Dancing with Vega Chapter 9: Precipice
They stood on the top of the hill, looking down on the home stretch, waiting for the assault team to form up. The beam was so close, maybe a couple hundred yards away. That beam would take them straight to the Citadel, where they could activate the Catalyst and finally destroy the Reapers. A couple hundred yards stood between them and ending this war. No Man's Land had been brutal; the hardest fight since plowing through a wave of brutes to get Mordin to the tower on Tuchanka with a massive Reaper trying to shoot them. Not just hard, but worse. The Reapers had swarmed over them, trying to stop them from activating the missile. They had pushed through a sea of husks and cannibals, Shepard using her omni-tool blade to thrust them aside, as James made generous use his shotgun and Javik slammed groups of husks into crumbling walls. Garrus had sniped what he could from a safe (relatively speaking) vantage point, but there were just too many for him to be very effective. Now they stood on the final precipice, all their hopes pinned on what they would find on the other end of the beam.
Shepard stood stiffly, assault rifle gripped in white-knuckled hands. She was covered in sweat, dirt, blood (some of it her own), and bits of Reaper flesh. Her eyes were glued to the beam; she knew she had to make it there, that nothing else mattered. She just had to get that far, activate the weapon, or whatever was up there, and everything would be over. As he walked up next to her, James could see her lips moving slightly, and just barely hear her mumbling unintelligibly over the sounds of surrounding battle. From the few words he managed to catch, she seemed to be psyching herself up, focusing herself on her objective. Something he'd never seen her do before. It worried him; she looked exhausted, like she was only standing there by sheer willpower. Maybe she was. He placed a hand on her shoulder, felt her trembling slightly.
"Hey, Lola. You all right?" He kept his voice low so the soldiers around them wouldn't hear. When she didn't answer right away, he wondered if he'd spoken too quietly. Then she turned to look at him, glanced at his hand on her shoulder like she hadn't noticed it was there, and then turned hardened eyes back up at him. Her mood had suddenly shifted; she was up to something.
"James. I want you to stay here." His eyes nearly bulged out of his head. That, he did not expect.
"You…what?" Her gaze remained firm, and she lifted his hand off her shoulder.
"That's an order, Lieutenant." He spluttered and swore several times, staring at her incredulously.
"I'm sorry, Commander, but I'm gonna have to refuse to obey that order. Are you insane? What makes you think I'm going to stay here while you run into that mess down there? You think I'm going to let you go in alone? That's bullshit!" He was yelling by the end, and they were drawing attention. Shepard glared at him.
"Shut up," she hissed. "You're making a scene."
"You're damn right I am. What the hell, Shepard? I know you trust me to watch your back." He paused, watching as her face shifted just slightly, her mask almost breaking. "Don't tell me you want me to stay behind so I don't get hurt. That ain't gonna fly, Lola. I didn't sign up to sit on the side lines. And I ain't sleeping with you to get out of the fight." Shepard's eyes went wide, her face flushed beneath the grime, and she grabbed his arm roughly, dragging him off to some corner of moderate privacy. Which became more private as any nearby soldiers scattered when they saw the enraged look on her face. She spun around to face him.
"Dammit, James! Just do what I say!" He advanced on her, but she stood her ground, staring defiantly up at him.
"It's loco, Lola! Why the hell do you want me to stay behind? You need me down there!"
"No! I need you here! I-!" Her mouth snapped shut before she finished her thought, her emotions beginning to run away from her as they yelled at each other. "Dammit…." She huffed in frustration, and turned away from him to look down at the battle field below. "Why can't you just obey orders?"
"I would if they made any sense! What the hell do you mean, you need me here? I need to be by your side, keeping those Reapers off your ass! We're going to push through to that beam and send those Reapers back where they came from! Do not bench me over some stupid-"
"I need you to stay here so I come back!" She shouted at him as she turned to face him again, her face contorting under her effort to keep her stoic mask in place. James blinked at her, dumbfounded.
"You…what do you mean? So you come back? What kind of joke is that?" He watched as she closed her eyes, struggling to maintain her composure. When she opened them, they were wet with emotion; when she spoke, it was just loud enough for him to hear.
"If I go in there…when I go in there…I don't know what I'm going to find. I don't know what's going to happen. And I…I need to know that you'll be here, waiting for me. So that no matter what happens, I remember to come back. To come back…to you." He stared at her, momentarily speechless as her words sunk in, as he slowly began to understand what she wanted to tell him. She took his silence as continued stubbornness. "Don't make me shoot you in the knee." James watched her adjust her SMG, knew she'd make good on her threat.
"Yeah…. Yeah, all right, Lola. OK. I'll stay here. You just be sure you come back. Don't make me regret staying behind." She nodded, satisfied, and looked past him at the soldiers getting ready to make the run to the beacon.
"Well, it's nearly time. You help Garrus watch our backs, OK?" The assault troops were mobilizing, but she stood still, staring past him, unable to move. Truly terrified for one of the first times in her life. Because for one of the first times, there was no real plan, the solution was unknown; everything was a great big chance, based on things they didn't even understand. No one knew for sure if this would work, but all their hopes were pinned on the Crucible. No one knew for certain what it would do, or if it would even do anything at all. Suddenly she felt a warm arm slip around her, pull her close.
"Hey…Lola…." His gruff voice called out to her, and her gaze shifted. Then his lips crushed hers in a desperate kiss. He pulled back and looked into her eyes; she saw all of his emotions directed at her, only for her. Her mind cleared. "I'll be waiting. Right here." He kissed her again, tenderly this time, and then released her. "Go kick some Reaper ass." She gave him a weary smile, touched her fingers gently to his face, then walked off without another word.
James made his way toward Garrus's position, where he found an SMG with an attached scope waiting for him, next to a small pile of heatsinks. The Turian was already crouched to the ground, sniper rifle in position. Garrus greeted him with a gravely "Lieutenant," and immediately set to scanning the field below them. James quickly took position as well, and searched through the amassing group of soldiers for Shepard. If she was going to make him stay behind, he would watch her back as best he could from up there. He wouldn't let her leave his sight. He trained his scope on her, and as the soldiers began to move, followed her across the field, doing what he could to keep her from being overwhelmed.
The damn Reaper wouldn't relent, and began shooting its powerful beams into the oncoming soldiers, intent on keeping them away from the Citadel. He found it hard to track Shepard in the spewing dust and debris, but he found her in time to see it happen. A shot from the Reaper landed just in front of her, as she was only yards away from her target, throwing her back as a cloud of dust blocked his view.
"Fuck! Shepard!" He jumped up, intent on running down the hill to her side, but a strong hand grabbed his arm, holding him back.
"Stop, Vega!"
"So help me, Vakarian," he growled, "I will push you to the ground. I will shoot you, if you don't fucking let me go." The Turian leaned in, his grip tight on the man's arm.
"She made me promise, Vega. And I intend to keep that promise. You…we're staying here." James could see the pain in his eyes, hear the regret in his voice, and his shoulders drooped slightly as the words sank in. "We'll wait here for her to come back." Garrus squeezed his arm. "She will come back, Vega." He turned his gaze back to the field below, filled with dismembered bodies, straggling husks, men moaning in pain. "Spirits…look." Garrus pointed with his free hand toward a point on the field, and James followed his gaze. He squinted into the dusty air.
"What…I don't see…." A figure was moving. The Turian's grip relaxed, and he shook his arm free, pulling up the SMG and searching for the lone moving figure. It was her. Stumbling, slow, and clearly injured, but it was her, and she was still moving. He watched as she shot down a Marauder in her path, struggled toward her goal. "Come on, Lola, you can do it," he mumbled under his breath, willing her onward. Then she walked into the beam of light…and was gone.
They were being overwhelmed by Reaper forces encroaching on the hill; they wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. Suddenly, the Reapers stopped moving, and everyone froze, as if someone had paused time across the entire galaxy. Something was happening. Then a strange red light spread throughout the Reaper fleet, and he could hear the breaths being sucked in, followed by silence as they were held, waiting, wondering if this was the end. Then the Reapers lurched back to life.
"No…." She had failed. She must have. And if she'd failed, then she was dead. Nothing else would have stopped her. In desperation, a nearby soldier let out a wail and fired off a rocket at a descending Reaper ship. The rocket ripped through its hull, and the Reaper plummeted into a building a few hundred yards away. A wave of energy swept over the troops, and everyone leapt into action. The message immediately went out across all available channels – The Reapers' defenses were disabled. They could be defeated.
James's heartbeat quickened. Then she had done it, she had activated the Crucible, and it had done…whatever it was meant to do. He turned toward the beam that led to the Citadel, sure he would see Shepard coming back down at any moment. He found if flickering, watched it blink out. And she wasn't there. He pulled up his SMG, stared through the scope, combed the field. He couldn't find her. That wasn't right. She'd said she would come back. That's why he'd stayed behind, waited, instead of going in with her. So where was she?
"James!" Garrus's voice yelled his name, drawing his attention. "Just because they're weak doesn't mean they've stopped!" He jerked back into action as a pair of cannibals came lumbering up the hill towards him, training his gun on them in the nick of time. They went down easily. They really had been weakened, but there were still plenty of them shuffling around. He wanted to search for Shepard, but this had to come first. He had to clear a way.