Snippet Sunday
I was not tagged for this but I want some motivation to keep working on my ME2-era Shakarian fic, so here's a snipped from the first chapter, during the archangel recruitment mission. (This might actually be the first time I've posted fanfic publicly? If I think about that too long I will have Fear and not post it, so here goes!)
~
“How’d you let yourself get into this position, anyway?” Shepard asked.
I tried to be you.
“My feelings got in the way of my better judgment,” he said bitterly. “It’s a long story.” He saw Shepard looking at him out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t bear to look to see if it was with pity or with derision. “I’ll make you a deal: you get me out of here alive, and I’ll tell you the whole damn thing.” So you can decide if you even want me at your back. Spirits know you shouldn’t.
“I didn’t like sneaking, anyway,” Shepard said, stepping closer. Garrus was still looking down at his rifle, but her gauntleted hands were in his peripheral vision. Shepard rubbed one over the other in an imitation of a habit he’d seen a hundred times on the Normandy. Shepard and her - what did she call it? “Knuckle-cracking”? Humans just have fizzy joints, it’s fine, they only sound like they’re breaking bone. “Time to spill a little merc blood.”
Garrus couldn’t help but grin at the obvious, if grim, joy in Shepard’s voice. She glanced at each of the humans and nodded to either side, signaling them to take up positions. Both had guns in hand and the tell-tale glow of biotics wreathing them as they moved into position. Shepard stayed next to Garrus, pulling out an assault rifle.
“Glad to see you haven’t changed. Let’s see what they’re up to…” He peered down the bridge through his scope. “They’ve reinforced the other side - heavily. But they’re not coming over the bridge yet. What are they waiting for?”
He’d barely finished the sentence when an explosion rocked the floor beneath his feet. He swayed from the blast and from exhaustion, but Shepard put a hand out to his elbow to steady him before he could right himself. He was overcome with a sense of loss when she let go.
“Dammit, they’ve breached the lower level,” he said, glancing toward the stairs to cover his confusion. “Well, they had to use their brains eventually. You’d better get down there, Shepard - we need those tunnels sealed, or they’ll overrun us. I’ll keep the bridge clear.”
“Let’s split up two and two - keep one of my team here,” she said, moving away from the wall. The other two humans joined her, waiting for orders.
“You sure? Who knows what you’ll find down there. I’ll be alright on my own.” Liar.
“I’m sure,” she said, turning to meet his gaze. You’re a liar, and she knows it. Garrus fought not to turn away, not to break eye contact - Shepard always saw too much, even when he wasn’t reeling from exhaustion and shock, but looking away felt like an admission of guilt. You are guilty. She already knows. She can see. He looked away.
“Miranda - stay with Garrus. Keep him alive.”
“Yes, Shepard.”
“Thanks, Shepard.” He met her gaze again, and the mixture of concern and steel nearly brought him to his knees. “You’d better get going.”
He turned back to the railing and fiddled with the stock of his sniper rifle, refusing to watch her walk away down the stairs. His heart hammered with the need to not let her back out of his sight, but he shoved it down and scoped down across the bridge.
“The tunnels are swarming with them,” Shepard’s voice said in his ear, over the comms. His arm wavered, the view in the scope swinging wildly. In his first days on Omega, taking down mercs where he could, desperate odds left and right - he’d felt like she was with him, like her voice would crackle to life over the comms again any moment. Hearing it again now was almost too much.
“You’ll need to seal the tunnels off to keep them out,” he repeated, just to keep her talking. Don’t leave me again.
“On it,” she said, gunfire in the background. “Stay safe.”
“On it.”
