Chapter Sixty-Four

"Briggs, we can't keep this up," Garrus' voice was beginning to sound worried. "We're starting to run short on thermal clips and some of the asari are about to keel over."

"I know," Nathan replied grimly. Kneeling up on his good leg, he fired his heavy pistol with his good hand. Reaper troops were pushing against the barriers separating the few remaining defenders on the ground floor from certain death. The krogan had held them back for a few precious minutes, but in the end there were just too many marauders, husks and collector drones. They were backed up against the terminal on the council platform: himself, Samara, EDI, Javik, Grunt, a couple of other krogan and a few civilians. Sporritt lay unconscious and bleeding beside him, and Sparatus' body was near the terminal, where he had taken a blast that would otherwise have killed Javik. Cortez's body was somewhere on the floor below. He had no idea what had happened to Thane.

None of them – except EDI, of course, and thank the stars for that – were fighting at full capacity anymore. Although she fought at somewhere around sixty percent of her normal capacity due to only having access to sixty percent of her usual processing power, EDI was holding the line for all of them now. Samara could barely throw a reave, and the civilians were beginning to shake as the adrenaline wore off and knowledge of their approaching deaths set in. Javik had taken a hit to the abdomen and was bleeding freely, despite the medigel, but he continued to fire his rifle with the dogged determination of the Prothean avatar of vengeance. If not for Grunt and his krogan, they would have already been overwhelmed.

Nathan had taken another hit, this one to the arm, and he was pretty sure the force of the blow had broken it. His suit had tightened around the arm enough to splint it and he was fighting through the pain, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of looming dread that Shepard might have failed. The Crucible still hadn't fired, which meant she hadn't been able to complete her mission. And he knew the only way that would happen is if she was dead.

He fought on despite the hollow, sucking feeling in his chest. What else could he do? The eleven of them on the council platform were trapped. They were already dead, but he still wasn't just going to lay down and die.

Garrus and Liara's teams, though… they might be able to get out. They were all but depleted anyway. "Garrus, Liara, retreat. Get your teams out of there," he ordered.

A snort of laughter was the only reply he got from Garrus. "Not without you, Lieutenant," came from Liara.

"Liara, that's an order—"

He broke off as Javik suddenly gripped the terminal with both hands. "Lieutenant-!"

His shout was cut off by a roaring boom that forced all of them to the ground, arms cradled protectively over their heads. Nathan huddled on the floor, shielding Sporritt's head as best he could and swearing to himself, mind racing as he frantically tried to work out what that boom meant. One of the dreadnoughts could have crashed into the Citadel, a Reaper could be turning its devastating plasma beams on them, something could have gone wrong with the Crucible… or… maybe something had gone right.

The roar continued, too loud for the audio dampeners in his helmet to fully counter. He hardly dared to hope. He stumbled to his feet and over to the terminal, but it had gone completely dark. "Javik?" he demanded, whirling on the prothean.

Javik was staring out one of the side viewports, all four eyes wide open, stomach wound completely ignored. "Look!" he called over the sound of the fading boom. His wide mouth stretched into a grimace. No, Nathan realised with shock, he was smiling. He had never seen Javik smile. "The Hammer has struck."

Nathan whipped his head around to look out the same viewport. The Crucible was detaching, floating serenely away into space, and clearing their view of the battlefield beyond. Nathan sucked in a sharp breath, certain for a moment that the Reapers had destroyed it. But as he watched, a Reaper that had been pounding one of the asari cruisers was suddenly wreathed in angry red static discharge. It seemed to falter, plasma beam cutting off midway through a strike. For a moment it floated, motionless, and then the space around it seemed to contract and expand all at once, unleashing a massive explosion. Nathan held his breath, not even daring to hope. Then, nearby, he noticed another Reaper had also stopped firing. A moment later, it too exploded in a burst of flame mixed with tendrils of writhing dark energy that dissipated almost as quickly as they appeared.

Suddenly he was yelling, and his face was hurting. It took him a moment to realise that it was because he was grinning, harder than he ever had before. All around him the defenders were exploding into cheers, Grunt was roaring and Javik was calling out in some kind of proud, exultant battle cry.

"She did it!" Nathan yelled as he spotted Garrus half-running and half-limping down from the balconies above. He ran over to meet the turian, noticing as he did that the Reaper troops had fallen silent and still while his team celebrated around them.

"Of course she did," Garrus replied, and Nathan grabbed his friend in a tight, one-armed, back-slapping, spinning hug.

They were both almost crushed beneath the weight of a krogan embrace as Grunt decided he would join in on the celebrating. "Take that you slimy sons of pyjaks!" he roared. "For Wrex!"

"And Palaven," Garrus added grimly, slapping Grunt on the back.

Liara ducked in under Nathan's arm, grinning up at them all. "For all the innocents they murdered and all the worlds they destroyed." She glanced back over her shoulder then let Nathan go to pull Javik into the circle.

The last prothean seemed too happy to protest any perceived affront to his dignity. "For my people. Finally. I have my vengeance."

Nathan slapped him on the back, grinning, then flinched as his comm suddenly exploded with static. A cacophony of excited and relieved voices started chattering over the comm as people realised communications were back up again. All over the Widow system, ships began to check in.

"This is the Alliance frigate Brisbane, can anyone hear us?"

"We read you, Brisbane! This is asari cruiser Furthest Wave."

"Salarian troop carrier TC-583 is reading you as well. Comms are back!"

"This is asari commando unit Sigma Seven, reporting in from the Citadel. We can hear you too."

"Nathan."

Nathan froze, whipping a hand up to cover his ear and hitting it on the outside of his helmet instead. The voice had been soft, almost too soft to hear. Quickly he stepped away from the circle and brought up his omnitool, switching to his private channel and boosting the signal as much as he could. "Shepard?"


Lying on the tiled floor, staring out at the Reapers bursting into flame one by one, Shepard smiled at the sound of his voice. "Nathan," she whispered. Even that was an effort. The pain in her chest was constant, relentless, and had been growing worse minute by minute.

"Shepard, you did it! The Reapers are exploding! All of them!"

Her smile grew. After everything she had been through, all the pain, the grief, the impossible choices… finally. It was done. She wanted to get closer to the viewport, but her limbs were little more than dead weight now. She had used up the last of her strength getting to the haptic interface and uploading Legion and Tali's virus. Just the faint tensing of a muscle caused pain to ripple through her body, and her chest to clench tightly. Her head swam from the overdose of adrenaline.

But Harbinger was now silent.

"We did it," she corrected him, the effort leaving her out of breath. "All of us." It was becoming more and more difficult to breathe. Her chest grew tighter each time she tried. There was no way she could gather the strength to pull her helmet, with its inbuilt oxygen delivery system, from its magnetic clamping all the way down on her thigh, but she suspected it wouldn't help her anyway. Her body was shutting down, she could feel it. It would fail long before the atmosphere in this chamber did.

Nathan knew something was wrong, she could tell. "Where are you?"

"Harbinger," she breathed. The view outside was starting to tilt, flame licking the edges. The Citadel was growing in size. It took her sluggish brain a moment to understand what that meant.

"Still? Wait… wait there, I'm coming to get you—"

"No!" she interrupted firmly, coughing weakly and wheezing as she tried to get her breathing under control. "Harbinger… going down. And…"

"There's time! I'll make it! Just hold on!" She could hear the pounding of his boots as he spoke, sounding almost as out of breath as she was.

"No," she insisted, fear that he would throw his life away coming close to drowning out the constant pain in her chest. "Don't. I'm dying, Nathan. Now." Her voice broke on the final word and she blinked away the tears that were beginning to gather at the corners of her eyes. "Just… needed to hear your voice. Before."

"Shepard, no! Fight it, whatever it is!"

She closed her eyes, breath coming hot and thin. She had thought she would feel anger, hatred even, that the Illusive Man had done this to her. But something inside her didn't want her last moments to be consumed with thoughts of him. "Not something… that can be fought," she whispered. "Nathan… get that ship… you wanted. Live a good life." She didn't have the strength to fight the tears anymore. Breathing felt like knives scraping down her throat. "I love you… more than anything—"

Taking a deep breath, and getting no air, she cut the channel before he could hear it.


Nathan had never run so fast in his life. He ignored the pain of his broken arm and his leg wound, only forced to acknowledge it when it threatened to give out a couple of times. Even then he only grit his teeth, tensed his muscles and kept going. Running down the long corridor leading to the Council's private landing pad felt like running a marathon, yet it somehow still managed to pass in a blur. He was taking a chance by going this way, he knew – the Council had evacuated when the Reapers attacked but they had only taken one shuttle and surely they had more than one – but if it panned out it would be a lot quicker than trying to find another working ship.

He skidded around the corner and onto the landing pad, and let out a breath of relief. One of the Council's private shuttles was sitting there serenely, untouched. He didn't even waste time smiling about it. Yanking his pistol off its clamp he shot the lock open and leaped inside. He had it streaking away through the Citadel's artificial atmosphere before the hatch had fully closed.

His eyes stayed locked on Harbinger. The giant Reaper was falling, toppling slowly, almost gracefully, toward the Citadel below. Its superstructure appeared undamaged; Nathan guessed that due to Harbinger's huge size compared to other Reapers, the dark matter explosion had been contained within. Now that it was without power, however, its engines and vital systems were gone. It had no way to hold its position, and it had been just close enough to the Citadel for the relatively minor gravitational pull to be drawing it in.

If it even cared. 'It' – the entity known as Harbinger – could already have been destroyed.

Vaguely he heard warnings being issued to anyone in the vicinity of the projected impact zone, along with an estimated time of impact that was arriving far too quickly, but he ignored both. Instead he fired up the shuttle's scanner. It was an older model, but military spec, as befit a craft that had been retrofit for the Councillors' comfort and security. It took a long, impatient minute to locate the point at which Shepard's team had boarded, but eventually the shuttle's sensors found it.

He set the shuttle down with an inelegant bang, scraping across the slowly tilting floor until he could finally get docking clamps deployed. The clamps would hold it in place for now, but if Harbinger continued to roll, he doubted they were strong enough to keep it there. Especially if the landing area went vertical. He would have to be quick.

He leaped out, clutching his broken arm to his chest to keep it out of the way, and hurried into the dark cavern beyond. Flicking on his helmet light, he spotted the body just before he tripped over it.

Stumbling back to his feet, he recognised Tali's patterned violet veil. His heart sank. "Shit," he swore quietly. Lying next to her were Jack and Zaeed, and all of them were still. He searched the surrounding area as best he could, but could find no sign of Shepard. Quickly he crouched down next to Zaeed, laying two fingers on his neck, although he found himself staring into the darkness as he waited, guiltily itching to keep going, to find Shepard.

"Briggs-Lieutenant."

Nathan jumped as Legion appeared, striding quickly out of the darkness with something slung over his shoulders. "Legion, what's going on?" he demanded.

"They are unhurt. I am attempting to remove them from this vessel before it falls."

Relief flooded his system, and Nathan forced all the questions he had back down. They were unhurt, and Legion was going to save them, that was all that mattered for now. "I spoke to Shepard. She's… she might be… I don't know, I need to get to her," he said urgently. The words fell from his lips in a rush.

Legion lowered Mordin carefully to the ground and mag-locked the salarian's boots in place to hold him against the inexorably canting floor. "Follow me. I will show you. I will retrieve Vega-Lieutenant, and you will retrieve Shepard-Commander."

He set off at a smooth, loping pace, and Nathan realised the artificial gravity was starting to fade. He ignored the pain in his leg and hurried to keep up, one eye on the time display on his HUD. It had been at least five minutes since Shepard had cut the comm connection between them, and he hadn't been able to raise her since. If he didn't get to her soon…

Legion stopped as they approached a long, deep exhaust shaft and a walkway leading across to the other side. "Across there?" Nathan asked impatiently, indicating the other side of the bridge.

"No, Briggs-Lieutenant. The engineering section of this ship is located at the bottom of this exhaust shaft. That is where Shepard-Commander went."

Nathan stared at him in despair. The walls of the shaft were smooth, and there were no ladders in sight. "How do I get down there?"

Legion's faceplates shifted. "In approximately one minute, thirty-six seconds, the wall will be at a sufficient angle for you to descend via friction."

Swearing to himself, Nathan nevertheless nodded determinedly. He would have to slide down, in other words. It would be risky, and he had no idea what was at the bottom of the shaft – or how far down the bottom even was – but it was the only way to get to Shepard. He could do it. "Go, Legion," he told the geth firmly. "Get the others out of here. I set a shuttle down just outside; if it looks like it's going to go vertical don't wait for me. Take it and go."

Legion's reply came via comm as he began loping across the bridge. "I will take off and attempt to find a location from which to collect you."

Nathan nodded and didn't reply, shifting his weight as the floor tilted more and more. If he went down slowly, at an angle, he might be able to control the descent well enough to keep his speed under control.

At one minute twenty seconds, Nathan lunged for the lip of the chasm and pulled himself over. The angle was still steep, but he started inching his way down, using his mag-locked boots, arms and rear for traction. Soon – all too quickly – the angle increased until he was on his feet, shuffling, then running, downhill. It was taking far too long. It was at least seven minutes since he had spoken to Shepard.

A catwalk appeared ahead, almost on its side now, leading into a dark chamber off to his right. It looked too high for him to reach from below, so he built up speed and as soon as he got close enough, leaped for the railing. He caught it more with his body than his one good hand, and somehow heaved himself over with one arm. Having no idea if he was going the right way or not, he pulled himself along the catwalk with the handrails and ducked through the archway into the darkened chamber beyond.

It wasn't as dark as the chasm or the hold in which he had met Legion. One entire wall was a viewport, reminding him unpleasantly of Cerberus' Cronos Station. Stars shone through, as well as the lights of ships passing by overhead, illuminating the chamber in a dull glow.

His breath caught in his throat as he spotted a crumpled, armoured body tucked into the join between the tiled floor and a wall covered in electronics. "Shepard!" he called, hurrying over and skidding to his knees beside her. She was still. Completely still. And then, as he reached for her, she jerked violently.

His hands shook as he quickly turned her over, but the spark of hope died as he saw her white, still face. Her lips were a pale, almost violet, shade of blue. She wasn't breathing. As he watched, however, she jerked again, and he realised her hardsuit was defibrillating her heart.

She was freezing, too. He spotted tiny ice crystals forming patterns near the joints of her armour. She wasn't wearing her helmet, and the atmosphere in here was thin at best.

He fumbled at her suit for a moment, on the cusp of panicking, before his brain caught up and he remembered her hardsuit had other basic emergency life support functions. He clumsily yanked the helmet off her thigh and hit the catch to expand it, then carefully pulled it over her head. "Shepard," he murmured without thinking.

The seals on her suit activated with a quiet hiss, and red text began scrolling across her HUD. He could hear the warning tones as the suit recognised its occupant wasn't breathing. Her hair fluttered and the ice crystals began to melt as heavily oxygenated air was pumped into her helmet, tiny jets of compressed air aimed directly at her nose. She jerked again, then again, and Nathan winced as he realised the built-in emergency compressors in her chestplate were beginning CPR.

He blinked away unshed tears at the sight of her limp body twitching inside the armour. He had to get them out of here now.

He dragged himself to his feet and pulled himself awkwardly through the chamber as it continued to roll, slowly but inexorably. He almost tripped over the body of the Illusive Man, but ignored it, leaving questions about why he was here and if he had anything to do with… with Shepard… for later. He could ask her once they had gotten out of here, he thought firmly.

He ducked into a couple of side rooms, but both were dead ends. There was another archway leading out of the room; he hurried across to it as fast as he could, but it opened out onto another chasm just like the one he had negotiated to get here. He hesitated there for a moment, considering pulling himself down the catwalk using the handrails, but that would take time. A lot of time that he didn't have. And there was no way he could carry Shepard out with a broken arm.

Okay, they could get out the way he had come in. He jogged back across the room. It would be an easy run to the top of the chasm now. And then… and then what? He would have to slide down a vertical wall, carrying Shepard, to reach the landing area, which would now be vertical itself. Fuck.

"Briggs-Lieutenant."

He dropped down next to Shepard. She still wasn't breathing, although her suit was doing its best to do it for her. "Legion?"

There was a noticeable pause before the geth spoke. "I have not been able to locate a secondary landing zone."

Swallowing, Nathan nodded to himself. Part of him had known Legion might not be able to get to them. "How long have we got until impact?"

"Three minutes, thirteen seconds."

A chill spread through his spine and along every muscle in his body as he watched Shepard's limp form jerk within her armour. "All right." He licked dry lips. "Get out of here. Thank you, Legion."

"Good luck, Briggs-Lieutenant."

Three minutes. He had always thought, in the back of his mind, that he would make it out of this.

He gathered Shepard up in his arms and held her close, the compressions feeling almost… almost like a heartbeat.