Garrus Vakarian
Garrus stumbled into the medbay. He let go of Liara's supportive shoulder and nearly fell onto a cot. The pain shot up his leg as he sat down, but it didn't matter. The pain was nothing, it faded to the back of his consciousness as he sat there, stomach churning, waiting. Dr. Chakwas attended to him, but he noticed none of it.
All he could think of was Shepard. Shepard, and the deadly red of a Reaper's beam.
After a long time, there was a slight shift in the ship's movement, a lurch that would mean nothing to someone who hadn't spent most of his life on starships. A lurch that meant the ship was leaving orbit.
He stood, and his blinding fear wasn't enough to block out the physical pain.
"Where is she?" he asked. Chakwas said nothing, looking at the floor.
Garrus stumbled out of the medbay, holding onto the walls for support, leaving behind blue streaks across the dull gray bulkheads. He punched the buttons for the elevator, but it did not come fast enough. He punched them again and again and finally the doors opened and he managed to pull himself inside.
He could feel the ship accelerating towards the mass relay as he burst onto the main level of the ship.
"Where is she?" he roared, moving at an agonizingly slow pace. He had to hold onto the galaxy map table for support as he made his way to the cockpit.
Traynor ran towards him, concern in her big brown eyes.
"You need to be in the medbay," she said, softly. He ignored her, and continued to stumble across the room, down the long corridor, and into the cockpit just as the mass relay reached out its arcing blue arm and sent them across the galaxy.
He howled, filling the room with coarse notes of rage and sorrow.
Joker stood, his cap in his hands.
"I'm sorry," he said, and Garrus could see tears in the pilot's eyes. It didn't matter. He wanted to kill the human, to break every brittle bone in his body.
"You left her," he said, his voice low. His body trembled with pain and exhaustion but he didn't move, glaring at the pilot. "You left her to die."
"We had to leave," said Joker, pleading.
"You left her to die!" Garrus yelled it this time, and rushed towards Joker only to be held back. He turned around and snarled at Vega, who held his arms in a firm grasp. EDI was there too, a gun pointed at him, the light glinting off her silver eyes. Liara had made it to the bridge too, her hands glowing softly blue, biotics at the ready.
"Take him to medbay," she said, and Garrus struggled weakly against the arms dragging him away. Exhaustion and his injuries were beginning to catch up with him.
Once they were on the second floor, Vega released his grip with a sheepish smile.
"Sorry about that," he said. "I really thought you might try to take out Joker, you know."
Garrus said nothing.
"I'll stay with him," said Liara, softly, and at her word Vega and Chakwas made themselves scarce.
"I'm so sorry, Garrus," said Liara.
They sat in silence for a long time, until the ship lurched softly as they came out of the other side of the mass relay.
Suddenly the inside of the cabin was filled with a piercing green light, a light that seemed to pass through the walls of the ship as though they were glass. The light was blinding and he closed his eyes as it washed over him.
It was not unlike mating with an asari, the sensations that swept over him, a melding that went far beyond the physical.
He felt, with clarity, Shepard's arms around his neck, her body pressed against his own, her final words whispered fierce against his ear.
She was warm and vibrant and real, plunging into his chest and flowing through him as though she were in his blood, his bones.
It changed him. Shepardchanged him. He could feel it spreading through him, liquid and alien, but he was not alarmed.
When he opened his eyes again there was silence. The green light was gone, and nothing was the same.
He turned to Liara.
"What…happened?" she said. "What was that light?"
He shook his head. "It was Shepard," he said. "Somehow…she did it."
"Your face," said Liara, turning her eyes to him. "It's different. Your skin…your scars…" she trailed off.
He pulled off one of his gloves and traced the ravaged side of his face with a fingertip. It did feel different, somehow.
"You too, Liara," he said, staring at the way green lines seemed to shimmer beneath her blue skin, appearing and vanishing almost like the lines of a circuit. "You're different too."
"I need to find Chakwas," she said, wary. "You're bleeding."
Garrus nodded, he could see blood covering his armor from mid thigh downward, covering his talons.
"Doesn't hurt," he said. He probed the wound with his fingers, gently, and found beneath caked blue blood that his skin was whole and unblemished.
"Is this…is this a dream?" said Liara. "Are we dead somewhere on Earth and this is the afterlife?"
Garrus shook his head. He was certain. "This is Shepard. I don't know what she did…but it saved us."
"We have to find her."