[right][i]A few years earlier, on the Citadel[/i][/right]

Noise filled the artificial air of the enormous space station as vehicles rocketed through the skies above the bustling streets of the Wards, the residential centers of the Citadel. The breathtaking skyscrapers seemed to reach to the heavens leaving the common folk below to appear more like ants than people. In the Tayseri Ward a couple emerged from the Dilinaga Concert Hall, having witnessed famed Asari opera singer, Valismia Shize, play an incredible show. The two carefully moved down the front steps outside of the massive hall, among the crowd of thousands which had paid top credit in order to see the show. The Drell held on tightly to his lover's hand as they descended downwards, the human looking at him with a delighted smirk.

"I can't believe you cried, you still are!" Kara teased with a laugh as the doctor smiled back, tears still dripping down his face. They had been every since the most astounding part of the show, her finale. 

"I wasn't the only one. It was just so beautiful. How couldn't you shed a tear at that?" The Drell asked with a teasing glance of his own as they reached the bottom of the steps and stood together on flat ground. Around them the crowd continued to disperse, a mixture of all sorts of races. C-Sec guards watched carefully from across the street, two Turians talking among themselves while they clenched onto assault rifles. 

"I think you just liked it more than I did, Satka. But I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," The pretty human nurse replied with another smile as her bright blue eyes lit up at the sight of something nearby. "Here lets go this way."

"Wait what? Where? We can't just wander around here, might get lost." Satka replied as he wiped away the last bit of tears from his cheeks and eyes. 

"Oh come on. You've lived on Omega how long? The Citadel is heaven compared to that." Kara replied with another laugh as she pulled his hand and led her partner towards another building across the street. She speed walked towards it, trying to avoid the crowds as they filled the roads. The nurse had to dodge a drunken Krogan who fell on the floor with a loud bang before he stumbled back to his feet as the two lovers passed by. 

"Why the hurry, Kara?" The Drell asked as he looked at the passerbys around them, practically all of them ignoring the couple as they moved along the sidewalk. Before he could receive a reply he was pulled into a lobby. His eyes picked up the sight of a stressed out Salarian behind a front desk shuffling through several datapads while a line of visitors waited impatiently before the desk.

"You'll see..." His date whispered as she pulled him to the side then into an empty elevator. Satka wasn't sure if they were even allowed in here as the doors shut and it began to raise upwards. Then Kara planted a loving kiss on his blue tinted lips. "Just stop worrying, I promise you will enjoy it." 

"I just hope C-Sec won't be dragging us back into that elevator." The Drell joked, though he was unsure if he was even entirely joking. 

"Psssh, they got much bigger fish to fry anyway. No ones gonna arrest us or kick us out." She teased back which Satka met with an anxious sigh. One of the things he respected most about his beautiful partner was that she was a risk taker, trespassing in some random building on the Citadel was at the bottom of the most risky things she'd done. 

"We're almost there." She added as her grip on his hand tightened and she looked into eyes with another cute smile. Then pulled him out of the elevator before he could even take in a real glimpse of what met them outside of it.

"It's beautiful." The Drell muttered as the two lovers looked down from the top of the highest building in the Ward. He stepped closer to his girlfriend, partly out of a sudden fear of heights which he'd just discovered he had. 

"It is. They normally charge you 100 credits to come up here, well I just got us up here for free. Don't think anyone will be any wiser, all the staff is off duty partying it up I'd bet. Just can't stay up here too long but I thought it was the perfect end to a perfect week." Kara said as Satka capped off her words with a long lock of their lips as his hands danced towards her hips and two lovers embraced atop the skyscraper. 

Then they broke off their kiss as Satka held her close to him and both of them stared out at the sight before them. The lights lit up the entire section of the wards in a variety of stunning shades. An artificial wind swept through the air and tinged the Drell's skin, enhancing the chills which crept onto the back of his neck. The sheer height from which they stood seemed to drown out every single tidbit of the noise of the bustling streets below. It was a beautiful silence that penetrated deeply into both of them and drew them even closer together. The doctor felt he could just stay there for hours, holding his beautiful love in his arms as any worries either of them had faded into momentary obscurity. He moved one his hands upwards and turned Kara's lips towards his own, then kissed her deeply once more.  
[hr]
[right][i]Somewhere on Omega, present day[/i][/right]

The cloaked figure moved more akin to a ghost than a man as he traversed Omega. He stepped off the shuttle in silence, drawing almost no glances from the crowds which filled the streets as he walked among them. A simple backpack slung over his shoulder as he stepped wordlessly along the path. He knew these streets well even if it had been almost a year since he'd stepped foot on the exact location he now walked towards. A homeless Batarian called out to him as well as any of the other people as he sat in a pitiful pile on the cold steel ground. The vagrant made eye contact with him, his multiple sets of pupils momentarily locking onto his own black masses of eyes. The Drell then continued along his way, an outside sadness striking at his heart at the sight of the helpless Batarian. It was not why he'd finally returned to this accursed space station.

As he journeyed towards his destination the crowds of pedestrians shrunk further and further, noise itself seemed to evaporate in the stale artificial air. Though Satka felt his nerves worsen even as he moved further away from any strangers. Strangers were the most dangerous figures on Omega. One never knew their true intentions or affiliations until it was made clear. A wave of a hand could as easily be the drawing of a pistol in order to take a life. Still as he drew closer and closer to arrival he felt as if he was being pulled into a crowd which threatened to suffocate him, to pull the oxygen from his lungs and fill them with self inflicted pain. Satka forced himself to continue to walk forward, to keep his composure at least until he'd actually made it there. It was something he had to do before he departed on his new journey. Perhaps fate had brought him here as a way to free his mind and unshackle himself. Or it was one final tease of pain and failure to remind him of what awaited him. He spoke a silent, rapid prayer to the goddess of protection as his destination came into view.

[i]Mother Arashu, cleanse me of these fears.[/i]

Satka's prayer did not properly prepare him for the wave of utter emotion which swept over him as he took in the wretched sight before him. The Drell had to force himself to stand firmly, having to suppress trembles which tore through his whole frame. Even though it had been long since the flaming embers had burnt out here he still felt the haunting whispers scratch at his very being. The memories crept back into his mind as they always seemed to, though as he stared into the remains of his greatest regret it seemed more as if they overran then annihilated his entire being. He stood still Even as Satka, forcing himself to resist collapsing into utter despair. His body betrayed him as his eyes bled tears which streamed down his cheeks before crashing to the floor. With each one that fell downwards he felt as if they made craters as they landed, angered at himself for reacting in such a manner. 

[i]"Kalahira, I can only hope they are in the eternal oceans beyond this life. Please let them know how heavily my failure to protect them weighs on me, merciful Goddess. I once more beg for forgiveness and will give myself to you when my time arrives."[/i]

Both of the Drell's hand had intertwined as he whispered another prayer, hoping the Drell goddess of the afterlife would not curse him with damnation once he passed into the next plain of existence. He clenched onto a silver necklace, the metallic chain spread throughout his fingers as he held onto the last remembrance of his fallen lover. Satka held her image in his mind as he stood among the rubble of his former life, his feet carrying him deeper into the wreckage of the destroyed hospital. Kara was not the only one to perish in the assault, every single one of his people they'd lost tore into him deeply. One of the greatest regrets was that he was unable to account for all those they'd lost. The explosion, then subsequent fires and chaos had made such an endeavor impossible. There was only rubble and dust now, malformed pieces of metal which once made up the proud building. Its remains were then unceremoniously torn through by Omega's denizens. 

Satka came to the spot where Kara had fallen, where he held her that fateful night as she bled out from her gunshot wounds. While the disgusting Eclipse mercenary looked upon them with laughter underneath his helmet. The visions came back rapidly for the doctor, as he remembered every single second of that forsaken day. The incredible memory his species had been blessed with was also a curse, it was a miracle he was not convulsing on the ground in tears. In truth he'd relieved the incident so many times he had almost normalized it and gotten used to the horrifying imagery that came hurtling back to him. The feel of Kara's hand loosening as she died in his arms, the light in her eyes fading as her soul departed her physical form, the screams of his staff as the hospital collapsed around them and smoke filled the air. His hands shook as he clenched onto the necklace in one of his palms, recalling the exact moment he'd gifted it to her then peeled it off her body before he buried her on her homeworld of Eden Prime. 

The drell's other hand began pushed aside rubble and digging through the dirt and dust as he knelt in the spot Kara had passed onto the next life until his fingertips started to bleed from scratching against the steel floor of the space station. As the crimson droplets fell from his fingers he placed the necklace down. Satka took a moment to settle his breath as tears welled on his eyelids before he covered the spot back up, then intertwined his hands once more to speak another prayer. The blood trickling from his fingertips of his trembling hands as he prayed.

[i]"I shall never forget the fallen, Goddess Kalahira. Strike me down if I ever allow myself to forget them."[/i]

Then the Drell rose to his feet and let out a deep breath. He forced himself to step away from that accursed spot and from the ruins entirely. Satka gave one more looks towards it as he dried the last bit of tears from his eyes. A new journey awaited him, he would ensure he made those that he had failed proud. The doctor pulled himself away from the site of the tragedy and towards the Caelestis.