-Garrus-

"Alright," he says as he leans up from the table, everyone done filing into the room. "I won't waste time saying what we all already know, so let's cut right to the mission. I don't care all that much what you think of me or anyone else on this ship and, quite frankly, I don't give a damn." He growls as he eyes the group. "It's time you repay Jane, or Shepard or the Commander or whatever you call my wife, for her traveling across the galaxy to help each and every one of you to tie up all your loose ends when we have a galaxy to save. Put aside your differences, fall under my command, and we will all get through this, save the crew, destroy the Collectors, and find Jane."

Expecting nothing less, he watches as each and every one of them gives their affirmatives and full attention, at the ready to hear the debrief of how they will, as a team of merely fourteen men and women who can barely be called soldiers – only two of them confirmed ever truly being enlisted in any military of any sort – take on an entire base containing an entire race of Reaper enslaved husks of the former Prothean empire.

Garrus nods in approval as he turns his attention back to laying out a plan. "EDI, bring up the scans you have on this station." A massive holographic image of what looks like the base of operations built into an asteroid, hollowed out by more of the large station. It's easy to see how this massive structure could hold an entire race of the mutated remains of a former species.

"You should be able to overload their critical systems if you get to the main control," a small icon similar in shape to the Normandy appears low on the image as a blinking dot appears much higher, "here. To get there, you must pass through the center chamber of the station." Another light, this time in a path before another, inward chamber's image illuminates within the first in a more distinct hue.

"If this base is anything like the ship you encountered, the colonist and crew will be located in that central chamber," Miranda guesses as she narrows her eyes in thought, opening her tool and typing something into it that makes the image spin to give her a better angle. "See here?" Two lit courses weaving from the Normandy and up towards the central chamber. "These are the two main routes from our location. Both seem the same relative distance and should take equal amounts of time to cover."

"So we split up," Garrus answers without question, rumbling in certainty. "Dividing us up is more likely to limit the focus of enemy combatants, enable at least one team to make it through if we absolutely can't manage both, but I already see a problem." Leaning forward and using his tool to highlight an obstacle between both paths before they converge into the central chamber. "They can't be walls… has to be doors."

"You are correct," EDI explains as numbers and readouts frame the illustrated barriers. "Scans show the only way to enter the central chamber beyond these doors are to infiltrate their systems to open them from the opposite side. One may be able to gain access through this thermal ventilation shaft here." A smaller path illuminates between the two. "Be advised that there exists risks of exposure if the shaft's internal valves are not opened in time."

"Understood. Legion," he looks over to the Geth, seeing its turning optical light focus on him and its head shielding expand before dropping back. "You don't have the restrictions like an organic. You're exposure tolerance level is higher than anyone else on this ship and you can hack faster than an organic mind. I'm sending you into the shaft."

It nods, face plates slightly shifting. "Affirmative." Garrus tries to ignore, but still catches, the released breath of relief from Tali at not having to go, knowing her views on both tiny vents and the added danger of overheating inside her already stifling suit.

"You need someone to lead the second team." Lawson steps up. "I will do it while you take the first."

Jack scoffs. "Calm your fucking tits, Cheerleader. I won't take orders from you."

"Good," Garrus snaps, turning a growl to the woman and at least gaining a bit of slack to the biotic's heavy scowl. "Because you, Grunt, and McKnight are with me. He'll use his Collector knowledge to get those valves open while we lay down covering fire. The rest of you are with Miranda." The raven haired woman's eyes actually blink and widen a fraction at that, perhaps not expecting the two to find a neutral ground in the possible last moments of their lives. She quickly recovers and gives a nod in understanding as he looks over the group.

"You want to expend your rage, expel your fears? Then use it as a weapon." Like I sure as hell will. "This is not a game, no longer can we simply slap medigel on our wounds and retreat to the Normandy. We are the only things between life and death. Falter in any way, and die by Collector's hands."

Snarling with a toss of his head, he hits the table with his bad fist again. "Those bastards think we are nothing without Jane, but they are wrong," he growls. "They will learn what happens when Archangel brings justice." He smirks when the others let out shouts or silent gestures of their own battle calls as they rush out to get any last prep, which he's surprised to see only turns out to be a last few raids of the thermal clips stashes.

Giving the order for the second team, Scutum, to move out through the Cargo Bay, he takes his team, Hastati, and heads out through the airlock with Legion, all of them dropping from the near wreckage of their ship and into the surface of metal embedded into rock that must be a marker of common Collector structures. Like an insect colony, Mordin once said.

The Geth quickly separates and climbs up one of the mounds in the ship to disappear into the small ventilation access. A quick nod to his team and they are on their own way, guns at the ready and moving quickly.

As he assumed, they are bombarded by a Collector 'welcoming party' mere moments before gaining ground into the station, and his plan to draw fire while Knight moves forward was a good one as Legion moves fast through the ventilation, the heat more of a concern the longer it is still than expected. If he had the time, Garrus would consider the decision to use the Geth over Tali a good one with how much of a liability her suit would have been in this situation, but he's currently sighting down his scope, having to pay careful attention between the unpredictable charges and biotic blasts of his two squadmates to time his shots accurately.

"Garrus, we are in position at the doors. Holding against heavy fire."

"Understood, Miranda." He cuts his response short as he lines the crosshair of his scope right between the upper eyes of the glowing abomination that spouts challenges to their abilities with insults of his kind being too primitive, Grunt's being useless as infertile, and Jack being too irradiated with Eezo to be a 'viable subject'. A twitch of the finger and 'Harbinger' falls to a burning inferno of charring and crumbling ash.

"McKnight, Legion," he barks over his comm as he switches the drained sink with another, hopping one of the jutting walls that provide cover, leading forward. "Move faster. Scutum is cornered against their door." He gives the hand signal that means his six group up to him and his front move forward, providing that the three of them will continue to defend the human Collector tech expert while he solely focuses on granted Legion open movement.

"Understood, boss. Moving forward." Garrus gives a set of hand signals that call those at his six to group up and his front move forward, providing that the three of them behind will continue to defend the human Collector tech expert while he solely focuses on granted Legion open movement.

Cavernous chamber after cavernous chamber, they make their way through enemy forces as fast as they can manage, trying to prevent major losses in the other squad. Finally, across a long catwalk that spans precariously over a vast drop lies the biggest door command console he's ever seen, McKnight desperately trying to lay down covering fire as he tries to get the door open yell into the radio.

"Hurry! Just a few more meters and we're there!" Garrus knows he really means the three of them strangling behind, the human male already as close as one can come to the immovable force that is a solid, closed door.

"Move!" he snaps at those at his back, switching to his mate's shotgun resting on his lower spine and spins to start retreating as he fires into the swarming Collector forces. That sensation of nowhere left to go comes all too soon as he feels the presence of that very door less a meter behind his back and, never one to appreciate being pinned, he growls as he fires the shotgun in his hand rapidly, snarling at the man over his shoulder. "Get the fucking door open!"

"I'm trying!" he screams in panicked agitation, hands moving over the commands rapidly, murmuring to himself about corrupted data, blocked pathways until, with a snap as if the inanimate object could feel the sensation of being burned, the heavy doors slide open to gunfire and shots from Scutum.

Shoving, Jack in behind Grunt and ignoring her bark of protest, Garrus lays suppressing fire as he backs towards the sounds of the gunfire he's used to, the booms of metal projectiles propelled by miniature mass accelerators instead of the high pitched buzzing from the Collector's laser weaponry. Something is wrong, however, when he doesn't see the doors closing at the same speed they burst open and he has a split moment to wonder if they will only get this far before an either stubborn or jammed door mechanism condemns them to an endless barrage of enemy fire.

"Lay down cover fire!" His team is surrounded by that of Lawson's, their weapons firing into the sea of glowing eyes and fluttering wings before the doors finally manage to slam shut right before him, centimeters from almost removing a toe or two - and he only has four.

He hears what seems like a unison sigh of relief as guns drop, weighing as much as a Frigate in their hands now that the adrenaline is draining, their hearts slowing. Garrus, however, doesn't have that luxury, not while they are still deep inside a hive of Collectors that now know of their presence.

Shielded from immediate danger by a massive metal door, he takes a moment to replace his wife's 'boomstick' and retrieve his own rifle, hands more accustomed and suited to the heavy weapon. He turns to see just what kind of chamber they have found themselves in when he sees a very familiar sight, long, seemingly endless expanses of millions upon millions of pods used to transport and contain and poor fool unlucky enough to have fallen victim to the swarm.

There is a difference between here and the ship the destroyed, though. The ship was obviously a mere transport, the pods haphazardly secured along the cavern in order to maintain basic functions like life support and security from damage due to flight, but here? Here the pods are mostly aligned one on top of the other within metal structures, each pod connected to the others in a tangle of tubing, almost like an older and less advanced design of the same from inside the Reaper, that stretch up the the top of the cavern and disappear into the distance.

So our guess that the central chamber holds the colonists was right, it seems, he thinks as he tries, fruitlessly and foolishly, to see if he can find the only face he wants, needs, to see in the see of masked faces. He knows, even if he wants to be blind and stupidly naïve for just once in his life, that he would never find her from here, that his chances are slim to none of her even being within his reach, but he still has to try. Even if it kills me to find her or becomes the death of me with I've discovered I've lost her.

A shift in the air and scent beside him makes him aware of a visitor, someone slightly spicy with a hint of soil - Drell. "Is this how it was before," the younger of the ship's Drell occupants asks, Ilden's eyes scanning over the countless golden slivers of light that stretch far beyond the eyes' reach. "This is horrendous."

Garrus moves to speak, to remind the younger man that they have friends - bondmates - somewhere out there, but is interrupted when his attention catches the shift in the squad's expression and cautious searching to a hurried, frantic flailing against the opaque surfaces of the pods.

With his mind screaming for action and his chest vibrating with a trilling rumbling of worry, he rushes to join them, seeing the missing crew awake and banging fists in panic and abject horror. The squad uses feet, hands, and weapons to try from their side, screaming something about needing them out before they 'melt' and, while he doesn't quite know what that means, Jane could be in danger.

Growling and keening, he hooks his talons, then fingers, under the edges of one of the pods and pulls, arms aching from the strain, and finally hear a creaking then shatter of thick glass as it comes apart in his hands. A noxious gas follows, making it hard to see the occupant until he hears a voice coughing and gasping that's familiar, but not the one he so desperately wants and needs to hear.

Hiding his shameful disappointment at saving the wrong person, he helps Doctor Chakwas from the pod, all the while his eyes searching frantically for his wife, but finds no hint of her and his blood runs cold enough to burn in his heart. "Where is she?" He grips the doctor's shoulders and stares desperately into her half conscious eyes. "Where is Jane?!"

"Wh…" the poor woman says with a mumble as her head drops and lifts on her neck a few times before her eyes start to focus. "G...Garrus? You… you came…"

I came for herHe can't stop the constantly twitching of his mandibles and barely contained keen scratching at his throat –trying hard not to shake the woman in his hold - as he practically pleads, "Jane… where is Jane? Please…" Please don't say she's been 'melted', is the source of that smell that brings back memories of the Citadel's protein vats.

He hopes that, when she shakes her head weakly, it's not to give the devastating news that will end him once and for all and is, instead, as if she has heard his innermost fears, is reassuring him that she is okay.

"I don't know… they took Shepard," she points weakly further into the chamber, the ship, "the one said she was meant for more or something…"

"Sounds like the one calling itself Harbinger," Jacob says and Garrus just nods, at a loss for words at being so close, yet so far. "What were they doing here?"

Tired, but more herself, Chakwas looks up to the tube structures up along the walls and ceilings. "They were… processing the colonists. These pods have some sort of chemical compound that eats away organic material while they're still alive. They… pump the remains through these pipelines."

Kelly Chambers whimpers and gasps a dry sob, frowning and trembling as she clenches her eyes shut. "They made us be aware! Wanted us awake when they… When they… I was… I was…"

Now isn't the time for this. If Jane's here, time is of the essence!

"EDI" he interrupts with a hand to his Tool, cutting off the woman's dry tears. "I need an updated scan of the base. I need to know where these tubes lead and how to get to there."

"There is a route currently inaccessible due to a security door that cannot be reached as those you recently released. However, my readings indicate there is another chamber running parallel to your current location."

"I sense a fucking 'but'," Jack grumbles around her CaloBar, her only way to help boost back her biotics to a level where she's useful beyond her less than average 'spray and pray' method of shooting.

"You are correct," EDI confirms. "While accessible, it is not advised. Thermal emissions suggest the chamber is overrun with seeker swarms. It is possible that the Collectors have adjusted their targeting parameters to include nonhuman targets and Mordin and McKnight's countermeasure cannot protect you against so many at once."

"Wonderful," he deadpans with an annoyed rumble. "Wait. On Horizon, the swarms acted differently whenever Jane charged, almost as if avoiding her. I never thought about it at the time…" Maybe the radiation emissions affect their targeting?

He looks to Samara - not their strongest, but definitely most refined, biotic - and asks, "Can you project some sort of biotic shield over a squad?"

The Matriarch nods. "It is possible to produce a biotic barrier large enough to protect a small squad if they remain close."

"Jack and Legion are with me while we take the swarm infested path. Miranda will lead the rest of you create as you diversion and make your way through the main chamber. When we get the security doors open, we'll provide covering fire." Those not already at the ready start to prep their chosen weapons.

"What about us, Garrus?" He looks to a much better looking Chakwas, though many of the ship's crew are still hanging on another for support or hunched over in some sort of pain or exhaustion from their ordeal. "Those of us who even can fight are in no condition."

Mandible flicking in a sign of frustrated impatience he's sure only a few privy to Turian expressions would catch and understand, he contacts the Normandy. "How are our systems?"

"EDI got enough systems online to do a pickup, but there's no way we can make it that deep into the central chamber to your position with what we have." Obviously unnerved by the rumbling sigh that, for once, isn't directed towards any individual, but the situation, Joker adjusts. "But we can get back up quickly and get you guys out of there when it starts to hit the fan."

He closes the call and addresses the Normandy crew. "Mordin will escort you, assist with starting triage and prepping the ship for our escape. Move before the start to regroup in response to our advance."

Mordin gives a terse nod as he and the slow moving crew begin to back track along the main chamber towards the coordinates Joker had sent of the further, so far, the Normandy can make it into the Collector base. Garrus can only hope that they won't have to backtrack further to get out of here or none of the ground crew will make it once the EMP charge is set.

Traversing the tunnel swarming in the Collector's weaponized, synthetic-organic hybrid swarm was as difficult as he expected. Strange and definitely a good reason to explain why both Tali and Jane have come to hate insects, but not difficult in terms of combat. He's sure Samara, judging by her state of exhaustion and inhalation of nearly every calorie and protein bar she has, would disagree upon the level of difficulty.

All of them would also attest to the harrowing moment of practically carrying the Asari as they rushed over the bridge. Then there was the massive firefight between the full team at the horde beyond the door back in the main chamber as Legion rushed to relock the access and provide them a barrier for a time.

He also can't dismiss the obvious assistance they received from the diversion team. He'd be admittedly oblivious if he said he doubted that's why the opposition was so light within the swarm's passage.

"Status report." He addresses Miranda as the team recoups in the short moments of lax in enemy presence and he checks the wound in his waist from a stray shot that made it through while they held the line as Legion hacked the doors closed. It seems to just be a flesh wound, sore but bleeding stopping easily with a single dose of medigel and another shot of Rebound. Not that it would stop me. Not even another rocket to the face will keep me down while Jane's still out there somewhere.

"Joker just commed in, Mordin and the crew have arrived at the rendezvous." Nodding in understanding, he doesn't speak as she opens her tool to continue. "We're almost to the main console. There are platforms here." She looks at her tool and then up, pointing to a familiar risen platform further along the chamber, just like the Collector ship from before. "We should be able to take it up and overload the systems-"

"And destroy the base," he hums, worried that they have come this far and have still not found a trace of his beloved mate. I will not give up… even if I have to stay behind and destroy this place on my own with my own hands and talons. I will find you, Jane.

Shaking it off, now not the time, he turns to the woman. "We are fighting on the Collector's turf, they have the home field advantage and Legion's work on the doors aren't going to hold for long. A rearguard will hold this position." He rumbles in thought before moving to the platform and stepping up, attracting the entire group's attention. "This is where some of us must continue while the others keep the Collectors from overwhelming us. Jack? How are your biotics?"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean," she growls and he flicks a mandible. There's my answer.

"You will be with me as well as Legion and Grunt." The other two give a simultaneous grin of excitement and brusque nod in affirmative. "The rest will remain here and hold." Looking around at the faces of people he may or may not see through to the end, whatever that may be in terms of all of their shortening lifespans, he rumbles and squares his shoulders as he speaks.

"Now is the time to stand together and give them hell. We are only as good as our parts, our weakest and we are the best this galaxy has to offer, so even our weakest is more than these Reaper-controlled horrors. It may take us all, but we will make sure these bastards go down, dragging every last one of them with us if death takes us."

Growling, he adds, needing to look after his wife's family when he brings her back to them – even if he doubts he'll be able to completely accomplish that, "Stand together, do you hear me? No matter what, we are a big, mix-matched, dysfunctional family. Us your affection and hate as fuel equally."

He takes a breath and speaks against everything ever taught to him in the military, never one to be a good Turian when common logic just seemed so much more appealing. "Rely on each other and don't stop shooting until we end this. Then you get to the Normandy, even if you have to drag yourself or someone else to get there." His eyes scan the group, locking on each set of eyes to speak to each and every individual that makes the whole. "When you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't crawl, then you find someone to carry you. We are in this together."

"Damn… quite the fucking speech." Jack actually looks impressed as the others begin to arm their weapons. "You sound almost like your old lady."

"Learned from the best," he remarks offhandedly as he motions Legion to activate the platform.

They soon begin to face opposition from flanking platforms and he begins to notice something. If the desperation that seems to bleed from the one calling itself Harbinger is telling, it's that they are drawing near to something very vital. He doubts that a creature that supposedly can possess Collectors at a whim without fear of death is fearful of the EMP and hopes, prays to Spirits he doesn't believe in, that there is only one reason it'd be worried about their progression.

Jane is here and she's alive.

"Garrus Vakarian, this platform seems to be drawing near to the completion of its projected path."

He pulls the trigger on his rifle, the Scion before him exploding in a mess of cybernetics and gore as they feel the lift shift from its forward momentum to upward. "Understood."

"Hey, Garrus," he grunts in 'what?' while keeping his eye to the scope and taking out a Collector drone. "Looks like we're following those fucking tubes."

A husk, the last hostile remaining after Legion drops the remaining Collector drone opposite to Garrus' own target, giving him a chance to follow the biotic's eyes up along the direction their platform is rising, into a larger chamber. "EDI, what do your scans tell us about these tubes? Why are they breaking down organic tissues and pumping it through them?"

"While I cannot theorize the reason, my scans show that they are feeding into some kind of super-structure. It is emitting both organic and non-organic energy signatures. Judging by these readings, the structure must be massive in size." The shadow of the tunnel the platform is taking before the massive chamber begins to brighten from some sort of blue glow in the main chamber. "If my calculations are correct, the super-structure… is a Reaper." Just as EDI announces that very disturbing estimation, they enter the chamber, and what they see makes his blood run cold.

Seemingly suspended from the feeding tubes is what can only be described as a misshaped, curled up, human being of massive size. Its limbs are fused to its body from where they are curled up against its torso, hands up against its chest and chin and legs pulled into a fetal position and all much smaller in proportion to its large body and head. Along its entire body are the glowing fissures of cybernetics as it 'breathes' and shifts slightly in the hold of its cocoon.

"Holy shit… It's a fucking baby," Jack says with wide, shocked eyes, her mouth falling open, but Garrus can't do anything but look around for his wife, keening at no sign of her.

EDI announces something, but it goes unheard as his hands grip his weapon so tightly his broken hand sears with the stabbing pain of broken plate and fractured bone. "Where," he growls, voice mostly vocals from his burning rage. "Where is Jane's bio signature?" I can't leave without her, even if…

He can't force himself to admit it as a possibility, especially to himself, and, thankfully, he doesn't have to as EDI answers, "Shepard's last known location was within this chamber. I cannot determine its whereabouts at this moment."

Harbinger took my life from me, so I will take this thing from it. He snarls as he hear the subtle creak of his gloves against his weapon, his fingers numb from the amount of pressure he's putting against the immovable rifle. "EDI, how the fuck do I destroy this… this-"

"Fucking piece of shit?"

"To put it lightly," he growls, barely recognizable even to himself.

"The organic fluid from the processed colonist are being injected through the structures holding the Reaper suspended. Destroying them should damage the structural integrity of the supports, causing the Reaper to fall."

Motioning to the others to take care of the Collectors and husks simultaneous flying and crawling onto the adjacent platforms, he doesn't even bother to find cover as he places his rifle onto his back, replacing it with the Cain, his wife's favorite weapons besides her shotgun, fists, and boots.

Reality seems to narrow down to just him, the abomination before him, and the nuclear weapon that can destroy one and, unfortunately, never bring complete absolution to the other. Raising the weapon with a low growl, Archangel spreads his wings as his finger compresses the trigger, hearing the whining and the light scrap of metal moving against metal.

The recoil against his shoulder that pushed him back a few paces and reverberates through his entire body is the best pain he will ever feel, not strong enough to ever overcome the one in his heart, but enough to make him smirk when the glowing ball of energy lands. Feeding tubes shatter in a shower of glass and flesh and he smirks with a growl of sweet victory as the brown, foul smelling sludge spews over the monstrosity.

A loud shriek fills the chamber, ringing in their ears and skulls to the point that they surely must be bleeding inside their helmets, but it's like music to his ears. It will never beat the sound of her voice, her laughter or breathless moans, but it is a close second. Especially when it begins to writhe, its fused and once believed immobile limbs pulling taut against the membranes holding it begins to undulate and things within it start to press outward, trying to break through.

Prepping the Cain for one more shot, one that may not be as strong but will still break the last remaining supports, he sends an elbow into a husk trying to jump him from behind, sending it into the way of Grunt's shotgun fire. He won't bother with the useless enemies like the Reaper mutated human or Prothean remains, not when there is a much more worthy target for his fury, a target he will watch crash to the pit of this ship by his hand and his alone.

So, once again, he braces his footing and lifts the Cain, pulling the trigger and hearing it charge. He will always remember the writhing of pain, as if an entity exists within the fragile infant of a Reaper that desperately wants out, and will always take a sick sort of amusement at seeing a Reaper show true fear of death, cry out in agony.

Releasing the trigger releases the last of the Cain's power, completely destroying the supports to the thrashing flesh and cybernetics and sending it crashing down before them with a ground-shaking, thunderous crash and inorganic scream, it's bloated and moving flesh ripping to burst that same fluid over the platforms beneath it and reveal some sort of skeleton that better resembles its Reaper heritage. He hums with a sneer of satisfaction and motions the others to stay alert and follow, not knowing why, but needing to see the Reaper as it takes its last metaphorical breaths.

It takes some time to safely travel over the descending platforms to the disgusting mass of flesh and limbs from within it that look like the struts Sovereign had when it attached itself to the Citadel, but they make it just as its movements are slowing and growing weak. He growls a snarl as his hands twitch and tighten on the spent Cain, wishing he could destroy it completely and wipe every trace of it away, all the while screaming his lungs out for his lost love, his stolen bondmate.

His thoughts must have made it to his limbs without his control, when it seems like he's standing outside his body as the weapon drops from his hands and he howls in agony, lungs and throat burning as he screams and keens beyond his control. He can feel sanity cracking and shattering within him as he grips his helmeted head in his hands, collapsing to his knees as everything drains from him, leaving him to join her, wherever she may be, and sucking his soul out with it.

His screams of her name must scare the others away from him and freeze them in place, none of them moving to the hysterical Turian or safety as the mass of horrors moves, curling up as it starts to make a gurgling, pseudo-choking noise. It snaps him enough out of his agony to flare his rage as he snaps his head up, ready to just waste his life using teeth and talons to rip every scrap of stolen flesh from it, but his pupils dilate to focus as its head jerks, spewing something from its 'mouth'.

It can't be, he thinks with a gasp and jump to his feet, stumbling as his numb body sparks to life and he runs. The closer he gets, the less impossible it becomes that yes, she's alive, fucking alive!

"Jane!" he howls as he collapses beside her, ripping his helmet off and yanks her limb body off the floor, pulling her to his chest as he keens loud enough that the others actually wince. "Please, Jane… Amora…," he chirps and trills around his crying like a scared child as he rubs his cheek against hers despite the foul smelling fluid all over her, clenching his eyes against the tears he can only imagine he could physically shed when he actually is able to hear her soft breaths. "Never again… Please… I love you."

"I love you too," a soft whisper responds and he gasps, pulling back to see her weak smirk. "Knew you'd come."

He barks an exhausted, euphoric laugh. "I had good reason." Pressing his forehead to hers, he purrs jaggedly, promising without words to never abandon her before he kissed her, shoving his tongue past unresisting lips as he keens in relief at tasting her when he thought he never would again in this life.