A great plume of chemicals exploded from the summit of The Shroud. The eruption of pressure forced the genophage cure upwards into the unique intersection of several of Tuchanka's jetstreams that would carry the cure all across the planet. However, another explosion followed after. Fire ripped its way through the ancient Salarian tower, tearing apart its laboratories and rending its foundations asunder. The control room at the top of the tower exploded outwards as the inferno was funneled upwards through the tower's propulsion system into the vast structure's command center. The soft song being hummed by the tower's sole occupant was drowned out by the ancient machine's fiery demise. After that second explosion, the Shroud collapsed in on itself.

Tali didn't even try to hold back her tears when Shepard told her that Mordin had been up there. That he had stayed behind to undo STG's sabotage to the tower and make sure that the cure to the genophage had been properly deployed. She cried all the way back to the Kelphic Valley.

The Quarian and Salarian had been close with each other. It had been Mordin with whom she and Shepard had consulted on how to safely get intimate with each other. It had been Mordin who had treated Kal Reegar when her disastrous mission on Haestrom had finally been salvaged by Shepard's timely arrival. It was Mordin who introduced her to human musicals, specifically the old animated Disney ones from the last century. They had even did they sang together during the tap dance number in Fleet and Flotilla.

She was her friend.

And now he was gone too.

Shepard had comforted both her and Garrus as they mourned their lost friend on their way to regroup with the remaining Krogan forces. When they arrived at the Kelphic valley the gathered members of the various Krogan clans were standing out in the open as they watched the colorful particles of the cure be carried across their broken homeworld. Uncharacteristic smiles were splayed across their faces as they looked up at the sky.

The Tomkah convoy slowed and then stopped as they finally arrived at the gathering point. Wrex was the first one out of the vehicle, followed by a haggard but unharmed Eve and Shepard, along with his crew. The Overlord of Tuchanka climbed onto the top of the armored vehicle and raised his hand for attention.

"Today the Genophage is ended!" Wrex shouted to his people. "Today is the day where our people reclaim our future-"

Tali didn't stay for the speech that followed. She was happy for Wrex and the Krogan, she really was, but she couldn't bring herself to celebrate with them right now. She had lost another crewmate, another friend, another member of what family she had left-

Family?

What family did she have left?

She was standing at the door to the Hollows, the ritualistic burial grounds and meeting place of the Krogan people, when the question popped into her mind, and the force of it stopped her dead in her tracks. She looked down at her gloved hands and touched one of them to her masked face.

"What family do I have?" The lone Quarian whispered to herself.

The lone Quarian standing on the Krogan homeworld.

The lone Quarian who had been cast out by her own people because she had asked her friend to lie and cover up the truth that her father was a monster. AIndoing so, hshemade hherselfout to be the monster to her own people who had abandoned her.

They had all abandoned her.

All of them.

'Auntie' Raan had never bothered to contact her after the trial.

Neither had 'Uncle' Han'Gerrel.

Or Kal'Reegar.

Or Veetor.

Or any of her childhood friends.

Here was the exiled Quarian standing alone on the Krogan homeworld surrounded by Krogan who were celebrating their new future.

Where was her future?

Tali stumbled through the doorway, and walked back into the large central chamber where Eve had rallied the clans together. She felt lightheaded and numb. Hot one second and cold the next as her mind finally saw the truth.

The truth was that she had ruined her life.

Here she was, a banished Quarian who had dedicated her life to bettering her people. Her people had said nothing as all her past deeds were ignored for the sake of politics by the Admiralty Board, some of whom she knew thought of as family. Family who had said nothing to her as she was cast out into a galaxy, which, as far as they were concerned, had nowhere for her to go.

And she had let it happen.

She had argued and pleaded and begged Shepard to not use the evidence they had found aboard the Alarei. She had actually believed that she had been doing a good thing for her people when she was really just trying to impress her father, just like she had always been trying to do. Her father who was dead.

She had thrown her life away over a dead man.

She had thrown her life away over a dead man who had refused to be there for her in life.

If it wasn't for Shepard she wouldn't have had anywhere to go. If it weren't for the Normandy, she wouldn't have had a place to call home.

Home.

Home.

What the fuck did that word even mean?

The Normandy wasn't her home.

Even despite everyone telling her that the Normandy was her home now it didn't feel like it.

It was a warship that could be destroyed at any moment. Full of people who could die at any time, just like Mordin did today.

She didn't have a home.

She was living on borrowed time in a flying coffin as the galaxy burned down around her.

And even if they did win, even if she managed to survive the literal end of the world, would there be anyone left for her?

Kaidan was dead.

Mordin was dead.

Shepard had already died once, and Cerberus certainly wasn't going to waste another two years and four trillion credits to bring him back a second time.

Everyone kept dying around her. Or if they didn't die, they'd just go back to their own lives. Like how everyone left after the SR-1 below up. Or if they didn't leave, she'd end up doing something to push them away anyway. Just like how she pushed away her entire species by pleading with Shepard to not prove her innocence. Because she had been so desperate to throw away everything she had ever known when she didn't have to. She could have gone back to the Migrant Fleet instead of going to Earth with Shepard. She could have gone back to her friends and her family.

But in the end she was just too much of an idiot to see what she was doing.

An idiot Quarian sitting alone on Tuchanka after having thrown everything away.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. She wanted to fly into a rage and break the stone on which she was standing with her bare hands.

Instead, she did nothing. She just stood there in the Hollows listening to the echos of happiness leaking in from outside.

Then she heard footsteps.

"Tali?" Shepard asked as he walked into the auditorium. "What are you doing here?"

Tali just lazily looked over her shoulder to gaze at the corpse of her boyfriend. Even though it was still standing upright, it was already dead. Even though it was still breathing and talking and walking over to her, it was already dead. It was just waiting for the right time for when she let her guard down to finally fall to the floor and abandon her.

"Tali?" Shepard asked again as he gently wrapped an arm over her shoulders. It was a gesture amongst humans intended to provide comfort and emotional support. But Tali felt nothing from it. She felt entirely hollow.

"Just go," Tali mumbled before shaking off his arm and walking away. She wasn't walking anywhere in particular. There wasn't anywhere to go after all.

However, before she could get very far, Shepard walked up from behind her and grabbed her arm.

"Tali what's wrong?" Shepard asked, growing slightly irritated at his inability to interpret his girlfriend's current mood. Then suddenly, it dawned on him. "Its Mordin isn't it? You miss him just like I do-"

A sudden fire flared in Tali's stomach, and she whirled on her boyfriend, stormed up to him and shoved a finger into his chest. "Shut up."

"What?" Shepard asked, his eyes wide in disbelief at what his kind and caring girlfriend had just said to him.

"I SAID SHUT UP YOU FUCKING BOSH'TET!" Tali screamed at the top of her lungs. "Stop trying to dissect my emotions like you know even a fraction of what I'm feeling!"

"Tali, I'm only trying to help-"

"Help? You want to help me? Then how about you leave me alone!" Tali snapped. The comment shocked even her. Just a few days ago, they had been making love to each other-

No.

It was a lie.

He'd just die again.

Just like Kaidan.

Just like Mordin.

Just like the twenty crewmembers who had died from the Collector attack on the SR-1.

Just like her father.

He'd die and leave her.

"Just stop acting like you're going to stay," Tali said shakily, trying to force down the emotions that were bubbling up from her throat. Trying to force down the anger, sadness, guilt, remorse, rage, hatred, and longing. "You're going to leave, just like everyone else. You already died once. I'm tired of people saying they care about me only to leave or throw me away."

Tali turned around and began to walk towards the opposite exit of the audience chamber leading deeper into the Hollows. However, she was only able to get a couple of steps before Shepard grabbed her arm and lightly tugged on it in an attempt to get her to stay.

"Tali wait," Shepard said gently. Slowly, he walked her over to a nearby piece of rubble to sit down on. She didn't try to resist. She'd hear out his lecture and just leave. It's not like her time was valuable at this point. "I am not going to leave you. And you're right, I don't know what you're feeling. I don't know what it's like to have lost so much in such a short amount of time."

Tali ignored what he said. He had almost been crushed not even an hour ago by a Reaper destroyer's foot. He was so reckless. He was going to die and leave her again. Just like Mordin left her. Just like Kaidan left her. Just like her father left her.

Shepard paused for a moment before placing a finger underneath Tali's helmet and lifting it up from its slouched position. Despite her best efforts, she met her boyfriend's gaze. Shepard's eyes were filled with empathy. There was no condescension over the fact that he had been correct over her decision during her trial. Instead, there was genuine concern in his eyes, as if he saw her.

Thats when Tali broke.

"I don't know why it keeps happening. I don't know why it keeps happening to me." Tali said, breaking down into tears. Despite having cried the entire way back from the shroud, her body still had managed to find more water to squeeze out of her mercury-colored eyes. Thankfully, she had Shepard to hold her as she was racked with another round of sobbing.

After a few minutes of simply letting Shepard comfort her with a hug as she cried, Tali eventually mustered the energy to speak again. Her throat felt raw, and she could faintly taste the salt of her own tears that had dripped down onto her lips. Truthfully, she really didn't want to talk about any of her emotions. Shepard had been pushing her for a long time to open up about how she had been feeling. Before, she hadn't been willing to. Now, however, she was willing to do it if it meant that the pain would finally stop eating at her insides and go away.

"It's all my fault." Tali hiccuped into Shepard's shoulder. "I should have just let you give the admiralty board the stupid evidence. If I had listened to you, I could've gone back home. But I threw it all away for no reason."

Shepard patted her back gently as she spoke. "It wasn't for no reason. You did it-"

"I did it for my stupid dead dad!" Tali wailed, cutting her boyfriend off. "I did it for someone I hate now! I hate him because he used me for his own stupid ambitions! I threw away everything I had for someone I hate!"

Tali let out a few more choked-up sobs before continuing. "I know you and Wrex and EDI and everyone else keep trying to help me feel at home on the Normandy, but it's not the same! Either we're all going to die or some of us live, and we'll all split up. Just like after Saren. But this time, I don't have anywhere to go…"

"Neither do I." Shepard responded. That actually caught Tali off guard and she leaned back to look Shepard in the eye. He had a wistful expression on his face. "The Alliance is all I've known since I was eighteen. Before that, I was out on the streets, remember?"

"B-But you still have a people to go back to." Tali stammered out, her throat stung with each word she spoke. Both physically and emotionally.

"True… but I don't have a family. I don't have a mother or a father or a brother. My sister died from the flu when I was twelve. All my friends from back then are either dead or in jail. Trust me, I've checked. All my friends now are on the Normandy. Other than you, I don't have anyone waiting for me after this war." Shepard said with a small, sorrowful smile on his face. He hadn't talked about his past very much, and now Tali could see why. Shepard had also lost a lot of people. They had either died like his sister, or they had just never been in his life to begin with, like his parents. She felt slightly guilty for what she had said a few minutes prior. He may not have been banished from his home, but he never had much of one to begin with.

"But I do have you." Shepard continued, tenderly placing a hand on the side of her helmet. "And as long as I have you, I have someone to come back to if we win this war… When we win this war."

Tali tapped her visor against her love's forehead. She would have taken it off to kiss him, but doing so on Tuchanka would most likely be lethal to her. So this would have to settle until they were both back on the Normandy where she could do it freely. "Promise me? I know that there are no guarantees in the universe, but will you please promise me that you will at least try to stay alive? That you won't take any more unnecessary risks like with your mad dash to those maw hammers. Will you promise me that?"

"I promise," Shepard said. And when she looked into his eyes, she knew he meant it.

With those words, a knot unwound within Tali's chest, and she finally relaxed into her boyfriend's arms.

She could finally let go of the Migrant Fleet.

She didn't need them.

If Shepard was with her, she'd be alright.

And Shepard had promised to be there for her once it was all over.

And she believed him.