Chapter 28: Tears over a Burdened Heart
After everyone sobered up, cleaned themselves off from the party, fixed the property damage, and had some breakfast, it was time for shore leave to end. The team was gathered in docks and looked out to the Normandy and the space outside the Citadel. Malen Talked with Sheogorath and Vaermina and asked them to get ready for a space fight around the Citadel. Malen also told Shepard to stay around the Citadel when he would enter the Normandy and to be prepared for a massive space battle. Tali was about to leave with Sheogorath and Vaermina, but Malen grabbed her hand.
Malen:" Please stay here with me Tali. I want you by my side until the time comes to end this harvest once and for all."
Tali:" Ok." She said as she stood beside Malen on the railing of the dock walkways.
Malen opened up a com link with the Council on his Omni tool.
Malen:"*sighs deeply* It's time for the end game. Call it in."
Tevos:" All right Malen. We will begin making the calls to the fleets. The Citadel will be evacuated before their arrival. I hope you're ready for this. The whole galaxy is depending on you."
Malen:" I'm as ready as I will ever be." He says as he ended the call.
Alarms go off throughout the Citadel with the assistance of Vis calling for a full evacuation. Tali stood very close to Malen as the evacuation took place.
Malen was deep in thought about what would happen a few moments after this was over. He soon realized that there was going to be a serious problem when he brought all those who have died during the war back to those who had thought were lost to them. It could undermine everything he worked so hard for if the reactions took a turn for the worst. Malen pondered a solution to this problem for almost an hour, until a simple, but well known, quote from the Christian Bible came to the front of his mind that answered the problem.
Malen:" The Truth will set you free…" He whispered to himself.
Malen truly knew at that point what he had to do, and knew what toll that it would take on him and those closest to him, but he knew that he had to do it no matter how much it hurt inside, for he did not value himself above others, but as equals to himself and himself to the others in the galaxy for he was once a mortal man and wishes to live happily, and comfortably with those who he can come to call "friend ".
Malen turned he gaze to Tali with sadness in his eyes, but he didn't a single tear be shed to be burdened on his Love. He placed his hands on the sides of her face and gently leaned his head on hers as he whispers to her.
Malen:" I'm… sorry… my beloved. I'm must do this for us and the entire galaxy. You will have to hold much of what burdens leave me. Tears will be shed from both of us when this ends. I most go Tali. I don't know when I'll be back home, but I promise you that I will be with you and see you again someday." He says as he holds back his tears
Malen lets go of Tali and begins to walk away, but not before turning his head.
Malen:" Good bye…. For now. . . . . . my beloved Tali." He said as he walked away.
Tali placed her hands over her heart and hoped that everything would be alright as she to fought back her tears. Tali left the station and joined Sheogorath and Vaermina as they prepared for the final battle.
Malen made his way to the council chambers and used his power to make himself intangible so that he could reach the core of the Citadel.
For the Citadel core, just imagine the Covenant cruiser's core that Master Chief blew up with a bomb in Halo 2, but much larger.
Once Malen placed himself in the center of the glowing core of the station, the fleets had arrived and it was time for him to summon the Reapers with a call of the end game.
Malen radiated power from the core throughout the galaxy in a way that the reapers would perceive as a threat that required the full might of every last reaper. It did not take them long to get the message of "Get your asses over here and try to stop me or else you have already lost" and arrived to the Citadel with their full strength.
Malen prepared the power and spell that he needs to end the war inside the core as the united fleets of the galaxy fought the reapers full strength with the aid of 3 gods that held them at bay, but still took losses since the 3 gods had to in order for the uniting of the galaxy to seem necessary.
The near end of the protoss theme from Starcraft plays
After 30 minutes of charging Malen curled up into a ball (like Galen Marek does whenever he charges a Force Repulse).
Malen:" For your crimes against the galaxy, I sentence you all to serve the galaxy, which you harvested for countless millennia, and its people for all eternity." He said just before he unleashed the galaxy wide spell that engulfed every single reaper that still exists.
A ball of white light spread across the entire galaxy and enslaved every reaper to Malen that was engulfed by it, but left the other races of the galaxy and their homes untouched.
The Citadel was completely destroyed in the processes of this.
The song ends.
As the dust floats away from the epicenter and the ball of light dissipates at the edge of the galaxy. Malen has the souls that were sent to his realm returned to the galaxy with a new body that is an exact copy of their former ones. As those who had died during the war began to return to their families in the galaxy, Malen spoke into the minds of everyone in galaxy and those who were still in his realm that were to return home.
Malen:" I had no right to make these choices, but I was the only one who could make them. If I had done nothing, then everyone else would have perished and I would be left to wallow in a graveyard galaxy. If I had simply destroyed the Reapers, then this galaxy would see no need to unite and species would have died out, or simply leave the galaxy forever."
Visions and the emotions of what Malen spoke appeared into the minds and hearts in the galaxy and every soul that entered Apocrypha.
Malen:" If I had protected too many people, then no one would see the need to unite. I am not only trying to save this galaxy from the reapers, but also from its past as well. I did this to end the isolation of the Quarians and the Geth. I did this to humble the council races so that they see that they are not greater than one another. I did this for humanity to see and be seen as equals to all sentient races. I did this to save the krogans from extinction and make them a part of the galactic community."
Malen:" I had the power all along to wipe out the reapers before they reached the first planet, but I could not do that without dooming many races in this galaxy."
The vision now begins to show the majority of what burdened Malen's soul.
Malen:" I sent the souls of those who died during the war to Apocrypha so that they could be brought to those who lost them. But that does not stop the screams of freighted families from tearing into me. The silent and loud prayers and pleas from those who wished to be safe wounding my very soul: Knowing I could have saved them all from their horrifying plight. I have the power to manipulate souls on a grand scale, but I am not truly a god by nature: I make mistakes and I fail. I will not force my ideas of perfection onto others since I was born a mortal just like you were and I wish to remain that man. I can create and destroy entire universes, but even I can't undo the wages of sin since I was made witness and barer of it since birth."
The vision switches to Malen himself.
Malen:" I had no right to make these choices, but I was the only one who could make them…I'm…..sorry."
The song "Green Bird" From Cowboy Bebop plays.
The burden on Malen's soul forces him into a comatose state as he drifts in the Cradle Nebula. A small stream of tears ran down Malen's face as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Tali immediately teleports herself to Malen and holds him in her arms. Bitter sweet tears fill up eyes and slowly began to stream down her face.
The song ends.
Tali then teleports herself and Malen to Rannoch where sits down on a ledge that overlooks the ocean. With her husband in her arms and lap and begins to cry harder and harder as she held her Love to her.
The song "Resolution (Synthesis)" from Mass effect 3 plays
Every sentient being in the galaxy, even Sheogorath and Sanguine, watched, with any possible anger or hate disappearing, with hands and hats ( if they had them), and with tears rolling down their bowed faces, as Tali held her unconscious Love close to her and visible began to shake as she silently cried.
Author's Notes:" I know this was a short chapter for it being the beginning and main point in the story's climax, but there are reasons for that: Primarily for the reader to be focused on the sadness in these events and not have the chapter go to something less depressing that would take away the emotional impact of what just transpired. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and its emotional depth. Please leave a review when you finished reading it. Just to remind you, Malen is not dead since that is impossible, he is in a comatose state. The next chapter will be called " Tali's Journey in Nirn".