#salvator stellarum

[aereona]

a oneshot i'm working on. commander shepard will be put through the wringer before she finds peace.

now up on ao3: Salvator Stellarum

[aereona]

Rating: M Fandom: Mass Effect Words: 2,222 Tags: Priority: Earth, The Crucible, Canon-Typical Violence, Whump, Hurt No Comfort, Angst and Tragedy, Character Death, Destroy Ending (not the extended cut!), Bittersweet/Sad Ending

Salvator Stellarum (Saviour of the Stars)

In the wake of devastation, encircled by death, Commander Shepard roams the Citadel. Can one spurn the outcome of one’s actions?

Heavy boots led her through the corpse-littered hallways of the Citadel, and every once in a while, she used the reinforced tip to nudge a body, assuming it looked alive for a second. It never did.

“Damn, I was sure that one was still kicking,” the kid said, blowing out an exaggerated sigh. “Can I call you Shep? Commander Shepard is a bit of a mouthful, don’t you think?”

Shepard shrugged and continued. She’d always preferred to be called by the short version of her name, anyway.

“So, where are you going, Shep? What’s the end goal? The destination.”

Mara never stopped prattling, not since Shepard had found her hiding at the bottom of the Crucible's elevator. How she got there, the kid couldn’t recall. A blank expression had crossed her features—traumatised. Threw herself at the first living soldier she saw and latched on like a suckling babe. Twelve years old at most, she speculated, though definitely pretending she was older. One of the richer kids; no vent rat would have died their hair electric blue. Uninjured, though Shepard supposed that was a good thing. She didn’t have the mental acuity to care for someone’s wounds. Not really. Not now, at least.

“Comms tower,” she responded, walking around a corpse in a wide arc. It resembled one of her crew a tad too much. Hadn’t the Major’s hair been coiffed like that?

“Well, I think it’ll be ruined. It’s the first place I’d overpower when attacking a station.” Mara nodded firmly to herself and wrapped a hand around Shepard’s arm. She did that a lot, as if she needed to feel Shepard was still there. As if she needed an anchor. Shepard had always been good at being that for others.

It was a long shot, the odds near zero, but she had to be certain if the tower still stood. Trying to contact her crew and give them the sitrep on the Reapers was paramount. Let them know she still lived was only secondary. “Know much about warfare, do you?”

“Hey, I’ve seen all the Blasto movies,” Mara exclaimed, “and even the holo-series!”

Continue reading on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8436474