Ghost
By KSCrusaders (Sable Rhapsody on BSN)
A/N: With all the hulabaloo over the endings, I tried to leave what happens on a larger scale as ambiguous as possible as I have yet to find an ending, fan theory, or headcanon that completely satisfies me. But as far as I'm concerned, Shepard and Garrus go together, in life or death, so here's one version of what might happen.
PART THREE
His first breath after the flash felt like liquid fire flooding his lungs. He tried to open his eyes, but the light-the light was taking all of them to pieces. Hands tugged on the remnants of his armor, and he feebly tried to bat them away.
"Garrus-"
A familiar voice, female, but not hers. Very slowly, he forced himself to turn toward the sound. It faded in and out of his awareness, like radio chatter from too far away.
"He's hurt badly-Liara, help me-"
More hands tried to lift him and he cried out in pain as multiple somethings bent the wrong way. Every movement hurt, every touch burned against his skin. He tried once again to see and found that he couldn't; something had sealed his vision. Perhaps it was for the best. He was increasingly certain that he didn't want to be a part of whatever was going on out there, even as the glow increased through his closed eyelids. He could feel that searing light starting to burn into his skin.
"...try to get him back to the shuttle, maybe Normandy's medbay-"
The light flared, then subsided, and suddenly, he knew. In his heart of hearts, he knew what had happened, and he stopped struggling toward the voices swarming around him. Instead, he heard her voice, whispering to him from minutes ago and lifetimes away.
"If I'm up there in that bar and you're not, I'll be looking down. You'll never be alone."
"Never," Garrus whispered back with the scrap of air left in his lungs. The last syllables came out in a rattling cough, but strangely enough, the pain grew more and more distant. He felt warm again despite the twisted metal and concrete pressing insistently into his side. Then the warmth fled, replaced by another sickening wave of pain.
"Garrus, talk to me," said one of the voices, the female one. Liara. He couldn't shake his head, couldn't even move his neck, but he let himself slump away from her, sliding farther down the wreckage on which he lay. She caught him by the arm, and Garrus couldn't fight down agony that shook him from head to foot. "Garrus, don't you dare. Shepard wouldn't-"
"No," he gasped. He reached blindly for Liara and caught her hand, squeezing it with what was left of his strength. "Have to...meet her there. I'm...buying."
"He's delirious-"
"Christ, look at all that blood-"
"Shuttle incoming-"
"Liara..." He felt the asari lean in closer; hot tears fell on what remained of his chest and face. Liara knew.
"Don't do this," whispered Liara. Very gingerly, she lifted his upper half into her lap, cradling him like a child. "There's a shuttle coming. Cortez made it. We'll find Shepard and..." The words choked in her throat. Liara knew the truth of it every bit as well as he did, and she was too smart to delude herself. He felt her tears falling faster. "Goddess, it's so unfair."
Somehow Garrus found himself smiling. He found her cheek, covered in ash and streaked with tears, and gently brushed it with his gauntlet. "She...Kaliya would...want to see you smile."
"What about you?"
His silence answered that question. More and more footsteps pounded into the ground around his head and other hands, more practiced and regular in their movements, lifted him up onto some kind of stretcher. "My rifle-"
Liara pressed it into his hands. Even in his condition, he could still feel for the trigger. It felt good, safe. He could hear her limping alongside the stretcher, but she didn't say anything. He could imagine the look on her face and almost wished he hadn't.
It was getting harder and harder to say things, but he had to tell her, had to make her understand. "I...promised her...promised-"
The stretcher wasn't moving any more. Liara's hands held his ruined ones. He couldn't feel tears anymore, just the gentle pressure of her gauntlets.
"Tell her-" Liara broke into a short sob, and she started again, her voice wavering but clear. "Tell her it worked. Tell her it's over."
Garrus nodded and held both of her hands against his chest. "I will. After I...kick her ass for beating me there." It hurt to laugh, but it was a small victory to laugh together with his friend, after the end of the world as they knew it. It was all beginning to disappear; no cold, no pain, no angry grating of shuttle engines or world-ending flashes of light. "Thank you."
A voice answered him, but it wasn't Liara's.
"May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead."
Liara watched through her tears as the shadow of a smile slowly crept across Garrus's face before he fell still. Her hands pulled off his visor and folded his arms across his chest. Something blue glinted out of his charred and ruined armor; she reached for it almost automatically, and her fingers found a small datapad tucked into the side compartment of his chestpiece.
She expected to find a mission briefing or calibration schematics or something, but the datapad was blank except for one entry. As though in a dream, Liara opened it, barely able to make out the blurry words.
G-
Thanks for the talk...and the vids ;) I couldn't do this without you. Lemme know the next time you're free down in that battery. It's my turn to buy.
Love from,
K
She might have been overwhelmed by tears just moments ago, but she found herself laughing. Liara got to her feet and turned her face toward the burning sky; a sliver of dawn peeked through the fire and smoke of the horizon. Ashes fell on her upturned face, and each flake felt like the echo of a breath.
"Goddess go with you both." She touched Garrus's forehead with the back of her hand, a final gesture of respect though he was already gone. Alone, Liara T'soni made her way through the destruction to the waiting shuttle. The tears still glistened in her eyes when they met Cortez's, but they didn't fall.
Somewhere out there, there was a place for everyone of every species. A place without war or hunger, pain or despair. It was Thane's sea, Mordin's song, Legion's self, her mother's light, where the quarians wore no suits and the krogan had hope enough for the galaxy.
Where Kaliya Shepard and Garrus Vakarian were at a bar, sharing a drink and a kiss before their hard-earned rest.