Attention crew. The ETA for earth is 1 hour. Use this time to check maintenance and prepare for the reaper horde.
The time is here. Xen knows that death is inevitable at this point, no matter how many fleets are on their way to earth. The worst part was that Rina needed to be down on earth for maintenance repairs since she was one of their best techs while Xen was going to be in space aiding the heavy fleet with the attack. Shepard promised this time that Rina was going to stay out of harm - she was going to be in the base with Captain Anderson and the rest of the alliance. Xen could only hope that that will be the case.
"Admiral." The soft voice spoke out tearing the admiral's attention and Xen turned her head to look at Rina. "Shepard is going to be here soon to get me, I want to talk to you." she pleaded.
Xen tried her best to keep her composure during the conversation. "What is it now, Rina? I'm busy." she motioned her hand at the reports from all of her techs that were reporting in from the special projects lab.
Rina nodded her head as she reached out for her lover's hands softly and pulled the admiral in gently. "I love you, Admiral." she confessed softly and moved one of her hands to touch Xen's helmet. "Whatever happens, I need you to know that, at least." There was a breaking in her tone that Xen couldn't miss..it sounded like she was starting to cry.
With a soft sigh, Xen looked around the small lab they were in to make sure no one would see them before accepting Rina's words. "Do not talk like that." she needed to be the strong one. Rina was terrified and couldn't hide it very well - not that anyone could blame her. She almost died on the homeworld a few months back, but she needed to keep herself together or else all of them will die.
"You need to stop talking like this and focus on coming back to me." Xen's voice was nothing more than a whisper at this point, but it was very stern and Rina could only nod in fear of making the admiral angry again. It was a very harsh response, and Xen knew it, but she needed to remind Rina that she cannot let the fear rule over her. It was dangerous.
Rina slowly released the admiral's hands and nodded to her. "You're right, I won't say anything like that anymore." there was a small sniffle that could be heard and Xen sighed another time and wrapped her lover in a hug this time to reassure her.
Attention. Captain Shepard is boarding the ship now.
The accountment was for Xen specifically since Rina was a part of her crew now, and she motioned her head towards the younger quarian. "You need to get going now." she released her from the embrace and added one more thing. "You need to keep in contact with me at all times..okay?" this time Xen could feel her voice breaking and her eyes started watering now too.
"Yes ma'am." Rina responded her head sweetly before exiting the lab and Xen sat there with herself for the first time since all of this began and uttered the words. "This is so fucked."
Love is a very funny thing. One second you feel like you can do anything, and then the next second you realize that there is a small chance where the last goodbye really is a last goodbye. That is what Rina was trying to say, and Xen was not going to allow it at all..maybe she was wrong for that? Maybe she should have allowed a goodbye, especially if it was going to be the last one.
"She better come back alive...I swear on the homeworld." The admiral muttered to herself as she left the lab as well to attend the final war meeting between all of the admirals. It was to strategize one last time against the reaper fleet.
Rina..I know you have been through and have lost so much...please don't give up my love...please keep fighting for us.