Chapter 43: Don't Keep Calm & Headbutt a Turian

≤Remain calm.≥ Coached from the wretched source of blasphemy herself. ≤I'll come for you soon.≥

How? They'd have to way to get back down to the station if Lucy sacrificed her own connection to it. Liara floated away and helplessly watched as Garrus and the soldier tag-teamed the krogan. Lucy charged straight for the battlemaster and leapt on him, hanging for dear life as she fought to remove his helmet - probably to barbarically work her knife into the frontal plate again.

Liara was reminded of an even grimmer fate as she watched the krogan's helmet be discarded in space, and Lucy had stolen his shotgun as she quickly ran off. He'd clutched at his throat, staying conscious as his feet lumbered, reaching towards the human, mouth moving. His curses were muted by the void. He lost consciousness, condemned to the slow death of asphyxiation, before freezing.

She never wished that death on anybody.

The other warlords were dispatched in similar fashion, having been distracted by the turian's suppressive fire in order for the human to ambush them, unaware. Another shotgun was taken. Lucy began the mad dash down towards where Liara was drifting off, climbing up onto one of the turrets to leap off of, then reached down to her boots to disengage her magnetic connection. She rapidly soared towards the asari, holding the shotguns firmly in each hand. The plan unravelled as soon as Lucy swung her legs out where she wanted to and the shotguns' muzzles flashed, letting them go before they'd kicked back to hit her in the head. Her arms dramatically flailed from the fierce recoil and she'd adjusted her trajectory, twisting in space as she held her arms out to catch the asari.

All fine and well.

But.

"How are we supposed to get back down onto the station?" Liara lamented, looking down below as she'd watched Garrus run after them, dragging some kind of cut cable in his arms.

≤There's an advantage to being half-synthetic.≥ Lucy parroted old words apparently held dear, and she swung her cybernetic leg up in the air with a grunt of effort. ≤Brace yourself. I'm engaging the thrusters, but we have a short window to catch hold of something. My fuel reserves are low.≥

So she jumped up here without an actual plan to get back down?!

≤Commander, I've disabled power to this cable and cut it.≥ Garrus announced. ≤I'll try to throw it in your trajectory if you can aim for my position.≥

≤Understood.≥

They spiralled as soon as the thrusters engaged, and Liara felt the arms encircled around her try to manipulate their positions to slow the spiralling, and regain control of their laughable flight path. Garrus tossed the cable and sliced the remaining end with his omni-tool when it'd reached its length. Her heart soared to her throat as she'd watched the cable nearly leave his hands, and the turian hastily rushed over to run around a turret to wind the other end of the cable down. Another jet of the thrusters propelled them uncontrollably, almost passing the cable. Liara stretched out her hand and tried to pull it closer with her biotics, though the sheer weight of it was akin to that of trying to throw a krogan. A hand stretched out beside hers and she listened to Lucy's grunting on the frequency as the human summoned her meagre biotics to aid.

Together, they were just able to catch the cable, and Liara hugged it fiercely to her as she'd pulled them back down to the station. As soon as her boots gravitated back and aggressively soldered her feet back to ground, she'd let out a laugh she hadn't even felt bubble inside of her. She whirled about in bewilderment, in Lucy's arms, and pulled the insane human in a fierce embrace.

≤Uh, are you okay, T'Soni? You don't have to hold on anymore. We've established connection.≥

"Thank you, Lucy," she sighed, nodding over to the turian that ran over to approach them. "You too, Garrus. You saved us."

≤We have to keep moving.≥ Lucy interrupted, cutting short the immense relief. ≤This will mean nothing if we don't stop Saren.≥

They nodded, the brutality of reality cutting coldly. Liara wasn't sure where on Thessia this strength was that she'd corralled back in her legs, quivering so intensely as the mag-boots took their toll. She had a mental mantra alight, wondering if Lucy has had to do any of her own 'oil checks' since the madness unfolded on Ilos. They pressed forward, with little resistance left. It seemed the waves of forces were depleted. They'd taken a ramp down, entering a shaft that led to the promised Council chambers.

"By the Goddess..." Liara muttered in disbelief, soaking in the tragic sight of dead bodies littering the forums that had been set ablaze. She warily followed the two that stalked forward, rifles always at the ready. She sucked in and chewed in the corner of her lip as she tried to ignore the anxiety thrumming strong upon realizing that Saren was ahead on the podium, hundreds of screens engaged as he navigated them with ease to issue the programming.

Lucy broke out into a run, abandoning her helmet as her shout echoed in the barren chambers. "Stop, Saren! You're under arrest!"

Arrest? This must have been a joke. Did she truly believe she could apprehend an indoctrinated agent? Liara didn't have any time left to question or doubt, as Saren had flung a grenade in their direction. The last thing she remembered was Garrus tackling her, watching as Lucy had continued to storm forward for Saren, fearless of the grenade that had bounced off her armour and changed trajectory - for them.

And darkness stole her in the blink of an eye.

Chora's Den used to be a place to blow away the stress, have some laughs, and appreciate dancing. Now it had turned into a nightmare. Helen clenched her teeth as she forced herself to step over the bodies that littered this place, the pools of blood that stained the walls and the bar from the ruthless onslaught of geth. The trail of destruction led directly here, and Lowe was beginning to speculate as to why this place held such interest to the geth.

"Don't think they came here for the strippers," she muttered morbidly, ignoring the elbow in her side from Addison.

Despite the Commander's order, Chief Williams still had them check and provide quick aid to anybody they'd stumbled on as survivors. Their shots were calculated and remorseless, putting an end to any geth units that dared stand in their way. They moved towards the back as they proceeded to get to the Commander's apartment, and Lowe didn't like the implications from Addison's whisper.

"Why would Dr. Chakwas be here? And why would the geth want her?"

"Probably the same reason they attacked us on the Normandy," Helen murmured. She kept her voice low so that the Gunnery Chief and Tali ahead wouldn't hear them. "They went for the med-bay, then. Seems to me that they still want Liara's mom - seems to me that the Commander still does, too."

"To what end? To study indoctrination?"

"Probably. Only person we got in cuffs to do it."

Chief Williams held her fist up over her shoulder as a signal, before she'd swiftly trained her rifle up at the stairs, her voice stern. "Be ready. We don't know what we're walking into."

"Great," Helen sighed under her breath, "I didn't pay attention to the Commander's lesson about fighting against biotics, back when she played with Li."

"Jesus, Helen, were you serious when you said you were turned on from them sparring?" Addison groaned. "Well, we're screwed, if we have to fight a Matriarch. None of us have biotics, and the Commander said that in order to counter their lifts or throws, we'd have to utilize biotics and the element of surprise by charging towards them, instead of trying to resist them."

"There wasn't anything about what we could do, without biotics?"

"Nope."

"Yeah. We're fucked."

"Yep."

"Shit. Does anybody remember the Commander's pin-code?" Chief Williams asked as they'd came up to the door, and Tali made way over with her omni-tool engaged.

"Maybe she's changed it. I can hack our way in there."

"Alright. Lowe, Chase, take each side. Tali, as soon as you open the door, take cover in the corner here." Williams knelt in front of the door and looked at the marines. "Fire above me, you two."

"Aye aye ma'am," Helen and Addison replied in unison.

Their plans were decimated when Dr. Chakwas opened the door with a confused look, and a pistol ready in unsteady hands. They'd all stared in silence until the doctor broke it. "I thought I heard you. What are you all doing? What is happening?" She peered over their shoulders, down the stairs, and seemed surprised to see the geth units. "Has Saren actually launched an attack to try to retrieve the Matriarch, again?"

"Dr. Chakwas, the entire station has been under attack," Williams blurted, flabbergasted. "Did you seriously not know? Do you still have power?"

"Yes, I have multiple generators to help provide additional power supply to the equipment." Chakwas stepped aside and gestured in. "Come in quickly, then, and we'll barricade the door while you debrief me."

They'd rushed in and Helen's jaw dropped upon seeing the complete 180 this apartment had taken. All the corny lovey-dovey stuff was gone from the main room, replaced with multitudes of high-end machinery that she'd never seen before. There was another woman in here, one which Tali had gone over and seemed to recognize her, excited that she was here and thanking her for her medical aid before.

"Holy shit," Helen hissed, her gaze rolling over a sleeper pod fixated to a wall, where she'd recognized Benezia safely slumbering away inside. She melted with relief. "Addy, look! We're not fucked."

"Don't jinx it," Addision grumbled. She went and began to drag a couch to the door, and Helen jogged over to help barricade the door as she continued to marvel the changes.

"Jesus," she laughed in her head. "A fucking secret base attached to a god damn strip club. Leave it to 'mom' to come up with shit like that." She listened to what Dr. Chakwas said she could declassify thus far, courtesy of contingency permission Lucy had already offered when she surmised of an issue like this arising some day. Chief Williams was left with a decision of what to do, then, whether they needed to evacuate the premises and leave Benezia behind, or to bunker down here.

"Evacuate where?" Tali murmured apprehensively. "Saren is here. If he succeeds... There's nowhere anybody can run to."

Silence fell on the room. The other human woman - a charming redheaded looker by Helen's standards, soon receiving a very notable pinch from her friend for gawking - expressed confusion. She seemed familiar with Saren too, though, judging by her conversation with Tali as the quarian briefly filled her in, until Chief Williams barked at her over the classified information about the Reapers. The stubborn quarian brought down a new wave of despair down on the room.

"Does it matter? We'll probably find out what they are the hard way, soon."

"You're amazing at keeping up morale, you know that?" Helen quipped with a cheery grin, ignoring some heated looks shot her way. She'd had a serious look then. "Well, I disagree. We're not going to see the Reapers. If there's anybody that can stop Saren and put an end to this, once and for all..." Her gaze rolled over to Benezia. "It's the Commander. Just look at Liara's mom? The Commander didn't plan this far ahead just so that one dumbass turian will stop the Matriarch from getting to reunite with her daughter."

A fond memory swum in her mind, and she smirked as she echoed words that were scarily becoming cherished to even her.

"It's important to her that every child gets to feel loved by a parent."

High-pitched ringing deafened the aurals. Liara grunted as aches exploded all throughout her body, her palm calming up to her head to confirm she still wore her helmet - though the visor had a web of cracks. She pulled it off, absentmindedly checking herself for any additional wounds. Nothing. Just pebbles of debris and tiny fragments of glass, that slid off her as she'd pushed herself off her rump to kneel. She took a look around, confused when she couldn't find Garrus or Lucy among the wreckage of geth units.

Sounds flooded in. She looked up and saw a glorious battle outside as ships warred with Sovereign. Her gaze snapped to the panels of screens and she lumbered over, relief flooding her upon seeing that Vigil's data was uploaded.

"But where is Lu-"

Gunfire made her jump in her skin and she'd dropped to the ground for cover, hesitantly glancing over the ramp that she'd now noticed how fragile it was, half-destroyed and sloped downwards to the garden below. Lucy and Garrus were fighting Saren there - and a lump lodged in Liara's throat at the grotesque transformation that consumed the turian. He'd had a ghastly hole through his skull, replacing one of his eye sockets, indicative of a gunshot. But he moved. He was alive.

What a strange definition of 'life', now, with how that thing appeared. There was no more flesh nor chitin. He was all technology and implants, technology she'd never seen the geth have.

"Garrus, grenade!" Lucy yelled, and her turian compatriot had tossed one over at 'Saren'. The thing hopped up on a wall and it's other eye glowed red. A laser shot out and Liara yelped when it's head suddenly shot up at her, the laser slicing through the ramp like butter, and she'd clutched her head to protect herself as she'd slammed down into the garden below.

"Liara!" Lucy scrambled over to her, grabbing her elbow and dragging her to a pillar for cover. "Are you okay?!"

"Y-yes, I'm-"

The soldier was gone, forced back into battle when Garrus asked for help. Liara's entire body convulsed with quivers, fear and adrenaline warring it out to convince her whether or not she was brave enough to fight that thing. Lucy cast aside her rifle when it overheated and charged at Saren with a primal roar, tackling and intercepting the next hop before the thing had hopped onto Garrus.

True to the perfected art before, the left arm was barbarically ripped out, and an inky-black substance flung instead of dark blue turian blood. Saren overpowered her with ease and threw her off, prompting Liara to break out in a run as she stretched out her hand to freeze the soldier in the air with her biotics. Lucy immediately used her own biotics to charge out of the field and back into the fray, blood leaking out her nose as she'd fought with every ounce of her being, calling on her biotics more often in close-quarters combat.

They had trouble subduing Saren long enough with how he'd hop about the garden, as if toying with them. Liara recognized a different voice, but it felt faded, like a vague memory.

"This station is mine." It seemed to be coming from Saren, but he had no jaw. His head tilted to and fro. "I am the vanguard of your destruction. We cannot be stopped."

Lucy wiped the blood off her nose with her gauntlet, spitting out more to the side. Her and Garrus calmly approached Saren, before she'd taken off storming after the hopper and leaping to catch air. She'd tumbled and rolled, but she didn't stop. As soon as her fingers dug into the dirt, she'd almost emulated the hopper and propelled herself like an animal, screaming in frustration when she'd missed grabbing him. Liara ran to her side when the soldier collided into the wall.

"Your first mistake was thinking that we're your sheep," Lucy growled vehemently. She'd welcomed the support of an arm coiled around her waist, helping her rise. Her chest heaved raggedly as she'd gulped gasps in between words, blood soaking the bandage that had barely hung onto her cheek. Her complexion was pale and her skin was sheen with sweat. She was pushing herself too hard. She had little left in her to keep fighting, and still her bravado lost no fuel as she spat insult after insult. Her eyes were savage like an animal, and she'd grinned maddeningly.

"You've lost, Sovereign." She pushed away from Liara, who'd soon came back to support the stubborn woman. They'd walked towards Saren as the hopper's head continue to tilt side to side. "I can hear the Alliance. I have the Normandy. I have my team, and your Reapers are cowardly locked away in dark space. Lucky for you, you'll be spared the embarrassment of them witnessing your demise."

Saren leapt for them, and Liara shot forward her hand as she manifested her biotics to freeze him mid-air, concentrating to keep him there. Lucy peeled away as she'd walked to glare at the monster's face.

"The cycle is already broken. You just won't get to live to see it."

Silence. Nothing. Liara looked up when there were more thunderous sounds from debris smashing into the Citadel. She couldn't get a clear view of the battle, but she saw many ships zipping by. Sovereign still seemed to be clinging to the tower. She looked down at the sounds of Lucy scrambling, and for some reason she seemed to be running for the asari, hand outstretched. Liara's blood froze when she noticed Saren's eye was glowing red again.

Until the head exploded, courtesy of Garrus' steady aim and trigger-finger.

More shots rumbled when the turian continuously fired until there was nothing left but wires, and they'd watched as the technology suddenly erupted into colourless flames, where it all evaporated rather than pebbling into ashes. Lucy and Liara watched. The asari didn't know what to say. Part of her was still riveted in shock, feeling a sort of delay whenever she'd looked about or moved. Her body sagged and all energy waned, her biotics dissipating. She fell to her knees and let out a breath she hadn't known she held, her chest tightening with panic despite the battle being over. A firm hand rubbed soothing circles between her shoulder blades. Lucy's gaze never left where Saren's body was, as if still skeptical that he was truly dead.

Garrus went over, kicking at the dirt before he'd knelt to grab some in his hands. He reluctantly holstered his rifle and looked over at them. "Kill confirmed - for sure, this time."

"No," Lucy whispered, a dreadful horror gripping her tone. She'd suddenly scrambled over and performed the same check, kicking at the dirt, grabbing at it. She groaned and her arm snapped out, grabbing the lip of Garrus' suit. She ripped off his helmet and smashed their foreheads, both soon grabbing their heads instead of dirt, their collective groans echoing in the small garden.

Liara burst out laughing at Lucy's worst possible issue at the worst possible time.

"We had a fucking bet, Garrus! You stole my win!"

"How presumptuous of you to think you would have won," Liara goaded arrogantly. "I do seem to remember a different turn of events - where you were losing, before my intervention."

"Do you think you're krogan, you hawked-up pellet?!" Garrus barked back, clutching his head. "Are you trying to give both of us concussions?!"

Two honourable soldiers were deduced to ignoble insults, giving a great wealth of information as Liara got to be in the front row seat of learning what cursing was like in their cultures. She stepped aside when Lucy launched herself to headbutt the turian again, but intervened as she supplied her biotics for one last time, thoroughly amused to be using them to stop Lucy rather than Saren.

To have even seen that this was what finally cracked the stoic soldier's seemingly-impenetrable composure was a memory she would never forget.

Liara began the arduous process of climbing back up the debris, ensuring that she'd had the human locked up and floating away beside her. The two never ceased hurling insults as Garrus inflicted another terrible blow, igniting that fierce competitive spirit as he'd challenged the Commander to a sniper contest at a gun range. Liara swore she'd caught onto the hints of the turian just ruffling feathers - as humans put it - with the way his expressions sometimes cracked, not being as serious as Lucy took him as.

This was victory. They've won.

...Right?

Liara looked up again. The windows were obscured and all she could make out was black - it wasn't always like that though. Lucy was mid-sentence, before her words suddenly died off and her head shot up as her hand hovered over her ear. She seemed to be getting information fed to her from the Alliance. Her gaze landed on the asari, her words stern. "Release me, quickly. We need to run."

"What?" Liara disengaged her biotics, and the soldier harshly dragged her by her elbow before electing to just throw her over the shoulder.

"Garrus, run!" Lucy yelled, frantic in her rush to climb over the debris. "One of Sovereign's limbs is hurtling for us!"

"W-what?!" T'Soni froze, her head shooting up as far as she could see as she braced her hands on the soldier's back to push her further up. She watched as the large black shadow had grown even darker, and she could make out some outlines as the debris rocketed towards them. Her mouth was open, and she couldn't hear herself scream above the hammering of her heart as she'd clutched her head, caught in limbo as she'd heard glass shatter and the thunderous sounds roar, ripping into the chambers. The shockwave knocked them forward and she'd yelped as Lucy swung her thighs over a hip to embrace her front, curling around the corner of a fragmented pillar that cracked under the weight of gusts.

Dragged along, Liara had half a mind to keep moving as the building began to fall apart around them. Lucy grabbed hold of her to shield her as she'd thrown them over a railing, crashing through more leaves below. They grunted and groaned as tree branches lashed and whipped angrily at them, ripping off pieces of their armour like stripping sinew. Liara took the brunt of the impact when she'd landed on the ground, with Lucy soon colliding on her, a sharp pain diffused across the asari's ribs. She cried out and clutched it, clenching teeth as she seethed breaths.

They still couldn't stop. Lucy's insistent hands tugged on her and she clambered to her feet, lumbering away as they'd run down another garden. There was nowhere left to go, though. A dead end. She was shoved in a corner and hugged herself to support her ribs, her mouth open in protest when the soldier stood protectively over her.

"Luce-"

"You'll be fine, it'll only be a scratch," Lucy reassured. The shadows were cast over her battle-weary face, but the illumination of her optic implant made that fear as plain as day in her eye.

She didn't believe anyone was going to be 'fine' here.

Unshed tears burned in Liara's eyes over the silent confirmation that they were going to die here. Her heart thundered in her throat as she listened to the sounds of the building falling apart around them, the earth quaking beneath them. She reached out with a plea. "I don't want you to shield me. Hold me and don't let go." She wasn't above using her biotics to overpower the stubborn soldier, forcing Lucy to her knees. The earth was splitting beneath them. She held on tight to the body that wrapped around her, squeezing mercilessly. She hid her face in the soldier's neck as words rushed in her aural - the last chance they'd have to say them. She didn't have time to say them back.

"I love you, Nara."

Concrete shrieked above them, and a slab fell to crush them.