A Few Last Moments
Prompt: "Imagine your OTP involved in an epic life-or-death battle that determines the fate of the universe. They lose."
Genre: Angst
Garrus didn't know how he knew that the debris that plummeted from just above that atmosphere was important, he just did. Just like how he knew that the wounds all over his body, his armor little more than a twisted, melted mess that stifled his movement, meant that he wasn't going to last long.
He blew the head off of a Marauder as he shuffled towards the crater, mandibles fluttering as he used the last of his medigel to stave off the pain.
Then there it was, pieces of the Citadel laying in a fiery, deformed by the impact and the heat to be barely recognizable. And within it, he saw charred N7 armor and twitching fingers.
"Shep…" he managed, voice cracking and pain radiating through his chest as he tried to speak. The closer he got, the more her mangled body came into view. It broke his heart to see her like that. Even worse: she was conscious, her breath hitching as she saw him.
"G-Garrus…"
His pistol slipped from his fingers and he collapsed beside her. She tried to lift her arm, but the strength wasn't there, so he so very carefully turned her face to his, ignoring the one eye swollen shut, the burnt patches of skin and the busted lips, and pressed his forehead to hers, sub-vocals warbling in distress.
"I'm sorry, I…nng…I wasn't able to…"
"Shhh…it's..it's okay Shepard."
A tear rolled down her cheek. It was the second time he'd seen her cry. It would also be the last.
"The crucible…it di…it didn't work, I-I couldn't stop the Reapers…"
His hand went to her most intact one, holding her tight.
"You did y-your best. You…did more than anyone else could have been able to."
"…I wanted to retire with you, Garrus…a nice house on a tropical beach. One with a really…fuck…big gun for you to spend your time calibrating."
Garrus let out a stilted laugh, sputtering curses when the movement shifted his injured plates painfully. At least it drew a smile from the woman beside him.
"And a room for all your model ships."
Shepard wheezed and coughed, using the last of her strength to lean against him.
"Yeah…yeah…"
Despite all the gunfire, the screaming and the shrieks of Banshees going on around them, Garrus just heard the blessed silence around them. He didn't think about how they'd failed, about how everyone, their friends and family, would soon be gone, wiped out by the Reapers. He just thought about the woman beside him, the one who had died and been resurrected, who had defeated the Collectors and had the Reapers running scared for the first time in their many cycles of extermination, the one slowly going limp and quiet against him as his vision darkened.
"I love you Shepard…" he whispered one last time, tightening his grip on her hand as the life left him, so that they wouldn't ever be apart again.
