"I need you to recover, because I can't make it on my own." -The Faunts (M4, Pt2)
Shepard took a sharp inhale but quickly winced in pain as breathing caused her top rips to poke into her left lung. She screamed out and quickly brought up her right hand to grab ahold of her chest. The motion caused tremendous pain in her shoulder. Along with the cracked ribs, possible collapsed lung, she had a dislocated right shoulder, smashed femur, a concussion, and lord knows what other injuries.
"Christ I am fucked," she grimaced throwing her head back.
Lying amongst the rubble she tried to get her bearings straight. Last thing she remembered was activating the Crucible and an explosion. The Citadel was still intact despite the council chambers and one of the wings being blown off. Destruction was everywhere, but the pinnacle of the galaxy was still intact. And Shepard was still alive.
The first thing she heard was a high-pitched whine. It was her ears still ringing from the explosion. Or maybe it was because of getting hit in the head, she couldn't remember. She couldn't see too far out and her vision was both doubled and foggy. She noticed she was immersed in a massive amount of rubble. A slab of concrete was resting its massive weight against her left leg pinning it down. Maybe it was broken, smashed by the concrete, she had no idea. But it hurt like hell. In fact everything hurt like hell.
She was in this position before, just not as bad. Last time she was under rubble was 3 years back after she and the rest of the Normandy helped save the Citadel from indoctrinated Saran Arterius and the Reaper harbinger Sovereign. Some explosions, a crashing of the reaper, and Shepard was left amongst a pile or rubble. It wasn't that bad though. A slight blow to the head and a sprained elbow and she was back to duty soon after.
Shepard knew that might not be the case now. She was fighting for her life at this point. She lifted her hand and started coughing. Each cough sent that jarred rib straight into her lung causing her to grimace each time. Her pain tolerance was usually high, but her body was sending her over the breaking point.
Looking at her hand she noticed fresh bright red blood. She couldn't tell if she coughed it up, or if it was from the gashes on her arms, or from where he hand was originally placed when she woke up. She was losing blood, and a lot of it.
The commander's eyes kept shutting on her. She was on the verge of passing out again. She needed help but knew that there was nobody else out there.
She was fighting her dying body trying in vain to keep her eyes open. Her head started swaying. Trauma patients are usually told to not succumb to the overbearing exhausting that riddles their bodies after going through massive injuries. The fear is that if enough blood was lost, or the shock was too much for their heart, they might fall asleep and never wake up. Shepard couldn't do that. But even with all the upgrades that Cerberus put in her body, she was still human, and she wasn't invincible. Grimacing once more she finally accepted the exhaustion and closed her eyes. It was becoming too much.
Eyes shut Shepard loses conscience.
"Can you hear me out there? I am trapped! I need help!"
The first memory of meeting her came flooding back into Shepard's head. It was shortly after becoming a Council Spectre. She was on the hunt for Saren and she was led to the planet of Therum to find Matriarch Benezia's daughter. They had no idea whether Dr. Liara T'Soni was helping her mother out, but she was the only lead they had to finding Saren.
After fighting a few packs of Geth, Commander Shepard found Liara stuck in a Prothean barrier curtain down in the mine. Her body was being held in the air by some type of force field.
Shepard had seen members of the Asari race before, but the first time she saw Liara she was taken aback. There was something about the depth in her blue eyes that went straight to Shepard's soul. Shepard didn't believe in love at first sight, mind you she was a strong-minded military woman who was always focused on the task at hand. But something about seeing Liara made her stomach jump into her throat.
It was a memory that Shepard wouldn't soon forget. They started out as friends but quickly realized that there was a mutual feeling between the two. Liara had an immediate fascination with Shepard while Shepard loved how innocent and curious Liara was. They would talk for hours learning more about each other species and what made them who they were.
Shepard had never been with an alien before. She wasn't much for relationships before Liara either. With all the deployments and the stresses of the job Shepard would usually just stick with the one-night stands or the short weekends while on leave. There was just never any time, and with the dangers of military life she knew that love had no room in her heart.
She saw first hand when her father died during her teens. It left her mother devastated. Both her parents were officers in the Alliance Navy, but her father was killed in action during the First Contact War. Shepard saw first hand how much it devastated her mother. It just wasn't fair to get involved with someone if there was the possibility that something happened to Shepard.
But everything changed with Liara. And the first time they melded together…
"Liara!"
Shepard's eyes snapped back open. Not knowing how long she was out, she tried to get her body up, but to no avail. There slab that was on her leg was pinning her down and there was absolutely no way that she could get up. Or move for that matter. Even moving her body an inch sent a searing pain up the left side of her body.
Tears started to well up in her eyes stinging the burns on her right cheek.
"I promised her that I would come back. I promised her over and over that I wouldn't leave her, that I would make it back and we'd go live in the stars for the rest of our lives,"she thought to herself. She remembered the last time she spoke to Liara.
Right before going into the beam in London, Liara and Garrus were hit with by debris from the Reapers beam. It banged both of them up pretty good causing burns and deep cuts. Holding her in her arms, Shepard saw that Liara was losing blood. She knew that she needed to get Liara out of there right away so she called in the Normandy one last time to do an emergency pick up. In hindsight that decision almost cost the Normandy and her crew their lives, but thanks to Joker's skill they were in and out before the approaching Reaper was able to destroy it.
"Here take her!" Shepard yelled to Garrus taking Liara's arm off her shoulder and putting her on Garrus's.
"Shepard…" Liara called out as Shepard started backing away from them.
"You need to get out of here!" Shepard yelled as the sounds gunfire lit up the background. The chaotic sounds of the war surrounded them.
"I'm all right, Shepard" Liara pleaded as her voice started to crack.
With her heart thrown up into her throat Shepard fired back.
"Don't argue with me, Liara." She knew that this might be the last time that they two ever see each other. She loved Liara with all her heart but couldn't bear to think that something might happen to her. The look in Liara's eyes shot straight through to her heart.
"You're not, leaving, me, behind…" Liara cried out while trying to fight back the tears.
It was almost too much for the Commander to bear. She didn't want Liara to see how upset she was, and she knew that for her to survive, she needed to get on the Normandy and get the hell out of there. Shepard could never live with herself if anything happened to her Liara.
Swallowing the tears back Shepard stepped up to Liara once more.
"No matter what happens, you mean everything to me Liara. You always will." Shepard tenderly put her hand on Liara's left cheek wiping away the tears that were starting to flow down.
They stared into each other's eyes for only a few seconds unable to bring themselves to look away. They knew that this was it. They both were absolutely terrified to realize that this might be the last time that they see each other. But for these few seconds it was just the two of them.
"Shepard, I…"
Knowing the longer she stayed with her, the harder it would be to leave, Shepard pulled back.
With tears streaming down her face Liara whispered, "I am yours."
Shepard turned away trying to hide her own tears streaming down her face. She wanted so bad to just to get on the Normandy with her. Just leave and find a small corner of the galaxy to live with. She loved her so much that it hurt. But she knew that she needed to stop to Reapers. The weight of the galaxy was resting solely on Shepard's shoulders.
Fighting every fiber in her body she turned away as Garrus pulled Liara into the Normandy and Shepard collapsed onto the ground the Normandy took off.
The final words Liara said to Shepard resonated in her head.
"I gotta get back to her. This cannot be it."
It was getting harder for Shepard to breath. She knew she was on borrowed time, but death, no matter how imminent, was not a possibility.
Racking her brain for a way to get out of this mess she realized that she could use her biotics to try and lift the slab that was crushing her leg. If she was able to lift it she might be able to crawl out. Where was she didn't know, but if she was going to die, she was going to die trying to get back to Liara.
Despite the extreme exhausting, Shepard focused every cell in her body to harness the biotics the vanguard possessed. Her right hand started to quiver as the biotic hue of blue light up.
Shepard screamed as she tried to lift the slab on her leg. The pain was causing her peripherals to start blackening, but she continued trying to focus her energy.
The slab very slowly started to lift, but this caused Shepard to scream even louder as pressure was lifted off her leg. She lost her concentrating and the exhausting caused the slab to drop back on her leg. Shepard immediately screamed louder than she ever did before. The pressure was put back on her leg and she started to pass out again. The blackness of her tunnel vision over took any will power she had left and Shepard's head dropped as she lost consciences again.
"…Either you pay me, or I'll flay you alive, with my mind!"
This was the first time in two years Shepard saw her Liara. The Normandy was destroyed a few months after defeating Saren. The council, the alliance, and the rest of the goddamn galaxy ignored and disputed Shepard's proof that the Reapers were coming. Instead of focusing on stopping the Reapers she was sent on bullshit missions to keep an eye on the Geth.
Thanks to that idiotacry, the Normandy was attacked by a Collector ship while trying to get Joker to safety. Shepard was sent hurtling into the abyss. A hole in her breather tubes caused Shepard to suffocate, black out, and went hurtling into the atmosphere of the planet below.
Shepard had died that day, but thanks to a rogue human group called Cerberus, she was put back together. Granted it took two years, billions of credits, and the sanity of Liara, but Shepard was able to come back from the dead.
"Shepard!" Liara yelled throwing her data pad and leaping into Shepard's arms. They shared a passionate kiss as the two reunited.
It had been two years and a lot had changed. Liara was just never able to forget that day that changed her life. Watching Shepard's body writhing from the suffocation and seeing her struggle for her life sent Liara into state of terror and panic. She screamed as she saw the lifeless body fall into the atmosphere. And while she never told anyone, due to the connection she had with Shepard she could almost feel her own body dying.
What most people didn't know is that it was Liara who found Shepard's body, and it was Liara who gave the broken, battered, bloody body to Cerberus and begged them to bring Shepard back to life.
It changed her and Liara became scared of whom she was turning into. She was no longer interested in archeology and became obsessed with finding the Shadowbroker. She had to. If she was given any time to just think, she would start thinking of Shepard and she would lose her mind. Even her friends weren't able to get her out her slumps and Liara slowly became anti-social and just kept to herself.
But then she learned that Shepard was alive again. And when the two kissed in her office on Ilium, she knew that her Shepard was back.
"I can't put her through that again."
Shepard's eyes darted open once more. She slowly lifted her hand to her face and coughed some more. Blood was coming out again and her breathing was turning into a slow wheeze. She was starting to panic. She was never scared of death before, but at this moment it was what terrified her the most. She was terrified of dying alone. Scared of putting Liara through that torment again. Terrified that she'll never get to look into those blue eyes again and tell her how much Liara meant to her.
The struggle to stay alive was diminishing with every second. Shepard was no longer in pain, despite all the physical injuries that had wrecked her body. Her mind was numb. She wanted to cry but her body was so broken that she had no tears left to shed. All she could hear at this point was the sound of her wheezing breathes. She was dying and there wasn't anything she could do to stop it.
"I'm sorry Liara, I'm so sorry…" Shepard whispered as her voice trailed off.
"She's here Garrus, I just know it!"
"Liara you have no idea how much I want to believe you on that but you saw the explosions! Shepard was right in the middle of it. It's been two days, there is no way she could have…"
Liara whipped her head around and gave Garrus a dead stare. The sharp look in her blue eyes told Garrus that he needed to shut up and go with her on this. Despite all the evidence, Liara needed to find Shepard, even if it was only her body.
"Alright, you know I'd do anything to bring her back. Let's go. Let's follow the head signatures this way."
"She's alive Garrus, I can feel it. "
Garrus nodded and quickly turned away. He wanted to believe her but in his mind he knew that Shepard was gone. Joke thought Liara was crazy when she said take her to the Citadel. The Normandy had barely escaped Earth, but something happened causing the Reapers to drop dead. Whatever Shepard did had worked, but everyone within the Citadel vicinity saw the explosion. It destroyed all the surrounding fleets that were within close proximity. There is no way Shepard could have survived it.
While he knew Shepard wasn't just your typical soldier, he also knew the practicality of the situation. Admiral Hackett had sent at Liara's request a few small commando groups to find any survivors on the Citadel, but he was wondering just as much as she was as to whether Shepard survived.
Tali and Joker told Garrus to go with her. While Liara wanted to go alone they knew she needed someone with her. As one of Shepard's closets friends he knew it had to be him.
"Glyph, is there any other heat signatures around here? Is Shepard here?"
The info drone came out from around the corner to Liara.
"No none whereabouts of Shepard, but there is a heat source coming from this area to our front."
Liara took off running as she followed the heat tracker on her Omni tool. Garrus followed suit.
"It would be easy for a ship to get lost up there wouldn't it?" Liara said as she and Shepard stared out of the Normandy's window and looked into the stars. Hands intertwined, this was the last night that spent together before launching the attack on Cerberus.
There was so much pressure riding on Shepard's shoulders that the weight was becoming overbearing. Why her? Why did the fate of the galaxy have to reside on her and not someone else's? She didn't ask for this.
"Yeah, it would." Shepard took a deep breath as she tried to forget the world outside the walls of that room.
"To find someplace far away, where you could spend the rest of your life, in peace. And happiness."
Shepard leaned over to kiss Liara on the cheek. It was this moment when she realized that this was the reason she was fighting this war. For hope. For the chance to create a life with Liara. For everyone to find this inner peace and happiness that she was feeling at that moment. And she realized that she would fight a million reapers if it meant that they could be happy.
Sitting up Shepard looked forward. Her shoulders relaxed. Turning her head she stared into those blue eyes she always found herself getting lost in.
"Right now, there is no place I'd rather be."
"Shepard!"
Slowly and weakly Shepard opened her eye. She was having
a hard time hearing due to the ringing, but she swore she was hearing Liara's voice.
"Liara, Liara I'm here" she whispered meekly through her hoarse throat. Her slow shallow wheeze followed suit.
"By the Goddess! Garrus, she's here!"
Liara's eyes started brimming again with tears as she rushed over to her bond mate's helpless body.
"Liara, is that you?" Shepard meekly whispered as she felt the warm hand of Liara on her face. Overwhelmed with emotion Liara couldn't contain herself anymore as her eyes started overflowing with tears. Looking at Shepard she could barely recognize her with all the injuries. Her face was banged up, blood all over her arms, legs, and chest. Shepard was taking shallow breaths.
"Garrus get help! She's still alive," She yelled to him without ever taking her eyes off Shepard. Garrus took off the opposite direction yelling into his omni-tool.
"Liara, I'm so glad to see you," Shepard said staring deep into those blue eyes. She slowly lifted her right arm to put her hand on Liara's face but the pain of her dislocated shoulder stopped her. She flinched.
"Shepard please, don't move. Help is coming."
"I lost too much blood. Love, I'm not going to make it," Shepard softly said.
"No, absolutely not. You're going to survive this. We didn't make it this far to have you die again!" Liara was completely beyond herself. In front of her lay the dying body of her Commander Shepard. She knew how difficult it was to watch her die during the Collector attack, and she knew that she couldn't go through that again. There was no Lazarus Project anymore. There would be no way to bring her back.
"Please, just stay here with me. I'm too weak to move, I'm stuck under this slab." Shepard said struggling to keep conscience.
Liara immediately got up and her body started to glow with biotics. With her hands aimed at the concrete slab she lifted it off Shepard's leg and threw it as far as she could.
Shepard threw her head back and screamed as the blood started rushing towards her left leg. Liara bent over Shepard and tried to pick her up.
"We gotta go, you're going to be fine Shepard. We're getting you out of here."
Ignoring the pain Shepard put a hand on Liara's face.
"I'm not going to make it. I'm so tired. Please Liara, I just want you to hold me."
Liara knew that was happening. She knew that Shepard was going to die but her heart refused to believe it. They had gotten so far. The Reapers were defeated. Peace was finally restored. Their job was done. Three years of war was finally over. This was supposed to be time for celebration.
She stared into Shepard's eyes and saw the life slowly start to escape. Swallowing the tears she sat down and pulled Shepard towards her chest and put her arms around her.
"I need you to recover, I can't make it on own." Liara whispered through sobs.
Taking a slow deep breathe Shepard tried to find the energy to speak.
"I'm so sorry Liara. I want nothing more than to just find a place in the galaxy and spend the rest of my life with you. To grow old with you and watch our daughters grow up. You would have been a great mother."
Liara looked away as she reached a hand up to wipe her eyes.
"Please, Shepard."
Knowing that this would be their last few minutes the asari's eyes went black as she whispered, "embrace eternity."
All of a sudden it was just the two of them. No destroyed Citadel. No screams. Just the two of them standing in the stars.
They stood face to face, just staring into each other's eyes for a moment trying to take everything in.
Shepard lifted her hand and gently wiped the tears out of Liara's eyes.
"I love you so much Liara. You mean everything to me."
Liara moved the hand aside and pulled her in for a tight embrace.
"I can't do this without you. I lost you before. It almost killed me
Shepard. You are a part of me now and if you go, so do I."
Shepard just hugged her tighter.
"I love you Liara."
"I love you too, Shepard."
Liara closed her eyes tight and when she opened them she was back in the ruins of the Citadel looking down at Shepard's lifeless body laying with her.
For the first time in years Shepard looked at peace. Her eyes were shut as her head fell to the side.
The tears poured even harder out of the Asari. Shepard was gone. She couldn't go through the pain again. Shepard was her bondmate. Her other half.
Her eyes came across the pistol that was still holstered to Shepard's side. The idea quickly came to Liara's mind. There was only one way for the two of them to be reunited again. Only one way for them to live out their lives together in peace.
With one arm draped over Shepard's chest she grabbed the pistol and brought it up to the side of her head.
With tears running down her face she whispered, "I'll be with you soon, my love."
Closing her eyes she pulled the trigger.