Apologies again for the delay, I had an equipment case land on my hand whilst at work, ruptured a vein, broke things and haven't been able to type comfortably for what seems like ages. This is just some stuff, thanks to the ever patient and amazing Planetar, you are amazing. I love you all, thanks for the support, I would have given up by now if it wasn't for the feedback and pm's. Nearly done now :)


"EDI!" Joker screamed as the avatar in the seat next to him jerked once and then collapsed, slumping limply onto the control panel. "EDI?" He glanced down at the flight systems and frowned, as alarms sounded throughout the cockpit. Computer controlled systems were either switching to manual or powering down completely. It was as if the internal AI had been completely deactivated. "Fuck!" Joker slammed his palm onto his comm button. "Garrus, I've lost all AI support, we're going down on manual!"

There was a high pitched whine and the ship began to tilt and fall as dark clouds streamed nauseatingly around the viewport. A loud bang sounded somewhere behind him and a series of sudden vibrations made his teeth hum. "EDI, I could really use your help right now." He glanced across at the still form, his mouth dry.

The Normandy entered the early stages of a spin.

He punched the engine control angrily, wincing as the small bones in his hand protested. Bringing up the flight correction routines, he manually entered them into the Normandy, sagging with relief as the ship responded, jolting out of its early roll and stabilised.

Joker felt cold all over as his brain dumped all his emergency training into his head at once in a turmoil of honed reflexes and complex landing calculations. Flipping controls, keying in numerical sequences, he tried to haul some sense out of the confusion and the noise around him. The Normandy was actually going down.

For a brief moment Joker couldn't distinguish himself from the ship. The computer, relays, keys, switches and buttons were all laid out before him, a complicated web that extended his nervous system. He glanced up from the controls for an instant and froze.

"Holy shit!" The dark, sombre silhouette of a city scape was rushing towards him. He used the last of the engines power to slow the ship as much as possible, but it wasn't enough, they were still too fast.

"We're going to land hard, brace yourselves!" he yelled into the comm.

The Normandy fell out of the sky. Joker wrenched on the manual steering column, spotting at the very last second a small outcropping of trees and aimed for it.

Cracking with fire, Normandy plunged into the forest. Trees went down in swathes, long tracks of wood gouged and sliced. Behind them, smoke erupted. The hull groaned as it bounced once, like a skimmed stone. Rock and soil grazed the window, ripped fragments of metal from the hull and obscured the view. He braced himself, clutching hold of his harness and slamming his head back into his seat.

Normandy skidded and turned as it slowed, churning up everything beneath it until they came to a sharp and sudden halt. A jet of red hot steam oozed sinuously through a crack in the lacerated metal next to him. It was over. The Normandy was down.


Traynor groaned when the Normandy finally came to a shuddering stop. Lifting her head from the deck, she glanced around and sucked in a sharp breath. The ship was nothing but ruin and destruction. The main hull plate that covered the CIC had ruptured and torn away, leaving the central area covered in brown muck, torn wood, and leaves. Instrument panels had been shaken free and lay smashed on the floor among clumps of mud, fragments of hull and rented metal. Flashing red emergency lights clung to the last ounce of power and fizzed in and out quietly.

"Specialist?"

A hand on her shoulder made her wince and she rolled over onto her back, gasping as a terrific pain lanced down her arm.

"Specialist, are you all right?" Garrus crouched next to her. There was a thick line of blood running down one side of his face but he looked otherwise unhurt.

"I don't know." Traynor replied, clutching at her right arm, "I think my arm is broken."

"Can you stand?" His mandibles flared as he glanced around.

"Yes, yes I'm sure I can." She rolled onto her side and allowed the turian to help her up. "Oh my god." She whispered, as the extent of the damage around them began to sink in.

"You sure you're all right?" Garrus asked again as he watched her walk painfully towards what was left of the CIC control station.

"Yes." Taynor nodded as she reached a trembling hand out to the control panel. She hit a few commands but nothing happened, there was either no power to that console, or no power at all. Her eyes filled with tears as her arm throbbed. It occurred to her that a broken arm was a minor injury compared to what she'd seen Shepard arrive back on-board with. "Oh." Traynor paused on that thought and turned to Garrus. "Shepard?" The look of utter misery on his face told her all she needed. She sniffed hard and swallowed, telling herself to stop shaking and willing herself not to cry.

"Just before we crashed, we received the news that the Citadel was completely destroyed." He paused and took a deep, calming breath, "But she did it." He accessed his omni tool. "We're getting reports from across Earth that the Reapers have gone dark, ground troops and ships alike. They've completely ceased functioning."

The weight of his statement was massive, but Traynor felt nothing but sadness. "It doesn't feel like a victory does it?" She didn't look up from the console. Her eyes glimmered as the fingers of her good hand tightened on the console. She ignored the crackle of an electrical fire, ignored the hissing of a ruptured cooling pipe, ignored it all and clamped her eyes shut. Quiet tears welled up and spilled over her lids, she could feel them streaming down her face, hot in the chilled air. An ache in her throat tightened. "She did it."


Tali looked around the ruined space. Dozens of open bulk head panels displayed intricate machinery and exposed cables hung from the ceiling, snaked across the floor and disappeared into ducts further along the wall. The engineering core smelt like oil, singed plastic and faintly of human sweat. She stood at the top and rear of the room, watching the activity, shaking her head as another section of bulkhead erupted in an electrical fire and two crew members struggled to douse it.

"Admiral?" A quite voice with a thick accent interrupted her reverie and she glanced across at engineer Donnelly.

"Yes?" Tali asked.

"We've encountered a few problems." He spoke slowly, his gaze flickering from her to the lines of cable on the floor.

"I really hope the next word out of your mouth is 'but' or 'however'," Tali said, "Or is that going to be too much to ask for?"

Donnelly continued, a faint smile on his dirt streaked face. "We have just enough power to get the long range and external communications back on line, but that's it." He gestured at a large pile of equipment. "Not a scrap more juice than that."

"When can you power up?"

"Immediately." He replied.

"Good, we need to know what's going on out there."

"Admiral?"

"What is it?" Tali sighed, "And please, don't keep calling me that."

"There are rumours on deck that Commander Shepard…" Donnelly looked pained. "We've heard she was on the Citadel when it exploded."

Tali took a deep breath. "As far as we know, that's true." She looked away. "I'm sorry."

Donnelly nodded his head slowly and stared down at his feet. "Well, let's power this up." He turned on his heel and walked away. A few seconds later he shouted back. "Systems are coming back online!"

"Finally." Tali said. She opened her omni tool and then tapped something on the side of her face mask. "Yes, Normandy is back on the net." She glanced up to see Donnelly giving her a thumbs up. "I'm receiving a priority transmission from…" she paused, "The heavy fleet." Tali accepted the incoming connection and listened to the message. She hesitated for a moment, listened to it again and then turned back to Donnelly. She knew if she didn't have her mask on, the shock would be evident on her face, but her body language must have given away the fact that something was wrong.

"Tali?" Donnelly stood up and walked over to her, his brow creased in concern, "What's wrong?"

"I need to speak to Garrus." She mumbled, her fingers trembling on her omni tool.

"Tali. what is it?" Donnelly pushed.

"Nothing, it's nothing." She turned suddenly and jogged down the darkened corridor and up the stairs, taking two at a time. "Oh!" She paused and looked behind her. "Engineer Donnelly?" she shouted, "Good work!"


Light. Sounds too; a voice, soft, sad. He remembered something about a crash, he was hurt. Now from somewhere came a touch, not pain but touch, the touch of a hand; a hand on his forehead. His head felt terrible. He cracked his eyes open a little and it took him a second to remember how to see. Dusty streaks of light cut through a brown gloom and he saw stack of crates thrown haphazardly against the shattered glass at the end of his bed. Why was it shattered? Why was it so dark? He was restrained, a thick strap secured his waist to the centre of the bed and all several more secured his legs. He tried to move his head.

"Oh shit." He heard himself croak through broken lips.

"Stay still Lieutenant."

"Liara?" He closed his eyes again. He hurt everywhere, but his insides hurt the most and he felt bloated and sore.

"Yes."

"Where am I?"

"The medical bay, on the Normandy." Her voice was quiet, so soft.

He could hear things; distant noises of people shouting. "What?" He cracked his eyes open again and frowned. This couldn't be the Normandy.

"Joker had to land." Liara's face swam into focus above him. She looked tired, empty. "It was pretty rough and Normandy took a lot of damage." She paused. "EDI is offline."

"How bad?" He mumbled.

"Very." Liara shuffled towards him, her face twisting in pain for a second. She reached out and ran a cool damp cloth across his forehead.

"The Reapers?"

"Silent, completely shut down." There was no joy in her voice. Her face was a stoic, unreadable mask.

He had a terrible feeling of nausea in the pit of his stomach "Shepard?"

Liara looked away. "She was on the Citadel when it exploded." Cold blue eyes flicked to his for a second and then away again.

He opened his mouth to try and speak but his tongue was suddenly too big, his throat painfully dry.

"Try not to move." Liara whispered. "There is a medical transport on route, there were several badly wounded in the crash." She sighed, wiped his brow again. "You're being evacuated to a medical facility. You need surgery." She was about to say more when suddenly her free hand was grasped, enveloped in large, strong fingers.

"What about you?" Vega asked.

"I..." She swallowed, "I am staying here for now."

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

"You don't need to stay here, you need to get that leg sorted." He tried to shake his head but the pain nearly made him sick. "Shepard would want you to get treatment. I saw that injury, I don't even know how you're standing up."

Liara scowled at him as she pulled her hand free "How would you know what Shepard would have wanted?" She had a flash of memory. A rain filled sky and a vast weight pinning her utterly. The memory of that pain and the despair of watching Shepard go almost brought tears to her eyes and she fought to keep her composure. "Sorry." She mumbled, leaning her weight on the bed frame, knuckles pale. It seemed like the only thing keeping her upright, was the sheer force of her will. "If I leave here now, I have nothing." She worried her bottom lip. "Everything that is left of her is here."

"Liara…" Vega started, but couldn't finish. A heavy weight pulled at his throat.

"I'm being foolish, aren't I?"

"No." He tried to take a deep breath but it was more a sucked, pained gasp. Just as he was about to speak the sound of heavy footsteps distracted him, and Tali barrelled into the medical bay.

"Liara?" The woman gasped as she bent over at the waist and rested her hands on her knees. She was shaking and there was a smear of oil on her mask. "We managed to get long range communications back online." She heaved. "Admiral Raan contacted us, we struggled with the line fading, but eventually we received the entire message." She stood up and looked at the asari.

"What is it?" Liara asked, concerned at how perfectly still the quarian had become. She didn't even appear to be breathing. "Tali?"

"The quarian fleet tracked a shuttle departing the Citadel just before it exploded." She spat the words out in one long, garbled sentence.

"What?" Liara spread her hands on the bed next to Vega, she couldn't quite accept what she was hearing.

"They tracked its position to an impact location." Tali spoke quietly, not really believing what she was saying herself.

"What does that mean?" Liara shook her head slowly.

"I don't know." Tali stood up, "It could be nothing, it could be everything."


Liara thought the sound of the storm was just roaring in her head. She was wrong.

Behind her Garrus and Tali spilled out from the hastily landed shuttle, its exterior was scorched and burnt but otherwise intact. Joker had managed to perch the small craft on a relatively clear patch of land but its rear was partially submerged in a filthy pool, and it sat twisted slightly on its axis, forlorn looking and abandoned.
She made her way forwards and paused, one arm braced on what appeared to be the remains of some kind of upturned vehicle, the other clutched at the top of her injured thigh. Her fingers were dark and covered in her own sticky blood as the bandages bled through again. The sky was dark, and black rain, thick as lava thundered down, forming puddles of gloom on the ground around her. With a sigh she tilted her head back. Blessed cool wetness cascaded over her hot face as she stared into the sky.
Lightning exploded all around her, chain reacting and illuminating the low cloud base. Reapers gone silent whirled down through the atmosphere, burning bright as flame as they plunged through the swirling clouds.

"Liara?"

Liara winced when Garrus spoke. "What?"

"You don't have to do this."

"Yes I do." Liara nodded slowly. There was a hot sensation building behind her eyes and she refused to look at him. Stepping forward again she shuddered in the cold air and slipped awkwardly in the mud. She cursed, and would have fallen if Tali hadn't have taken her by the elbow, supporting her weight.

"Please Liara, you need to stay here." Tali protested.

"No. I need to know." Liara pulled her arm free and ambled forward, sucking in a horrified breath when she eventually saw the remains of the crashed shuttle in front of her. The crippled craft had fallen like a meteorite through the atmosphere, slewing and spinning, wobbling and disintegrating on its long arching plunge towards where it now lay. "Goddess." Liara whispered. It was obvious the craft had torn itself almost completely to pieces as only the central section remained relatively intact, but reduced to a jagged, roughly rectangular shape that had fragmented further as it somersaulted on impact. Pieces of wreckage and burning shrapnel lay in the crater surrounding it.

"I'm amazed any of that shuttle survived." Garrus said as he pulled up next to her. "Wait here."

"No." Liara grabbed his arm, snapping angrily "Don't try and protect me. Let me do this."

"But Liara!" He trailed off when she looked at him with eyes like steel. "All right." He grumbled and indicated the crumbling wreckage with a tilt of his head.

Liara staggered on, stopping only when she was an arm's reach away from the shuttles rear door. She took a deep breath and ran her hand over the cold metal, fingertips grazing the misshaped hatch door. Tali went to put her hand on the other side, curving past hers, when suddenly something hit the door on the other side, hard. Hard enough to send the rear door flinging open.

"Urgh!" Liara grunted as the motion threw her off her feet and sent her staggering back into the quarian behind her. The rear door burst open, flapping outwards. The chill air inside the shuttle fogged white and rushed out. Somebody or something shrieked, it might have been her. There was a hand on her shoulder, pulling her out of the way of the emerging creatures.

"What the?" Garrus asked, drawing his rifle as he followed the path of the retreating keepers, eyeing them cautiously.

"Keepers?" Tali watched, slack jawed as six of the aliens emerged and spread out beyond the doors of the shuttle, scurrying through the mud, chattering to each other through a series of high pitched squeaks. "They must have used the shuttle to evacuate."

"I wonder how many more of them made it off?" Garrus sighed, watching curiously as one of the creatures picked up a small piece of debris and examined it closely. It considered the piece for some time before eventually tucking it under its arm, as if saving it for later.

Tali shrugged and glanced around, catching sight of Liara deep inside the shuttle "Keelah!" she muttered as her breath caught in her throat.


A veil of grey dust tore away like mist before a storm, swirling and twisting as the fresh air pulled the murk out from the cockpit. There was a smell of burning, acrid and sharp. Liara stood very still and very quiet, eyes wide, the sound of her heartbeat hammering in her ears.

The pilot's seat was completely destroyed, crushed by the instrument bulkhead that had torn free. Shepard was sat in the co-pilots seat, the harness holding her limp form securely in place. Luckily for her the ceiling of the shuttle had partially collapsed just in front of the seat, saving her from a similar fate to that of the pilot's seat. Two of the other seats had been torn free of their mountings during the impact and had seared through into the rear compartment.

Shepard was slumped, completely motionless, her arms hanging straight down either side of the seat arms. Her auburn hair was over one side of her face, thankfully obscuring the severity of the damage to her one eye, which was swollen tightly shut, and caked over with blood. There was so much blood. It dripped slowly off the fingertips of her left arm, forming a small, dark sticky pool on the floor.

"Oh Shepard." Liara whispered as she knelt painfully next to the seat. The woman's skin was pale and wax like but despite the blood and bruises, her face was strangely peaceful. A sorrow pierced her. Bleak, implacable grieving. She reached out and cupped the woman's cheek gently, as if she was sleeping. Her thumb rubbed the cold flesh and she closed her eyes, ignoring the tears that dripped from her face. "You deserved so much more than this." Liara whispered, eyes still closed.

There was suddenly a strange pressure growing in her mind and she listened to it, confused by the vaguely familiar feeling.

"Hey." A very weak voice cracked through the silence.

Kneeling back, tears stinging her cheeks in bitter cold and semi darkness, Liara opened her eyes and put both hands over her mouth. A slither of barely focused green stared back at her. "Shepard?" A hysterical sob erupted from her. Bewildered, breath coming hard in her throat, she forced out, "I don't… How could you?" Her eyes flicked down the woman's length. So much blood.

"I..." Shepard paused, swallowed painfully and closed her eye again. "Sorry."

"What for? Idiot." Liara whispered as her mind finally re-engaged. "Garrus, Tali we need a medical transport!" She shouted, not surprised to see Garrus stick his head around the door of the shuttle, his face a mask of confusion.

"What?" He stepped into the rear chamber, his rifle hanging absently from his fingertips, mandibles flaring when he caught sight of Shepard.

"You heard me." She looked at him, watching as his eyes went wide and he shook his head in denial. "We need a medical transport immediately." She glanced back to Shepard, watching the faint, almost imperceptible rise and fall of her chest. "Shepard's alive."