Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end [1x1 with Javorcek]

[Jinx]

The bar at the end of the universe wasn't half bad even by marine standards. There was the high tempo techno music, the smell of cigarettes and alcohol in ever inch of the miserable place. It helped cover over the acidic smell of puke and the musty scent of sweat that lingered in the air itself. She couldn't even see much of the bar aside from the shadowy figures of people, the lights affixed to the ceiling and the darkness that lied ahead. It was a pretty shitty bar in all truths.

Classy, thought Shepard as she sat on the wooden bar stool by the bar. It felt like its been a lifetime since she's sat down. The mere thought of it triggered a surge of sadness throughout her frame. Anderson. He told her that he was proud of her. If only she felt that same pride. Everything she's done, every life she'd taken, ever soul she'd saved didn't matter. Would he be here? Or waiting on the shores with Thane and Mordin? Would Legion still think of her as a friend? Oh gods, EDI. Where would those bright souls go?

Why me? She asked Admiral Hacket during one of their conferences. Why some kid from a destroyed colony, the butcher of Torfan who had done terrible things in the name of the Alliance? Why not the hero of Elysium? That guy was a shining beacon of hope, a boyscout and in short a true hero. He would have been able to rally the galaxy together, made people believe in him. His answer shocked her. Shepard had no illusions that she wasn't a good person, a ruthless commander and a bit of xenophobe. Yet his words ringed true. She lead a mix matched team to defeat Saren, trained them to become excellent fighters, trusted in aliens to back her up. She made friends with them and even fell in love with one of them. After her first death, she found herself making another crew and finding that she trusted them far more than she did her fellow humans. Even Cerberus trusted in her. They trusted in her to make it right, put millions of credits into her to bring her back, probably violated all the laws of the universe in the process. The people of this galaxy put their trust in Shepard, that she would lead them to victory.

Shepard sighed picking up a peanut from the round wooden bowl, cracking it between her fingers and popping the nut into her mouth. It tasted stale, salty and a bit rancid. She discarded the shell onto her napkin. Around her was full of people milling around, talking, drinking. None of them were even looking at her. Hah, even in death she was persona non grata. It wasn't as if she expected anything better. She killed three hundred thousand batarians on the mere chance that it would slow the Reapers down. Garrus would have tried to cheer her up if she ever told him about her doubts, about the heavy burdens that lied on her shoulders. He'd asked her about whether she would kill ten million here, to save twenty million there. She couldn't answer him, simply pushing the question away. She didn't want to face the reality that she had already done such a thing, had already condoned it. Every kindness she did could not stem the tide of blood that swamped her, could not clean the stains on her hands.

She could still feel Liara's lips on her own, the vision that they shared before the final push. Hell, she could even hear her voice. It was like whispers in the wind, words caught and tumbled like a leaf. She could hear...voices... even through the loud techno music. Shepard half turned in her seat, turning her head to the side.

Fan out! Look for survivors!

Weird, that almost sounded like Jack. The convict decided to turn a new leaf and teach for the Alliance. She was good at it too, making sure those kids understood what to do. She cared for them. Jack became a broodmother. That almost got her another punch in the face courtesy of Jack. Not to mention they actually got Jack to stop cussing, now that was a story she would have loved to have listened to.

Rodriguez! Make sure that when they're lifting the rubble to be careful. Shit could fall down if we move it wrong!

Shepard smirked as she listened to the voices. This was nice. Even if she was dead she could watch over the people she loved. Could she do this consciously? Could she search for Liara? “I'm Sorry.” Shepard mumbled to the peanuts. It wasn't as if anyone else was watching. The bar itself had actually dimmed the lights and she could barely see around her. “I wish I could have been there for you Liara. I wish we could have had babies, little blue kids.” She sucked in a breath, pain radiating from her chest.

I see someone! It's...It's Shepard! SOMEONE GET OVER HERE!

Shepard clenched her fist as the lights continued to dim until it was completely black. She couldn't even hear the music anymore, or feel anything but pain. At least she was still sitting, that was a bonus somehow. Hopefully. She slowly and painfully opened her eyes, her pupils contracting at the sudden light. Around her was rubble, blackened pieces of metal and rock. She could feel the metal poking into her back, the coldness of the ground itself and the smell of ash in the air. She tasted blood as she swallowed, her eyes unfocused. “Hey.” She mumbled as the world darkened. Warm hands wrapped themselves around her ruined hardsuit pulling her away from the ground.

Heh, she might actually get to see those blue babies after all thought Shepard before she fell unconscious, her body cradled protectively in a biotic bubble.

 

[Javorcek]

[“All fleets! The Crucible is armed. Disengage and head to the rendezvous point.”]

Admiral Hackett’s voice crackled over the radio. Shepard had done it! She had activated the Crucible! But now they were…retreating? Liara blinked as her exhausted mind tried to come up with a reason why. Shouldn’t they stay? Shouldn’t they keep fighting, just incase? But she soon realized that no one actually -knew- what the Crucible did. For all they knew it would just set off a massive explosion, decimating anything and everything in it’s path. Which meant…which meant that Shepard would be right there, right in the center of the destruction! They had to go back! Her life had been saved before by Cerberus because there had been pieces left to rebuild, but if she was right in the middle of the Crucible when it went off, there wouldn't be anything left to build off of!

“Joker, no…! We can’t....we can’t leave Shepard. We have to go back. We have save her!” Liara’s unsteady legs had carried her right out of the medical bay, (despite Dr. Chakwas’ pleas to have her lay back down) she had torn through the ship, and sprinted straight to the cockpit in an attempt to keep them from turning around and away from the Sol system. If they left, it would be all over. She'd never see Shepard again... Never get those little blue babies...

“Don’t worry, I’m not leaving the Commander behind!” Joker’s hands quickly flew over the controls as he tried to set a course straight to the Crucible. He couldn’t let the Commander die for him…not again… She deserved better than that.

[“I repeat: disengage and get the hell out of here.”]

“Joker..it’s time to go...” Ashley’s voice was barely above a whisper, as though she didn’t want to say the words herself. She gently rested her hand on the pilot's shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze to make him focus on the here and now. “We made a promise…”

“Promise, what promise?” Liara looked between the two of them as they exchanged secretive glances. What were these humans hiding from her?!

“Aye aye, Ma’am.” And just like that, Joker was rerouting their course.

“WHAT PROMISE?!” Liara shouted, much louder than she needed to in the small, cramped cabin. Her biotics flared uncontrollably, blue energy shimmering over her entire form as fear and frustration caused her to lose control of her powers. I cannot do this again. We were supposed to be happy together. There was supposed to be time… This time… It was supposed to be different. Oh Shepard... Her blue eyes welled up with tears and suddenly she felt like her head was spinning, like her mind was being knocked around by giant waves in a stormy sea… The asari's knees suddenly buckled and gave way to her weight. She felt like she was falling, tumbling, only crash into an armored form, captured in a pair of strong arms that were so like her lover’s…and yet not the same at all.

“We promised to keep you safe…” Was all she heard as her vision turned to black and she was enveloped in darkness.

----

Liara had woken hours later on one of the medbay beds. Her wounds from the final battle had evidently been more severe than she had thought, because Dr. Chakwas had hooked her up to an IV as well as several other monitors that beeped and hummed softly as they took her vitals. Apparently medigel had not been enough to treat her. Slowly, carefully, she sat up, her head was still spinning and she was afraid that she would black out once again. But she felt restless and laying down was so very, very uncomfortable. She didn’t want to be still anymore, she wanted to know what was going on and to move, to help, to do whatever it took to go back and search for her lover.

“It’s good to see that you’re awake, Dr. T’soni. You gave us quite a scare there.” The old Doctor's voice started Liara. But she became relieved as the human slowly got up from her desk to check on her patient.

“I wish…I wish to walk. Please. I-I need to… I can’t…” Words were very hard to form. Was she on some sort of medication? A painkiller?

“Alright dear, aright.” Chakwas cooed softly, trying to help soothe Liara as her heartrate spiked into the redzone, causing the monitor to let off an annoying, high pitched beep. “I’ll let you up…just relax. You have to go slow.” And with that, Chakwas unhooked Liara from the machines and wrapped her arm about the young maiden so that they could take a walk to calm Liara down. “Come on…I’ll help you outside. We’ve landed. A bit of fresh air might help you.”

---

“Where…where are we?” Liara had to blink a few times as the bright light of the outdoors made her pupils constrict. She had left Chakwas' side, wanting to test out her body on her own.

“Eden Prime.” Joker sighed dejectedly as he looked over the ship’s hull. This was not good, -really- not good. Most pilots would be proud of landing an enormous Alliance vessel without the whole damn thing exploding, but now they were stranded in the middle of a lush forest. The Normandy had sustained quite a bit of damage from the landing, not to mention from the beam that had seemed to be chasing them from the Crucible. EDI had said it was her fault…that the beam was looking for her, trying to seek out and destroy Reaper technology…and so she had powered down in an attempt to make the beam stop tracking the Normandy.

Neither Joker or Tali had managed to get the unshackled AI to power back up again.

Ashley stepped out of the ship and took a look around. “We’re…” The Spectre looked around, trying to collect her bearings. She’d been on patrol out here…the details were fuzzy, it had been a couple years ago, but there was no mistaking the foliage in this particular area. They were near the colony! “We’re not that far from the colony. It’s probably about 50 kilometers due East.” She smiled, this was good news, it meant that they wouldn’t be stranded here forever. “Me, Garrus, and Tali will go search for supplies. You guys stay here, see what you can get back up and running.”

“I want to come too.” When Ashley shook her head, the asari pressed on. “Ashley I am fine, really, I can help, I-“

“Liara…please…” The newly promoted Spectre quickly interrupted the asari maiden before her pleas touched the marine's heart and she would not be able to stand firmly by her decision. “Your injuries are still fresh, you need to rest. I want you to stay with the ship. Skipper told me to keep you safe…I’m not going to let you open up wounds and bleed to death. Now go.” And then, the brunette's features softened because Liara looked as though she were going to burst into tears. "We're going to get this ship up and running and go back as soon as possible to find her, I promise."

Liara could only nod and bite her lower lip in order to keep the sob that was tickling the back of her throat from coming out.

So many people had made her so many promises...

 

[Jinx]

Miranda checked the medical equipment, reviewing over the logs. She came by every four hours, trusting in no one but herself. She would check the IV, the bags full of drugs, the EKG. Sometimes, she would just stand there and watch her breathe. Shepard lied in the hospital bed, unconscious, breathing through a tube. Half her head had to be shaved in order to open her skull to relieve pressure. Tubes ran down her nose and throat. Bandages were wrapped around her head, her arms, her torso. Miranda had to rewrap those bandages every day, remove the puss, check the stitches. Fairly barbaric really. But this was all they could manage. All she could manage.

As brilliant as she was made to be, life is hard. Living in the ashes of what used to be a world even harder. The losses on Earth were staggering, millions killed and transformed into husks. But Earth was lucky. Lucky in that the Reapers didn't want to burn it to ash like they did the batarians, lucky that the Reapers wanted humans unlike the batarians, lucky that they didn't kill Shepard in the first few minutes of the attack. Humanity was lucky to have someone like Shepard. Miranda smiled slightly as she checked the monitors.

She was lucky that Shepard remained the way she was.

The patient room was plain, clean and most of all well guarded. Even if the war was over, in fact, especially the war was over there might be some people who wanted their revenge. The decisions that Shepard had made over the war had its ugly endings. People were sacrificed for the greater good, for the benefit of all. Miranda could understand that, the scientist in her knew that everything that Shepard did had to be for the long game. The soft human empathic part of her worried about what would had happened if her sister was the one who died because of someone's decision. She couldn't even contact her sister, didn't know where she was.

There was also the batarians whose entire system was destroyed as a preemptive strike. Some of them might not see it that way. They might not see past their rage, their grief. Which was why Shepard had a few friends watching over her as she recovered.

Grunt glared at anyone who walked by the room, revealing all his teeth. It was sufficient enough to make most people skirt a wide radius around the krogan. Most of the doctors and nurses knew who was the patient in that room but they were sworn into secrecy. While the war with the Reapers was over, galactic society has fallen into chaos. Whatever reason that brought them together nearly disintegrated in the face of despair. The alien fleets that had chosen to fight with Shepard were stranded in the Sol System. At first there was only celebration as the Reaper fleet fell, but tension followed as the fleets realized that they could no longer use the relays. There was panic at first, accusations and then just plain flat despair. They had abandoned their own home worlds and now they orbit another. The agreement that Shepard had worked so hard to cultivate was hanging by threads, threatening to fall apart and drag the galaxy in another war.

Admiral Hackett was the highest military official of the Alliance, the supervisor of the Crucible and leader in the last attack against the Reapers. Now that the battle was over, he was in command of the recovery process. Well, not just himself. It was now a joint operations between all races. It wasn't a strange sight to see asari, salarians, turians giving reports to him in person. In their time of greatest need, they had to work together. In the end, it was Shepard who kept them together, who held them when they were tearing apart at the seams.

Admiral Hackett rubbed his chin, standing on the CIC of his ship. “Primarch Victus, any word on the relays?”

“None. Our best scientists are trying to figure out what made them shut down. Admiral Xen and the quarians are working on the geth. We do not know why the geth all shut down, but it was right before the red beam destroyed the reapers and shut down the relays.”

“What of the Citdael?”

“Rescue crews are working on determining the health of those still on it. Right now, most of the wards still have power and running water. In fact, they're in a better position than those on Earth. We think it's best to leave them there. We might...” Victus paused, his mandibles flaring. “We don't know how they brought the Citadel here, we might have to leave it in Earth's orbit.”

Hackett made a noise. “I see.” Having the seat of the galaxy floating above Earth would be something to get used to.

“Admiral Hackett..may I ask the condition of Commander Shepard?”

“She is in intensive care.”

When they dragged her body up from the rubble, the Commander was barely alive. Parts of her armor was burned into her body, her face was a map of injuries, her red hair soaked with sweat and blood. She was incredibly pale, barely breathing. The reports were disheartening. Any other person would have died from their wounds. The troops had rushed her into the closest working hospital, where tired surgeons began treating her most grievous injuries, stabilizing her. It was all they could do, their medical supplies stretched to the limits, doctors forced to use practices that were phased out a few centuries ago. It was all they could do to just keep Shepard from dying from blood loss.

Luckily for them, a certain ex-Cerberus operative offered her help. She had built Shepard, made her the cybernetics that had saved her life. Miranda Lawson had managed to work miracles, from stabilizing Shepard to actually moving her towards recovery. Right now she was in a medically induced coma to keep her from waking. It would take months for Shepard to heal. Current projections estimated half a year, maybe more. Hopefully if they get the relays up, they could resupply and get Shepard to an actual facility. But as of right now, they were working with the best they could.

“I see.” Victus cleared his throat. “The other admirals and I were wondering if....” He paused. “Commander Shepard is an amazing person. During the time I was on Normandy, I hand witnessed her leadership, her bravery. I want to honor that. This war brought out the worst in all of us, and the best. We wish to honor her for her sacrifice, for her deeds.”

There was a long pause in which Admiral Hackett said nothing. “Honor her by working together. By keeping this alliance alive. I need your support Primarch, yours and the others if we're ever going to get through this.”

 

[Javorcek]

“You’re working too hard, Cheerleader.” Jack said softly as she came up behind Miranda. The insult no longer held any venom or spite… now it was just an endearment that Jack used to call her old lover.

In truth they had -all- been working their asses off…but the young biotic was afraid that her girlfriend was going to burn herself out with all this medical shit. The ex-Operative had been working at the hospital all the time; cleaning the wounds of the Commander and changing her dressings as they became saturated with blood. While Jack knew that no one else could rebuild Shepard as well as Miranda could, she also knew that there was a lot of pressure on the older woman from the Alliance so that they could have their goddamn hero back. And ontop of that pressure, Miranda had her own issues, such as the loss of contact with Orianna. It must be killing her inside…

Although her and Miranda had been estranged for a little while (with the ex-Operative on the run and in hiding from Cerberus) and were going through their own shit to get back together, Jack loved her enough to attempt to shoulder burdens where she could.

“Come on…why don’t you go to sleep back at the apartment, I’ll watch Shepard for a little while.” Wiry arms wrapped themselves around the older woman from behind and Jack gave Miranda’s neck an affectionate little nuzzle before planting a tender kiss there. She’d definitely mellowed out in the time she had spent working for the Alliance…she’d gotten a lot better at handling matters with a delicate touch. Though, the temptation to cop a feel was too great and she gave Miranda’s rear a light swat in an attempt to shoo her off so that she’d go catch some sleep.

As usual, when Jack came by to visit, she had a book with her. She’d heard somewhere that it helped to read to unconscious people, so whenever she wasn’t out in the field, searching for survivors with her students, she took time to recharge her batteries by reading Shepard ‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Hemingway. She plopped herself down into a nearby chair and began to read aloud:

“’The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one’…” The man who first said that was probably a coward… He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he’s intelligent. He simply doesn’t mention them…”

---

Liara had been avoiding the Memorial Wall aboard the Normandy as though it were a rabid varren poised to strike. There was talk of adding Shepard’s name to it amongst some of the lower ranking crewmembers, but she couldn’t bring herself to really entertain the idea. Shepard had to be alive…if her lover was dead, Liara would know…she would have felt something, right? “Oh Shepard…” Liara sight softly and wiped the tears from her eyes. She felt weak, helpless…she hadn’t felt like this in such a long time, not since her mother’s death. After defeating Saren with Shepard, Liara had become more confident and strong, so confident and powerful in fact that she had become a top information broker all on her own. Though –with- her lover, anything was possible: she had managed to take over the Shadow Broker’s lair and gather all of his resources, using her connections with help with the war effort as best that she could.

But now…without Shepard, she felt like all was lost.

Repairs on the ship had slowly but surely been progressing. Liara desperately wished that they could get off of this planet soon. The colony was dealing with their own problems and it would be unfair to ask them for aid with the repairs on the Normandy. So the task of getting the massive Alliance frigate spaceworthy once again had fallen to it’s modestly sized crew. Communications were still down and it was impossible to send out a long range distress signal, even the colony was unable to get a message out. Not only had the Mass Relays been responsible for faster than light travel, they were also responsible for FTL communications.

Liara left her office once she was sure that there would be no tears, and moved out towards the Engine Room where Tali and Garrus were working on restoring power to the Normandy’s drive core. The asari was not a tech specialist in the slightest, but Tali had an interesting idea that perhaps they could use Liara’s biotics to ‘jump start’ the engines. It sort of made sense she supposed…the drive core worked by generating huge mass effect fields in order to provide power to the ship. It was a much large scale version of what she herself did when she fired off Warps or deployed a Singularity.

“Tali?” The maiden called as she peered about the Engine Room, blue eyes searching for her long-time friend.

 

[Jinx]

“Someone has to. Anyone else would have gotten it wrong.”

Their relationship was an odd one, and one that Miranda cherished. She'd never thought she'd find someone who would like her. For many years the thought of courtship was one that spawned fragility. Would she find someone who'd like her for her personality and not for what her father made her into? Not to mention she was barren, a child would be an unaccomplished goal. She hid her insecurities behind her frigid mask and her productivity, meeting any attempts at getting to know her with wit and scorn.

Then she met Jack and things changed. How it did was another story entirely. Suffice to say, she knew exactly where the scars started and the tattoos ended. She never thought she'd be with someone like Jack, someone who had hated her on sight. But after going through a suicide mission, fighting side by side with the convict, things had changed between them.

In some ways they were more alike than either had realized. Both of them were made to be great. They had both broken from their chains. And deep down inside, they were good people that deserve to be loved. Sappiness aside, Miranda realized that she wanted to try to be in a relationship with Jack. She admired the biotic for her strength, for her will and perhaps her dirty mouth as well.

“Thanks Jack.” She gripped Jack's hand with her own.

After running around the galaxy shaking off her old boss, she never got a chance to reconcile with the biotic. Even before the last battle, all she knew was that Jack was on the ground giving support for Shepard. Miranda didn't even know if Jack survived until later, when they wheeled Shepard in.

Miranda shot Jack a glare, her perfect genetic eyebrows raised and then she smiled. “Alright. I'll go. No need to be so violent.” The ex-operative shot one last glance at Jack before leaving. The biotic was right, she was burning herself out. Just a few hours of sleep and then she'll come back.

–----------

No one would ever accuse Tali'Zorah of being a geth sympathizer, not when she shad her shotgun on her. She wouldn't be the first quarian and certainly not the last to have ill thoughts of their past servants. But she was a geth sympathizer, although truthfully it was more of a Legion sympathizer. After Legion's sacrifice she became the ambassador of sorts. The geth wanted to talk to her and only her. It left the young admiral in a capricious place. It was truthfully the only reason why she knew that something was wrong. The geth runtimes that were communicating with her all of sudden went dark. Then the Normandy jumped and EDI stopped responding. Jeff's crash landing was more landing than crash. Thankfully all the upgrades the Normandy went through to prepare the ship against the collectors kept them all alive.

After the crash, Garrus took control and helped maintain order. With Shepard gone and Liara in emotional straits, someone had to take command. Immediately he organized search parties, and made repair rosters. Luckily they had landed on Eden Prime. Luckier still, the Normandy was fully stocked with food for dextro and levo. It meant she and Garrus won't starve. Not this month, or the next. But they couldn't stay here, not for long. They had to return to Earth.

First thing she was tasked was to get the mass effect engines running. For that she needed something more than sticks and stones. She needed Liara to get her blue ass down here and make the largest singularity she could and then make it explode. That should theoretically give the drive car the spark it needed and then it would be self sustaining. Theoretically. That or it could blow them up.

Garrus was helping calibrate. Without the AI, they all had to run double shifts to get anything working. EDI had ran more than the cyber warfare suite, she was the Normandy. Without her, the ship required a larger crew than it had. And more engineers definitely.

The work made her not dwell on the war, on Shepard, on everyone else who are stuck in the Sol system. What happened to her people? To Earth? If she dwell on these thoughts she might work herself into a nervous fit. Garrus touched her elbow gently, as if sensing her thoughts. He was the moral suppot of the crew, stepping into Shepard's gigantic shoes.

“Yes, Liara?” Tali looked up from her console. “Alright. Let's get this started.”

She wringer her hands together nervously. They could potentially blow themselves up and make a new crater on Eden Prime. Or it could kill Liara. Keelah. “Liara I need you to create the most gigantic ginormous singularity you can. Or was it a warp?” There was a moment as the quarian composed herself.

“Better idea. I need you to mimic the reactions inside a drive core. Now...” Tali gestured. “It's going to be dangerous and delicate and possibly something that our grandchildren will be talking about. If we don't all die.”

Besides her Garrus bites back a laugh. “Don't worry Liara. We-or rather Tali ran the numbers. It's going to be fine.”

“Yes. We just need you to make a singularity and then to make it erupt, hopefully jump starting the drive core.” Again she was wringing her hands, nervous habit really. “Let's..make history.”

 

[Javorcek]

“Come on Shepard…you gotta wake up. If I gotta read you anymore of this sh-shtuff I’m going to blow my fu-fricken brains out.” Jack didn’t even know why she bothered correcting her language, it wasn’t like her students were here. Hell, it wasn’t even like Shepard could hear a word she was saying anyway, the Commander was out cold. But the habit that had been imposed upon her by Kahlee Sanders apparently had stuck, because Jack still felt compelled to clean up her language, even when everyone in the room was of legal age.

“You gotta wake up so that I can yell at you for making me dependable. Listen to me! I can’t even curse right.” The young biotic growled, crossing her arms and glaring over at Shepard’s unconscious form as though her turn around was all Shepard’s fault. In truth, part of it was the Cheerleader’s fault as well… Even though their relationship had originally started with some mindless fucking to relieve some stress and settle some scores, it had evolved into something so much larger. Miranda was a good woman. She had belonged to a shitty organization that did shitty things to people…but she herself was a good woman.

“Though…I guess…I gotta thank you too when you wake up. For using your pull to get my kids sent to the back to act as support and everything.” Big brown doe eyes looked at the Commander for a moment, studying her. Shepard had always made the hardest choices, choices that Jack was glad that never had to think about, let alone make. She already had enough bad memories, she didn’t need anymore. But Shepard…she didn’t even know how the hell Shepard slept at night. “But you’d knew they’d be necessary for search and rescue, didn’t you? That their biotics would be perfect and more precise than huge machinery sifting through the rubble.” Jack smirked slightly and crossed her arms, reclining back in her chair a little bit. “You’re a crafty, crafty bitch, Shepard.”

“I wonder if your girlfriend has made you mellow out. Made you soft, just like mine has made me…” Yeah, Jack thought she was getting soft and it was mostly her lover’s fault. Miranda made her want things…things like a family, a home. Hell, she’d gotten this job with the Alliance partially because she knew that the ex-Operative wouldn’t spend the rest of her life with a career criminal. Heh…the rest of her life… Jack snorted softly an the idea that had been plaguing her for weeks and then shooed the thought out of her mind entirely.

“Try not to die. I’m gonna take a nap.” Jack mumbled, unsure of why she was telling an unconscious body what she was about to do, but feeling as though she needed to anyways. She didn’t want Shepard’s brain to turn to mush just because no one had been talking to her the whole time she was in a coma. So she settled into her chair, set the book she had been reading Shepard aside and leaned back to close her eyes for a power nap.


“You want me to…to mimic the reactions of the drive core?” Liara asked, blinking and looking over towards the drive core in confusion. How was she supposed to accomplish such a feat with her biotics? The Asari maiden thought for a moment, biting her lip in nervousness as Tali informed her that this little stunt may cause all of them to die. At least Garrus was there to help encourage her. Between him and Ashley, the whole crew had pretty high spirits, all things considering.

“I--... Alright. I will try.” Liara nodded a bit, trying to find confidence somewhere, enough to attempt this. Where did confidence come from anyways? From your gut? Your heart? Shepard, and humans in general came up, with such strange sayings. Because their physiologies were so similar, Liara was certain that the gut was full of nothing more but acid and bacteria used for digestion, and the heart was only for circulating blood; not for circulating confidence. But, the thought of Shepard and her silly human adages made the asari maiden crack a rare smile as she stepped forward so that she could make observe the perimeter of her Singularity better and make sure it didn’t become larger than the space that housed the drive core.

“Okay…here I go.” She could hear a couple of wary engineers move for cover as her hands glowed blue, biotic energy pooling in her palms and arcing up her forearms. The first Singularity she flung at the space was too small, and rather than waste her energy in an attempt to maintain it and make it larger, she just dissipated the whole failure so that she could try again, fresh.

It took her a good three shots before she had finally managed to create a Singularity field that was big enough to encase the entire drive core. Asari were amazing biotics, but even they grew tired and were subject to the headaches that came from manipulating mass effect fields. But Liara had to keep going, everyone had worked so hard…she couldn’t let them down. And she desperately wanted to get off this ship to go see Shepard. Hopefully, if this worked, this would give better insight to how to restart the Relays, which also operated via the manipulation of Mass Effect fields.

“Hrragh!” Liara bellowed as she flung the most powerful warp she could muster at her Singularity field. There was a massive explosion of light, a loud BOOM! and a rush of energy that was powerful enough to knock Liara right off of her feet and backwards because she had been standing so close to the colliding fields.

The healthy blue glow had left her skin and beads of sweat began to coat her body as she panted in exhaustion. That task had taken –a lot- out of her. But…but she could hear the soft whirring of machinery again! The drive core was now crackling with energy, sustaining itself once again all on it’s own and poweringn the ship.

“It worked! Goddess, it worked!”

 

[Jinx]

Jack's confessions would have been something that Shepard would have cherished, if she were awake to hear it. But alas, she was dead to the world. Her body too broken for her mind, her soul tethered to this realm through sheer will. Shepard had promised Liara to return to her. A promise to make a home, to have children, to settle down. That was her promise. Hopefully, she wouldn't break her word.

If she were to fall in battle--

Liara would be safe. She would live and grieve. Shepard had forced Liara to leave, to get to safety in the Normandy. She could not let her die, not before her time. Shepard had killed so many people, given their family grief, all their accomplishments washed away. She'd killed asari who would have lived for a thousand years. She always thought it was a waste. All that potential. Lost.

She would not accept Liara's death. Even if the universe were to fall, the sky were to fill with fire and bodies to fall to Earth. Yes, she was being selfish. Yes, she was willing to sacrifice millions. Yes, she loved Liara. And that is why, despite all the yearnings in her heart she could not follow through with her intentions.

It was the call of duty. Shepard was a soldier, a Spectre, a hero. And she would sacrifice everything that he was, everything that she would become, to save millions. She didn't intend to die, no one ever does. But fate catches up with a person. She'd been living on borrowed time. How much of her was human? She could be an AI for all she knew. The truths she discovered at Cerberus were distractions and she choose not to dwell on them. But now that she lingered in this dream state, her mind began to reorganize hings that were deemed not important. Love? Not important. The truth of her existence? Not important. Her brain played the devil's advocate, and made her focus on the things that should matter to her now.

Shepard gagged as she began breathing on her own, her throat restricting around the plastic tube. She struggled, hands pawing the air. Hands gripped hers. “Calm down Shepard. Someone get an orderly, right now!”

Miranda had returned to watch Shepard, catching Jack in a vulnerable position. The ex-operative hid her smile behind her hand before covering Jack in a thin hospital blanket. It was good that Jack was resting as well, no matter where she choose to take a nap. There weren't any structures higher than two stories, anything taller was razed to the ground. The refugee camps littered empty ruin, the military was the only governing body. They were essentially under martial law.

She just had to explain herself to some nervous private whose only exposure to the Reapers was from a ship. He was cocksure of himself and she put him into his place with a few choice words. Then she brushed by and continued to her place of work. She stepped past a few nurses, past the halls filled with wounded.

She had stepped out to give Jack a blanket, putting it around her thin frame just in time to catch Shepard struggling with the breathing machine. Miranda nearly sprinted forward, stopping Shepard's weak movements. She turned the machine off and pulled the tube out, not too gently. She couldn't be delicate, not with Shepard gagging. It would be a shame for Shepard to die of asphyxiation just after Miranda spent so much time keeping her alive. There was no way Shepard dying on her watch.

Once the breathing tube was removed, Shepard stopped struggling. Miranda upped the dosage on the sedative, sending Shepard spiraling back into her dreams and her delusions. Miranda sighed. Good, Shepard was awake. That meant her recovery was going well. By her calculations, she'd be able to wean Shepard off the drugs. Once she gets Shepard off the drugs, then the rest of the healing could be done. Shepard's time spent in a coma kept her from experiencing the pain of reconstruction. But now that she was awake. Well.

Despite all of her worries, Miranda was relieved. Shepard would be coming back to them as the hero that she is. With her friends surrounding her, supporting her. If only the Normandy was here, then that would be the best reunion.

–---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tali watched as Liara used her biotics, hoping beyond hope that this would work. And as the engine roared into life, she jumped up and cheered. “Yes!” She turned and hugged Garrus. “Yes!”

The Normandy was always too quiet, she was used to the sound of ship engines. Seeing the Normandy downed, grounded had made her heart clench. And for the drive core to be working, for its familiar hum to reach her ears. Since the crash she found it difficult to sleep and worked instead to fill the void.

Garrus hugged her back. “Time to get the Normandy moving. Tali, see if you could get her in the air. I don't know what you do, and I cannot pretend that I understand. But I trust that you will accomplish any tasks put before you.”

He, like Shepard, knew the strengths of his team and the weaknesses. But this wasn't his team. This was Shepard's team. He was just holding it for her until she came back. His past history had already taught him that he could not have his own team, that it would end in sadness and betrayal. Sidionis was his lesson. One he took to his heart.

“I know Garrus.” Said Tali her eyes shining brightly. “I got this.” She turned and walked off, writing commands in her omnitool.

Garrus turned to Liara and walked up to her. He gave her his arm to help her into a sitting position on a crate. “You okay?” From another table he found a canister of water for her, opening it so she could drink from it. “I've never seen anyone do that. Spirits.” He wouldn't tell her that he didn't have high hopes for Tali's crazy idea. But then he wasn't an engineer. But he had faith in Tali, in Shepard. And it was this faith that kept him going even when the stars have gone out.

 

[Javorcek]

Usually Jack's mind was plagued by nightmares the moment she shut those big brown eyes. Horrible dreams of Pragia and her life in prison made sleep an awful place to be, to the point that she had trained herself to run on a couple of naps sporadically place throughout the day. With rescue efforts still going at full force, that was not an option, she needed sleep if she wanted to be useful out on the field. But ever since she had started seeing Miranda, the nightmares had begun to dwindle. And ever since she had started teaching, the dreams came less and less frequently as terrible memories were replaced with new, better ones. Jack actually looked peaceful for once as she slept, her forehead was not creased in a worried frown, nor was her jaw set in a scowl, a couple of pieces of long brown hair had managed to find their way out of her ponytail and into her face, making her look almost adorable as she slept; even more so because she smiled and settled back into her chair as she felt the warmth of a blanket envelope her. But, as Shepard began to sputter, that peaceful image was shattered and Jack was her usual bull in a china shop self.

"Hrungh! Wha?!" Jack sputtered as she scrambled out of her chair and fell onto the floor. With a grunt she quickly rolled over and got to her feet, bleary eyes looking around the room as she fell into a defensive stance, her tattooed arms lighting up with biotics as energy pooled at her hands, ready to strike at whatever had made the noise that had woken her up. The moment her vision adjusted to the harsh artificial lighting of the hospital room, she was greeted to the sight of Miranda ripping a tube out of Shepard's mouth. Her stomach turned and flinched a little bit, but immediately calmed down. There was no threat, it was just Shepard waking up. "Finally, your lazy ass is awake." Jack grumbled before Miranda upped the Commander's dosage, forcing her back into a coma. The young biotic glanced down at her omni-tool to check the time. She'd slept for about an hour, that should be enough to last her for a little bit so that she could go back out into the field.

"Hey…I'm gonna go." Jack said, once Miranda was finished doing whatever the fuck sciencey medically stuff she was doing. She slipped behind the older woman and wrapped her arms around her waist to envelope her in a warm hug. Her head came down to rest on Miranda's shoulder so that she could nuzzle affectionately at her neck. "I love you… I'll be back later to drag you away for dinner. And then your ass is mine for the rest of the night." Jack gave a playful growl and nipped at Miranda's neck, making sure to leave a mark on the perfect flesh. She missed spending time with her lover, they'd only caught passing glimpses of one another over the past few months and Jack really did want to rectify that.

Even though she was tired, Jack knew that she could rest later, right now she had to go sift through rubble. She was tired, so very, very tired, it was easy to see on her face. But the younger woman wanted to save as many as possible before they starved to death in the destruction. It was her penitence for killing so many for so long. Now she'd work to dig out as many people as she could before time ran out. So with one more kiss to Miranda, she left the room and headed out of the hospital and caught a transport out to one of the areas that was still being searched for survivors.

---

"I can understand why no one has ever tried to do anything like that. It is truly exhausting." Liara shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to head off the massive migraine that was beginning to invade the corners of her mind. That little stunt she had pulled had taken as much out of her as an hour long battle of relying solely on her biotics. When she heard Garrus unscrew the top of something, she opened her eyes just to see a canister of water being offered to her. "Thank you, Garrus." Liara offered the Turian a tired smile and then accepted the water.

The moment she tilted her head back to take a drink, Liara blacked out. She hadn't been sleeping right ever since she had been separated from Shepard, and hadn't had much of an appetite since communications with the rest of the galaxy had gone dark. Coupled with the amount of energy she had used to control and push her biotics in order to generate a massive Singularity and Warp one right after the other, it was of little wonder that the pale maiden's body went limp with exhaustion. She fell backwards, head thumping softly against the bulkhead and there she lay, out cold and with a spilled canister of water seeping into her uniform.

But she looked so peaceful laying there, as though she were just sleeping. And in truth her mind really was at peace now that she had some hope to cling to. Tali fixing the engine had given her hope that she would be reunited with her beloved once more. Of course it would take them weeks to get to Earth without the Mass Relays, but that was so much better than their earlier prospects of never seeing one another ever again. Liara just -knew- that Shepard was alive. She had to be.

 

[Jinx]

For someone who was genetically made to be perfect, Miranda has surprisingly very interesting dreams. It is how her mind organized itself after a long day of working and yet each entry in her dream diary was refreshingly new and intriguing. She would never tell anyone about her diary, although sometimes she reads it outloud to Jack. Having slept with the biotic many times and have watched her sleep, she knew about Jack's dreams. It was something that took a lot of coaxing out from Jack. And even then, Miranda was certain she wouldn't know the full story. Jack's life and her experiences made her the person that she was now, it was not her prerogative to pry.

She adjusted the dosages, planning for Shepard to awaken within a few days and then begin the long journey of rehabilitation. It would be a challenge she would gladly meet. Miranda half turned to hug Jack back. “Be careful out there.” She said softly, pressing herself up against Jack's body. “Or else there won't be any ass for you, my dear.”

While Miranda's job was here in the hospital to keep a half dead hero from dying fully, Jack's job was to search for the living and the dead. It was crazy to think that a year ago she wouldn't have wanted to be in the same room as the biotic and yet here she was, missing her presence already. She savored the kiss wishing she was undisciplined enough to keep Jack with her, to celebrate their victory with long desperate kisses. But she lets go, a small smile on her lips.

–------

Meanwhile in the field, a strange phenomenon was occurring. Earth was two steps away from being put on a BBQ and used as tinder. She still had fertile land and crops and the salarians were quickly taking advantage of that. The Reapers did not burn the agriculture and had instead focused on infrastructure. While the salarians were making themselves useful in that aspect, other races had focused on other tasks, like finding living people. It was a rather unrewarding job, a lot of humans were dead from the initial attack and millions more with the Reapers processing the rest of the human race. But there was hope.

It began a little over a month ago, small packs of children were being found. They had hidden in the tiny spaces of buildings, foraging for food, nearly feral. But as rescuers found them, or they found the rescuers, military personal attained extras. Some of the children had latched onto their chosen rescuer and refused to leave. Soon enough, one would see a small human child following asari, salarians, turians, humans and even krogans. Surprisingly the krogans took this better than any other race.

Despite the success, the grim reality was that a lot of people were dead. Humanity was lucky that they were not the batarians, who numbered less than the quarians. Their homeworld was destroyed, their people indoctrinated, and now they too were wanderers. The might of the hegemony was broken.

Samara carefully sifted through the rocks, using her biotics to lift bent metal and broken walls. She paid little attention to the child that had followed her from the shadows, watching her with bright eyes. The human child had been tailing her every since she stepped into the area and continued observing her. She would have to give the child credit, she had barely been able to sense her presence. Samara was under no illusion that the girl child had no parents, all she had been finding for the past week were bodies. She also knew she could not give the child anything. Not even emotional support.
She was one of the last of her Order, a Justicar on an alien world. All but one of her daughters are dead. Samara wished she could be with her remaining daughter, guarding her, being with her, sharing a meal. But she is here and that is...enough. Her code is enough. It steels her spine, brings a brightness to her eyes and it makes her.....

It is as she steps through ash and dust that her thoughts are drawn back to her daughters, to a time when she was happy with her bondmate. A time before the darkness, before her four hundred year long hunt. Of bright eyes, and wide innocent smiles and long nights dancing under the moon. Of sweet kisses and warm hugs, tiny fingers gripping hers.

But that was another time, another life long past.

–-------------------------

Shepard dreams of living in a house on a hill, chasing after small blue daughters while her bondmate looks on.

She dreams of a warm sun against her skin, of wet raindrops dashing against her skin and the smell of burnt ozone. She dreams of rain, of strong winds and dark skies.

Shepard dreams of the sun as it rises, the storm clouds vanishing.

–--------------------------
Liara may have heard a squawking noise as Garrus lunges forward to catch her. “Doctor Chakwas!” He barks at his omnitool, alerting the doctor. The act of activating the mass effect drive must have had a deeper impact than he knew and Liara, stubborn asari, didn't tell him. That or she had worked herself into exhaustion and she was so used to that state she didn't think to tell him.

He picked her up, carrying her bridal style. While he showed little to no anxiety, inwardly, his mind was running a mile a minute. Liara was a dear friend and someone who probably knew too much about him. She was also someone he should have taken cared of when Shepard first died. Instead he had left to do his own style of justice, leaving her alone. Seeing her again as an information broker, no longer the sweet and shy archeologist, felt like a physical blow. He wasn't arrogant enough to believe that Liara should never change, but he knew that he abandoned her during a time of great need. That he had in some way betrayed Shepard. It was a silly thing, but for turians it was real.

He wasn't going to fail her again.