Running Silent:

The Last Resort

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An alternate ME3. Commander Shepard and her team are on the run from Cerberus and trying to make alliances before it's too late. In a galaxy with no reaper kill switch, how can they hope to defeat something so ancient and powerful? Their last hope is a desperate plan that may cost them everything. Shepard/Garrus, other side pairings.

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Disclaimer: This author in no way profits from the writing of this story. All characters, dialogue, or other referenced material from the Mass Effect trilogy belong to Bioware.

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Shepard collapsed onto her bed at the end of the day, relieved that Garrus would be joining her soon. The weight of the galaxy was heavy on her shoulders today.

They had a plan now, but she couldn't help but worry. It's not that she didn't have faith in the top scientists of the galaxy—they had genius well beyond anything she could understand—but she had doubts. Reapers were part machine and part organic. To take out the reapers, they would need to destroy both parts of them without destroying themselves. The societies of the galaxy would be crippled without their technology, and anything targeted to the organic side of the reapers could easily kill them as well.

To create such a weapon, their scientists would need to study the reapers. How else could they figure out how to destroy them? But hadn't they seen, this very day, how dangerous a proposition that was? It was the great genius and danger of the reapers—anyone who got close enough to study them would inevitably become enslaved to them. She hoped the planned countermeasures would be enough. She hoped… but she didn't believe.

She didn't want to go out this way. There had to be something else they could do.

One last time, Shepard studied all she'd collected on the reapers. There must be something she'd missed.

…

Garrus woke groggily, his body somehow knowing that it wasn't time to get up yet. He reached out to the other side of the bed to pull Shepard's soft form to him, but found nothing but air and cool sheets.

His eyes opened and he glanced around the room, noticing the slight trace of light coming in around the edges of the bathroom door.

Garrus closed his eyes again, shifting into a more comfortable position to wait. He drifted in and out of a light half-sleep, until he realized that too much time had passed. He got up swiftly, now concerned.

"Shepard?" he called, approaching the bathroom door. "Jane?"

There was no response.

Without another thought, he pressed the key to open the door. It didn't occur to him that she might not want the intrusion. He blinked at the bright light that came streaming into the room as the door slid open, and he found Shepard sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor, bent over heavily with her face in her hands.

Garrus was immediately on the floor in front of her. "Jane," he said quietly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Shepard lifted her head, breathing out slowly. "I'm fine," she said, almost automatically. She gazed at him calmly, but the expression was a little too blank.

Garrus bit back the anxious words on his tongue. "Shepard," was all he said. It was enough.

She looked at the floor, silent. He knew she was considering what to say—how much to reveal and how much to hold back. Was she trying to protect herself or him?

"Please—" His subvocals wavered, and he steadied them. "Please don't shut me out."

She looked up, eyes filled with anguish. "I'm sorry," she whispered and threw her arms around him. "I'm so sorry." She clung like a lifeline.

"Hush," he said. "You don't have anything to be sorry for." Garrus rubbed her back gently, pressing his face into her hair. "You're not alone," he promised her. "I'm not going anywhere. Shepard and Vakarian, remember?"

Silence followed, only broken by the sound of her ragged breathing. She spoke up unexpectedly. "I couldn't sleep," she admitted. "I think—" She paused, trembling in his arms. "I think it's too much, Garrus."

Spirits, he ached for her. Daily he strained under the pressures of his own position, but it was nothing compared to hers. She was the strongest woman he knew—she could fill a room with her presence, stare down an army, make death itself quake in fear—but at that moment she was just a mortal woman, finding comfort in his arms. He pressed his lips plates to her forehead in a kiss. "I've got you," he promised. "I always will." He crooned quietly, trying to calm her.

After a while her breathing began to steady, and they lapsed into another long silence. Eventually, she pulled back and looked into his eyes. "I think I have a plan," she said. And then the most inexplicable thing happened. Her eyes filled up with tears.

…

Shepard smiled as she greeted Mordin Solus, but Garrus could see that it didn't reach her eyes. Once they'd gotten up in the morning, Shepard wouldn't say a word about the plan she'd come up with the night before. "You'll find out when everybody else does," she said, and would say no more, refusing to meet his eyes. That scared him more than anything. Whatever this plan was, she was afraid to speak of it.

The morning was spent in arguments. Governments fought over whose needs were greatest and what each was willing to give. Shepard spoke rarely, only to shut down anyone who balked at offering their best.

"If you hold back to protect your homeworlds, you'll lose them," she said, with a pained look in her eye.

She was silent then, until Wrex demanded a cure for the genophage. He was shouted down in anger, and that was when Shepard stood. For the first time that day, Garrus saw a familiar spark in her eye.

"We need the krogan," she said simply. "They are the best ground troops we could possibly have against the reaper forces. No one else is going to stand against them for long. But you want them to do this for what? For your gratitude?" she asked scathingly. "That's not good enough. For hundreds of years, the krogan have suffered. Haven't they been punished enough?"

"It's not about punishment," said the representative from the Vol Protectorate. "They're dangerous."

"And you think the danger from the krogan is greater than the danger from the reapers?" Shepard demanded. "Maybe the krogan will rebel again and destroy half the galaxy. That's a chance I'm willing to take. It's better than doing nothing and letting the reapers destroy all of it." Her eyes blazed. Garrus felt a stirring in his chest.

In the ensuing silence, one of the asari matriarchs stood. "Commander, you are young. You have lived in this galaxy a short time. And while our history seems like a long time ago to you, some of us remember the destruction of the rebellions. We made a mistake, using the krogan to fight the rachni. We do not wish to make the same mistake again."

"You're right," Shepard replied. "I am not personally familiar with the destruction wrought by the krogan rebellion. But I am familiar with the krogan today. They have good leadership. They've learned from their mistakes. I believe in the krogan," she said, looking at Wrex. "I believe they've earned this chance."

Dalatrass Linron stood haughtily. "My people uplifted the krogan. We know them best. The genophage is the only way to keep their… urges in check. The only things they know are copulation and war!"

Wrex slammed his fists on the table. "That's out of line!"

Councilor Tevos stood, holding up her hands for silence. "Please, Dalatrass, make your point, but do so courteously."

Linron huffed. "Doctor Solus has studied the genophage extensively over the years. He knows a great deal about the krogan. Tell them." She sat.

Mordin stood as she bid, and Garrus prayed that he would not uphold the dalatrass's opinion. He knew Shepard had all but promised Wrex that they'd get the cure for him.

Mordin spoke in his usual rapid-fire way. "Yes, studied genophage and krogan extensively. Came out of retirement to do so. Krogan naturally adapting to genophage, higher birth rates. Recent modifications to genophage stopped this. I have come to believe," he paused for a sniff, "that it was wrong to do so."

Linron's eyes snapped to him. Shepard began to smile.

"Full cure might not be possible. Better that way! Krogan infrastructure not prepared for influx of children. But can aid natural adaptations to raise birth rate incrementally, leading to full cure in time, perhaps several generations."

"So you recommend helping the krogan to slowly overcome the genophage, as they would have done naturally over time?" Shepard asked, breaking the shocked silence that had fallen.

"Can speed up process," Mordin agreed. "Will have to work with data to determine a feasible rate."

"Is this your recommendation, as an expert?" Primarch Victus asked, shifting beside Garrus.

"Yes. No outcome certain of course. Best guess," Mordin answered.

"This is madness!" Linron exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "The Salarian Union will have no part of this," she commanded. Turning to Mordin, she snapped, "And we will talk about this later, Doctor."

"You won't be needing krogan aid on your own world, then?" Shepard asked, her voice deceptively light. Garrus almost flinched at the hostility he could sense her holding back.

Linron glared. "Are you threatening my homeworld?"

"Of course not." Shepard shrugged. "But you certainly can't expect to receive aid from the krogan when you refused to offer any."

Before the angry salarian could say more, Councilor Tevos stood. "Let's put this to a vote, shall we?"

Wrex grumbled at the thought of his people's future being decided by a vote, but after Shepard speech and Mordin's explanations, nearly every person agreed.

At the lunch recess, Wrex gave Shepard a hug that nearly broke her in half.

…

When they reconvened in the afternoon, the mood was calm and solemn. They spent most of their time discussing the plan to create a targeted reaper weapon. Shepard was silent for most of the discussion, waiting for her moment.

"Worried: What if they cannot create this weapon in time to save our people? Hopeless: It will be months at most before our homeworlds are fully harvested," said the elcor representative.

"We need a backup plan," Shepard said. "Something better than our current stop-gap measures. We can't rely on one idea, an idea we may never be able to realize." She stood, all heads turning in her direction.

"Do you have something to add, Commander?" Councilor Tevos asked.

"I do," she said, her heart racing. She waited for the others to seat themselves.

"What are you willing to give up to have your people survive this war?" she asked the silent group. "I fear that unless we're willing to give up everything, we may not save anything." She paused, allowing that thought to sink in. "Currently, the reapers seem focused almost solely on our homeworlds. They aren't spread completely across the galaxy, at least not yet."

"What are you saying, Commander?" asked Councilor Sparatus.

She took a deep breath. "The judge is right," she said, nodding towards the elcor who had spoken before her. "If we don't succeed in creating this weapon, we can't win this war through standard tactics. Not while we are outnumbered and outgunned as we are. We need another plan. One that won't fail. I wouldn't suggest this if I saw another way." She looked around at the gathered leaders and swallowed down her fear. "When I destroyed the Bahak relay to stop the reapers, it obliterated the entire system and everything within it, including the reaper vanguard. If we do the same to the relays of our home systems, nearly all of the reapers will be destroyed with them."

She couldn't help but flinch at the roar of outrage that followed her words. Arguments rose from every quarter in a din that Shepard couldn't parse out.

Eventually, the crowd was quieted, if not calmed. "I know this is not what anyone wants to hear," she said, blinking hard. "Including me. But it might be our last chance to have any of our people survive this. Please be aware that if we do need to move forward with this plan, we can't wait forever. In a matter of months, the reapers will finish harvesting our homeworlds and spread out to cover the rest of the galaxy. And I'm afraid, once that happens, that all may be lost," she said, and dropped hard into her seat.

The din rose again around Shepard but she could only hear her heart pounding in her ears. She had done it. Relief flooded her system, but it warred with guilt. If she had doomed their homeworlds, she didn't know if she could forgive herself for it. Or if anyone else would either.

She kept her eyes on the table. She wouldn't look at Garrus.

…