A/N: Pretty dark, with character death and all, so be warned. Sorry to drop such inappropriate material for the jolly Christmas season. It'll get better eventually. Just bear with me, okay? :(
Oh yes, almost forgot another warning: features descriptions of a heterosexual relationship between two consenting individuals. Just mentioning it because some people might find that sort of thing offensive!
Chapter 95 - ...Goes Unpunished
"Spirits... you are certainly... full with energy," Garrus says, his mandibles twitching with amusement as Tali squirms again, sitting in his lap, pressing her head against his chest as he can feel her almost pulsating with excitement.
"I'm just so relieved!" the quarian exclaims. "My people are already resettling our homeworld... I never thought I'd see that happen, despite the promises my father made. And in the end, I did not cause the downfall of my own people. My father's research didn't get us exterminated, and I actually managed to help broker peace with the geth! I... I couldn't be happier, Garrus."
"Yes, the geth..." Garrus looks a little doubtful, slow to trust the synthetics that have been a thorn in their side for three long years. "Well, I hope it works out for your people, Tali. It'll just be... a little strange to fight alongside them. I'm a little worried I might shoot one of them out of reflex!"
Tali laughs a bit, before hugging him again. "I'm sure you'll get used to them. I was just thinking more about my father... all that work he put into his research... and it was all for naught, that was not what won back our homeworld. It was what nearly destroyed us! If someone had actually thought of trying to reason and negotiate with the geth earlier... maybe we would have never gotten this far."
"The idea might have occurred to some, but they would have never dared to voice it," Garrus says. "Just like you could not tell the other admirals about the ways we helped Legion."
"True, that," Tali agrees. "I would have wished to stay on Rannoch a little longer, but... the Normandy with you and Shepard? It's also almost like home."
Garrus laughs. "Shepard made a joke recently that the blueprints for the next Normandy will feature a comfortable sleeping berth for the standard-issue calibrations-turian as part of the main battery installation." He falls silent for a while then. "But yes, no avoiding this war with the Reapers. If we do not deal with them, your people will not hold the homeland for long."
"Yes... and I also hope my people leave some strip of the land for me to claim once we get back from our war with the Reapers. Uh... if we ever come back..."
"We'll win this thing, my Admiral," Garrus says, embracing her tightly. "Shepard told you about the ace up her sleeve, didn't she? We'll get it done."
"Hope you're right about that," Tali says, then literally jumping off the turian's lap, leaving Garrus sitting on the fallen, completely dried tree log, his back pressed against a giant boulder. Tali paces around a little bit, still bristling with energy and tension, taking in as many sights of her homeworld as she can. Between the sparse trees, she can see the foamy caps of waves of the deep blue ocean, beneath her feet, patches of rough, stringy plants, something that Shepard had described as looking like highland flora on Earth, wondering how anything useful would even grow in this emaciated soil, but Tali knows that her people will find a way, just as her ancestors had done long time ago.
"Will you stop running around?" Garrus chuckles, watching her nervous pacing, unable to find peace. "At least you're not like some of your people, ripping off their masks in excitement, thinking they no longer need their suits."
There is a soft little sound of something becoming depressurized and with surprise, Garrus sees Tali's mask slipping off and casually being set aside, as the quarian turns around to face him. "Tali... what, by the spirits, are you doing?"
"Garrus... I need to work off this excess energy," her voice is a sultry purr now. "One way would be for us to have a fight and then I could beat you senseless. I would rather avoid that if possible," she says, sitting astride his legs again, her face aligned with his. "I have a better idea..."
"But..." Garrus would not be Garrus if he didn't put up one last token protest. "You will end up in the infirmary for a few days!"
"And what did I tell you after our first time? Totally worth it!" she grins, and Garrus watches her like mesmerized as she pushes closer, pressing her delicate lips over his mouth, sighing as he responds eagerly. Her skin is a marvel to touch and behold, so soft and pale of beautiful light blue, paler even than Shepard's.
Their kisses grow more and more ravenous before Tali roughly grabs his hand and guides it down between their bodies, towards the juncture of her legs, where the heat within her has reached unbearable levels, demanding its release. Without a moment of pause the quarian begins to wantonly grind her hips against the heel of his hand, each and every motion accompanied by a lustful moan, so loud that Garrus actually turns his head around, worrying about being discovered.
Watching the subtle play of emotions across her face is a rare privilege that Garrus relishes like nothing else in his life. Those expressive, glowing eyes shut tight from the intense pleasure, lips parted as she cries out his name amongst a litany of jumbled words, and with a sudden, calming clarity he realizes that he loves her more than anything else in this galaxy, watching her finally reach the peak of her pleasure.
"Keeeeee-" the moan escaping Tali's lips is cut short as her entire body shakes with powerful convulsions and moments later she collapses against his chest, tension rapidly bleeding from her. "-lah..." she finishes with a content sigh, only a while later.
Smiling, Garrus lowers her on the tree log and reluctantly abandons her to go and pick up her face mask, knowing that the longer Tali remains exposed, the more severe the consequences will be for her. He bends down to pick up the mask, but then is alerted by a strange sound, usually associated with the arrival of an aircraft. "What's going on now?" he wonders, walking back to Tali and fastening her mask back in place, regretting deeply having to hide the beauty of her face, his quarian lover unable to do much at the moment.
"Sounds like a light frigate coming in for a landing," Tali manages tiredly.
"Yes, I think I can see them now," Garrus says, squinting in the distance. "But... uh, I hope they know what they are doing. That approach angle looks completely wrong."
"Quarians don't make novice mistakes like that, Garrus," Tali shakes her head vehemently, but the expression of fear and horror on Garrus' face sobers her quickly.
"Spirits... they're going to crash..." he whispers, throwing himself to the ground and dragging Tali down with him, as a deafening explosion rings in their ears, the resulting blast wave washes over them and makes the nearby trees creak ominously.
"Joker? Joker?!" Tali is already on the comms, immediately recognizing where the quarian vessel has crashed. "JOKER! Damn it... damn it, I cannot reach them, Garrus, they... they must have taken the Normandy with them!"
Garrus stands silent, not knowing what to answer, what hope to offer. "I... we need to get back to the ship. There... might be survivors. Please let there be survivors..."
She opens her eyes to the sight of black sky above greeting her. Surrounded by smoldering rubble and still brightly burning fires, she can hear orders being given over the cacophony of panicked screams, and she feels the spiking pain somewhere in her lower back, and all across her spine. Quickly, Morgan realizes that she has been strapped to some kind of a stretcher, outside the charred husk of the Normandy, under the starry night sky.
I'm alive. The implants and the doctors will now take care of the rest, as Karin told me, she thinks, but her concerns are not truly with herself. The fates of her crew, and her bondmate are paramount. "Liara!" she opens her mouth to yell, but only a weak croak emerges as she tries to look around her.
"Don't move, Morgan," she hears the voice of her bondmate, immediately allowing herself to relax a little bit. "You have extensive spinal injuries, please, remain still on the stretcher."
"Liara, can you come closer? I need to know you're alright," she begs quietly, hearing Liara getting off her stretcher nearby and approaching her. The image that appears before her eyes is rather sad, Liara's face is covered with a variety of nasty swollen bruises, as if her loved one had received a heavy beating. Her crest is severely bandaged and her left arm hangs limply at her side.
"I think I got off lightly by all accounts," Liara remarks, having difficulties speaking clearly through her swollen lips. "Thank the goddess I got my biotic barriers up in time."
"Gods... I... I had a bad feeling about Xen..." Morgan sighs, closing her eyes. "But to think that she would sacrifice her ship, her crew, herself just to get back at us... I could never have predicted this. Never."
"No, you could not have predicted it, so I hope you do not decide to suddenly start blaming yourself for this," Liara says. "And at least Xen ordered most of her crew off the ship before she succumbed to this madness. There is very little left of the Moreh. It will be difficult to retrieve corpses for burial."
"What... what about..." Shepard stops, swallowing heavily, not certain she can continue. She clenches her fists tightly, and finally pushes herself to ask the question that she will need to ask sooner or later. "What about the Normandy? What about our crew?"
"I won't lie to you, Morgan. The ship looks very bad, despite Joker's last moment maneuver," Liara shakes her head sadly. "They are not sure if the Normandy can be repaired, but it is too early to say. The damage to the starboard side is particularly extensive... anyone caught there at the time of impact..."
"My god..." Shepard whispers, feeling her frame starting to shake as she can't stop herself from crying. Liara steps a little closer and reaches out with her healthy right arm to take Morgan's hand in hers. "I don't want to ask, I don't want to know, but... I have to. Do you have any information on the crew?"
"Tali and Garrus are taking care of that, Morgan. They were not on board and are now assisting with the search and rescue," Liara explains. "They will check in soon. I understand that several of the crew are still unaccounted for."
"What about Joker? He was right next to me on the bridge, tell me he is alright!"
"They took the most critically injured to the Rayya already. The liveships have impressive medical facilities. Joker was... one of those in the first wave. With his condition, some of his fractures are... very unpleasant."
"Damn it. I hope they have some specialists that know how to treat species other than quarians. Chakwas should be able to help-"
"Morgan. Karin Chakwas was amongst those most gravely injured. She... she will not be able to help anyone for a long while," Liara's voice breaks as she tries to explain. "They say it is uncertain whether she will recover. She has severe head trauma."
"Fuck... not Karin... goddamned Xen!" Shepard swears, anger battling with grief within her. "Anyone else that you know of?"
"Several privates that I do not know by name," Liara replies. "But I should not speak any more without knowing the facts. Garrus will be back soon, he will have a complete report, I'm sure."
"I'm not letting them take me to the Rayya until I know the fate of my crew!" Shepard exclaims angrily, watching two other figures approaching her and Liara. It is Admiral Koris, and also Legion, she recognizes the mangled N7 armor as part of his platform.
"I... I don't know what to say, Commander," Koris speaks gravely. "Apologies seem so inadequate. We... could have never expected that one of ours, a respected admiral to boot, would... do something like this!"
"I understand, Admiral," Shepard says quietly. "None of us could have foreseen this. It was an act of complete insanity."
"I have the first tentative reports by our engineers, Commander. They believe that the Normandy can be repaired, but it will take considerable amount of time. If we assign the maximum amount of our resources, they think your ship might fly again in a standard month."
"The geth are willing to assist as well," Legion joins in. "We believe that the estimates provided by Admiral Koris can be drastically shortened."
"Thank you, both," Shepard whispers, her heart tugging with fondness when Liara leans closer to her and wipes her cheeks clean from unwashed tears with a clean piece of cloth.
"Commander, I will return to the Rayya to oversee the medical treatment of your people," Koris says. "I hope to see you onboard soon."
"We will begin our work on restoring the Normandy immediately," Legion informs her, Shepard feeling intensely grateful to the geth, as Legion and Koris leave her alone with Liara.
"I never did get to speak with Hackett. What do I tell him now?" Morgan asks desperately.
"The truth?"
"Yes, obviously, but... dammit, Liara, why do these things keep happening to us?"
"I wish I had the answer for you, Morgan. But it does seem as if for each and every good deed we do, me must sacrifice something in return."
"Reminds me of this human idiom. They say that no good deed goes unpunished."
"It does not seem to make sense to me," Liara appears confused.
"Think about it. It basically means that life is horribly unfair and no matter how much you try to do good things, you'll just end up getting screwed over and over again."
"That is a desperately cynical viewpoint. I refuse to believe that, Morgan," Liara shakes her head.
"It's been proving annoyingly apt so far," Shepard mutters. "Damn it, I wonder if the QEC will still be usable."
"I understand the War Room and comm units did not suffer as much damage, so it should be fine, I suspect," Liara replies. "Oh... there come Tali and Garrus," she then says quickly, Morgan trying to look up and see, forgetting about her injuries and receiving a jolting spike of pain for her efforts. "They will have more news, I am sure."
Not seeing Tali's face, Shepard can only judge her feelings by the way she supports herself against Garrus' side, as if her legs threatened to give out on her, testament to the horrors she has just witnessed. The turian's face is like set in stone, as always when he is deeply upset, only a minute twitch of his mandibles now and then.
"That bad, is it?" Shepard finally asks.
Garrus gives a disgusted look to the datapad in his hands. "It was horrible, Shepard," he finally says. "Almost all of those who were present on the starboard side at the time of the crash are dead. With the exception of Dr. Chakwas, but..."
"I've been briefed about her injuries, Garrus."
"Starboard side, does that mean Javik is gone too?" Liara asks nervously.
"No. He caught a lucky escape, he was in the men's restrooms at the time," Garrus replies. "I..." he gives another look at the datapad. "Better I just read you the whole list." Nobody says anything, dreading to hear what he has to say but knowing that they need to know the truth.
"From the crew of twenty-nine, seventeen were onboard at the time of crash. From those seventeen, eight have been pronounced dead," Garrus starts. "Privates Freizinger, Chernov, Campbell, van den Graph and Karelin. Ensign Copeland... Chief Engineer Adams... damn it, I can't do it..." he angrily throws the datapad down on the ground, turning away, putting his hands around a very willing Tali, seeking his embrace in turn.
"...fuck, not Greg... no, why..." Shepard groans, watching on as Liara picks up the datapad, her eyes widening in horror as she reads the last name on the list. Before Shepard can demand answers from her, she sees a couple of quarian workers carrying away a stretcher covered by a white sheet, and a slight gust of wind reveals that there are very few remains left from this most unfortunate of the victims.
"That was him," Garrus grinds out the words.
"Goddess... you were right, Morgan," Liara whispers, tears starting to flow across her bruised cheeks. "No good deed goes unpunished..."
"Who? Who was that poor bastard?" Shepard demands, stunned when she hears the reply.
"Major Kaidan Alenko..."