Chapter Text
Cold are thy souls
I feel the resentment
Archangel
“Babe,” Jane whispered, voice barely coming through the comm, “When I give the signal, shoot Leng.” She spoke again, but louder. “How the fuck did you find this place?”
GV: Tali, does that drone pulse work on indoctrinated organics?
TZ: Never tested it.
GV: Get me visual. Hack my visor.
The view on his scouter changed, display morphing from tactical info to video feed from one of Tali’s drones. Gunship at their backs. Psycho assassin with a spirits-forsaken sword prowling around the room. Twelve Cerberus commandos with guns pointed at them. Untold number of Reapers outside. Fucking bombs stuck to the walls. There wasn’t a lot of space to maneuver. Garrus needed a plan. Jane trusted him to come up with a plan. While she kept the Illusive Ass and his pit varren occupied, Garrus strategized.
Squad strengths. His aim, for one. Tali had her drones, they could reposition without triggering the gunship due to their small size. James was a brick shithouse, no stealth but an immovable wall of flesh had its advantages. Damn, if only he’d been a Krogan. Regenerative healing was the only thing missing. That and an extra couple hundred kilos of mass. Javik and Liara had biotics. Those could shield their rear for a few minutes against the gunship, but not much longer. Ash was another good all-arounder, good soldier. They were still outnumbered. It was seven versus thirteen on the ground plus a gunship, and the angle was all wrong for Garrus to shoot the damn thing out of the sky with a flaming round to the fuel tank.
Maybe if he… Yes. That might work. For all his grandstanding, Kai Leng needed the VI and the beacon intact. They at least had to try calling Cerberus’s bluff. The Illusive Ass wouldn’t have risked something as important as a Prothean beacon. He was indoctrinated, not stupid. Garrus had a plan and very quietly forwarded it to the rest of the squad.
Jane snapped her fingers and that was Garrus’s signal.
The video-drone shot into Kai Leng’s outstretched hand and Garrus shot the drone. It burst apart in a flash of sparks. The indoctrinated man activated his bubble-shield and disappeared. Tali’s drones, one pink and one white, pulsed with light and sound like twin flashbangs. Liara captured a pair of Cerberus commandos in a stasis field. Javik’s beam rifle struck the gunship’s cockpit window and the pilot peeled off to avoid having his face melted. James rushed the commandos on another wall while Ashley used her vantage point to shoot the men Liara held in place. Jane sprang towards the beacon, but Kai Leng got there first.
“You’re slower than I imagined, Shepard,” the bastard taunted. “Your Drell boytoy died like a coward.”
Guns went off around the room, muffling Jane’s response. Garrus was torn between following his plan and backing her up. He’d been counting on Jane’s speed to get her to the beacon and grab the VI while Kai Leng had been distracted.
No, it was more important for him to help the rest of the squad. He had to trust that Jane could handle herself against some shit-talking knockoff.
Paragon
“Your Drell boytoy died like a coward,” Leng taunted.
“Don’t you fucking call him that,” Shepard snarled. She lunged for Kai Leng’s throat, gun out, but smacked into the goddamned stupid bubble shield. She kept one eye on the detonator in his hand that wasn’t holding the sword. At any time, he could hit that and bring the ceiling down on top of them all. According to Anderson’s dossier, he was just psychotic enough to do it. “Are you gonna fight me, or what?”
The shield collapsed inwards. “Maybe I will.” Leng brandished his sword and Shepard twirled out of the way of the stab. She tried to get behind him or find some opportunity to knock him to the ground. He nimbly sidestepped her kicks and dodged her pistol at the last minute. “You’re getting old, Shepard,” he said. “You’ve lost a step.”
He was trying to piss her off and make her make a mistake. All around the room, her squad was keeping her ass in the clear so she could beat this shitheel into a pulp. “You’re just jealous I look this good for dead. What’s your excuse?” Shepard flashed Leng a smile, raised her arm back, and rather than shooting she pistol-whipped him across the face, catching the synthetic grafts along his jawline that reminded her of Saren Arterius. Kinetic shielding stopped bullets, but fists were too slow to trigger it. She kept him on the defensive and between herself and the gunship. It wouldn’t fire on a friendly. Right hook, left jab, knee to the gut, knee to the head. Leng scowled and tried to stutter something pithy with blood dripping from his nose and lip. Another good hit, and the cartilage would pop like styrofoam while the skin burst like a ripe tomato.
On her next kick, Kai Leng grabbed her ankle and tried flipping her onto her ass. “There’s only one way this ends.”
Shepard caught herself, bouncing back to standing. The gunship began firing missiles into the temple. One was shot from the air before it had a chance to hit her. Shepard threw herself back to the ground and rolled sideways, eyes looking for Kai Leng and where he could have gone. Bastard was nowhere to be seen, but Vendetta still hovered in front of the beacon. Shepard crawled forward on elbows and knees. If she could make it to the VI first, she’d have it.
“You and your little Cat-Six army can suck my—Liara! Javik! Someone throw me!” Shepard ordered.
Instead of blue-violet, an aura of green encased her body. She lurched forward. Whatever Javik’s strange power was, it wasn’t quite the same as biotics. Shepard still felt the downward pull of gravity and some resistance as the outside force propelled her along the ground, like a rollercoaster locking up after a false start. Shepard scrambled to her feet as more missiles struck the thick concrete walls and ceilings. If Kai Leng’s bombs weren’t bringing this place down, the gunship would in a matter of time.
Kai Leng’s sword appeared out of nowhere next to her face. The assassin himself materialized directly in front of Shepard, between her and the VI. “Impressive, Shepard. You were so intent on everyone surviving your little trip to the galactic core, but now it seems you’ve done a complete 180.”
She had to turn and look, had to get eyes on her squad to make sure they were all okay. Shepard could still hear gunshots and cursing and the occasional whoop of victory.
“Scoped and dropped!”
“You’re disgraces to Humanity!”
“Nobody is faster than Chatika and Merry!”
“Take that, motherfuckers!”
“¡Ven al infierno!”
“You will die now.”
There they were, all six, just fine. She rounded on Kai Leng again, but this time his thumb was on the detonator and Shepard realized she had fucked up.
The ceiling exploded, raining chunks of concrete that crashed into the floor below and shattered it. A gaping hole opened up in the northwest quadrant of the temple where Ashley and Liara had been. Shepard stumbled, trying to get her bearings. Kai Leng activated his bubble shield and calmly extracted the Prothean beacon’s data core. He pushed past Shepard who doggedly tried to keep up with him as more and more of the temple fell around her. A chunk of stone struck her shoulder, knocking her forward onto hands and knees.
“Turn around and face me!” she screamed.
“Maybe you should turn around and have a little look-see at my finished job.”
…What?
“Spirits, Tali! Look out!”
No.
Observer
The ground beneath Liara’s feet split. She stumbled as slabs of ancient concrete heaved like the ocean waves from which her species was born. She and Ashley reached for each other, staggering forward to solid ground. Javik was across the room reaving the last of the Cerberus commandos into paste. James ran to cover. Garrus and Tali had to be somewhere nearby, but the crumbling dome rained down and forced Liara and Ashley to run away from the temple’s center to the walls. Priceless artifacts became dust around her. The archaeologist lingering in her core cried out in impotent rage at the lost history.
“History.” Right. A coverup. A lie. We… We’re all a lie. Our entire culture. It’s… Artificial.
Ashley held Liara against the wall, shielding the Asari with her body. “I’ve got you, Li,” Ashley said, but Liara was only halfway paying attention to her bondmate.
Shepard was letting Kai Leng escape with the Prothean VI. She stopped chasing him, looked back, and ran away from the fight.
“Commander!” Liara shouted. “What the hell are you doing?”
In a single shaft of sunlight, Liara could see tears sparkling on Shepard’s cheeks. Her eyes locked onto something on the ground. Liara followed that frantic gaze to see a three-fingered hand clawing out of the rubble.
Garrus!? She gave up on the VI because of her goddess-damned BOYFRIEND?
Liara ducked under Ashley’s arm and raced towards the temple entrance. Maybe she could catch Leng, stop him from leaving with the VI.
“Li, wait!” Ashley ran after her.
Sorry, dear. Someone has to do this!
Liara scoured the chaos outside for Kai Leng. The Human man had disappeared into thin air.
“Where are you, motherfucker?” Liara shouted. “Come back so I can flay you alive with my fucking mind!”
“Li…” Ashley gasped, coming to a stop next to her. She bent over with her hands on her knees and started coughing, choking on concrete dust. “Fuck… Shit… Can’t breathe…”
“He got away,” Liara said. Her voice was devoid of emotion.
“He can’t have gotten far.”
Liara’s eyes hardened. “He. Got. Away,” she repeated. Liara looked back at the temple and saw Shepard on the ground fussing over Garrus and Tali. She chose them over the galaxy. Why the hell were they so fucking special? They hadn’t gone on a whole damn quest to find Shepard after she’d died. Tali had gone back to the Migrant Fleet. Garrus ran away with his fucking tail between his spurless legs when the Council walked back their position on Sovereign to avoid causing a panic in the galactic populace. Liara had done everything to bring Shepard back. And still the Commander chose them, dooming not only Liara’s homeworld but the entire fucking galaxy. Billions upon billions of people were going to die without that VI. The Crucible would never be complete.
Liara saw purple. She stormed back to the crumbling temple, ignoring Ashley calling after her, and radiating her biotic aura and slinging anything she could get her grasp on. “Commander!”
Shepard’s head turned and her face fell. She ushered the other two aliens behind her. “Liara? W-what are you doing?”
“What am I doing?” Liara shrieked. “What the fuck are you doing? Leng’s gone with the VI! You just fucked us all over, you stupid lovesick bitch! How the hell are we going to explain this to Admiral Hackett? To the Council? This was our last fucking hope!” Liara lashed out with ribbons of biotic power, leaving imprints in the concrete. “Cerberus has the VI! The Illusive Man won ! You let him win! You—”
“Liara, I—”
“Shut the fuck up! You failed ! Not just me. Not just Thessia. You failed the whole galaxy! You were supposed to save us from the Reapers! Why the fuck else would I go through every bit of hell I did to bring you back from the dead!? Fuck, the stupid Collector attacks didn’t even start until over a year after you died! What’s wrong with you?”
Shepard lurched to her feet. “You wish I was different? So the fuck do I! You fucking hate me? Well, so do I! I’m sorry I wasn’t good enough to get the VI. I’m sorry I’m too much of a fucking coward.” Shepard had started at a tear-filled shout but now her voice came out as a defeated sob. “I’m sorry I’m not Commander Goddamn Shepard.”
Liara covered her mouth with her hands. “Shepard, I’m sorry, I didn’t—”
“Liara, I think you’ve said enough,” Garrus said. He hauled his worthless ass to standing and put an arm around Shepard’s shoulders, but she shrugged him off. His brow plates pulled up and in. “Sweetheart?”
“Tali, Ash?” Shepard turned her hollow eyes to their other friends. “Anything from you two?”
Ashley shook her head. She pulled Liara into an embrace and let the Asari break down. “It’ll be okay, Li,” Ashley whispered. “We’ll find a way to fix this together.”
Paragon
“James, Javik, go ahead.” Shepard stared at what remained of the temple floor but her ears counted the footsteps of the final two squaddies. Everyone survived, but at what cost?
James mumbled something in Spanish. Javik remained silent. Out of the corner of her eye, Shepard could see the Prothean’s red boots.
“You did your best, Shepard,” Tali said. “That’s all any of us can do.”
“Yeah.” Shepard choked on a mirthless laugh. “My best.” She took a long, hard look at the pistol on her thigh. “I’ll radio Steve and get us back to the ship.”
WRONG! YOU CHOSE WRONG! WEAK! WORTHLESS! FAILURE!
…No, I—
Face it, Jane. You were never the soldier I am.
…Not real, just Reapers. Not real, just Reapers…
Pathetic. I was here before the Reapers. I’ll be here after them.
…but…
But nothing. You lost the galaxy, and all for what? One alien guy. Time to take a backseat.
Clouds of black smoke billowed up into the deepening twilight from elegant white buildings. The oldest extant civilization in the galaxy burned around Shepard and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop it anymore.
“Hello? Is anyone on this frequency?” her radio crackled with the voice of Lieutenant Kurin. She identified herself and called an SOS for her trapped squad. That was something Shepard could do. Someone she could save.
Shepard tried to lock onto Kurin’s frequency. She ran outside the temple and held a hand to her earpiece. “This is Shepard, give us your location.”
“I repeat, is anyone on this frequency!?”
“Fuck! Tali, try to enhance our signal,” Shepard ordered. The Quarian immediately got to work. “Kurin, we read you, give me your—”
“The Lieutenant’s down,” a new voice said. “Our whole zone is collapsing!”
Other soldiers must be crowded around their comm. Another new voice. “What happened to Shepard? Did they make it to the temple?”
“I saw them— Wait! I’ve got a Reaper inbound!”
Shepard watched helplessly as the towering black form of a Reaper descended from the sky. Its tentacle-legs reached for the earth. Then another. And another. And more and more until the sparkling white skyline was filled with the black shadows of Reaper dreadnoughts and the Asari soldiers had been reduced to screaming in terror. Shepard heard the Reapers’ infrasound through the tapped comm line before it reached her position at the temple. She blinked back tears and started building a stone wall around her heart. She wasn’t going to need it anymore. Damn thing had always gotten her into more trouble than it was worth.
They feel betrayed.
They hate the cold.