*SSV NORMANDY*
Tali'Zorah nar Rayya was good at coping with loss. She wouldn't exactly have described herself as being more emotionally healthy than other people. Rather she would say she'd had practice compartmentalizing so no one would see her vulnerability. When she lost her mother, she was forced to deal with her grief on her own while her father withdrew into an unending seclusion. She had to cope quickly upon losing her pilgrimage companion, Keenah, to Saren's assassins. In the first instance she'd soldiered on because that was what was expected of an admiral's daughter. In the second she'd made peace without looking back because survival took precedence. In this situation, she found herself unable to accept her current circumstances, and she was having a hard time admitting why.
The battle had been grueling to say the least. None of the ground team had managed to leave Virmire completely unscathed which, thanks to the Commander, all of them did indeed leave. Ashley had to be treated for multiple burns and contusions from pulse rifle fire. Kaidan suffered three broken fingers and a dislocated knee after trying to take a Krogan on at close range. Wrex earned himself a series of fresh new scars pummeling robots to dust with his skull. Liara had several third degree burns from the wash of a plasma grenade. Garrus was sporting a limp after shrapnel blasted its way through his armor, and into his right hip. She seemed to have fared the best out of all of them considering she'd only taken a grazing hit on her forearm that barely breached her suit's containment. She would be down for a week with a mild infection, but that was about the size of it. The Commander, on the other hand, had come out a great deal worse than anyone else.
Upon hearing the Gunnery Chief's calls for evac, Joker had maneuvered the Normandy in to pick up her, Shepard, and the Salarian STG team. Within minutes, they were breaking Virmire's atmosphere as a gargantuan mushroom cloud roiled behind them. She had already been patched up and was leaving the infirmary when several crew members came rushing past with the Commander's smoking body on the gurney between them. She'd tried to follow them in asking if he was going to be alright, but received a worrying 'we're not sure' before she was whisked out and the door shut.
Nearly three hours later, a haggard looking Doctor Chakwas had emerged to offer the waiting crew news on Shepard's condition. "He had severe brain swelling so we needed to split a small portion of his skull to relieve the pressure. His biotic amplifiers were completely burnt out, and will need to be replaced. We did our best to minimize the damage to his spinal cord, but he had five cracked vertebrae and two ruptured discs. We set the rest of his bones, and re-inflated his left lung."
The entire squad was utterly flabbergasted. Wrex was the first to regain his composure. "Sounds bad for someone without redundant systems. He gonna be alright?"
Doctor Chakwas nodded wearily while absently removing her coffee stained surgical gloves and smock. "Miraculously, he's begun to stabilize. Although he won't be out of the woods for some time. Until the swelling in his brain goes down, I am going to be keeping him in a medically induced coma."
"I… I didn't realize it was that bad." Ashley breathed in disbelief. "He shouldn't have come back…"
Kaidan walked to her side and put an arm around her shoulders. The gravity of the situation overrode his usually shy demeanor. "That's just the type of person he is. If not for that bull headed determination, at least one of us would have gone up with the facility."
The crew nodded in silent agreement.
"As hard as he tries to tear himself apart, he knows how to handle himself. That being said, the capabilities of our med bay won't be enough to fully treat his more extensive internal injuries. We should return to the Citadel with the utmost haste." The Doctor declared firmly, even though not a soul aboard the Normandy dared dispute her decision.
Kaidan raised a hand to his ear to key open a channel to their pilot, but conspicuously kept his arm wrapped around the Gunnery Chief's shoulders. "Joker, we need to get to the Citadel on the double."
"Roger that. How is he?" The helmsman's normal snark was nonexistent.
"Shepard takes a lot of killing. No way that pale imitation of a Turian Spectre would be able to keep him down for long." Garrus answered before his Human counterpart.
"Glad to hear it. Let me know when he wakes up."
"Affirmative. We'll keep you posted. Out." Kaidan replied before cutting the feed to the cockpit.
"Right. Until that happens, you all should go get some rest yourselves." Doctor Chakwas ordered as she made to return to the med bay and catch some sleep on one of the open gurneys.
The team awkwardly fidgeted for a few moments before Tali blurted out. "Can't we stay and wait for him to wake up?"
The Doctor turned to cast an appraising look over the gathering before her. "He's not going anywhere, and the lot of you need to recuperate." Downcast eyes dropped to the floor. "But… I suppose I can set the ship's VI to page everyone if anything changes." She stood thoughtfully gauging her next words carefully. "I hadn't realized the extent of everyone's concern for that impossible man."
Wrex shifted uncomfortably at essentially being called soft. Especially when it was in reference to his fondness for a squishy little Human. "Yeah, well… He signs our paychecks after all."
"Wait… The rest of you have been getting paid?" Liara huffed in irritation.
That got a grudging chuckle out of the group before the Doctor once again reiterated her order for rest. "I'll make sure he's awake in time for payday. Now, all of you shoo."
The ground team reluctantly dispersed, and headed to beds that practically called each of their names. Tali stood frozen for a full minute after everyone else had left to stare at the med bay's door, and the broken man stubbornly clinging to life behind it. She said a silent prayer to herself before finally following everyone else's example, and heading to her sleeper pod.
*UNKNOWN*
A light breeze drifted past carrying handfuls of discarded, dry leaves in its gentle wake. Their brittle skins rustled against one another with a distinct sigh as they danced and swirled past one another. Their subtle, earthy aromas tinged the air as they lazily brushed past the craggy bark of barren trees that stood forever watchful amidst the never-ending flow of time. Faint rays of sunlight glinted through wiry branches that reached ever taller into the burnished, bronze sky. All was calm and peaceful.
Shepard effortlessly glided between the silent sentinels, reaching out to brush his fingertips against their stony trunks as he passed. It had been so long since he'd just had time to relax and truly enjoy his surroundings. So much of his time had been spent racing from one hostile location to the next in what seemed like a never ending struggle just to survive for one more day. He relished the brief respite as best he could while he had the chance. As he wound his way through whatever grove he'd found himself in, his thoughts began to wander as well.
"I wonder where I am?" He nonchalantly asked no one in particular and wasn't really surprised when no reply answered back.
"How did I get here?" Again no response but the quiet whisper of leaves tumbling along the ground at his feet.
He continued on his aimless journey through the woods but the sky was steadily growing dark. Crickets began to chirp as dusk lengthened and bathed the world around him in bluish shade.
"Hmm. Better find somewhere to rest for the night before it gets cold."
As if in sympathy to his thoughts, an amber spec of light began to flicker in the distance. Like a moth to flame, he instinctively gravitated toward the only sign of life in the quiet forest around him. As he approached, he was able to distinguish the source of the light beckoning him onward. The distinctly angular lines of a small, colonial prefab unit materialized out of the gloom as he neared. All of the windows were dark save one on the second floor of the unit. He hovered up to the door and lightly tapped on its metallic surface with the knuckles of his right hand.
He reached out to key open the door but it noiselessly glided open before he could even touch the keypad. He didn't notice that the breeze ceased as he entered the interior of the prefab unit or the door clicking shut behind him.
He made his way up the stairs toward the rear of the unit carefully avoiding the furnishings he somehow knew were there but couldn't actually see. He followed the warm glow of light emanating from the top of the stairs and made his way up. His feet seemed to grow heavier as he ascended, but he paid it no mind. One of the steps creaked loudly in protest as he put his full weight on it, but he felt as if he'd been expecting it to. He reached the top of the small staircase feeling somewhat winded.
He glanced over toward the window he'd seen in the front of the prefab house and the back of a small, hunched figure dimly illuminated by a short desk lamp. The figure didn't move or stir.
His body tensed as he edged closer to the diminutive silhouette seated beneath the window. His eyes flicked from side to side as disturbingly familiar details finally came into focus within the shadows. He recognized the bed from his room back on Mindoir. He saw the old Alliance Andy and Eclipse Eroba action figures that used to be his favorite toys growing up.
His apprehension grew as he carefully crept up behind the silent form. He could clearly see tousled brown hair and the worn, gray hoodie jacket the boy was wearing. "Wait you… you're…"
The air around him was unimaginably heavy, almost oppressively so. Even his own rapid breathing sounded like it was being heard from underwater. The cheerful song of the crickets outside ceased entirely leaving nothing but the smothering stillness. The light on the boy's desk flickered and winked out plunging the room into total darkness apart from a small shaft of moonlight shining in through the open window. Shepard's pulse quickened and nervous sweat began to bead on his forehead. He reached out toward the boy.
Then, like flood gates had been thrown wide, memory returned in an overwhelming rush. The building around him erupted into flame. Screams of the dying pierced the calm, night air. Sounds of a fight downstairs as his parents fought off the Batarian slavers that had forced their way into his home. His mother's shriek as one of the monsters caved in his father's skull with a boot. Her gurgling cry as a knife was driven into her neck. Death. Carnage. Destruction. The voices of hundreds in the colony crying out in anguish as their lives were wantonly ripped away.
The chorus of voices grew into an earth shattering wail as visions of an entire race called out in despair while their very essence was snuffed out by some diabolical machinery. Burning planets wheeling past with one standing out as somehow more relevant than the others. A shadowy colossus descending from the twisting nether to burn away all that stood before it. Its bellowing roar drowned out the tormented screams echoing through his consciousness before empty blackness once again blanketed his mind.
He sat unmoving in the stillness for an unknown amount of time not knowing what to do. An irritatingly faint buzzing seemed to scratch at the very edges of his ears' ability to hear, but he was certain it was there. He strained to make out the sound more clearly, and willed himself to drift toward the source of the sound through the inky darkness. For what seemed like an eternity, he was met with failure before the sound withdrew. He tried to shout into the void trying to find the noise, but nothing escaped the shroud settling over his senses. Finding himself spiraling into oblivion he did the only thing he could think of. He got mad.
He screamed his rage at nothing, even though his ears couldn't hear any sound. He thrashed against the constricting shadow that seemed to be holding him fast. He struggled and fought with every ounce of his being against the ethereal bonds that held him. A sickening thought crossed his mind that he was battling against the bonds of purgatory. That he was dead, and was lost in the nothingness of the afterlife. The idea drove a dagger of icy terror into his heart which made him fight even harder. He battered himself against invisible barriers in his desperate bid to escape whatever nightmare held him. Until he heard something new.
He froze and focused his every cell on the sound like a drowning man reaching for a life giving rope. His heart beat rapidly as the volume of the sound increased. He could barely make out melodious tones wafting through his being in a familiar cadence. He started to struggle again to move toward where he believed the song to be coming from, but when he did the tone of the song changed. It became tense, and icy. He forced himself to relax and, just as he hoped, the song went back to its comforting ring. Encouraged by his progress, he endeavored to let himself casually drift in the direction he wanted to go.
He had no way of knowing how long it took, but as he ghosted along he was becoming aware that the cold darkness around him was beginning to give way to warm light. He began to hear other sounds coming from the gloom as he progressed. Smooth tones, gravelly reverberations, sultry timbre, and colorful resonances. He decided he enjoyed listening to all of them, but the first was by far his favorite. Something light and exotic, yet altogether cozy and inviting. As the ambience around him gradually grew in intensity, he was beginning to understand that the noises were actually voices. He pushed himself to move towards them as fast as he could without angering his favorite.
As he did, he started to recognize sounds forming into words although their meaning escaped him. He could discern that his favorite voice was saying something, and recognized the rolling R's he had come to adore. He slowed his progress forward to simply listen, and savor the sound of words he didn't understand spoken with a voice that could melt his very soul. He would have almost stayed like that indefinitely if not for the overwhelming urge to continue forward that tickled at the back of his consciousness.
He started to become aware of his body again as he finally stirred into wakefulness, though his eyes stubbornly remained shut. At last his translator kicked in again letting him finally understand what the people around him were saying. His parched lips curled into a grin upon hearing his favorite voice's excited declaration.
"Doctor, I think he's waking up!" Tali exclaimed.