Epilogue: Salvation

Liara's heart shifted from elation to panic as she watched the fragmented wreckage of Sovereign crash into the Citadel Tower full-force; she heard Shepard's comms shatter into static and then silence. The whole ship reacted with an air of horror, and Joker almost immediately began to race for the nearest docking port. Liara was the first off the ship, tailed closely by Kaidan. All around them, Alliance detachments were landing to begin sweeping the Citadel for Geth stragglers that remained, and to ensure that the presence of Saren and Sovereign alike was purged from the magnificent structure. Wreckage continued to rain down on the Citadel as they moved through the docking bays, and many of the Alliance landing vessels were shredded by the shards of metal that punctured their barriers as if they weren't there; even in death, Sovereign found a way to unleash havoc.

They ran into Captain Anderson at the C-SEC base of operations, where he and Executor Pallin had led a vicious defense against Saren's army with the C-SEC forces they could muster. Anderson had been unaware of what had transpired within the Citadel Tower, though he presumed that Shepard was somehow involved and rushed off with them for the Citadel Tower when he learned what had transpired.

Liara's heart began to drop as they reached the Presidium and saw the sheer scale of destruction that Sovereign had wrought on the Citadel Tower. It wasn't supposed to end like this – they had won, defeated the forces of Saren and prevented the Reapers from unleashing untold destruction upon the races of the Galaxy, yet all that triumph was evaporated in a moment as the very real possibility of Shepard not surviving the impact came crashing down around her. Debris continued to rain down and send large chunks of the skylight falling towards the Presidium itself. Liara, Kaidan and Anderson piled into the one still-functioning elevator that led to the Citadel Tower.

"Jesus Christ, look at the damage to this place," Kaidan remarked as they ascended the Citadel Tower. The glass on the side of the tower gave a full view of both Sovereign and the wreckage of the Alliance Fleet. More than a half-dozen cruisers and nearly twenty frigates had been destroyed in the attack, and the wreckage was catastrophic – it would take months to fully clean the Citadel of the debris. Sovereign itself seemed to have disintegrated into a million shards of metal and durasteel, which were now scattered across the width of the Citadel. The mass effect core still smoldered in the centre of the blast pattern, its flaming shards gradually cooling from the catastrophic explosion that had torn the vessel apart.

Liara's heart sank even further when they reached the Council Chambers themselves. A massive piece of Sovereign's mandible had wedged itself firmly into the room and blocked virtually all light from the exterior of the room. Fires raged out of control where the debris had made contact with the main server lines, and the once-radiant trees that had dotted the Council Chambers were gutted – having long since burned themselves to ash. The bodies of Geth, Keepers and Citadel Security alike littered the lower reaches of the hall, and Liara saw the distinct traces of biotic attacks on several of them; clearly, Shepard had been here. Liara sank to her knees, her body wracked by sobs that wouldn't come and by tears that wouldn't flow. Around her, repair and rescue crews fanned out from other elevators in the tower atrium to begin the process of looking for bodies. The C-SEC ones were identified, tagged, and quickly removed, while repair crews began to cut through the wreckage.

After ten minutes of cutting and shifting, they found Garrus and Wrex, both huddled beneath a large set of beams and steel plates that had crashed through the Citadel Tower when Sovereign was destroyed. Garrus sported several large gashes on his armour, while Wrex wore several new scars on his face and appeared to have lost a lot of blood. Garrus looked bewildered as his eyes adjusted to the light.

Anderson was the first one there, peering down into the cut hole with his omnitool. "Easy, easy! We've got you – you're out of danger now!" He offered a hand down to Garrus, who gladly took it and pulled himself up out of the wreckage. Wrex kicked out violently at the separated portion of the beam, and quickly forged himself an exit large enough for his massive body to maneuver through. "Where's Shepard? Where's the Commander?"

Garrus stumbled over to where Liara and Kaidan were standing, offering an outstretched hand to both of them. Kaidan grasped it firmly and helped the Turian to stand, and Liara could hear that his breathing was heavy and laboured. "Shepard told us to run…we got hit," he mouthed frantically through gasps of air, "not sure what happened to him."

Liara was about to scream when a muffled sound came from somewhere further into the wreckage, and then the sound of biotics being flared. She saw the source of the commotion as shards of metal were propelled into the air, and she bolted away from Kaidan, Garrus and Anderson and began to climb over the mountains of wreckage. There was another eruption of metal into the air, then another, and then finally the sound of a laboured shout that Liara recognized as Shepard's voice. Her heart began to beat rapidly as she approached the source of the movement, and she practically threw herself towards the final panel of metal that stood in her way.

She found Shepard on all fours, doubled over in pain as blood streamed from a wound on his side. His armour was scratched, dented and torn in a multitude of places, and his hair was matted with a thick dust of blood, metal and ash. His breathing was laboured as Liara brought his struggling frame up against hers, embracing him fiercely as she beheld him – alive. His free hand – the one not covered in blood and cuts – wrapped around her back, and he pulled her closer as his breathing slowed slightly. He managed to say a single word to her before he passed out from exhaustion and blood-loss, but to her it was the most important word in the world when his voice said it.

"Liara."

Forum Hotel – Citadel Presidium, Widow Nebula – Eight Days Later

Shepard sat himself in the plush armchair opposite the door in the room the Alliance had booked for him. Built in one of the few areas of the Presidium not cut to pieces by the attack of Saren and the Geth, the Forum Hotel offered a full view of the sweeping vista of the Presidium, though this was marred by the sheer volume of wreckage that had rained down on the Citadel after Sovereign's destruction. Repair crews had worked around the clock ever since to catalogue and dispose of the debris, but work still progressed slowly.

Shepard had woken up a day after passing out in a Zakera Wards Hospital, his arms covered in bandages and his vision swimming in painkillers and anesthetic. It had taken a full two days to finish tending to his multitude of injuries – mostly blood-loss and deep cuts – and Shepard had been released from the hospital with a tentatively clean bill of health. The incision marks from the IVs still irritated him, and he scratched at the one on his left wrist.

Events had moved rapidly since Shepard had awoken from sleep – so fast that they seemed difficult to keep track of. He had been lauded as a galactic hero – the saviour of the Citadel, of the Council, and even (by those who understood the magnitude of the threat Sovereign posed) of humanity itself. A thankful Council – saved by the heroic sacrifice of so many Alliance vessels and personnel – had offered humanity a seat on the Citadel Council – the object of desire for so long by humanity. The past five days had seen the beginning of the long process of political jockeying amongst Alliance heavyweights for the opportunity to represent humanity on the Citadel Council, and Shepard expected it to continue for several months. The remainder of the Geth fleet had scattered to the four winds- outrunning and outwitting many of the stranded Citadel fleets positioned at the Relays near the Terminus Systems – and Alliance and Hierarchy command both anticipated several months of cleanup efforts to stamp out the last pockets of Geth resistance that would inevitably materialize. The Alliance's losses had been heavy – though not catastrophic; eight cruisers, seventeen frigates, and severe damage to most of the Alliance's dreadnoughts and remaining cruisers. His former posting – the Cairo – had been among those destroyed by Sovereign, and Shepard had both internally and externally mourned their loss – and what potentially could have been his own loss as well, had fate played a slightly different tune to the one it did.

Shepard smiled warmly as Liara glided into view from the sprawling bedroom, clad in an elegant dress of silver that accentuated the warm blue hue of her skin and the soft sapphire of her eyes. Though her eyes still contained traces of the sleep she had woken from scarcely twenty minutes before, there was already an air of warmth in them. Since Shepard had been released from the hospital, Liara had positively glowed with vitality and joy – having thought him dead, even if only for a moment, she was overjoyed that he had survived in relatively good health. Given his delicate state, they had been slow to resume physical contact with one another, but when they had finally melded for a second time two nights ago Shepard had felt a sense of completion beyond anything he had known before. She moved now to sit beside him, nuzzling her forehead against his collarbone as he pulled her close. She stilled as she simply focussed on the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed – at first laboured when he had awoken from his injuries, they were now measured and peaceful once more.

"Did Anderson and Hackett end up stopping by?" The queue of visitors to Shepard's hotel room had been near-endless over the past several days; Alliance commanders and admirals seeking to congratulate him, potential nominees for human positions on the Council seeking his advice and blessing, C-SEC and Council members offering him thanks for his actions on the Citadel. The Alliance had anticipated this and spared no expense in the room they had given him – a vast, massive bedroom with a full bathroom attached, as well as two sitting rooms that allowed for ample space for conferences and conversation with those who came by.

"They did – while you were showering." Hackett and Anderson had talked amicably with Shepard for close to half an hour – something that he hadn't had the opportunity to do until now. "Hackett's a Vice Admiral now – promoted the moment that Coryn made it through the Widow Relay, and there's talk that he'll be awarded the Palladium Star and practically every other medal that the Council can give him. Anderson's coordinating cleanup efforts in the Zakera Ward and the Presidium. Hackett has assumed command of cleanup operations – the remnants of the Fifth Fleet are already preparing to enter the Traverse to hunt down the remainder of the Geth. He wants us to join in the effort on the Normandy."

"And what do you want?"

Shepard sighed as Liara looked up into his eyes. He traced the lines of her collarbone with his free hand, eliciting shivers from her that rippled through them both. "I want peace. I want to live without fear that everything I know will end." He clenched his fist into a ball as he remembered what Hackett and Anderson had told him. "They don't want to believe that the Reaper threat exists – to them, Sovereign was merely a tool of Saren."

"So what will you do?"

"I'll fight for them – I'll fight their damn cleanup war against the Geth. Someone has to – and maybe we'll find some more definitive 'proof' of the Reapers along the way." He shifted Liara off of his knees as he moved to stand, "but I won't stay silent – not anymore."

Shepard shifted again to sit directly beside Liara, and he cupped her hands in his as he stared into her perfect sapphire eyes. There was something he had been meaning to say to her for several days now, a confession that remained unsaid even in their purest moments of connection at the height of the meld.

"Liara," his voice ached as he stared at her beautiful face, "when we met, I was a broken man. I was lost – without purpose, without a future, and without belief. I had endured so much, but I was broken in mind and spirit." He could feel tears welling in his own eyes, the force and implications of what he was saying overwhelming him, "but then you came into my life that day on Therum. You gave me meaning and purpose; you saved me from the darkness of my soul," he brought his hands to her waist, "I have someone to fight for now – a future worth spilling blood for. I will do that – if only to give this great hope a chance to blossom." He paused for a moment, letting his word collect themselves, "it's been nine days since we first melded – that's now the longest period of time I've ever gone without a single memory of Akuze coming back to me. It's the longest I've ever been able to sleep without fearing that I'd wake up screaming. I owe you my sanity, Liara."

Liara smiled as Shepard said the last part, and she briefly brought her lips to his and allowed them both to momentarily lose themselves in each other. "I would have died that day on Therum if you hadn't saved me." Shepard was about to speak again when Liara put a hand to his lips and drew him close to her. He allowed himself to forget the world around him as he concentrated solely on Liara's breathing and the magical scents, sights, and sounds of her body. They allowed themselves this brief respite from the world around them – from a Citadel torn by war and destruction, from a galaxy that while drawn back from the precipice, still lingered perilously close to utter annihilation. "If you owe me your mind, I owe you my body."

"I'll only fight if you'll fight with me," Shepard whispered as he lifted Liara back into his arms and began to carry her towards the master bedroom. "The Reapers are still out there – still waiting in dark space to strike at us. If we're going to end this, if we're going to drive them back into Dark Space and banish them from our galaxy forever, then I want to end it together."

He kissed her tenderly, and he didn't resist when she drew him down onto the bed beside him, flaring her biotics as they prepared to meld for the third time in as many days. For one day more, fighting Geth and the Reapers could wait. Though their victory could well be short-lived, they chose now to revel in it, if only for a moment.

"Shepard, can I ask you a very personal question?" Shepard paused his lips midway through their line down her collarbone, looking up at her thoughtfully as he began to thumb at the folds of her dress. "What do you see when we join minds?"

He did not answer, but rather sent a ripple of biotic energy through them both as he grasped her hand in hers and she initiated the meld. He never answered her as their minds blossomed into unison, but Liara felt Shepard's answer as their consciousness blurred together in their glorious bonding. He saw what she had given to his tortured soul, what he had given her on Therum, what they had delivered to the galaxy by destroying Sovereign. He saw what he hoped to give to the galaxy, what they hoped to create for those around them, and what they found – time after time – in each other's arms:

Salvation.

Fin.

So that's that. Salvation is finished, after nearly eight months of sketching, writing, editing, re-editing, and publishing.

It has been a pleasure to write for you all - and for my own enjoyment. Thank-you for your patience. An enormous thank-you to everyone who took time to read and review, with a special thank-you to NotCras, who provided an excellent mind to bounce ideas off of when I was at impasses in the writing.

I can assure you that there is much more on the way where this came from. Ideally, Mass Effect: Resurrection will be in a condition for publishing by May. I intend to detail in much greater depth Liara's struggles between ME and ME2. Don't worry; there's lots of exciting stuff on the way.

Until then, Godspeed.