A Shot in the Dark
Garrus, Tali, and Liara jump down from the Kodiak and on to the exterior of the inner Presidium. They stand on a metal platform marking one of the emergency access points, the only way to enter the Citadel when the arms are fully closed.
The gravity and atmosphere of the Citadel are still in place as Liara predicted. She and Garrus take their helmets off and attach them to the backs of their utility belts. Tali has Shepard's spare N7 helmet attached to hers.
"I'll keep in radio contact and track your location for as long as I can," Cortez says over the comm link as he pulls the shuttle away from the platform. "Let me know when you're ready for pick up. Stay safe."
"You too, Cortez," Garrus replies as he waves the pilot off, holding his assault rifle in his other hand.
Tali uses her omni-tool to hack into the emergency doors and they enter the passageway, guns drawn. It's dark and silent. Just the sounds of their breathing and footsteps on the metal ground. The only illumination coming from the small bluish lights along the floors and ceiling.
"The Citadel seems to be running on emergency power," Liara says, looking around.
"Better than nothing," Garrus replies. He expected to find the Citadel in a complete shutdown, but with some power and systems still running they could possibly get to Shepard faster. "EDI, tell me you have Shepard's location."
"Yes. Uploading it to your omni-tool now," the AI replies over the comm link. "Shepard is near the entrance to the Tower, in the lower levels of Zakera Ward. I also have repaired the connection to Shepard's comm as well as Admiral Anderson's."
Garrus checks his omni-tool for the location, opening the map. His heart swells when he sees Shepard's marker appear on the display.
"We have heard Anderson's voice though it seems he can not hear the Normandy's communications or Hackett's," EDI continues. "Shepard's link is likely functioning one-way as well. You will be able to hear her, but she may not be able to hear you. I... patching the landing party and... Hackett through now."
Noise begins to interrupt the communication, making it hard to hear EDI's voice. "I'm hearing static. What's the Normandy's status?" he asks.
"Harbinger... in range of the Citadel. Dagger and the Normandy... getting into formation. We expect to engage the reaper in moments. Communications... Normandy and the landing party ...interrupted during the battle."
"Acknowledged." Garrus's attention is back on the map and Shepard's location. Liara looks up at him from her own omni-tool, catching his sharp, icy gaze. They know where she is.
Garrus gives her a cautious half-smile. There must still be some luck on their side. They landed on the section of the Presidium near Tayseri Ward. Adjacent to Zakera Ward and the entrance to the Tower. He zooms in on their current location in the access corridor, showing it to Tali and Liara.
"We need to make our way through this corridor and out on to the lower Presidium," he explains as he marks their route on the map. "From there we can travel along the Presidium pathways to the Tower entrance."
With their course set, they proceed swiftly along the dark path. The silence is uncanny.
"It's so quiet," Tali whispers as they continue towards the end of the access tunnel. "I can't believe the Citadel can be so quiet. All those people..."
"I've received reports that there are at least 300,000 survivors, but that still means millions more are presumed dead," says Liara.
"Or worse." Tali's voice wary as she remembers the pods the collectors stored captured human colonists in.
"Stay sharp," Garrus orders the squad as he readies his rifle.
A loud blast of static followed by a familiar male voice cuts through the silence. The squad freezes immediately. Garrus adjusts his earpiece as his entire body tenses and he holds his breath, waiting and hoping. The static continues for a few seconds more but to them it feels like an eternity. And then they hear her.
"I feel like death. But I'm moving." Commander Shepard's voice.
"Shepard!" Tali gasps.
"By the goddess! She's alive." Liara exhales in relief.
"Shepard! Shepard, do you copy?" Garrus calls to her through the comm link, in spite of remembering EDI's comments. He can't stop himself from trying. His heart is racing.
"Let's go!" he yells to the squad. They sprint through the remainder of the tunnel while listening to Shepard and Anderson.
"Sounds familiar. I'm in a dark hallway… reminds me of your description of the collector base." They hear Admiral Anderson comment as they reach the exit doors.
"Could they be in an access tunnel like this one?" Liara asks as Tali overrides the door lock.
"I don't know. Maybe the keeper tunnels. They run right under the Presidium and into the tower," Garrus replies, remembering the layout from his time as a C-Sec officer.
The door opens and they rush through it. The sight brings them to a standstill. The Presidium, once pristine and picturesque, now looks like a war zone. Tenfolds worse than after the Cerberus attack.
Garrus looks out on the carnage and destruction. The smell of smoke and death fills the air. Burning debris and crashed skycars are scattered throughout the entire area. Several structures along the Presidium are destroyed, many still ablaze. Dead bodies litter the walkways. Blood and gore cover much of the formerly gleaming metal and glass surfaces. Walls, stairs, and pathways are stained with red, purple, blue, and green.
The only sounds come from the crackling flames, rustling leaves, and movements of water from the central lakes. The lakes, once calming and clear, are now muddied with wreckage and the dead. Above them the artificial sky is visibly damaged. The holographic animation skips and jumps in places, turning from night to day and vice versa. Some sections just giving way to a blank darkness.
"Come on. We need to keep moving," Garrus says leading the way towards the Tower. He knew it would be bad. He thought he'd mentally prepared himself for the worst. But seeing the Citadel, the place he called home for years, like this leaves him feeling cold.
The squad continues on to the main pathway of the lower Presidium.
"You think they're making a reaper here?" Anderson asks over the comm link.
"Sure," Shepard's voice responds. "They round them up on Earth, then send the people up here to be processed."
Tali and Garrus turn to each other in alarm. The haunting image of the human reaper at the collector base in their thoughts.
Walking swiftly but cautiously onwards, weapons at the ready, their eyes scan the surrounding area for any movement. Up ahead, they see a tremendous amount of smoke and dust about 60 feet in front of them. Garrus's heart sinks. Their path is blocked by a cascade of debris from a destroyed skybridge and office structures. It looks like the aftermath of several explosions, the smoldering rubble creating a barricade.
"We can't get through here. Maybe we can head through the lower ward and around the wreckage," Tali suggests.
Garrus looks at his map and nods. That could work, but it would take longer. They had to move faster. He leads the squad as they quickly make their way towards the entrance for the lower levels of Tayseri Ward. He focuses on Shepard's voice in his ear. She sounds strange. She's struggling to speak, something definitely wrong. Suddenly, Garrus hears a third voice that turns his blood to ice.
"I underestimated you, Shepard."
"The Illusive Man!" gasps Liara, full of shock and panic.
"We have to hurry. Keep moving!" Garrus yells as they break into a full sprint.
Through the entrance and into the stairwell, they descend to the lower levels of Tayseri Ward. Garrus's heart pounds in his chest. This can't be happening. We're so close. If he hurts her-
"What's he doing here?" Tali asks as they continue to run through the dark and desolate ward.
"The Illusive Man is working with the reapers and likely indoctrinated," says Liara. "They could be using him to activate the Catalyst for their own uses."
Garrus's concentration is on the path in front of him as they race through the cold and lifeless corridors while Shepard's and the Illusive Man's voices come through the comm link. This section of the ward is completely pitch-black. Not even emergency lights are operational. They flip on their weapons' flashlights.
During the fight with Sovereign three years ago, Tayseri Ward was hit the hardest as most of the wreckage from the reaper fell into this district. Even recently, about a third of the ward's sectors still had yet to be fully repaired.
They keep running, their route taking them through Andromeda Plaza, a bustling section of the ward known for high-end restaurants and clothing boutiques. Dark storefronts and broken vid screens line the main walkway. Overturned tables and chairs strewn throughout the area along with the dead.
As they run through the Plaza, the light from Garrus's rifle catches on the mangled bodies of Tayseri's former inhabitants. He tries not to let himself dwell on the destruction around him. Shepard is in danger. After all this, after reaching the Citadel and confirming that she's alive, he can't lose her now. He just couldn't.
His rage and determination grows ever stronger as he hears Shepard and the Illusive Man argue. She's trying to break him down, to make him see what the reapers are doing to him. Garrus stood by her side as she did the same to Saren three years ago. That's it, Shepard. Keep him talking. We're coming. As they move deeper into the ward, the comm link suddenly cuts to static. Then to silence.
"Shepard! Shepard?" Garrus cries out, panic-stricken. "We lost her."
They sprint forward as fast as they can until reaching a sealed door leading to another section of the ward. Tali rushes to open the door and Liara checks the comm channel status on her omni-tool.
"It could be interference from Harbinger or it could be from traveling through the lower ward," she explains. "But it's just the comm. We still have her location showing as active on the mapping system."
They rush through the now open door and into Tayseri Ward's transport hub. This was the main access for people to reach the residential sectors of Tayseri. Now the hub is without even emergency lighting, just like the Plaza. The orange glow of Liara's omni-tool and their weapon lights illuminate the immediate vicinity. The only other light source is a flickering broken headlight on a wrecked X3M on the far right.
"EDI? Admiral Hackett? Cortez?" Garrus tries over the comm. "Do you copy? Can anyone hear this?"
There's nothing. Just silence. Just the sound of their heavy breathing and armored footsteps as they run across the transport hub.
Fuck! If only one of these vehicles were still functional. We have to get to the Tower now! His mind racing, jumping back and forth from pleas to the spirits to keep Shepard safe to all the ways he would destroy the Illusive Man.
"What was that?" Tali asks, startled. She halts and listens for some sound, moving her shotgun and flashlight across the surrounding shadowy area.
Garrus and Liara stop as well and look at where her light hits. They just see more of the same bleak destruction that they passed through in the previous portions of the ward. Several demolished skycars. Shattered benches and kiosks. More dead bodies and blood.
Garrus shakes his head in agitation. They don't have time for this. "We need to keep-"
"Shh!" Liara stops him. "I just heard it too." She holds her submachine gun tightly with both hands, aiming at the darkness beyond some broken crates.
He stands still with them and listens. It's silent. He's about to say something again, when he hears it. Shuffling footsteps. And snarls.
His hand quickly goes to his visor and toggles the active scan mode as he looks out onto the cargo area. No movement. No active heat signatures aside from some of the smoking vehicles. Then he spots it. The visor eyepiece confirming activity in the darkness to the left.
Garrus turns towards it and the light on his M-15 Vindicator illuminates the spot, but there are no additional movements. It's just a damaged crate. And a dead salarian male. He moves closer to look at the puddle of green blood, sticky and half-dry, that spreads out from under the body. The edge of the puddle is smeared as if something was dragged through it and to the furthest reaches of the cargo dock.
Suddenly a piercing siren goes off, the screeching noise startling the team.
"An alarm?" Tali asks over the sound as it echos around them.
"It's an alert. It means the Citadel arms are opening," Liara says to Tali with a cautiously optimistic smile.
Garrus's mandibles flicker in surprise. "It's Shepard! She did it. We need to keep moving, but be careful." He takes a quick look back at the smeared blood near the broken crate. "It could be husks. Moving the Citadel arms should automatically open most of the emergency doors. If there are husks confined in some sections of the Citadel, they won't be for long."
They sprint through the remainder of the ward, tense and on high-alert. As they reach the final door that leads back out on to the Presidium, Tali yells in frustration.
"Bosh'tet! This door is completely non-functional. I can't bypass it."
Garrus immediately starts looking around in the unlit corridor with his light until he spots it. A stairwell to their left. "This way. We can try the entrance to the second level."
The squad races up the stairs to find that not only are the emergency lights still functioning here, the door is already open. Garrus breathes a sigh of relief as he leads the team through to the upper Presidium and finally out of Tayseri.
Zakera Ward and the entrance to the Citadel Tower are nearby and from what he can see of the pathway, it looks passable. From this level, they also have a clearer view of the devastation. Rubble and bloodied corpses are everywhere. This section of the Presidium is just as gruesome as the lower level before Tayersi.
Static on the comm link causes Garrus to slow his pace a bit and adjust his earpiece excitedly. "Shepard? Shepard, can you hear me?"
"Advisor Vakarian? This is Admiral Hackett." The Admiral's voice breaks through the continuous static.
"Hackett, we've lost the one-way comm link with Shepard and Anderson. The Illusive Man ambushed them."
"I know. We were able to hold the connection until a few minutes ago. From what we could hear, it sounded like the Commander was able to dispatch the Illusive Man somehow," Hackett explains much to Garrus's relief. "Shepard and Anderson were also able to open the arms and we've docked the Crucible, but it's not firing. I got through on the comm to Shepard for a few seconds before I lost her. She's alive, but she didn't sound good. And... I'm afraid Admiral Anderson didn't make it."
A loud boom of static follows and Garrus stands still entirely. "Admiral? We're losing the connection. Hackett, are you still there?"
"...Vakarian... Normandy and Dagger are battling Harbinger as we speak. We need... your squad to activate the Catalyst." Hackett's voice is in danger of being overpowered by the interference. "I know Shepard's trying to find a way... have to find her and fast."
"We will, Admiral," Garrus replies, nodding at Tali and Liara as they resume their cautious sprint towards the Tower.
"Cortez? Come in. What's your status?" Garrus tries the pilot over the comm link.
"Garrus, I'm here," Cortez's voice responds, though the connection isn't the best, the static isn't as bad as it was with Hackett. "Once the arms opened up and the Crucible moved in I had to head towards the outer Presidium. I've got Shepard's location on the map. Trying to keep as close to the Tower as I can."
"What about the Normandy?" asks Tali. "We've lost connection with them."
"Same here. I lost the link to Normandy once Harbinger got in range and I can't get a visual on her from this vantage point." The pilot's response confirms Liara's suspicion that Harbinger has been causing the interference.
"Stay close. We'll set the extraction point as soon as we find Shepard," Garrus orders as he gives a quick glance down to the map on his omni-tool. Almost there.
"Copy that," Cortez replies over the comm.
Garrus leads the way as they rush onwards across the upper level of the Presidium. Once a glittering beacon of order, progress, and security, the Citadel is now in essence a floating charnel house. It hurts him to see it like this. The place where he first met Shepard. Where they kissed. Where she told him that she loved him. He'd hoped the Citadel would be where they would settle down, make a home together when they weren't on missions. Maybe even where they would start a family.
Shepard's squad keeps running across the pathways, jumping over dividers and debris, darting around the remains of the fallen. His lungs burn and muscles ache. He hears Liara and Tali panting as they race toward the Tower entrance, no doubt exhausted and pushing their bodies to the limit too. But he can't slow down. He needs her. Safe and in his arms.
Admiral Hackett's words echo in his head. She's still alive, but she didn't sound good. The thought of losing her, of finding her too late, fills him with agony. He growls in pain at the thought of being without her. At the two years he'd already spent without her. Spirits, no. I can't lose her again. Not again.
Garrus's mind flashes to their bittersweet moment on Earth and the things they'd said about an afterlife, a heaven. If there really is an afterlife, if Shepard didn't make it out of this, maybe they could meet up there. If she dies. If he does lose her. He won't make her wait at that bar alone for long. And in this resolution, he finds some small solace.
Author's Notes:
Thank you for reading as always! =)
The squad returns to the Citadel in this chapter but of course it's not the same as it was before. The Citadel has always been an important part of the Mass Effect universe. It was the setting of pivotal events for Shepard and the Normandy crew (good and bad), making the events of ME3 feel even more tragic. I think it's kind of fitting that the reaper war would be won or lost not on Earth but on the Citadel.
This is how I imagine it would look after the final invasion. And though we didn't get to explore the other wards in the games, I wanted to have the team run through another ward, and Tayseri was the perfect choice given the impact of the Sovereign attack from ME1.