Chapter 60: Epilogue

xxxx

December 2012, Citadel

Rana shook her head defiantly, covering her fringe with blood-stained gloves, unintentionally digging into the flesh with her armored fingers. She squeezed her eyes shut and grit her teeth, leaning forward and trying to fight off the overbearing sense of defeat as she sat there in the frigate cargo hold. Kaira and Delina were there; they had escaped Sovereign's hoards of husks, but it wasn't the same.

The 517th wasn't the same.

Rana perpetually plunged back to the top of the Presidium, into her last functioning memories.

There was a flash of blue as Forrest and the Reaper avatar fell into the void. And then they were gone. Rana leaned out of the broken glass, looking down, trying to make some sense of it… but there was none to make of it. They were both gone.

But the Reaper was not. A roar trembled through the Presidium tower, shaking the floor under Rana's feet and cracking the remaining glass. The engineer glanced up for a moment – before her heart leapt into her throat.

There were husks crawling down the ceiling. She didn't take time to count them, but she knew well enough there were far too many to take on by herself. There was no hesitation before she took off at a sprint, Sovereigns voice plaguing her as she ran.

YOU DELAY THE INEVITABLE. YOUR TIME IS OVER, ASARI.

Rana only grit her teeth as she ran, vaulting over the railing of the Council deck, and spinning her arms wildly to keep her balance as she cleared the gap, landing on the walkway below and rolling to absorb the impact. She was back on her feet and running as the husks reached the floor. Some began to leap off the ceiling, slamming into the deck and snapping their cybernetic legs before crawling after her. She had almost made it to the elevator below.

The husks had closed into five meters as Rana slammed into the haptic panel and drew her M45 shotgun. She knew that she was only biding time until the lift opened; there was no way she could fight off such a horde. She could not even begin to count them as they closed in. Hundreds, perhaps? She fought them off as quickly as she could, blasting one, then two back with the shotgun before hitting a small group with a throw and knocking them back several meters, knocking over a dozen more in the process. She threw another biotic throw into the midst of howling cybernetic corpses, sending more flying back. Her back was against the wall. And they were closing in. One nearly grabbed her arm before she elbowed it away and blasted it back with a shotgun shot to the neck.

She could not tell what the creatures were. Prothean, perhaps. They were vaguely familiar to the avatar they had fought, and even closer to the beings Jackson had seen in his visions. Now they were mindless cannon fodder, used simply to overwhelm an enemy rather than subdue. And they were succeeding. She had resorted to using the shotgun as a club as they closed in, beating back a horde with no sense of self-preservation or pain. And finally they overcame her. One managed to grab the shotgun from her hands, others pressed in, claws going for her face.

And then the elevator door opened. Rana fell back, hitting the husks with a throw before scrambling back to her feet and following up with an area overload as she violently activated the door motors. The electrical burst disabled the nearest husks, but more were already pushing in. The door was closing, but… one leapt in just before they shut. And so Rana was face to face with the damn thing… in close confines. It lashed out once, barely catching the side of her face with its claws.

The Asari let out a yelp as she ducked out of the way of another swing. As a bit of her blood dripped to the floor, she retaliated with an omni-blade – and drove it right into the husk's neck. The cybernetic creation hit the opposite wall of the lift and then slumped to the ground.

Rana took several deep breaths in the temporary safety, leaning over with her hands on her knees and trying to process. Had that actually just happened? She had watched Forrest fight the Reaper avatar back. He almost won. And then something happened. He broke. She was unsure what caused it, but… there was the Reaper's voice. 'Assuming control?' Had she heard that correctly? Did Sovereign break through that quickly? Goddess, there must have something she could have done. She just stood there and watched them fall out of the Presidium spire.

It was not long until Rana reached the docks, kicking a husk out of the way as the elevator door opened and then making her way to reconvene with the rest of the squad.

"Rana!" Kaira yelled, sending another husk flying as it went after the engineer. "Where's Jackson?"

"I… I do not know." Rana stammered as she slowed from a run, turning to fight off more husks as they fell back. "He is gone."

"What do you mean he's gone?" The commander snapped, noticing the cuts along Rana's face and worrying for the young maiden. Was sending her in alone another bad decision?

"There was another Reaper avatar. I believe it was Prothean. I-it tried to kill Forrest and I until… until both plunged into the Citadel relay and were swept away. I do not know where they arrived." Rana explained hurriedly.

"What?" Delina yelled, unsure if she had heard correctly.

"He is gone!" Rana snapped, biotics flaring up unintentionally for a moment. The other two commandos recoiled, surprised by her outburst. Rana recognized that instantly and calmed down. "I…I am sorry – I…"

"What the hell happened?" Delina asked without waiting around. "What the hell was he doing?"

"More than we realized. I-I couldn't… I will explain what I know when we are safe."

"Then let's get out of here!" Kaira yelled, waving the two surviving members of the 517th towards the Contractor frigate.

"Rana..." Kaira began, breaking the engineer out of thought. "I didn't see what you saw, but from what you've said… Sovereign won. Against Azarith and against Jackson. There was nothing you could do."

The engineer lifted her head and looked around the cargo hold through watery eyes. She realized she was crying again. "I… should have done something. If that is to be last time I see Jackson… Goddess, what have I done?"

"You did the best you could." The commander reassured. She tried to hide the depression in her voice as she set a hand on the engineer's shoulders. "I know that's little consolation, and it may not seem like it now, but I believe you did everything you could to save him. Anymore and you would have been throwing away your own life as well. And we still don't know if he was acting on his own accord."

Rana shook her head and tried to fight back the emotional overload, a bit of anger slipping through as she spoke: "He was. That much I am certain of – I could see it in his eyes. He was not just Azarith's puppet."

"I'm inclined to trust your judgment. I just don't understand. I'm sorry, Rana." The Ex-Spectre paused, adding. "And remember… it is the brightest stars that die the soonest."

"That doesn't account for shit." Delina piped up, throwing up her hands and pacing a little. "I'm still here, right?"

Kaira quickly shot the arms specialist a glare, warning her to shut up – because she wasn't helping.

"What? I'm just saying." Delina shrugged a little, trying to hide any sort of soft emotion that the situation would have elicited. "Sorry, Ran. We're all gonna miss him."

Kaira just nodded as she sat down next the engineer. She stared straight ahead for a moment, remembering: she had failed again. Another one of her squad was dead.

Rana took a deep breath. She still wanted answers. With Azarith and Forrest gone, she probably wasn't going to get them anytime soon, butt least she had taken the chance to talk to Jackson one last time. Make some amends. Hear that he was sorry for bailing on them. It made an immense difference in her mind, really. He wasn't a mindless Reaper minion. He was still their squadmate. He still loved her. Rana lowered her head, realizing that was the last time they would ever see each other again, and that it was over in such a bittersweet fashion. She slowly unclipped her gloves and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"I'll start planning a remembrance ceremony. It's the least we can do now." Kaira thought out loud, gently stroking the back of Rana's armor, trying to comfort the younger Asari.

Rana shook her head. "Let us keep it simple, please… A great ordeal will not remedy this matter."

"Understood." Kaira nodded slowly, briefly inspecting a gash on the engineer's fringe. Never had she seen Rana in such a mess. Then again, the young maiden had just lost her mother, and not five days later her lover was gone too. Kaira winced as she thought about it. She had known other people that had broken because of much less trauma. And Jackson… well, she knew how hard it was to kill him. If Azarith had in fact made the human soldier, then the boy wouldn't have had much protection from a dead Reaper. Then there was the fact that falling into a relay was inherently fatal, from every incident the Commander could recall. Between physical trauma and static there was no chance that he would have lived. Even if he had, there was no way to tell where he was. The link between the Citadel and dark space probably covered billions of light-years. Kaira could not think of any way to give Rana hope. She would only have to cope.

Delina folded her arms, leaned up against a wall bracing, and watched silently. Goddess, she just wished she could see Forrest one last time – so that she could slap him for breaking Rana's heart. Even if he didn't meant to, she'd still slap him. The arms specialist dropped her gaze to the floor, realizing that he wouldn't be back. There would be no more bickering, no arguing over which side of the coil heatsinks were supposed to be installed on. It wasn't the same as before – there was an awful emptiness.

"If Azarith was behind all of this…" Kaira began, considering the implications. "If it created Forrest as a soldier, lured us in to fight the Contractor… I suppose we all served a purpose and are to blame."

"Azarith was not malicious towards us." Rana pointed out. "I may not understand the circumstances, but I understand that it… it was an ally."

"That goes against everything we know, or what Jackson was able to tell us." Kaira paused, snorting ever so slightly knowing that Forrest's knowledge most likely directed from Azarith. "But it's possible."

"And yet without Azarith we would not have taken on the Contractor." Rana commented. "Or at the very least, we would not have had the capability to defeat him."

"Now both are gone." Delina noted. "The Contractor and Azarith. Hell, we can start over."

Kaira nodded, glancing at the arms specialist for a moment. It was true. The surviving Reaper had quickly departed the Citadel, but nobody had been around to track it. "Yes. We just need to rebuild. Repair the damages." She was referring mostly to the galactic scale, but as she watched Rana, she remembered that the same applied to the squad. The 517th wouldn't be able to carry on the same. Not without its ship; not without one of its members.

"Can we?" Rana asked, lifting her head again, voice feeble. "How are we supposed to carry on? Simply by hoping that the rest of us do not die as well? That we are strong enough to drag the galaxy back onto its feet? There are three of us, commander!"

"I know." Kaira replied, shaking her head sadly. "I know we won't be able to fix everything, but we need to at least try – at least start. We can organize the races, give them information to deal with Contractor resistance."

"Yeah. Because we can totally undo all of his work." Delina snapped quietly. "Remember the galactic empire and all?"

"The Contractor is gone. It's only a matter of time until we're able to restore order." Kaira offered. "The worst is over."

"No." Rana shook her head, sniffling a little and looking up to make eye contact with the other two commandos. She had seen the cruel form that was Sovereign. "It's not over. It's never over."

xxxx

A/N: It's over.

When I originally wrote the end of this chapter, I just sat there for a while and tried to figure out what to do with myself. Over two years had gone into this project, countless hours and insurmountable energy.

That goes for me as well as the readers. Sixty-one chapters, and there have been people who followed from the very beginning. The readers, the people who reviewed and favorited, truly helped keep this story alive. I owe each and every one of you a sincere thank-you.

Well, it wasn't too long after that I began CE: Dawning as a way to keep writing. Turned out to be a little prequel-type thing that followed the characters of the 517th. It's now live and completed (for the time being) at /s/9606083.

Finally, Chaos Effect II is live and a work in progress. If you liked CE:FC enough to want more, check it at /s/10148080.

Freeride out.