"Shepard…"the gentle Asari's voice called out in the thick darkness. Shepard's tongue twitched slightly within her mouth. She tried to answer but her mouth felt as if it was filled with water and her tongue was made of lead. "Liara, please don't go…" was her only thought as the Asari's smile began to fade. Tears began to sting around her eyes. She wanted to cry so badly for her loss, but a sudden realization and panic seized her by the throat. Her imagination of drowning was now becoming a sudden reality. Her lungs burned for its desire of oxygen as she writhed now in suspended dark space. A small tunnel of light began to whirlpool in front of her, coupled by the sound of gunfire and muffled cries of men in battle.

Shepard's eyes shot open as her mind returned to her beaten and battered body. She painfully twisted to her injured left side to decrease stretching the skin around her gash to bear through vomiting up a mouthful of blood. She inhaled sporadically, gasping to fill her deprived lungs what they were aching for. She struggled to make sense of her environment as her vision gradually came into focus. It did her little good as where she lay, all around her, was smoke and fire. All she could manage to see was the scars that riddled her body, and massive blocks of concrete that built up around her. As her mind and lips began to form a question her memory already began to answer it for her.

-Flashback Start-

Shepard leans against the ruined wall of an unrecognizable building, her eyes drawn to the tower of light beaming up to the Citadel which stood on the other side of "No Man's Land." She had just given what she believed would be her final speech to her comrades… to her friends. Tali, Garrus, Ashley, Vega, Edi, newly acquainted Javik the last surviving prothean, and Liara. Her mind savored the last name as a young child would savor his/her last bite of a chocolate bar. Shepard's had been dark chocolate for the name brought her a bittersweet taste in that moment. She could feel Liara's aura and turned to confirm her presence. The blue skin Asari tremebled before her about a good two arm spans away. Her body trembled slightly with some sort of anger, but her eyes betrayed her to her true emotion, sadness.

"Liara…" Shepard tried to answer but was quickly cut off. "I should be going with you Shepard." Shepard's eyes softened seemingly with every ragged breath she took which hinted she was holding back from crying. "This could be our last, our last…" her body shuddered as she broke down in tears. Shepard, without hesitation, walked up to Liara and just held her in her arms while she cried into Shepard.

Shepard turned to lightly plant a small kiss on the Asari's beautifully curved, tip pointed crest. "Liara it's not that I didn't want you by my side… it was the hardest decision I've ever had to make." Liara shifted slightly as her crying now became small sniffles. Shepard ran her fingertips up and down soothingly along Liara's spine from outside her armored clothes. Shepard couldn't deny, Liara's white clad armor with blue trimming she acquired during their adventure to take down the Shadow Broker was honestly stunning on her.

Shepard inhaled to speak once more, but drew in Liara's sweet aromatic scent that smelled faintly of white lilies, despite the small of battle around them. "I love you." Liara broke the silence between them as well as broke down Shepard's wall of strength. Shepard then embraced her lover tightly, now beginning her own moment of trembling out of fear. "I'm so sorry Liara. I couldn't do it, I couldn't ask you to come." Shepard spoke into Liara's shoulder. Liara ran her fingers delicately through the Spectre's dark brown shoulder length hair. A few pieces naturally stuck out here and there, which Shepard lazily refused to tame, claiming that it added to her irresistible charm. The Spectre's childish grin flashed briefly in Liara's mind and a smile formed sweetly upon her darker blue hued lips. "Kaycee" she called gently to her now quietly sobbing bondmate. The sound of her own name sent chills down her spine as she forced herself up to look into Liara's deep rich ocean blue eyes. Liara felt a bit guilty enjoying Kaycee's vulnerability. The hero of the galaxy having come back to life was practically now as frail as a sheet of glass in front of her.

Kaycee managed to smudge her tears away with the back of her hand in time before Vega, a tall built typical jarhead marine with a buzzed Mohawk, crashed in. "Commander! uhh-…" Kaycee cleared her throat, "What Vega." She hadn't really meant to but the order came across coldly. "We got to go Lola." The nickname he gave her from when they first met twitched at the corner of her lips. She wasn't irritated by it but was rather found of it in a "Brother/Sister tease" kind of way. "I'll be right there." Vega tapped the side of the concrete frame of what was supposed to be a door and nodded as he jogged away. Kaycee's eyes returned to her bondmate whose gaze had never left her despite the interruption.

"Liara," Kaycee stared, with a momentary pause in order to formulate her words. "When I get back we'll have to work on that speech for our daughters." She smiled, but more so gave a lopsided smirk. Liara couldn't resist a small giggle which sent the human's heart in butterflies. Kaycee then gently rested her forehead against Liara's. "I'll be back soon." She could see Liara's eyes searching for truth in those words in her own eyes.

Then Kacyee felt a tugging at her mind, "You better…" Liara's mind had touched her own to convey the words as well as the feeling of an annoyed wife who had been waiting for her lover to come home all day to add weight to her thought. Shepard flashed her childish grin as the Asari's eyebrows, which were really the T'soni's family facial markings, formed in an "I'm serious" manner. Kaycee regained her seriousness about her and took her lover's face gently in her hands as she brought their lips to meet. Wave after wave of intense love and emotion was not only passed sensually through their lips but also by the unique bond they sharedtogether which allowed them to carry thoughts and emotions through a unified connection of neural impulses. This was an act only shared among Asari and their bondmates through a process of joining also known as melding. As Shepard broke the kiss, a smile formed over her calmly. She knew the Asari were wrongly deemed a promiscuous race because of their ability to join with just about anyone and also the fact that most were seen as dancers, but what made her bond strongest with Liara was that SHE was the only one. Kaycee loved that feeling of Liara being exclusive only to her, and Liara too mentioned the same. She actually loved the way Kaycee became a bit possessive of her to a healthy and didn't mind at all. And truthfully Liara was Kaycee's first as well "and my only one," she spoke aloud. Liara couldn't resist and stole another quick kiss before Kaycee had to leave and answer the call of the galaxy in need.

-Flashback End-

Kaycee absentmindedly touched her chapped lips feeling the lingering memories grace her with her lover's kiss once more. Pellets of bullet spray lit through the barrier of smoke around her, and her responsibilities now took hold of her. She groaned and winced against the excruciating pain that ripped through her entire body, starting mainly from her left side, and rose to her feet. She hunched over and gripped her weeping gash on her lower left abdomen with her right hand, hoping to appease the pain but with no avail. Step after step she staggered across the remains of buildings, and bodies, one for which she paused to remind herself why she kept going. A mangled body of what used to be a human lay out before her. Its skin was an artificial pale grey with blue tubing that was sown all throughout the body. Its eyes wide open with no sign of being human no longer, just dark blue mindless emptiness. The mouth was gaped and its hand stretched out towards Shepard but it obviously had failed to catch its prey as it had been decorated with bullet holes.

"Tch." Kaycee spat to the side, not only of disgust. The distinct metallic taste of blood was filling her mouth again, and she could no longer afford to gaze. She knew she had to find someone and hopefully not one of those things which were fittingly dubbed as "Husks." She stepped around the body and finally met with the edge of the smoke wall, fire rising constantly to her right from some sort of destroyed aircraft. Kaycee took a deep breath and pressed through the dark veil. She hated feeling left open and unprepared, and she was exactly that, opened and unprepared. The gravel crunched beneath her dust covered boots to which brought no comfort to Kaycee at all, and was helpless to do anything about it because her wounds hindered her from keeping weight off of her feet.

"Ah, God Dammit!" she cursed as she stumbled over a metal beam that protruded from the ground. She fell forward but managed to throw her hands in front of her to break her fall, but it did nothing to stop whip of pain through her body. She bit down her bottom lip hard as she clenched her wound once more, trying to draw her mind away from the pain. The taste of blood swam in her mouth and she couldn't tell if it was from her injury or from biting her lip too hard, which she didn't really care at the moment. The pain slowly subsided and she brought herself to sit back on her knees. In that second she made out a figure through the smoke and the initial thought of what or who it could be made her stomach twist. She quickly glanced around but no object of any sizeable damage was available. Kaycee mumbled irritably under her breath and clenched her left hand as much as she could endure. Blue swirls of light encircled her hand as she tested herself on how stable her biotic was. She pushed herself too far though as she muffled a scream through her teeth and the beautiful dance of lights vanished from her. She hurriedly glanced up to where the figure now appeared to be facing her through the mask of smoke. Kaycee opened out her palm and wiggled her fingers closed again.

"I guess we do it the hard way." A grim smirk crept onto her face as she prepared to bolt from where she stood with every last once of strength she had left. She wasn't going to die here, not because of the pain, and not because of some measly Reaper enslaved Husk. The concealed figure lightly drew closer to her and Kaycee's heart drowned out all sound within her ears. Her eyes squinted as her vision began to blur once more. "Dammit." She gritted her teeth but felt the darkness wrap her once more.

AUTHORS NOTE:

Super sorry but just fixed this chapter up and added a little bit... still getting used to fanfic so apologize for the mess that caused. Finding out more and more how to edit/add/and change things around haha. ^^" hopefully I'll have time to add more to the chapters. Thanks for reading and reviewing to all who have so far, greatly appreciate it.