Chapter 27

It felt like her usual nightmare. There were two corpses near her, and a pool of red was creeping toward her ominously. She let out a shaky cough, wincing. She had at least one broken rib, and she knew there was serious internal bleeding from being hit by the Reaper beam. She'd lost a lot of blood, and her cybernetics had to be the only reason she was still conscious. She glanced over at Anderson's body. This was his job. He was supposed to be the first human Spectre, and he was supposed to be the one to use the Crucible against the Reapers. She'd dealt with the Illusive Man already; the body lying facedown on the opposite side of Anderson testified for her case. She was supposed to be done here, but Hackett was over her comm, begging her to answer him. The Crucible wasn't working.

"Goddammit, Anderson," she coughed, holding back the pain at the loss of her mentor. He'd been almost like a father to her. "This isn't what I signed up for."

She waited for an answer, knowing it would never come. Sighing, Shepard buried her face in her hands, ignoring the blood that covered them. It didn't matter anymore. It was up to her now, and every minute she waited, people were dying. One shaking hand lingered over her omni-tool in indecision before she pressed the button that would record a message.

"Garrus –" His name came out as a wheeze and she cleared her throat.. "Garrus, I know you're pissed off at me right now. I'm so sorry. I couldn't let you die down there. Please believe me, I wanted you with me, I still do." She drew a deep breath, swallowing her tears. "I – I don't think I'm going to make it out of here, but I don't want to die with you hating me. I just had to tell you that."

She almost pressed the end button, but she couldn't. She squeezed her eyes closed. "I love you. I wish I'd told you that sooner. God, I wish I could change it, make everything right with you, but I can't now."

She fought her way to her feet, repressing a cry of pain as her injuries protested, and struggled to reach the control panel. A section of the ground beneath her lit up and hummed to life, powering on as it lifted her toward the Catalyst. She was a helpless cause now; even with her cybernetics, medi-gel wasn't enough to save the life that rapidly drained from her as the seconds passed. She was going to die here, but she would make her final moments count.

"This is it," she whispered to the white room, limping toward the beam of light before her. "I'm so sorry for everything I put you through. Goodbye."

Garrus woke up abruptly. His head was pounding and he felt dizzy, but he'd had worse injuries. He forced himself to sit up, and the movement sent his head reeling. He was having trouble focusing due to a probable concussion, and he couldn't remember what he was supposed to be doing. He looked around. He was on the Normandy, strapped into a safety harness. The machinery around him, usually lit up, was dark.

He unstrapped himself and climbed out of the harness, making his way to the front of the ship and swaying dangerously as he struggled to maintain his balance. The cockpit was empty. More surprisingly, the shutters were drawn back, and instead of the darkness of space, he was looking out at greenery and a pale blue sky. His omni-tool beeped, reminding him that he had a new message, but he ignored it and headed straight to the air lock.

It was already open. He peered out of it to see more of the same landscape. A few crew members were standing outside the ship, hugging or staring at their surroundings. He stepped outside onto soft grass. Obviously they had crashed. What was this place?

"Hey, Scars, you're awake!"

He looked around to see James walking toward him. "Vega, what happened?"

"The relays exploded, screwed up our engines and sent us hurtling out of control. Joker took us planet-side for an emergency landing. Ship's dead for now, we're stranded. Must have had something to do with the Crucible."

The Crucible? Fucking head wound, of course that's where he was supposed to be! His eyes lit up and he grabbed James by the collar, suddenly intense.

"Why am I here? Where's Shepard?"

"Hey, whoa, calm down. It's cool. I guess Lola wanted to finish up by herself. Hit you over the head and took off running toward the beam with the Reaper shooting at her. That's the last I saw of her before we took off."

He released James blankly. Shepard had done what? After everything they'd worked through? He stalked off without a word to the confused lieutenant as rage flooded his thoughts. So Shepard had never gotten over her grudge; she'd only faked it. He'd only wanted to help her, to stand by her side, but she had betrayed him one last time. Fucked him over, and to what purpose? Just to get the glory of saving the galaxy by herself? It would take years, maybe decades, to get the relays working again. He'd probably never see her again. In fact, he never wanted to see her again.

He swore, cursing her name. Thane had been wrong about her. She'd never cared about Garrus like the drell had said. Maybe that was Thane's last chance to screw with him: by giving Shepard the chance to break his heart again. Garrus had wanted so badly to believe Thane's words were true, that Shepard loved him, but it was just another con. He clenched his fists tightly as he tried to control his anger.

His omni-tool pinged again, and he glared down at the voice recording from Shepard. Damn her! It wasn't enough to shame him for a final time, but she wanted to gloat about it too? That was beyond cold. She was flat-out heartless. He briefly considered listening to it before discarding the notion. He didn't need to hear this. A few swift clicks and he deleted her message before releasing his breath in an angry huff as he sat and glared up at the sky that dared to look so optimistic.

She wouldn't get the last word. Not this time.

End

(A/N): Thanks to everyone who stuck around. I'd love to hear what you think. If you are looking for a new story to read, I just started writing "Keeping Face." Hope you enjoyed the final installment.