer Adams, the "official" Chief Engineer of the ship. "We need to set the main generators to 150%." Her fingers were already moving over the console, not waiting for a response. "I need you to channel the overload to the engines and watch for any spikes in the Mass Effect field. I'll be too busy maintaining the energy flow." Adams didn't like it. Tali could see in his eyes that he knew how dangerous what they were about to attempt was. He locked eyes with Tali, the only part of her he could see through her mask, and he nodded. "Right." The only word he spoke as he ran over to the main Mass Effect Field Output terminal setting to work.
"Speed 1.37c!" Joker called out from the cockpit, his hands moving over the haptic interface before him as one of the rear displays showed the same image from the CIC holo behind him of the approaching wave front. Joker looked over to his co-pilot, EDI and shook his head, "Looks like we're going to have to cut the honeymoon a bit short." He said. The platform for EDI, an infiltration platform converted for her use after it's capture from Cerberus. Despite the lack of synthetic skin, the mech had the form of a beautiful, if a little intense, woman. The bright silver sheen of her skin and the HUD worn over her eyes the only give away that this was not simply a person in the seat. EDI watched Joker. Her face expressionless and when she spoke, her synthesized voice seemed to come from all around as the message also came through the nearby speaker system. "It will be al-." The voice cut off mid sentience the sound of corrupted audio flooding from the speakers as EDI's movements stopped. Joker looked over in worry but a violent tremor from the ship forced his attention back to the controls.
Tali's voice came through the deck two speakers "Mass effect generators are running at 130%... 133%... 140%..." At this readout the ship shuddered violent, almost as through it was a horse attempting to throw a rider. From further away through the tinny speaker Garrus could hear Adams' voice in the background. "Correcting power flow to engines, directing excess energy spike to port barrier generator three."
"Acknowledged. Generator output at 143% and rising. Joker, stand by, we're going to uncouple the acceleration limiter."
Joker's voice almost immediately came back through the system, "Roger that."
Garrus looked over at the wave, now almost on top of the small orange triangle indicator on the display, "Impact in ten seconds." He called out, then flipping his transmitter to ship wide he informed the crew. "All stations, brace for impact in ten seconds." Flicking the broadcast switch off, he turned back in to the pilot/engineering chatter channel, knowing now that everything was in Tali and Joker's hands.
"Mass effect generators at 150% of rated maximum! Rerouting power to engines in three..."
A voice from the CIC called out, "Impact in 7... 6..."
"Two... one, now Joker!"
Joker didn't need to be told twice. His hand already wrapped around the accelerator lever he slammed it as far forward as it would go, physically holding it in position even as he was thrown back into his seat as the inertia dampeners tried to keep up with the massive power load.
"3.. 2.." The counting stopped as everyone looked towards the nearest display showing their route through the conduit. They were gaining on the wave! They were going to make it!
"Distance to wave is increasing, 5,000 kilometers! 5500!" Someone cried out over the din of cheers that had erupted. Joker's voice cut through the noise as he announced, "Relay in 10 seconds, mark." Seconds later the windows outside showed that they had returned to normal space. The black star speck curtain never looked quite so comforting. As soon as he had the ship through the relay, Joker reached over and activated the autopilot and turned his attention to EDI, who was still sitting in the same position she had been. He touched her shoulder, the cold metal below unresponsive. Joker reached over to the comm and flicked through the channels until he found the Normandy's isolated internal comm circuit and keyed in for EDI, "EDI? Can you hear me?" He asked, as soon as he let his finger off the input command his ears were assaulted with the sound of corrupted audio. He savagely reached over and flicked the switch off in annoyance, an edge of fear starting to creep into his mind. He reached over and started to undo his safety harness with the intent of going to investigate the AI suite when a bright flash drew his attention towards the relay.
The glowing energy orb in the middle had changed color, going from the soft blue glow he usually associated with it to a bright green. Joker only saw it for a moment before the energy seemed to shrink down into a single point, growing brighter before it exploded outwards, pieces of the relay flying in all directions and a wave of energy screaming towards the ship. "Oh shi-." Joker didn't even think as he yelled, "Brace yourselves." Back towards the CIC. The wave slammed into the ship, throwing everyone not belted into a seat hard against the walls, ceilings, and floors. Joker jerked violently in his partially fastened harness, his head managing to get enough reach to interact violently with the wall, leaving only darkness behind.
Liara T'Soni sat at her desk in the modified XO quarters looking over the bank of monitors, all angled to be easily visible from her position. Her bright blue eyes focused on the image on the screens, all joining to form a single image of Shepard. Reaching out one azure hand she trailed a finger along the image's jawline. Her thoughts turned inward as she gazed wistfully at the picture.
Liara is standing near a wall, one hand running over the surface, noting the slight indented imperfections. 'This doesn't feel like age damage.' she thought. Making a fist, Liara pressed faintly and rubbed away a thousand year layer of dust and grime, revealing a small image. The figure reminded her of Athame at least in overall style. Strange. Liara unshouldered her duffel bag, reaching inside and pulled out a piece of paper, pencil and a small camera. With that, she set to work documenting her find.
Several hours later, Liara was pulled from her drawing by a loud chirp from her omni-tool. Looking down at her wrist she squeezed her fist, causing the holographic haptic interface to appear. She touched several keys and brought up a small video screen appeared showing the entrance to the runes. She expected an animal or rock slide to have set off the proximity alarms but what she saw turned her blood cold. Geth. Springing to her feet, Liara roughly shoving her drawing into the duffel bag. She started tapping her omni-tool to bring up a map of the area. She noted one of her earlier references... A console. Setting off at a run, she headed in that direction.
Liara hit the room she had marked earlier at a full spring, skidding herself to a stop at the controls. Her omni-tool informed her that three of the five remote sensors she had set up to track movement were had tripped. That meant the Geth could be here in less than five minutes. Knowing time was short Liara looked over the alien control board in front of her, trying to recall everything she could remember about the Protheans from her years of study. After a moment to consider, Liara reached over and laid her palm on the flat surface, a tingling sensation instantly spreading from her palm. A small smile lit her face as the characters before her shifted from the completely unrecognizable alien script to what looked to her to be a variant form of ancient Asari. Liara tapped the controls in the order that seemed most logical to her.
Lines of text filled the holographic display before her before the screen wrapped itself in a green border and the words 'Sequence Initiated.' displayed in bright yellow text. A smile spread across her face as she stepped back from the controls, looking towards the archway that would give access to the rest of the complex, smiling more broadly as a blue energy field appeared before her. Liara took a step back, preparing to leave when suddenly a feeling of weightlessness overcame her. She let out a squeak of surprise as she was lifted from the ground, her arms spread out slightly and another blue energy fiend appeared in a sphere around her. "Oh goddess..." She murmured, wondering just what she was going to do now...
Several hours had passed. While she wasn't sure, she was starting to think that she might have activated the entire security system rather than sealing off the room she was in as intended. And now she was stuck in here. She felt an edge of fear creeping into her mind. How was she going to get out of here? Liara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Focusing herself she struggled to align her body, trying to feel the flow of energy through her. The air before the console flickered briefly before returning to normal. It was no use, her biotics couldn't reach the console without better alignment of her implants. She was stuck for the time being.
Liara had lost all track of time as she hung suspended in her prison. Her mind snapped to alertness and she began taking stock of herself. She was hungry and tired, but otherwise seemed to be fine. The sharp sound of weapons fire drawing her attention. It was coming from far too close. Liara weighed her options. After having been stuck for what felt like weeks but had probably been closer to a day or two. She hadn't been able to sleep and her judgment was already starting to go, clearly shown when she called out, "Hello? Is anyone out there?"
The sound of approaching footsteps reached her as a group of three people approached her. A lithe Quarian wearing a purple environmental suit, a Turian male with a sniper rifle held across his chest and... Liara had to force herself not to gasp as her eyes landed on the slightly smaller frame of a human woman. The woman had flaming red hair cut in a short but still stylish military cut and her bright emerald eyes filled with amusement as she took in the situation before the mask of a professional soldier slipped back into place, "Dr. T'Soni?" she asked, a small smirk returning to her lips at the Asari's affirmative response.
Liara opened her eyes. Looking once more at the image frozen on her monitors. Reaching to the controls, she keyed for a video file which spread across the screens before playing. She watched the replay of her last moment with Shepard after she had been injured in the final push to get to the Citadel. The sound was poor quality as the multitude of weapons fire and explosions from all directions muted everything. Liara tapped several controls and the camera zoomed in, focusing on her upturned face as her eyes were locked with Shepard's. She could read the words on her lips as she spoke them, "I am yours." Her eyes slammed closed as she remembered being loaded into the Normandy and the ship lifting off. She was so geared up on adrenaline and worry that she had to be sedated. When she came around, she had wandered in here and began reminiscing.
The ship rocked violently and Garrus' voice suddenly broke through the intercom, "Attention all hands: The energy output from the Citadel is rising. There's nothing more we can do here. Whatever its going to do looks like it'll happen any moment. We're heading through the Sol relay and heading for the rendezvous point. Relay in two minutes, mark." And with that the intercom fell silent. Liara frowned and keyed up to the CIC.
"Garrus, we can't leave yet. What about Shepard?"
There was a long pause before Garrus spoke back. Clearly he had moved to a more private part of the ship to speak to her. "There isn't anything we can do Liara. If our readings are right the Crucible is channeling enough energy to destroy every ship in the system if it goes off."
"Garrus," She started, an edge of panic creeping into her voice, "We can't just abandon her!"
Another pause. "We don't have a choice. Shepard wouldn't want us to get ourselves killed trying to save her." Garrus' voice softened as he continued, "The docks are all locked down and the entire station is crawling with Reapers. We'd never make it before this thing discharges. I'm sorry."
The intercom clicked off as Garrus disconnected. Liara sat back in disbelief. This couldn't be happening. Not like this. Her gaze landed on the viewport just in time to see Pluto zip past and their destination relay coming into view. Liara closed her eyes, her mind focusing and for just a moment an image formed in her mind. She was looking out over an edge. The surface much to smooth and even to be anything except an artificial construction. A bright cylinder of pale blue light was before her. Her gaze travelled down to the pistol in her hand as she checked the power pack. She was surprised at the state of her arm, covered in scratches and blood small bits of pale skin visible beneath... Liara gasped as she realized that she must be seeing through Shepard's eyes! She looked closer and yes, there on her left hand was the small engagement band Liara had given her. Her throat closed involuntarily as the gaze shifted down to an image of a small boy, the image appeared holographic but she could tell there was something special about this one.
"Its time. Make your choice."
Liara felt Shepard take a deep breath as she ran over the options again. She looked left and right before letting out a sigh. Liara was a bit jarred as she found herself confronted with an image of herself and heard the whisper of, "I'm sorry." The image began moving closer to the edge.
"No..." Liara whispered, though her eyes were closed tears were running freely down her cheeks.
Shepard jumped. As she fell Liara was assaulted with Shepard's memories: chasing Saren down, meeting Tali... And then Liara again saw herself. For the first time Liara saw herself through her bond mates eyes. As she watched nearly every significant encounter between the two played out. As she watched herself swear to being Shepard's for the last time she heard the whisper that broke her heart and the connection 'I love you.' Liara willingly surrendered to the darkness that engulfed her following the violent separation from her love's mind.
A/N: Oops. I only meant to make this 2,000 words and it's pushing 3,000. Ah well. I decided to add the scene with Liara in as most of this story is going to focus on her and I was at about 1200 words... which is pitiful. I'm also doing a replay of ME3 for this story (Oh darn… I have to replay a fun game. The horror!). Please leave a review, liked it, didn't like it, found a typo or miswording, have a suggestion… let me know!
