"Do turians believe in ghosts?"
Originally a fill for a prompt on the Mass Effect Kink Meme. Ghost, Ghost, I Know You Live Within Me is a fanfic of Mass Effect with supernatural elements in the form of Shepard, who died on Alchera and comes back as a ghost. As Garrus is the only one who can see, hear or touch her, they stick with each other and together build the Archangel team. And we all know how that ends...
You can find it here
on FanFiction.Net, here as an "unedited version" on Mass Effect Kink, and here on Archive of Our Own.
Ghost, Ghost, I Know You Live Within Me provides examples of:
- Amnesiac Lover: Shepard after she came back.
- Battle Couple: Monteague and Ripper, Vortash and Mierin.
- The Berserker: Butler, who enjoys beating his opponents to death with his bare hands.
- Big Brother Instinct: Everyone for Weaver.
- Call-Forward: When Shepard first takes Garrus to the Archangel base, she comments that the balcony is an excellent sniper position.
- Creepy Good: The burned woman.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: What happened to Kron Harga, the krogan slaver. Garrus shot the bastard in all his extremities and primary organs (In alphabetical order), then he and Ripper took turns smashing their rifle butts in his face. After that, they put him into an explosive crate and got the rest burned to crisp.
- Cute Ghost Girl: A bit older than the usual, but Shepard was this for 2 years. Her personallity was also more cheerful and relaxing compare to when she was alive due to not having to deal with the stress being everyone's boss.
- Fantastic Romance
- Foregone Conclusion:
- I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: Garrus was just planning to kill Zel'Aenik nar Helash, the quarian viral specialist, with normal bullets. Since he just couldn't help being sick and accidentally coughed on her, she died of infection almost immediately.
- Interspecies Romance: Turian/Human Ghost!
- Invisible to Normals: Ghosts and spirits can not be seen by living beings, usually.
- Handicapped Badass: Shepard for a while after her resurrection. Her skin was extremely fragile and could get tear and bleed out from even a small impact but that didn't stop her from kicking asses. Miranda later weaved new skin for her while she was in coma.
- Heart Broken Badass: Garrus after ghost!Shepard disappeared. He sank into the mud even deeper when she came back and not remember their love. Even worse to him that Shepard keeps referring them as friends.
- Last-Name Basis: Anna Weaver.
- Magical Girlfriend: Shepard. In canon, she's already can be seen as this. In this fic, she takes advantage of her status (you know, being a ghost) and spying around Omega for Garrus or save his ass when needed (at the cost of disappear for days if she goes too far).
- The Medic: Monteague and Erash.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghost!Shepard can move things around but it exhausts her even just for a few minutes. On her own, she never feels tired or hungry. If she goes too far with her actions, she will disappear for days. Meanwhile, Garrus is the only one who can interact with her, though he can't really change her body's state for a long period. (ex: can make love to her but can't give her any marks since her skin won't change).
- Our Spirits Are Different: They appears out of the bonds between people of a group after a long time (or apparently, with strong emotion bond). They can not interfere with living beings' business and if they violate that law, it brings them pain.
- Resurrection Sickness: Shepard's body was not finished when she woke up in the lab so her skin tears off even from smallest scratches. Not to mention her mind is not completed either, having losing most of her memories during her 2 years as a ghost and the effect shows through her feeling there was a hole in her head that keep arching.
- Straight Gay: Monteague and Ripper.
- Tempting Fate: Oh, Garrus, if only you knew:Garrus: Other than the Reapers, then there's no way it can get worse.
- Unreliable Narrator: Shepard qualifies, as her memory loss and survivor's guilt narrows her perception.
- Urban Fantasy: We have spirits and ghost, two different supernatural concepts from two different species running around. The burned woman claimed that they cannot interfere with living beings' business, but it seems that there are exceptions.
- You Are Not Alone: Said words to words by Shepard to Garrus.
