She felt his taloned hand clutched around hers.
She heard his voice, worried and insistent.
"Shepard, hang on!"
She wanted to, but she felt her fingers, slipping, losing strength. Slowly, her fingers slid from his talons grasp.
"Good-bye, Garrus."
She attempted to look up at her dear friend through her hazy vision. She could, at least, make out the look of terror and realisation slowly filtering into his features. She felt his fingers try to catch hers, but it was hard, with only three talons, to stop her from slipping away.
She looked up at him apologetically.
"I'm so sorry."
"No!" Garrus' voice quaked. "You can't go… not again. Shepard… I… I need you."
"You'll do fine, Garrus. I believe in you." She reassured him.
The last strength ebbed from her weakened fingers. She looked up at him one more time, frowning slightly.
"Garrus, I love you."
Her fingers slipped away, and she fell.
"Shepard!" She heard him yell out as she descended.
Time seemed to slow as he watched as she fell. What had moments before been a hurried raking of his mind for some way to rescue her had suddenly and violently had his attention torn to watch as she fell into the chasm deep below them. He was left, completely still, his hand still outstretched to where moments ago hers had been, her life clutched and hanging on to his hand.
What had been just a small reconnaissance mission to an abandoned research facility had gone so wrong… and had ended like this. Geth Heretics had overwhelmed them, forcing them to go on the retreat, what was only a short jog back to their shuttle. But the Geth had gotten in behind them, booby trapping the natural span across a deep ravine with explosives. Shepard had been wounded, and the last Garrus had known she'd been running just behind him when the explosives went off. Garrus had managed to leap-fall to safety, landing on the opposite side, but Shepard had been caught in the blast, falling with the section of the bridge. When he'd turned around to make sure she was alright he'd found her clinging for dear life from a rock just below the ridge. He'd reached down and grabbed for her.
These last scenes rushed through his mind as he sat there crouched still against the rocks. He could no longer see her, she'd fallen through clouds which shrouded the deep chasm. He was bought out of his reverie by the sounds of Geth approaching, a large group running from the direction of the base. Garrus was dispirited, and slowly a large lump of bile of rage rose into his mouth. He slowly lifted himself to his feet.
He lifted the scope to his eye and readied his talons against the trigger, taking up the nearest Geth in his sights.
"You bastards won't get away with this."