Human rituals

Chapter 3

They had been running for a long time. The journey wasn’t exactly long, but clearly their enemies were doing their best to slow them down. Fortunately, the three members of the group could manage the situation and soon enough they got adapted to the rate of spawning of the Geth. They nimbly went through the rooms even when some unexpected events turned up. Tali ended up with a little gash on her suit, but she didn’t allow that to keep her from advancing.

“This is my world, Shepard. There’s no way I will stay behind while you are fighting for it.” She strongly complained, totally refusing to abandon the fight.

“It will worth nothing if you are not alive to see it.”  The commander answered in a harder tone, but her friend didn’t back off.

“A scratch isn’t going to kill me. Besides, I already took antibiotics.”

There was a little moment of silence before Tali talked again with a pleading voice.

-Please, Shepard. I need to do this.

The woman looked at her friend’s eyes, barely visible through the helmet, and finally nodded in agreement. She helped her stand up and they kept running to the place where the signal was.

Garrus saw horrified how the ship stopped before Shepard’s command and she immediately ran towards the door with the laser on her hands. An unstoppable impulse made him call her name desperately, making the woman turn over to him. He looked at her straight to the eyes for a couple of seconds, and in that moment he understood there was nothing he could do to change her mind. She was already decided, with a certainty in her expression that even made him feel she would succeed. Unable to do anything else, he grabbed her shoulder in an uplifting gesture.

“Destroy it.”

The woman smiled with confidence and then nodded before running to the cliff where her battle would take place. The Reaper was now right in front of her. The last thing Garrus could see was her first attempt to take the machine down, feeling horrified to notice now it was focusing its attention on the woman. The ship moved from that place, avoiding the attack from some Geth from the other side and Garrus let his body fall down to the seat. His heart felt oppressed by the anguish and his brain couldn’t stop replicating the moment Shepard rolled to avoid the Reaper’s attack. He should be there, damn it. Even if it was just to serve as bait, he should be there and not in the ship waiting for the fight results. He didn’t doubt the commander’s skills, but he did doubt his judgment in situations like this. Shepard was constantly challenging the limits of her mortality and he definitely didn’t want to witness the moment she found out. He didn’t feel capable of bearing it.

A hand held his leg in a reassuring gesture, but the turian didn’t even bother to look at the woman at his side.

“It’s ok, Garrus. Shepard can do it.”

The words sounded vague on his mind, like they were coming from a long distance. He didn’t answer.

After what seemed like hours inside of the ship, Legion finally landed the vehicle in a safe spot and Garrus hurried to the door. His body felt heavy, like something was holding him down to avoid his progress. His gaze went directly to the place where the battle was and he panicked as he saw the reaper charging his shot just above her. Shepard was aiming the laser at the machine’s red circle, but it didn’t seem like the attack were going to lock before the enemy succeeded. Garrus held his breath as he heard the noise of the explosion and noticed a big, red energy beam hit the woman directly, keeping him from seeing anything else.

He took a quick breath and sat on the bed with his eyes totally open, finding himself once again in the Normandy. The darkness totally took up the place. He closed his eyes and put a hand on his head, trying to forget about all the emotions that just a couple of seconds ago felt so real. His heart was racing quickly and the anxiety wouldn’t vanish, even when he reminded himself it was just a dream. Abandoning the idea of trying to sleep again, he stood up and walked towards the kitchen to drink a glass of water. He didn’t remember having a dream as lucid as that one before. He dreamed thousands of times with Sidonis’s betrayal, but it never felt so real. Shepard’s death was a constant concern, and even if the woman could manage to defeat the Reaper on Rannoch, it would remain to be a risk,  impossible to ignore during the war.