Chapter 44: Rescue
Shepard slapped herself in the face when claxons rang through the base around her. All around the STG base, Salarians scrambled to back up files and keep everything that was on the base both secure and secret.
Shepard looked up when the name "Cerberus" was spoken aloud.
"Wait." Shepard turned to one of the Salarians. "What did you say?"
"There are several incoming dropships! The scanners show that they're Cerberus!" The Salarian replied before quickly rushing off to secure the last surviving cured female.
I wish Rah didn't have to leave. Why couldn't he at least stay to make sure this went smoothly? Shepard thought to herself, following behind the Salarian.
"I need to get the female out of here. Cerberus will be able to crack this place like an egg." Shepard told the Salarian, trying to pull him away from his console.
"No! Need to secure her! Base is in lockdown! No one get's in or-" The Salarian replied, but was silenced when another Salarian touched the first one's back. Electricity raced up and down the first Salarian's body, forcing him to stop what he was doing.
"Duly noted." Mordin replied, pulling his hand away. "Now, release the female to Spectre Shepard."
"Y-yes sir." The Salarian replied hastily.
"How we doing this Mordin?" Shepard asked turning to her friend with a smile.
"Need to clear female's pod through the various checkpoints manually. Will go with her to ensure her safety. Need you to clear us through checkpoints." Mordin told her, giving her a smile. "Know you can do it."
"Damn right we can." Vega spoke up behind Mordin.
"How are we getting out of here?" Garrus asked, glancing at the locked lift door.
"Maintenance shaft on other side of room, use that." Mordin shrugged and began walking toward the pod.
"Liara, go with Mordin, never hurts to have extra fire power should Cerberus get to them." Shepard ordered the Asari.
"Not necessary Kat, can-" Mordin began, but Shepard cut him off.
"She's going with you Mordin. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."
"Very well." Mordin replied after a deep breath. "Stay safe Kat."
"Worry about yourself and the female Mordin. You should know by now that I always stay safe." Shepard smirked back. She turned to glare at Garrus was he barked out a laugh, he silenced himself under her stare however, content to give her a smug look.
"Let's move out people." Shepard barked out to the others, checking her clip on her shotgun as she went. "Vega, you're with me, EDI you're with Garrus. Javik, don't get yourself killed and prime targets for me to charge."
The four in her squad gave her acknowledgements, though Javik's was a bit spiteful. Shepard heard the pod that the Krogan female was in begin to lift up into the base while they made their way to the maintenance shaft.
"Everyone fan out!" Shepard barked while sweeping the top level of the STG base for any Cerberus survivors. "I don't want anymore of these traitors getting the drop on us."
"Almost done with final release protocols. Need a few moments before female can be released." Mordin spoke over the team's comms.
Shepard looked around her and the team. None of the Cerberus forces that had been waiting for them had survived. She needed to turn off however when taking in the carnage of the bodies around them. There were some that had large holes in them, others had been turned into pulps of flesh, and some were splattered against walls and the floor. Shepard had to tread carefully while she walked through the blood and gore on the floor, even needing to stop herself from falling a few times.
"Shepard, I'm picking up something large approaching at an alarming rate." EDI spoke up.
"Where's it coming from?" Shepard asked, slamming a fresh clip into her shotgun.
"Above us." EDI replied, looking up.
The entire squad looked up as well. They had only a few seconds for it to register in their heads that Cerberus had dropped a piloted mech and it was now falling towards them. The mech slammed into the ground, making a large crater in the floor of the base. The shockwave from the mech's landing and the tremor that shook the base sent everyone sprawling.
"We can't let that thing get to the female!" Shepard barked out, scrambling into cover.
"What do you suggest we do Lola?" Vega barked and the sound of his machine gun firing filled the air.
"Stay in cover and kill it!" Shepard barked, not letting any sign of her panic into her voice.
The mech completely ignored Shepard and her team. Instead, it turned its sights on the mech fired and Shepard cried out, thinking the female to be a goner. Shepard's mind locked up however when a massive blue wall appeared in front of the pod.
Liara's cry of pain echoed over their comms and snapped Shepard into motion.
Shepard yelled out and flung herself at the mech, forcing it back a step and throwing off the pilot's aim. Instead of bouncing off like she normally would have, Shepard grabbed ahold of the mech and pulled her fist back, filling it with biotic energy.
Shepard didn't know why, but a rage filled her mind. A rage that demanded blood for the countless that had been slain at the hands of the pilot. Shepard slammed her fist into the canopy, feeling her rage increase with the blow.
Shepard struck the canopy again and again, her rage and hate filling her wholey. With each blow, she found something else to hate. When the canopy collapsed under her blows and the pilot died from a final punch, Shepard knew nothing but hate; hate for everything in the galaxy that had caused someone harm, hate for every living being.
Shepard dropped off the mech and heard someone call her name. Shepard turned to Vega, who was walking towards her with a look of concern on his face. Vega looked into Shepard's eyes and stopped in his tracks. She knew he could she her hate, and she revealed in it. Shepard brought her arms back, ready to fling herself at the marine, ready to tear him limb from limb, but a hand on her should caught her attention.
"Kate, you alright?" Garrus' soothing voice spoke to her. Shepard turned to him and the look of worry and concern in his eyes filled her with something else.
Shepard took a deep breath while this new feeling, something she didn't know the name of, filled her. Shepard felt her rage begin to subside and leave her completely the longer she stared into Garrus' eyes.
"No." Shepard replied, shaking her head, her rage now completely gone, replaced by her untainted love for Garrus. "I'll tell you later."
"Are you alright?" Wrex's voice asked. Shepard turned to see that Wrex was bad on at the base and rushing over to the now open pod the female was in. Wrex offered a hand to the female, after roughly shoving Mordin aside.
"I'm fine Wrex." The female replied in a cold even voice, stepping past him.
"Let's get out of here." Shepard ordered, feeling an unnerving need to be as far away from the STG base as possible.
Garrus opened the door to his and Shepard's cabin, only to be greeted by darkness. The only light in the room was from the soft blue lights in the fish tank. Garrus moved quietly into the room, not making a sound.
For the first time in a long while, he was thankful for having superior night vision while he took off his armor and set it in one corner. He looked to their bed and found Shepard's form curled up in a ball, her head buried in his pillow. Garrus felt a rush of concern at seeing that Shepard's body was shaking.
Garrus took off his visor and set it on the nightstand next to his side of the bed. Garrus crawled into their bed behind Shepard, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into him.
"I'm here Kate." Garrus spoke soothingly to her sleeping form, nuzzling the top of her head. "I'll keep you safe."
Without waking, Shepard turned around and wrapped herself around him. Garrus could still feel her shaking against him, and it sent sparks of regret and sorrow through him. Had he not been pulled away by the Primarch, he could have been there for her earlier. He wasn't there for her when she needed him most and he hated himself for it.
Garrus knew that he couldn't turn back time, so he didn't waste any time on what he should have done. He began stroking Shepard's back, drawing his talons up and down her back in just the way she liked. He began rumbling in his chest, making a noise that both soothed Shepard and himself. While Shepard couldn't hear the noise, the sound Turians use to show their love for their mate, she could feel it and knew what it was.
For what seemed like hours, Garrus fought off his own sleep as he comforted Shepard. Slowly, she stopped shaking. When Garrus was certain that Shepard would sleep more peacefully now, he let himself fall asleep, his body still making the rumbling in his chest.
Shepard looked around her and felt fear unlike any she'd felt before wash over her. Only seconds ago, she was in her room waiting for Garrus, and now she was once more in the dead forest of shadows.
All around her shadowy forms that vaguely looked like people surrounded her. The shadows however, began moving towards her. With each step they took, they found more definition. Shepard began walking backwards, trying to get away from the shadows, but they wouldn't stop.
"You did this." A voice moaned to her. Shepard looked to see the mangled and acid burned corpse of her first love.
"You could have saved us." Another voice spoke. This time, Shepard was met with the bullet ridden corpse of her old partner, Jane.
"I tried to!' Shepard shouted back, still backing away.
"We trusted you skipper." A deathly pale version of Ashley spoke to her, moving towards her like all the rest.
Shepard stumbled backwards, more and more of the shadows took form. Some were Ghosts that had been killed in action, some were old friends of hers. With each and every shadow taking form, Shepard felt her fear mounting.
Finally, she turned and ran from the forms. She stumbled through the forest, blindly looking for somewhere that didn't have people blaming her for their deaths. Shepard ran for hours, not stopping to even catch her breath.
She was forced to stop however, when her legs gave out and she crashed to the forest floor. Shepard looked around to find herself in a clearing, one that seemed to be empty. Shepard let herself collapse, giving into the exhaustion that filled her.
For minutes Shepard lay there. A noise got her attention after several minutes of laying on the forest floor. Shepard looked up to see a lithe woman kneeling over a massive fallen form. Shepard began crawling her way towards the woman, but stopped when she realized that she knew both the woman and the form.
"No! No! NO! Why did you have to leave me?! You promised me you'd stay! You said you'd never leave!" Jack's voice sobbed out while she cradled Rah's head in her lap.
Shepard managed to look at Rah and the sight made her sick. As always in her dreams, Rah was in his heavy armor. Now however, one arm was missing, as if something had ripped it off the marine armor and all. Somehow, Shepard found the strength to stand and walked over towards Jack and Rah. She stopped when she saw his face. Where it was once rough and kind, it was now completely marred by several claw marks. Blood covered Rah's face, most of it coming from his eyes, eyes that were now destroyed and useless.
Shepard collapsed again at seeing the state of her brother. While Jack hadn't noticed her before, Shepard's collapse alerted Jack to her presence. Jack turned and looked at Shepard with unbelievable rage.
"YOU FUCKING WHORE!" Jack yelled at her, standing up. "YOU TOLD ME YOU'D KEEP HIM SAFE!"
"Jack!" Shepard cried out. "This didn't happen! It's not my fault!"
"I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Jack yelled out, her biotics surrounding her.
Before Jack could do anything, a loud crack filled the air. Jack's biotic aura faded and she fell to the ground. Out from the trees behind Jack, Garrus' armored form stepped out. Garrus saw Shepard on the ground and rushed over to her.
"G-Garrus?" Shepard choked out, not believing that he was really there.
Garrus dropped down next to her, and pulled her into buried her face into his neck and sobbed against him.
"I'm here Kate." He spoke to her soothingly, nuzzling the top of her head. "I'll keep you safe."
Shepard cried into Garrus' neck while he held her. Garrus stroked her back with his talons and rumbled as he always did to show his love for her.
Shepard didn't know what to do anymore. Everything was riding on her shoulders. Everything and everyone counted on her to save them. How could she possibly save them from the Reapers? The race of beings that had never been stopped, and never would.
Shepard wondered if she should just give up, just give into them.
"You can not stop us." A farmiliar hated voice spoke in Shepard's ears. The voice of that child had haunted her dreams every night.
"I… will not…. bow." Rah's voice coughed out. Shepard turned to see what she had assumed was his lifeless form slowly make his way to his feet.
"I will not break." Rah snarled out. Rah turned to something that was out of her vision, snarling at whatever he saw there.
"I will kill you all." Rah snarled, pointing to something that Shepard couldn't see. The pure hate and rage in Rah's eyes, made her shrink into Garrus even more.
Shepard felt something shaking her. She tried to retreat more into Garrus, but the shaking wouldn't stop.
"Kate!" Garrus' voice called out to her.
Shepard's eyes snapped open and she found herself back in her bed, her face pressed into the hide of Garrus' neck.
"I'm here Kate, I'm here." Garrus' voice soothed her. Shepard could feel a wetness on Garrus' skin.
"G-Garrus?" Shepard asked, her voice weak.
"I'm here." Garrus told her again, his talons running up and down her back, making her shiver.
"We're doing the right thing, right?" Shepard asked.
"I've never known you to do something that wasn't right." Garrus replied, nuzzling the top of her head.
"Garrus?"
"Hmm?"
"If I ever do something that isn't the right thing, please stop me."
Garrus pulled away from Shepard, looking into her eyes.
"What's this about Kate?" Concern was laced in his voice, but Shepard knew that she had to make him promise to this.
"Just promise me, will you?"
"Always." Garrus touched his forehead to hers, not breaking eye contact.
"What is this about Kate?" He asked again and Shepard knew that she had to tell him.
"I think I'm indoctrinated." Shepard looked away from him.
"You're still the same woman I'd follow into Hell Kate. The same woman I fell in love with." Garrus soothed her. "I'll be damned if some Reaper, or anything else, takes you from me."
"We can't stop them." Shepard told him, burying her face into his neck again, feeling safe in his embrace like this.
"You make a living doing things that can't be done, we'll stop them." Garrus soothed her, his chest now rumbling against her.
"But how?" she asked, her voice was small and weak.
"We'll find a way. We always do. That's what you and I do, that's what we'll always do." Garrus assured her.
"Besides," he added with a smirk in his voice. "I owe Rah five hundred credits and I'm not goign to die before I can pay him back."
"Ass." Shepard chuckled.
"But I'm your ass." Garrus chuckled, his hands moving to her own ass.
"Make love to me Garrus." Shepard asked him. "I need you, more than you know."
Gently, Garrus rolled Shepard onto her back and brought his mouth to her lips.
A/N: There we are! Sorry about the massive delay with the last chapter and this one. Just got done with finals, and most of my time for the last few weeks had been studying. Hopefully this chapter is good enough to make up for the delay.
Thanks everyone for continuing to read! Please let me know hat you thought!
Until next time!
