Alright, so it's been a while since I wrote something ME-wise. How Mass Effect 3 ended gave me this idea. Don't know if I want to run with it though, like I did with Son Of Mindoir. I'll let you know if I do.
Anyway, here's what I jotted down.
-----
"What the f*ck..." Something surged through Earth. No immediate cover was available for a blast of that magnitude. The only shelter was in the form of her own biotics, and she had long since exhausted herself.
But she did not give up. Her students needed her. The Alliance needed her. Shepard needed her. As the blast approached, Jack gathered her strength to erect one last barrier for an impossible cause.
And then...Nothing.
The barrier was dropped the second it was known that the damage of that blast wasn't intended for them, a fact evident by the sight above her. Red lights flickered upon the crumbled streets of London, dying out one by one.
The ground shook lightly, and became stonger with every instance. It synced with the fall of the Reaper standing before them, two kilometers of destruction toppling to the floor, inert and powerless. It took no longer than a few seconds for the Alliance soldiers left standing to cheer as loud as they could, for they knew the answer to this phenomenon. Shepard succeeded.
The war was over.
"Ma'am...?" Prangley asked, cautiously pacing himself, under the belief that stragglers remained. The other students looked on as he approached.
Jack did not respond. She was lost in her own thoughts. 'How did he do it?' 'Where is he now?' 'Is he alive or dead?' These were the three questions swirling at the head of her mind. Questions she could not answer on her own.
Someone spoke of holding off the reaper forces long enough for a team to storm a light that beamed anyone who entered into the Citadel. She herself did not see this beam. As it were, she was too busy fighting off the Banshees and Cannibals that attempted to flank them. But she was certain that Shepard was with them. And if he was, it was safe to assume that he was now on the Citadel.
And it was there that he finished the fight.
"Ma'am, we won." Prangley called, a smile gracing his face as soon as he comprehended it all. "We won!"
She dropped her weapons, letting them hit the floor with a loud thud, unable to cheer or cry. Her eyes were fixed upon the Citadel. Something told her it wasn't over yet.
Her instincts were right.
With a blinding light, the Citadel erupted into the same energy that disabled the Reapers. And where it surged, flames exploded. The wards broke apart, piece by piece, snapping into scrap metal faster than her eyes could register.
"No..." Jack said softly. The volume of her voice increased with every explosion witnessed.
"Goddamnit! Shepard's in there!" Jack shouted, and darted towards the ill fated Citadel as fast as she could.
The action was thought to be hindered by lack of energy, as she and her students spent most of the fight protecting others from harm. It did nothing to stop her now. Her limbs were heavy. Her heart felt as if it imploded with every beat. But she ran, nonetheless. She would run the risk of suffering from exhaustion if it meant that she could save Shepard.
But as much as she tried to block it out, she knew her attempts were futile. As if her thought could no longer bare to keep within the depths of her mind, the conclusion came forward violently with one final explosion.
The Citadel was no more.
Earth was engulfed in a fiery light, as pieces of the fallen station scattered into the void. The sight stopped her dead.
"Shepard..." She called, and fell to her knees.
"You...Bastard..."
-----
"Where is everyone? Shepard? Anderson?" A soldier asked.
"As best we can tell..." Another began. "Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson both died in the explosion on the Citadel. All surviving ships are accounted for, except for the Normandy and it's crew. We have to assume they perished, too."
"What about that beam? The one that led to the Citadel?"
"What of it? The Citadel's destroyed, what does it matter?"
"The Commander could have come back down from the beam. Anderson, too."
"Even if they did, the beam most likely self destructed when the Citadel did. I'm telling you, no one survived that."
"...Damn."
"Hackett will be here soon. Let's round everyone up. We need to figure out what's next."
"Aye aye, sir."
The Alliance began to search for survivors, both human and alien. The biotic team was already accounted for, and being led to group with the others. However, Rodriguez broke from the group, intending to search for her mentor.
It did not take long for her to find Jack. She sat upon a hill of rubble, hair undone, and hands against her head.
"Ma'am!" Rodriguez shouted. She recieved no response. "Ma'am, we're leaving!"
Jack remained silent.
Rodriguez wondered if this was because of range. Maybe she was too far for Jack to hear her. Any other conclusions failed to cross her mind, with the situation at hand being fresh to everyone. As such, Rodriguez began climbing the rubble, in an attempt in inform her teacher of the retirement.
"Ma'am?" She said, grunting through ascension. "Ma'am, we're about to lea--"
"I heard you the first time, Rodriguez." Jack replied. She did not move.
"Go ahead." Jack told her. "I'll catch up."
"But ma--"
"Just...Go."
"...Yes, ma'am."
It did not take long for Rodriguez to understand why Jack was as she had been. She remembered what happened at Grissom Academy, between her and Shepard. She knew he was gone, and so had everyone else. From what she saw, however, Rodriguez knew that this fact hit Jack the most. And the hardest.
There were no words to comfort her. And if there were, Rodriguez couldn't find them. She resigned to doing what Jack had told her to do, and slowly climbed down from the hill, leaving her to mourn alone.
"So that's it, huh?" Jack said. "You just...Heh, you just die, after all this?"
She raised her head, looking up to the stars. She could believe that he was up there. If there was a heaven, she knew he was up there. Tears streamed from her eyes, a soft laugh escaping her lips as she continued on.
"What's f*cked up is, I should've seen it coming. Y'know, I...Like, there's this giant f*cking ship that kills most of the Citadel fleet. Just one f*cking ship..."
"I hope you know that I hate you right now." She said through laughter. "I mean, what'd you expect, huh? Yeah..I feel betrayed. I feel like sh*t, but..."
It was getting harder to breathe. A tight knot formed within her throat, and tears continued on.
"
Why, Shepard? How could you...You f*cking hypotcrite, how could you do this to me? I...I f*cking..."
"What was the point of that message? Y...You said you wouldn't die on me...God..."
There were no more words. Jack couldn't bring herself to say them. She buried her face into her hands once more, to wait out the tears. Her students percieved her as stong, and she needed to be. Or at least, she needed to look like it.
Her coping was interrupted by a sharp intake of air, followed by pebbles unworking themselves from the debris, springing down the hill she sat upon. She eyes shot towards the culprit. And what she saw stopped the tears.
A chestplate damaged beyond all repair stood out from the rest of the rock, uncovered by the wearer's sudden breath of life. Only the discovery of the N7 tag draped around the person's neck caught Jack's attention. Without thinking, she moved to it, prying the debris off of the soldier with her bare hands. She was cut by such more times than she could count, but cared little about it. Nothing else mattered at the moment. Not if what she saw was real.
And to her relief, it was.
"Shepard?" Jack called, but James did not respond. It was unlikely that he could. "I got you, Shepard! Just hold on! MEDIC!"
-----
Her boots stuck the ground in rhythm, waiting impatiently for news on Shepard's condition. She felt ashamed, but at the same time, hopeful. In this brief moment, she had no doubts of a higher being. Of a god watching over her. Of a god listening to her.
Of a god answering her.
His life was now in the hands of those she trusted it with. Or rather, forced to. If she had her choice, Dr. Chakwas would have been in there. But just like the rest of the Normandy crew, Karin dissapeared. Jack had to take what she could get.
Soon enough, a doctor exited the room Shepard rested in. Jack immediately intercepted his path.
"Is he okay?" Jack asked.
"Ma'am, we did all we c--"
"
IS. HE. OKAY?"
"He'll survive. I'd say it's a miracle, but... "
"But what?"
"He took a Reaper beam and the explosion on the Citadel. There's no telling when he'll fully recover."
"A Reaper be--"
Jack had stopped herself from finishing those words. She couldn't bear to.
"Ma'am, your name wouldn't be Jack, would it?" The doctor asked.
"Why?" Jack responded.
"He, uh...keeps calling for someone by that name."
Before the doctor could say anymore, Jack shoved past him, and entered the room.
Shepard laid bandaged upon a recovered hospital bed, with medical supplies salvaged from the war. It sustained him, but Jack feared for the length of such. He caught her presence faster than she caught his, and struggled to vocally acknowledge it.
"J...Ja.."
Jack rushed to his side, relieved that he'd still been fighting.
"Shh." Jack said, comforting him. "It's alright, Shepard. I'm here."
His hand slowly reached for hers, pained for every ounce of energy it took. Jack clutched onto it with her own, teeth clenched to avoid crying in front of him.
"I...I screwed up, Jack."
"No."
"I screwed up."
"No you f*cking didn't." Jack said, laughing softly. "The war is over, ******. You did it."
"Geth...EDI...Where's Joker?..."
"...Gone, Shepard. They're all gone."
"I...Should've stopped this...My fault...It's my fault."
"Shut up, Shepard."
"Jack...I killed them." Tears began streaming from Shepard's eyes as he realized what had just transpired.
"I killed them all."
"Shut the hell up." Jack said, her hands pressing softly against his face.
"You're going to throw that sh*t away, you hear me? You're gonna stop talking and rest. And when you're up and running? We're gonna hit the bar and drink all of this sh*t away. And then I'm gonna work you stupid, cause you ain't getting off that easy."
What served as a form of comfort did nothing in the end, as Shepard grieved further for the lives he no doubt destroyed.
"Shepard." Jack called, but he did not answer.
"James. Look at me."
His eyes, flowing with tears, turned in her direction.
"You're going to be okay." Jack reassured him, and planted a kiss upon his forehead.
"
We're going to be okay."
She hugged him lightly, and he returned it as much as he could. Nothing could take away the belief that he doomed more than he saved. It was something that tugged at his heart more than the blood pumping through it. But no matter how much he wanted to believe he lost everything and everyone, he still had the one person he cared about the most. And so did she.
And as he said before. Compared to her, no one else matters.
Modifié par Sundown Native, 14 mars 2012 - 12:57 .