Previously...
Shepard's team finally translates the Reaper language, and they head to the Citadel, only to find it under attack by Cerberus. Shepard and Leng face off.
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The Reaper gauntlet around Sur'Kesh was formidable, but the salarian pilot of the courier ship Elcyer was better. There had been some initial resistance to letting Thane hitch a ride to the Citadel, but finally the weight of Shepard's name, as well as his own growing, and still uncomfortable to him, celebrity had been enough to sway them.
There wouldn't be anything new in the news feed until they went through the relay into Citadel space. For some reason that no one had been able to pinpoint, the Reapers had left the Citadel alone. Thane spent the trip up to that point in silent meditation, to the annoyance of his chatty salarian pilot.
He braced himself for the jump through the relay and then could wait no longer. He checked his omni tool for messages and news of Shepard and the Normandy, hoping they were at the Citadel. At the least, he could send her a message letting her know that he had survived the fall of Sur'Kesh.
As he was composing his message to her, he was surprised when EDI sent a real-time request for a call. "Thane?" He was surprised at the amount of emotion he heard in that single word. "I show that you are on board the Elcyer, just entering Citadel space. Are you well?"
"Yes, EDI, I'm very well. Where are you? How's Shepard?" He couldn't keep the smile from his face. It seemed his prayers had been answered, and his love was indeed on the station. However, EDI's next words changed everything.
"Thane, you need to get to the Citadel as quickly as possible. Shepard and the crew of the Normandy are engaged in stopping a Cerberus takeover of the Citadel. She is currently fighting her way through the Presidium to find a transmitter for Retribution."
Thane's thoughts tumbled over each other as he tried to understand all the implications in EDI's brief speech. The pilot cried out in shock, drawing Thane's attention even as EDI explained over the comm link. "I have taken control of your ship. Docking control is down, so I will navigate your ship in. Shepard needs your help, Thane."
"Understood, EDI. I am ready to lend my assistance as soon as we arrive." He paused before making his request, one that tore at his heart, but he knew was tactically necessary. "Don't tell her I'm coming, EDI. She can't afford the distraction." He knew she was more than half-convinced he was dead, and he was afraid the unexpected news would cause her to lose focus.
"Understood, Thane." EDI filled Thane in on the current situation as she piloted the courier ship to the Citadel at speeds far exceeding mandated approach speeds. Even the pilot was showing nervousness mixed in with his obvious admiration and envy. It was clear he wished he could do such a thing himself on a regular basis.
EDI pushed the abilities of the small ship to its limits, to the point where Thane had to force himself not to clutch at the seat restraints the way the pilot was doing. "EDI, that's not the docking ring," Thane felt compelled to point out when it went sailing beneath them.
"No, Thane. That would place you too far from Shepard to reach her in time."
"Where are we going, EDI?" His voice didn't waver, but there was definitely some concern as they headed high above the docking ring.
"The Presidium. Shepard and her team are eleven levels above the Council chambers heading into a Keeper area. They are facing heavy Cerberus resistance. Thane, you should be aware that she took every specialist on board the Normandy with her, including Kolyat and Hama."
Thane forced himself not to react to the news. In any event, EDI was maneuvering the small ship toward the Presidium. She lined it up and with a sharp impulse to the thrusters breached the windows and field that surrounded the Presidium. Immediately, alarms on both the ship and the Presidium sounded, but they were inside the pressurized portion of the station now, and EDI cycled the airlock.
His pistol was tight in his hand as he jumped down into the seething mass of confused and panicking citizens. EDI directed him to the stairwell where Shepard had ascended, but the grand sweeping turns of the Presidium walkways were packed. He glanced up and jumped to the ledge that ran along the outside of the second level and ran lightly along it, avoiding the mess below.
Everywhere he looked, he saw evidence of a violent firefight with fallen troops in yellow and black, many more in C-sec blue, and far too many in civilian attire lying motionless where they had fallen.
Finally he reached the stairwell, but just as he went to enter, he became aware of someone deliberately approaching him. Whirling quickly with pistol up, he saw the drell chief of security, Captain Sokje. The two of them stared appraisingly at each other for a second. "What do you want?" Thane asked, the story of Kolyat's escape from the Citadel coming to mind.
"You obviously know what's going on," the tan drell answered with a jerk of his head toward the stairwell. "I want to help."
"I heard what you tried to do to Kolyat," he pushed back, pistol still pointed unwaveringly at the other.
"I tried to prevent him from taking a hit list to terrorists. I was doing my job, Krios!" Sokje answered, and his subvocals dropped into the threat range. Then he glanced away, and his subvocals changed to guilt and pain. "I was played, and it cost me two good men." He looked back and met Thane's eyes with a steady gaze. "I've no cause to trouble your son anymore, and every cause to stop this madness. You wouldn't be here unless you were connected to Shepard and whatever is going on. I want to help," he reiterated.
Thane weighed what the other was saying, both in words and subvocals, and nodded abruptly. "Let's go."
EDI chimed in urgently. "Thane, you must hurry. Shepard has engaged the main force, and they are heavily outnumbered."
As they took off running up the stairs, Thane heard Sokje call for reinforcements from his security staff, but it would take a few more minutes for them to follow. They were halfway up, and Thane's lungs were burning, but he was breathing easily, so he ignored the pain. There was still a lightness to his muscles; even several days of constant rehabilitation movements couldn't erase weeks of immobility, but he simply noted it and made adjustments for his weaknesses.
Sokje eyed him curiously as they ran. "You're supposed to be dead," he finally said.
Thane borrowed one of Shepard's lines. "I got better."
Sokje just grunted. "Look forward to hearing how. Later."
They both hurtled over a bunch of Cerberus troops lying dead on a landing. So far, the only casualties they'd seen had been Cerberus, and Thane prayed it would stay that way. He was far more worried for Kolyat than Shepard, but he also knew that she would be taking point in the thickest part of the battle. That thought pushed him to climb faster.
The pair broke through the door into the chamber and saw the absolute death and destruction all around them. Thane paused to scan the room. Immediately he saw Shepard's brilliant white hard suit in the thick of it, just as he expected, at the far end of the room. Glancing around, he tried to find Kolyat among the fighters but when he didn't, he fearfully looked among the fallen on the floor. He saw the familiar shade of teal lying motionless. "No!"
In a flash, he was by his son's side. Kolyat was thankfully just unconscious. Thane saw that a medipack had been applied to the severe compound injury on his Kolyat's leg. In an instant, he diagnosed his son's condition - shattered lower leg from a heavy weapon or explosive, bleeding contained for now, but he wouldn't be walking off the battlefield. Maybe never, whispered a voice in the back of his mind.
A shadow flickered off to his side, and he spun on one knee, weapon up and primed to fire, but when he saw Hama's frightened face, he pointed the pistol down again. "He's alive," she said. "I've been protecting him." Her voice wavered, but her pistol was steady in her hand. "Stay in the shadows, attack when they don't expect." He could tell she was repeating what she'd been taught, but it was the right thing. He stood, attention split between Kolyat and Shepard. He knew there was a very real possibility that both Kolyat and Hama could die at the hands of a determined foe. "Go!" Hama said in a harder voice. "Trust me. Help Shepard."
At the same time Sokje turned back and yelled, "Come on!"
Thane rose smoothly to his feet and turned toward the fighting at the far end of the chamber. Falling into single-minded focus, he pushed away any thoughts that didn't immediately concern himself or Shepard. Racing forward, he caught up with Sokje. Each had their weapon out and picked off outlying targets as they ran forward. He saw Garrus' team reach the outskirts of the main skirmish. Almost at the same instant, he saw Tali go down hard from a sniper perched high. Sokje saw it, too. "I'm on it," he said as he leapt toward the ceiling girders and shadows to work his way toward the sniper.
A lean, dark shadow tackled Shepard, sending them both rolling on the floor and further away from the melee. She instantly disengaged and jumped backward from her enemy, who was wielding a monomolecular sword. Thane's lips drew back in a wordless snarl. He recognized her enemy from her descriptions as well as rumor and scuttlebutt through the shadowy circles Thane frequented. Her assailant's name was Kai Leng, and he had a reputation for deadly hand to hand as well as sadism. He pushed himself faster to get to her side. He would not fail another siha.
Leng's expression was that unique combination of intense concentration mixed with hatred and utter determination to kill your opponent. Shepard knew her face mirrored his. From the second they engaged, it was a blinding exchange of sword against omni blade, kinetic blasts against biotics, and evasion against deadly accurate gunfire. If she'd had even a second to think, she would have been grateful for her Cerberus enhancements and Thane's training that allowed her to stand against Cerberus' most deadly assassin. Hand to hand wasn't her specialty, and she'd never had to face a fighter with Leng's particularly deadly skill set in a fight to the death. Even with her advantages, she was barely able to deflect his lightning fast thrusts, and she'd sacrificed several critical pieces of ablative armor to the molecule-thin edge of his blade.
She shifted quickly to disengage and put some distance between them. If she could find a few feet of distance, she could unleash both a hailstorm of bullets as well as her reave attack, but Leng made sure to stay inside her defenses, forcing her to use hand to hand. It also didn't help that he was relatively fresh, while she had fought a long and hellish battle just to reach this point, but imminent death had a way of releasing previously locked reservoirs of strength and speed.
She fired and saw a splash of blood as she creased his ear. There wasn't even time to curse that she had been so close and still missed before she had to block his sword attack. She dipped low, then came up with a vicious kick to the back of his leg, but he dodged at the last second. They both spun to gain position, and it gave her enough time to power a biotic throw to push him backward.
Leng simply rode it out, sliding backward along the floor and then charged forward again. She sidestepped but stumbled against a body lying behind her. That single instant of distraction was enough to allow his blade to slip past her guard and bury itself deep in her gut. His lips twisted in pleasure as he jerked the blade upward until it caught on her abdominal armor plate.
Her eyes bugged outward at the shock. The pain didn't arrive for another couple of seconds while he gloated in her face. "The great Shepard. Not so great now, are you? I killed you, and you can die knowing I'll kill everyone you ever cared about. Then humanity can take its rightful place with the Reapers to enforce our order on the galaxy. You lose, Shepard," he gloated.
She could feel her strength draining away, but she refused to let this asshole win. If she was going down, she was taking him with her. Her hands felt numb, but she could still feel the pressure of her pistol in her grip. Grabbing his armored vest with one hand, she brought the pistol up to his side and held the trigger until the heat sink overloaded. "So do you, fucker," she gasped in satisfaction as he staggered backward. She groaned in agony as his sword slid free. Her blood dripped from the tip to the grey metal floor and held her attention with morbid fascination for a second. Looking back at her enemy, she grinned wolfishly as she saw him stagger again and hold his hand to his bloody side.
The world jolted painfully as she fell to her knees, but she struggled to remain upright. She tried to lift her gun again to shoot him, but it was too heavy and fell to the floor with a dull clang.
One of his Phantoms appeared at his side to offer support, but he waved her off. Shepard glanced down at her gun, then reached for it. She didn't want to die without knowing for certain that he would go with her, but she couldn't keep her balance and ended up falling prone to the floor. No! she raged internally. Pick up the damn gun! She split her attention between her gun and Leng. When she reached it again, she needed to target him quickly before he had a chance to dodge again.
Another black-clad figure wreathed in biotic energy interposed itself between her and Leng, and she growled at the interference. She blinked her eyes to try and clear her vision, because there was something disturbingly familiar about the person facing Leng. Her eyes refused to stay open no matter how she struggled, and struggle she did because the newcomer reminded her painfully of Thane.
Then she laughed at the irony. He had promised to meet her across the sea when her time came. She hadn't expected it to be a sea of blood and bodies, but it was fitting given her life history. Her mouth moved, but no words actually made it past her lips. "Thank you, Kalahira..."
"No!" Thane was still too far away when he saw Leng's sword slide through Shepard until the exposed tip gleamed redly against her back. She managed to shoot him in the side and make him fall back before she collapsed. As much as he wanted to check on her, he needed to finish off her enemies.
Leng wasn't down yet, although he was severely injured. Another Cerberus agent stood protectively in front of him. That agent was dead in seconds as Thane moved forward in a blur. Leng could still swing his sword, and Thane had to dodge a kinetic blast. It gave Leng enough time to cloak, but Thane spotted him and fired, disrupting the cloak.
Thane moved forward to engage the other assassin. A nerve strike against Leng's sword arm interrupted his swing. Shepard's shots had struck true, and the Cerberus assassin was grievously wounded and couldn't recover in time. Thane jabbed him hard in the gunshot wound, causing Leng to stagger away and flail uselessly with his sword. After that, it was a simple matter to slip behind him. Two hands on the human's head, one quick snap, and Leng fell silently to the ground. Dead.
Other Cerberus agents came at him, but in this moment he was Amonkira come to life. He moved with a speed he couldn't recall even in his youth. Logically, he knew it was the upgrades from the Lazarus project, the same technology that had given Shepard her enhanced speed and strength, but to actually experience it was incredible. He danced around the agents as if they were moving in slow motion. One after the other they fell to his weapon or his hands. They tried to circle him and reach Shepard, but he refused to let them near her. He would defend her to his last breath, and right now that meant killing their enemies as quickly as possible.
He danced away from a high powered sniper shot. As he followed the line of sight back to the sniper, he saw Sokje pull the shooter back into the shadows. Grunt and Garrus fell in around Shepard, protecting their fallen leader, and leaving him free to become the dealer of death that he truly was, a master of hand to hand who wrought absolute devastation among his beloved's enemies.
The last enemy in front of him dropped at his feet, freeing him to return to Shepard's side. A quick glance around the room revealed that Sokje's security force had arrived and was helping Shepard's crew. Garrus had already removed her helmet, and his heart clenched at how pale and still she was. He couldn't bring himself to ask the obvious question as he knelt beside her and took her hand.
"Move!" Miranda shoved Grunt out of the way. "Chakwas is on her way. Help me get her prepped. Garrus, unbuckle her armor," she ordered as she undid the catches on her side with trembling fingers.
Thane was barely aware of Garrus ordering Grunt and others to go meet Chakwas. Instead, he placed a hand on Shepard's cheek and leaned close to her. "Shepard. Siha, open your eyes. I'm here. I swore I would return to your side, and I have. Shepard!"
Please, he begged Kalahira. Please don't take her away from me. Not now!
Her eyes fluttered open, and he smiled as he caressed her cheek with the softest touch. "Thane?" It was the barest whisper, but he smiled again and leaned in to brush his lips against hers.
"I'm here," he reassured her. Across from him, Miranda gently placed a medipack on her abdomen, then rolled her slightly to put one on her back to cover the exit wound. There was more grey than blue in her eyes. All the color seemed to be leaching from her along with her blood.
"Glad you met me," she whispered and tried to smile.
Cold fear twisted his gut into knots as he realized she thought she was dead. If that were the case, she wouldn't fight the siren call of the ocean. She could so easily slip away from him. "No, Shepard," he said more harshly than he meant. "I'm not dead, and neither are you. You're injured, but alive. You have to fight to stay alive. Stay with me!"
A faint look of confusion came over her face. Her lips moved to form a question but nothing came out. "Fight, siha! I'm not across the sea. I'm right here, with you on the Citadel! Don't give up on me, Shepard. I did not survive impossible odds to return to your side just to have you leave me alone in this life!" He stripped her gauntlet off so that he could hold her hand, touch her flesh instead of armor. "Please, siha, don't leave me alone again," he begged.
Her fingers spasmed against his, sending a spike of adrenaline through him as he feared the worst. Then he realized she was trying to squeeze his hand in return. "Love you," she mouthed, the sounds not audible even though he was so close to her.
"No, Shepard," he said urgently as he gripped her hand so tightly he felt the little bones shift under his fingers. "Listen to me. I love you. I need you. I need you to fight for me. You made me promise you. I fought through darkness and fire to return to your side. Now I'm claiming my payment. You will live. Do you understand me?" He was so afraid. The gods were toying with him, and if he weren't so desperate for their aid, he would curse them for what they were putting him through.
Silently, he prayed for Arashu to leave her siha here, for her work was unfinished. He felt selfish hoping that the goddess would spare her siha for her work, when in reality he only wanted her to live for his sake. But he was afraid to pray for his own wishes. He was a sinner many times over. What reason would Arashu have to answer his own greedy prayers? So he prayed on behalf of the billions who would be exterminated if the Reapers won. Surely this was why Arashu had brought Shepard back from the sea, was it not?
He held her gaze as he prayed to his gods to spare his love. Slowly, deliberately, she nodded. It was the smallest of gestures, but its meaning was clear. She knew where she was. She would not embrace the sea. Choking back a sob, he bent over her and pressed his cheek to hers. "Hold on, siha. Help is coming."
Just then, Chakwas appeared at Miranda's side. "Move," she said, all business. Her hands were busy with medicines and bandages, and two of the Normandy's crew ran up with a stretcher. He held her hand as they carried her as quickly as they could toward the exit. "Kolyat!" he said abruptly as they passed near him. Kasumi appeared at his side. "Go on. I'll watch over your son." He nodded his thanks to his friend. In spite of his worry over Kolyat's condition, Shepard was far worse off, and he couldn't bring himself to leave her side, even for his son.
He caught only glimpses of the after action as he hurried forward with Shepard. He was surprised that Garrus wasn't by Shepard's side, but when he glanced back, he saw the familiar blue armor kneeling on the ground. His shoulders were bowed in a posture of grief, but before Thane could make out more details, a muscular human blocked his line of sight.
"Doc, I can help," the man said. "We've got the same blood type."
Chakwas didn't look up from Shepard as she answered. "You're bleeding too much as it is, James. I've already called Huerta and they've prepped an operating room. We just have to keep her alive until we get there." Thane heard the naked worry in the doctor's voice. Shepard was in danger, and he willed them to move faster.
The trip down the stairwell to the Presidium level took forever, and Thane sighed in relief as he saw the ambulance waiting for them. He refused to let himself be separated from her and squeezed in ahead of Chakwas, still holding Shepard's hand. Miranda slid in at the last second, making it even more crowded. "You need me," she told Chakwas.
"She'll need all the help we can give her," was the doctor's response. She finally spared Thane a glance. "I don't know where you came from, but I'm glad you're here now, Thane. You can tell me all about it later."
He watched the doctor's hands move with surety, in spite of the fact that they were covered in his beloved's blood. More blood dripped onto the floor of the ambulance despite the bandages and medi gel that swathed Shepard's body. He blocked out the quiet conversation between Miranda and Chakwas and concentrated only on Shepard's limp hand in his. Every so often, her eyes would flutter open, and she sought his face. He smiled reassuringly, but he couldn't tell if she was able to take any comfort from it before unconsciousness claimed her again.
He held fast to Shepard's hand until they took her into the operating suite and left him behind with only his fears and prayers to occupy him in equal measure.
Many thanks to Orchidellia, my wonderful beta reader.
