IMPORTANT NOTE: Hi! Thank you so much to all who read this. This is the last chapter, so our story concludes here. I cannot say how happy I am that I got to write this, I wanted to do it since ages. Please let me know how you liked the end! :)
BUT, Since I cannot get enough of these characters, am going to write a new fanfiction! It will be again the same Jane and Saren, but in an alternate universe where the reapers never happened. It's gonna be so awesome, I cannot wait, I already have a ton of ideas, it'll be a lot more raw than this one! (I love these characters, but sooo much trauma happened to them in their life, I want to play with their personalities in a more raw, trauma-less status: i.e. no reapers) I am going to create the "Work" today, it's going to be called bForever War,/b but the first chapter will only come 2 weeks from now (20th January 2019, Sunday), as I need time to build up the structure of the fanfiction so you hopefully get a coherent story instead of a bucket of randomness done on the fly (I worked and researched a ton on this fanfic too before deciding on plotpoints/directions). If you're interested, stay tuned, we'll start Forever War on the 20th! :)
Thank you again and I hope you like this chapter! :)
It was almost like the Universe extended a bit, as if something, some strange force was pushing everything further apart, slowly, unseen, calm. Almost like the Citadel was coming apart, but so slowly that it would take thousands of years.
And the station was silent, just floating in the emptiness of space. As Joker looked out the observation shutter, he thought for a second that someone stopped time itself. Hundreds of giant reapers lingered around the now closed station in the dust, but motionless. None responded to the Normandy, or anything else.
They seemed to be in trance, all of them, sleeping in the nebula.
"What the..." Joker exhaled, sitting back down into his chair slowly, looking at the passing, still reapers.
"They seem inactive" EDI added, looking outside herself. "It must be Leviathan's influence."
"Yeah..." Joker nodded, not sure if he believed it or not. This creature must have been very powerful, otherwise he had no idea how the reapers all froze in the area.
The Relay Monument lit up, viciously spinning its rings before spitting out the mako that flew over the railing, right into the wall on the Presidium. Jane never thought she's going to make this fall again, but here they were, crushed into the wall, the rover on its side. They crawled outside, meeting in front of the vehicle. Both of them seemed to be okay, no harm done by the jump. Jane raised her omni tool to reach Joker "Normandy, Can you hear me?"
[Loud and clear] came the reply from the other side by Joker.
"Status report!"
As Saren was listening to Joker's short summary, he looked around the Presidium. The whole area was dead, littered with corpses of many races, as well as collapsed reaper scout troops. It was like a bloody cemetery at this point: completely lifeless, haunted. It was as dark as never seen before, clouded in the fog of war, dust and debris. But he knew, it will not be anymore.
Today, everything is going to change, and as he listened to Joker and looked at Jane, he was more confident in this than ever before.
[Normandy arrived safely, all systems operational. There is no reaper opposition. There are countless reapers floating about, but none of them are responsive. As if they are paralyzed.]
"That's Leviathan's power" Jane nodded, looking at Saren for a moment, a small smile lingering at the corner of her mouth "All the reaper ground troops are frozen here as well."
"We still need to hurry" Saren interrupted "I have no idea how long this can go on."
She nodded. "Joker, We're going to search for the Catalyst now, keep stealth systems engaged, stand by and report if anything goes wrong. Wait for my signal until you let the Crucible through."
[Aye-Aye, Commander. Good luck.]
And with that, she closed her omni tool and stepped to Saren.
"What do you think?" she asked, looking at the turian. They had no idea where to find the Catalyst. It was all right that it was the Citadel, but she didn't know where the drive core was. Maybe…
"I think we better engage Leviathan" he said, deep in thinking "It might just know where to go."
"Sounds reasonable." she replied, and they were off to the elevator that took them to the Citadel Tower, the Council chambers where Leviathan's artifact was left. Where it trapped Harbinger.
Eternal darkness covered the dark metal that lost its shine now. It became dull, muted, only a shadow of what it once was. Devoid of its power, its freedom torn, the gigantic reaper was tired. Tired and bruised to the point that it had become silent. It only floated in the dark fog as it tried to get free, but failed hard every time, more torn down which each second.
Its mind was reduced to its basic instincts, the deepest of the darkness that lingered inside of it, twisted, unsound.
And the silver creature of the waters kept its eyes on it, tearing into its corrupted soul. Harbinger felt the water. It was flowing around, like air, but trapping, suffocating it. It not only felt the water, but felt the colossal eyes of the sea creature on itself.
Its silver body lingered in the distance, commanding like a puppet master moving its slaves.
"You are nothing more, than ash" sounded Harbinger, its mind in pieces, disturbed. "I have ripped your flesh and heart millenia ago. You were always just ash, and you will always remain so."
Leviathan showed no fear.
"And still we are here, longer than you have ever been." its voice was liquid metal in Harbinger's mind, filling its neurons with fluid it had hated. Water was life, the cradle of all life that turned ash.
"We are infinite." it retaliated "Where your life ends in death, ours remain above all. Its truth rings in your fate."
Suffocation was the reward for the words it spoken.
"We gave you life" Leviathan's voice swam through the water like thunder "That you betrayed."
"We cannot betray what we never vowed for." was Harbinger's answer "All life is doom, and we are eternity. We are freedom. You cannot keep us here forever."
The sea creature's eyes slowly closed, falling into memories in the cave of its ancient brain. It tapped into a pond of blood, a sea of war and death. It remembered the light of Harbinger's crimson eyes shooting through the darkness of the galaxy, wiping away millions and hungrily drinking their blood. Ripping through the earth and water their lives were born upon, and crushing the stars that embedded them in light. And the blood had coated it like a mantle, hardening around its skin like metal, turning the tool into a monster.
Harbinger was the predator, fated to be a tool. But it was maddened by the very blood it hunted. It was eternally mad, a colossus of darkness, still roaming. In its eyes Leviathan still saw the same: the hunger, the destruction.
"You're not freedom. You're a shadow of your own purpose, a machine without wear, long gone when it should have stopped. You are mad to your core, a useless mechanism running past its time. You will end. And you will end by the hands of the very thing you talk down to."
The elevator doors opened, and thank god both Jane and Saren had their helmets on and their suits entirely closed. Because as the doors opened, aggressive vacuum sucked them into the Council chambers, lifting them off the floor as the last particles of air got sweeped into the vacuum.
"What the fuck?" Jane cried in surprise as she reached her hand to the elevator controls to stop herself from floating away. "Why is there vacuum in here?"
"Some part of the chamber is possibly leaking" Saren also held onto the railing at the entrance, already reaching to his boots to turn suction on. Their boots were specifically for these scenarios: where they had to move in the vacuum of space, during emergencies mostly.
Their feet soon touched the ground and they started to make their way to the artifact. This room was completely empty as well, only the blood on the floor remained, possibly all the corpses got sucked out. And it was no wonder: the glass behind the Council's pedestal was completely gone, exposing the room to empty space. One of Harbinger's claws was slightly in the room, that was what possibly caused it to break in the first place.
Nonetheless, Leviathan's artifact was still at the same place, floating above the ground, covered by its mist circling around it. It seemed its hold on Harbinger, and in extension the other reapers in the area was still lasting.
"It's still working" Jane noted, stepping to the globe.
"It's weaker however" said Saren, pointing at the claw of Harbinger that was dangling just in the giant window, slowly moving from time to time, like a twitch.
Jane looked at the artifact. It was time they end this once and for all, so she motioned Saren to step to her, so they could initiate contact together.
"Leviathan" she called.
The same shock travelled through their bodies that did the last time they were here. It knocked the air out of them for a second, and engulfed them in a dark cloud. They barely saw Harbinger anymore, and Leviathan's eyes lit up in front of them.
"You have returned." a thunder coarsed through them as the creature spoke.
"We have found a way to defeat the reapers, but we need your help." Saren started immediately, not wasting a second. He grabbed the little globe out of his pockets and activated it. Vendetta suddenly appeared in front of them, and Leviathan's attention shifted to the prothean construct.
"What is this?"
"This is Vendetta, a prothean intelligence." Jane started "The Catalyst is needed to complete the Crucible. Vendetta here needs to interface with the Citadel AI to activate the Catalyst and blast the reapers to oblivion. The Catalyst is the Citadel AI."
For a short second, the light of Leviathan blinked.
The dark cloud around them shifted for a moment, revealing their surroundings, showing Harbinger's so far limp claw shoot into the air slightly then falling back to the ground, shaking the whole tower with it. The ceiling and the walls moved from the force.
Saren instinctively stepped closer to Jane and curled his hand around her waist to protect her. Just a moment later, Leviathan's eyes flashed up again and the movements of the reaper stopped.
But this time, it was slightly paler, more silver.
"What was that?" Jane asked, fearing the worst.
"We created Harbinger. It's perfect in its design. It will escape even my hold." the sound of thunder that belonged to Leviathan was now different, slower and deeper "You must hurry in what you do, this battle will soon end."
"We can't let it escape! If Harbinger wakes up, it'll destroy the Crucible and we'll never get a second chance!" said Jane, looking at Saren, deep into his blue eyes. She was more frustrated by the second "Why did I even think trapping Harbinger was a good idea?"
[If you would not have done that, your plan would never work] Vendetta suddenly said.
"What?"
[The Crucible will not recognize where to target the dark matter. It needs to be calibrated to reaper data, before it can create the proper targeting algorithms. Otherwise it will destroy everything. Harbinger is at the perfect place at the perfect time.]
"Why isn't it calibrated yet? Why are we only doing this now?" Jane asked, furiously. The damn weapon was being prepared for months at this point, and it was never calibrated for reapers?
[None ever got this far to complete this step.] Vendetta replied. Jane looked at her feet as she felt the weight of its words. She knew this before, but having to hear again that no one ever made it this far was crushing. No one ever stood where they stood now.
"Tell us then, where is the AI?" Saren asked Leviathan.
"The AI core is deep within the bowels of the station. You will not need to travel to it, the main control panel in front of you, with my authority, will give you control to upload the data you need."
Saren remembered. It was also where Sovereign instructed him to upload the keeper code three years ago. Jane stepped to the console and turned back, looking at Vendetta.
"Give it to me" she commanded and received the globe from Saren to interface it with the control systems. "Do you need time for the upload?"
[Yes.] the construct responded [Commencing code upload, … 5%.]
"Joker, this is Shepard" she reached to her comms "The Catalyst is getting ready. Call the Council, it's time. They have to make the jump with the Crucible immediately and dock on the Citadel."
[Roger that, now contacting Citadel Council.] Came the confirmation from Joker.
So far everything looked better than expected.
"Splendid" noted Jane, reaching for the control console again "Opening Citadel arms now."
She pressed some buttons, and the arms of the station started separating, opening up to soon welcome the Crucible.
Victory was in an arm's reach now.
But just as their eyes met with Saren to share a small smile, another quake shook the chambers, and Leviathan's light flickered again.
"No" hissed Jane with barely any air in her lungs as she saw Harbinger's giant claw crush into the ground, breaking into the floor and walls below them, ripping down a side of the tower as it pulled its finger out. They fell to the ground, and saw the claw exit the building, not attached anymore.
It was breaking free.
And on the Namakli, tiny bubbles started travelling up from the depths of the ocean, carrying drops of silver, metallic blood in them as the ancient, withered bodies of Leviathan moved under the water, sinking down further with every moment. Waves of shock travelled through the water in their suffering, harder to keep control by the minute.
"Hurry" they heard from the globe, Leviathan's voice fading away "I cannot... keep it trapped for long now."
Saren stood up, looking out at the reaper that started slowly moving back and forth, as if still stuck, but waking up. It did not detach from the tower completely, but its claws were twitching enough to let them know this wasn't going to stand.
"We need it to stop" he said as he turned to Jane and helped her up "Harbinger's going to ruin everything."
[Code upload 25%.]
"What do you want to do?" she asked back, trying to figure out what would be the best course of action. Their plan was soaring so far, but this could ruin everything they worked for.
"We have to stop Harbinger somehow."
Then Jane's comms sounded. [Commander, the Crucible made the jump successfully, they arrived safely in the system.]
"Make them dock on the Citadel!" Jane shouted immediately "We need them ready right now!"
[Of course.]
The arms of the Citadel opened up wide, spreading into the nebula. A giant, round construct entered the area at the same time with a large fleet around it. The Crucible floated to the station from behind, connecting to the Citadel tower. The engineers on board looked out with awe as they saw a colossal reaper attached on the other side, and as the Crucible docked, they came right across from it.
It was wiggling its arm in shock, as if writhing in a non-existent cage.
It moved more and more with each second.
[Code upload 60%.]
"Fuck" Jane cursed, cruising back and forth in front of the console.
"This is not good, we have to do something." she heard from Saren again. She turned to look at where he was. He was standing near the giant window where Harbinger removed his claw not long ago and left a tear in the side of the tower. He was looking outside, visibly measuring the distance between the tower and the reaper.
[Code upload 75%.]
The ground shook again, and a second later Leviathan's eyes flashed up around them, completely silver, constantly flickering their light, just like a bulb before going off.
[Error. Interference detected. Harbinger's blocking transaction.] informed Vendetta.
"What?" Jane said, turning back to the console, looking right at the construct. "No!" she screamed, putting her hand on her helmet.
Everything was falling apart.
[The Crucible docked, Commander.] came from Joker.
"Start data transaction with Tower control immediately, we need to calibrate the weapon before Leviathan loses control over Harbinger!" shouted Saren into the comms now too, still standing on the edge.
Another quake shook them, and this time, it did not stop. The reaper crashed to the side of the Tower slightly, barely hanging onto it, trying to break free in every possible way. Leviathan"s light flashed again, and the sea creature's deep, ragged voice filled the room. The dark cloud around them started turning silver and fluid, like a very strange coloured blood.
It was falling apart.
"Jane!" shouted Saren from the edge "I'll end this!"
Her heart throbbed.
"No, Saren!" she screamed, standing up, trying to make her way to him. He stepped back to the console slightly, resulting in them meeting in the middle.
They almost crashed into each other from the tremors, and Saren caught her, pulling her hand towards himself "We need to deactivate its AI once the calibration ended, otherwise it will doom us forever!"
His eyes were shining in their blue, more beautiful than she had ever seen.
He was ready to die to pull this through, but she was not ready to let him go.
"No!" she hissed, a tear streaming down her face as she pushed her helmet to his, doing her best to make their foreheads touch in their gear. "I'll go with you!"
He almost clawed into her armor as he swallowed his nerves.
She was not going to come with him.
She had done more for him than anyone will ever be able to, and he wasn't going to risk the only human in existence who he cared for. She will remain here, in safety, and carry through with the transaction.
"No you won't!" he eventually replied, the look in his eyes softened. They only had this one moment. "You have to live. If you die, everything I did was for nothing."
He pushed her hard, making her fall to the ground as he turned around, leaned in and shot himself out, and ran to the very edge of the chamber, going right to Harbinger's targeting core.
"Saren!" she cried out desperately, but he did not stop. He disappeared at the end of the room, jumping through the empty space using his momentum. He flew through the distance between the tower and the reaper, crashing right into its now closed targeting core.
He was going to make this fucking reaper pay for everything they'd done.
Jane just sat there for a second, looking at the place where Saren was just a second ago.
This should have never happened. She belonged with him, and she could only pray that he wasn't going to do anything stupid while on Harbinger. She could not bare losing him again, and she hoped he knew that.
After all, he promised him that after all this resolves, they'd escape.
Another tremor shook the chambers, and she could barely stand up. That was when her omni tool rang again.
[Shepard? This is Admiral Hackett.]
"Hackett? What is your status?"
The Admiral's voice was confident on the other side: [The Crucible is docked and the data is flowing from Tower Control. I don't know what you did, but the whole system is powering up rapidly. The engineers can see reaper data flowing in to the targeting systems.]
"That data is coming from Leviathan and Harbinger trapped here." she explained "Keep collecting the data and readying the weapon. Leave the rest to us."
Her eyes were shooting sparks almost, that Hackett couldn't see on the other side. But he felt that something was off.
[Commander, don't do anything stupid!]
"Hush!" she commanded in the heat of the battle "We'll make it work one way or the other. Shepard out." and with that she closed her omnitool.
"Vendetta, status report!" she said as she looked at the console, then into the air amongst the now constant quakes that Harbinger caused, and realized that Leviathan's aura almost completely disappeared.
The sea creature wasn't going to hold for long.
"Saren" she whispered to herself, closing her eyes for a long second "Please.."
Saren landed right on Harbinger"s closed targeting core.
He looked for an opening somewhere where he could climb inside, but there was nothing. The only thing he found was a narrow line where the reaper's metal plates protecting the core met, and he dug his nails under it. There was no other way.
The machine was constantly moving at this point, and it was sheer luck that it didn't crush the Tower yet. He found a grip between two fits of the the panels, and started to pry open the fit. He set his foot and gave in all his strength to pull it open, but it wasn't working. In a second he was heavily panting.
Opening a fucking reaper with his own hand wasn't in the spectre handbook.
But he had a geth arm now.
He switched hands and closed his eyes for a second. Straight back, weight on hips and knees. He started to lift the metal, ripping the fit open as he went, his claws digging into the metal. He felt his muscles burn as the weight transferred onto him, but he didn't stop. His mandibles twiched and a roar left him, as the metal ripped open and he blasted off the covers. The metal flew off into the empty void, and he got to the second layer. He ripped it apart at the seems, and the targeting core became visible in a second. He pried open a small opening next to the closed globe, and slipped in.
The metal was blasted off from his kick as he ripped through the wall of the reaper, cutting some cables that fell out of the ceiling, and he fell right into one of the corridors. He lifted himself up and looked around, trying to identify his position.
Harbinger was built similar to the other reapers, meaning its control room was just above the targeting core. He didn't even have to hack through any doors to get there: the whole complex was confused, wall panels opening and closing, corridors moving as the reaper was shaping constantly, door opening wide and shutting closed in seconds, ripping apart the wall from the force.
Leviathan's hold on the reaper was still strong, and it seemed it almost drove it insane. He used it as an advantage and danced through the confused doors in a minute, ending up in the control room.
"Hello" he purred as he set his eyes on the control panel as he arrived, running to it immediately.
He started working at once.
It was easy to hack the outer security layers of the reaper's intelligence, coming from the fact that getting free from Leviathan took all its strength, and Harbinger's intelligence was clearly redirecting resources to protect its inner coding. But that meant that hacking the inner layers was almost impossible, even for him.
He needed to make sure not to shut down the reaper prematurely. If they cannot calibrate the Crucible before it shuts down, all their efforts will go to waist. But he soon realized that he did not need to worry about this. He arrived at a block in the code he just couldn't proceed through. He slammed his fists onto the panel, roaring from anger.
He had to find another way to shut its AI down.
That was when he had an idea. Shutting down the reaper couldn't only be done via hacking. Just like any AI, it had an AI core of its own, that was still just hardware. He stepped away from the console, deep in thought now, all his anger gone.
He's going to rip that core apart, with his own hands if necessary.
So he turned around and ran just above the drive core, to the room that housed the AI core on all reapers. It was payback time.
Jane was pacing back and forth between the console and the rip in the wall.
Time was running out, Leviathan completely disappeared and Harbinger outside was moving wilder than ever, almost as if in shock. She didn't hear from Saren, she didn't hear from Hackett, or the Normandy, and her nerves were through the roof. Her heart was racing, like a rocket launched into space.
[Calibration Complete] Vendetta informed, and she turned around [Data upload 80%. No progress possible while Harbinger's signal is still active.]
Without that data, even if calibrated, the Crucible will not be ready to launch.
She stopped in her tracks, staring deep at Leviathan's globe.
"Leviathan" she hissed, but the sea creature did not reply.
Darkness took over her in a second, as she realized she needed to choose. She either stays here to make sure Vendetta and the globe are protected, or leave this place, follow Saren into Harbinger's bowels and try help him eliminate the signal.
She closed her eyes, trying to sort her thoughts. And a second later, she realized she had nothing to think about. They are going to die either way if Saren fails. As she opened her eyes, he looked at Leviathan's globe, and the crack on it that grew bigger every second.
She almost felt the creature suffocating under water, as it gave its life to keep Harbinger trapped.
"Thank you, Leviathan." she whispered slowly, lingering for a short second.
Her instincts prevailed, and she raised her omni tool to initiate contact.
"Hackett" she spoke, her voice filled with the confidence of finality " Start the attack on the homeworlds now. And as soon as Harbinger goes offline and the upload finishes, activate the Crucible. The Catalyst is going to gather the dark matter, send it through the Crucible and all reapers will be destroyed. But do not hesitate. Jane Shepard out."
She ripped the omni tool off of her arm, and sent it to the floor. She was not going to need it where she headed.
[Shepard?] chirped the tool in Hackett's voice.
She turned to the tear in the wall, looking at the suffering Harbinger shaking around the tower. Her heart almost exploded, and the air in her lungs flowed like never before. She flexed her fingers, feeling her ring on it.
She leaned in, and bolted to the opening in the Tower, and at the edge, she kicked herself off, flying into the emptiness of space, and right into Harbinger's targeting core.
[SHEPARD?]
Saren couldn't believe this.
He'd never seen an AI core as massive as this one before, and he didn't bring any heavy weapons. He looked at the core, its cables running everywhere, the main hardware buried deep inside the casing, not a single way for him to get through.
But he had to get through, even if he dies here.
He started gripping the tubes and cables and ripping them off five at a time, ruining their comb, causing electric bursts in the air around him. He wished he was a simple turian now, so that his metal plates would not lead the electricity from the core to his skin. He felt the small thunders bolting through him as he ripped the core apart, until there were no more cables left.
He attacked the casing then.
He felt his claws rip into themselves, blood filling his gloves as he dig through the metal seems, but he couldn't stop. If he did, Jane would die.
He didn't give a single fuck about the rest of the galaxy, but her… His teeth clenched as he howled in pain, until he felt a jolt in his muscles, and the electricity firing out of the core shot him, sending him to the ground.
A hellis roar escaped him as he felt his helmet and chest burning.
Then he felt the reaper moving again. Harder this time, sending him rolling on the floor to the other side of the room. It smashed him to the wall, almost knocking him out.
Leviathan….
Harbinger arose from the water in its mind, its red eyes bursting sparks at the sea creature in the distance. It was swimming in its own silver blood, its eyes shot open, as life was leaving it, the darkness taking over.
"You end now..." Harbinger hissed, its voice dark, electric "... Leviathan."
And the sea creature did not respond, its silver eyes became ash, turning into foam in the ocean.
Saren stood up and ran to the core again, but just as he placed his claws to continue destroying the AI core, a colossal, ripping siren went off, with the voice of millions of reapers, shaking the walls and spreading through the nebula. He looked up at the core that was now alit, glooming red from the extreme heat, and he realized.
Harbinger broke out of its trap.
An expression of doom took over his face as he realized they are done for. He was late. Too late.
Again.
"Get away!" he heard, and looked behind his back to see the face of the voice he knew so well.
Jane stood there, just at the entrance of the room. Her posture was that of sheer determination, the fire of vengeance burning in her eyes. Saren didn't have a second to breathe, much less ask what the hell she was doing here, because she reached behind her, and removed the grenade launcher from her lower back. She placed her weight on her other leg, securing her posture as she hugged the launcher in her hand and looked right into his eyes.
"This is the moment where we bathe them in their own blood!" she roared, more beautiful than ever, and Saren had to jump.
Or else, her fire was finally going to burn him too.
She pulled the trigger, and the grenade flew right into the AI core, shaking the whole complex. Another roar escaped from Harbinger, but this one was a desperate, surprised one, and Saren flew to the other half of the room from the shockwave. She secured herself and pulled the trigger again after reloading, the biggest smile on her face yet.
Rockets flew into the AI core, ripping the metal to million pieces, and Jane's laugh emanated into the void, like a melody of victory, her eyes aflame from the heat. The room shook, but she stood still like a statue, finally blasting the reapers back to the hell they crawled out of. Saren got blinded by the explosions as he escaped to the entrance, taking his rightful place next to the most amazing woman on the face of this fucking galaxy.
Their laughter rang out as they watched the core burn to hell, disintegrating in front of their eyes. It riled them up to heavens, hearing the sound of the hearts of everything they hated shatter to atoms.
When Jane was done, the emergency system kicked in, putting out the fire that annihilated the AI core, and with that, the spirit of Harbinger forever. But just as she lowered her weapon, the reaper again started shaking to its core. The screws started coming out of the walls suddenly, and they heard a loud bang from just below them.
"The drive core!" shouted Saren "The Crucible is active!"
They looked at each other, the smiles vanished from their faces as they realized what was happening.
"If that is still active…." Jane exhaled.
"The Crucible will destroy all the reaper eezo cores, including this one..." Saren finished.
Now this did not sound good if they wanted to live.
That shit is going to blow them the hell up, just like they did with Harbinger a second ago.
"Can we stop it?" Jane asked, honestly looking at him, preferring life over death naturally.
"If we shut down the drive core, it might avoid us, yes." Saren answered, and from then on, they already knew what to do.
The panel in the control room should do the trick.
They started running through the empty corridors of the reaper, chased by the energy of the Crucible powering up, already dismantling the reaper around them. When they reached the control room, Saren planted his hands on the console, no hacking needed now that the reaper's intelligence was gone. He navigated to the core functions, and with the press of a button, Harbinger's bright blue core lost its light and gone dark, first time in millenia.
Just a second later, a wave of shock swept through them, knocking both of them out.
And the wave spread, heating up the reaper, and through it, from the arms of the Citadel, right into the nebula. The fabric of the universe expanded for a second, and from relay to relay, the wave of darkness shot out to everywhere, seeping into the core of eezo in every reaper's heart, spoiling millions of machines in less than a second.
Turian, asari, salarian, krogan, quarian and human soldiers dropped their weapons as they saw reapers blow into tiny supernovas, covering the sky in their silver, black blood. And they laughed together, just like Hackett did in his ship, orbiting around the Crucible that shone like a star bright enough to blind a galaxy.
Saren opened his eyes, dizzy. He pushed himself up from the ground a bit, looking at his legs.
He had all his limbs, and he didn't feel dead, which was almost surprising to him. It was dark, but he could still see something, and so he started looking for Jane. She was lying next to him on the floor, not moving. He leaned over her and lifted her head into his lap, barely seeing her eyes through her helmet.
Her hand fell limp next to him.
He never knew what fear was, but this moment tested him. But only for a second, as her head moved slightly a moment later, and she soon opened his palm to support herself with her hand on the floor. She sat up, and they looked at each other, many questions in their mind.
"Did it work?" she asked as she stood up, along with Saren.
"I think so" he replied slowly. They stepped to the control panels, and he started checking out the state of the system "The wave that blasted through us was the Crucible."
Jane looked at her feet.
They destroyed the reapers. Under her helmet, her mouth curled into a small, silent smile as she felt all of her stress ease away. She was free.
"All systems are operational, even the drive core." Saren noted "Apart from Harbinger's AI. This reaper is nothing more now, than a simple spaceship. Turning on oxygen ventilation. The only thing I don't know is where we are."
"What do you mean?" she asked, just coming out of her own mind that already started celebrating.
This was one of the very few times when Saren looked puzzled.
"We're not at the Citadel, these location coordinates… I have never seen anything like this before."
Jane also checked the numbers he mentioned, and she got to the same conclusion. The coordinates weren't even in the correct range of what supposed to be the Milky Way. They looked at each other again, confused. What the hell was going on?
"Can we open the shutters?" Jane eventually asked.
Saren nodded and pressed a button on the panel. The shutter on the control window slowly started to rise, filling the room in a red light. As the darkness evaporated and the view became clear, they saw where they were.
A giant, red sun was looking right at them from the distance, circling a planet sized debris field around it. It was a lone star, not a single planet around it, only one thing: a giant, black mass relay, with a core of crimson that resembled Jane's hair in sunset.
It took their breath away.
This was not the Milky Way.
"The system knows this location" Saren said, digging through the logs "This is "Origo"."
"Did we get transported to…?"
"The other side of the Citadel relay."
This short, silent moment was suddenly dragged out as realization hit them like a dreadnought. They were at a place no organic ever been to. This was the place Sovereign wanted the reapers to pour in from to the Milky way. Saren turned back to the panel, and as he heard his own heartbeat speed up, he searched more through the logs.
"This isn't the only relay." he started "There are thousands of other relays after this one."
She looked outside.
The sun looked powerful and large, and the relay circling around it promised a new life. There are thousands more relays after this one, with thousands of worlds maybe. This was what he meant before Haestrom. To find a new life, out in dark space.
"Do you want to go home?" he asked, his look piercing into her eyes. She stepped to him and put her hand on his, that lingered just above the panel. She grabbed it and slowly removed it from there.
"Do you want to go home?" she asked back, with a barely visible smile on her face "I want to see what the universe can offer..." she said, quoting him.
The shine in his eyes was an unmistakable answer.
They are going to see the world, and see where it takes them. To war, to peace, but definitely to a place without reapers. She smiled back at him, in true happiness.
"But first..." he purred, taking off his helmet, and putting his hand around her waist. She removed her helmet as well and as her red hair fell to her shoulders, he was buried in her cherry scent once more. "...First… I want to celebrate." he finally finished.
He grabbed her by the thighs and put her right on top of the control panel, the sun behind her back. He removed every piece of armor he could from both him and her and pulled her as close as he possibly could. He dig his talons in her hair as she moaned into his ear, burnt by his touch.
He kissed her, deep, enjoying every breath they took together, undisturbed, in peace.
He planted a kiss on his mark on her neck, and she laughed out as it tickled her. Her laugh rang around him, honest, and this time... free.
They were finally free, with a world of relays to explore ahead of them, and as they looked into each other's eyes, their minds clouded with passion… their journey into the unknown began once again.
THE END