Prologue.
"The paths are open. But you have to choose."
And Shepard, with great regret, knew exactly what he had to do. What should have been the galaxy's greatest victory had been cruelly snatched away and substituted with the bitterest bitter-sweet pill any creature was ever going to have to swallow, ever. The Crucible, Salvation of the galaxy. There was a laugh! The ultimate superweapon that was going to do all the dirty work, blow the Reapers back to whatever dark hellhole they crawled from, while the galaxy celebrated. Yeah, right. But not without consequences, whatever path he chose.
Exhausted, racked with pain and his spirit crushed, Shepard limped off pistol in hand on his final, woefully short adventure. The war would soon be over, but he felt little satisfaction from that. All he could think about as he struggled along in his broken, burned away armour was the dead, heroes villains and bystanders, from this miserable conflict. There was Nihlus, who's brutal execution had stung Shepard, dead. His killer Saren, pawn of the Reapers, was dead. Another Reaper puppet The Illusive Man, for better or worse, Shepard couldn't decide which right now, dead. By Shepard's own hand, albeit indirectly, his friend Anderson was dead. Yet more friends, Kaidan Alenko, Mordin Solus, Thane Krios, Legion, dead. The countless anonymous Batarians he had been forced to wipe out as a delay tactic, (and who weighed on his conscience every hour of every day), were all prematurely and permanently dead. And in a few seconds Shepard, for the second and probably final time in his life, would be dead.
But so would the Reapers, and wasn't that the ultimate goal of this prolonged, soul destroying fight? Wasn't that the joyous outcome that this painful, terrible journey was leading up to all along?
Of course.
But he couldn't help feeling troubled. The culmination of the battle for the galaxy, currently in full horrific flow outside, seemingly all boiled down to: "Pick a card, any card". It was like being knowingly duped by some third rate confidence trickster in the depths of Omega. The ultimate in all or nothing, high stakes, no-win situations. None of the options offered promised the conclusion he'd envisaged all these years, and that hurt.
Something felt off about the whole scenario. It seemed farcical, unfair and wrong. All that hard work, effort and sacrifice. The blood, sweat and tears that went into building the Crucible. And for what? For this...cryptic game of chance? Shepard couldn't fathom it, and he couldn't be bothered trying to anymore. He'd had enough. He just wanted all this to be over, and if that meant him dying again in the process, well, he'd been prepared for that since his resurrection.
As he stumbled painfully along, turning right onto a ramp, out of nowhere a line from an old song inexplicably played in his head:
"I am tired, I am weary,
I could sleep for a thousand years."
Apt, he thought, as he ascended the ramp, gazing blankly at the war outside.
He felt equal parts despondent and angry that HIS choice would mean a death sentence for Edi, the whole Geth race, and how many other sentients? He was about to condemn them all for the "crime" of being enhanced organics or for just being synthetic, with no chance of an appeal. But, to him, the other options seemed too far-fetched, too ludicrous to even contemplate. Damn it! Damn this charade! Pick the lesser of 3 evils and, for the cruellest twist, put the responsibility for the final selection on the conscience of one mortal, soon-to-be-dead man. Make sure you choose correctly now!...tick...tock...tick...tock...
Shepard would never know if he had.
Turning left now at the ramp's apex, almost doubled over with the effort, and here it was. The conclusion of it all. The red power conduit. Inconspicuous and insignificant. Without a pause Shepard continued onwards through his own agony, and 20 feet away from it he aimed his pistol and started firing.
And things happened.
To his left side he sensed that the wretched creature responsible for this "solution" had materialized and was watching him. Shepard somehow got the impression it was angry at something. As fast as the feeling appeared, it then vanished. Gone.
The almost unendurable pain he had felt since waking from the laser blast was purged from his body in a blink.
His willpower, confidence and strength surged back into him and was amplified. He felt he could easily take on an army of elite Krogan veterans. And win.
He had no fear. Of anything, mortal or otherwise.
And he knew he had made the right choice. For the moment he didn't know what that meant, but it was enough for him just to know it was "right". His spirit soared. He still sensed his own death was imminent, that didn't concern him. The difference was that he was now convinced the stakes had changed, and just maybe...
So now, instead of limping, he strode towards the conduit like an unstoppable giant, gun arm outstretched before him, pumping round after round into the damn thing that hit with satisfyingly damaging clangs and caused it to spit fire and sparks in retaliation.
"Shoot the red power conduit...? Doesn't even make sense." he thought, almost cracking a smile.
As he advanced purposefully into the unknown, random friends and thoughts jumped in and out of his head. He welcomed them as personal closure, even though the intended recipients would never hear his final message to them.
BANG!
"Anderson. David, my good friend, I'm so sorry we won't be around to see these bastards finally drop."
...BANG!...BANG!...BANG!
"Edi. If I'm wrong, will you ever have the opportunity to try to understand the choice I made? Forgive me."
...BANG!...BANG!...BANG!
"Liara. From the day I first found you, trapped and vulnerable, in that energy field on Therum I made myself this promise: That I would protect you with my life. I hope I haven't failed you. Be safe my friend. Please."
...BANG!...BANG!
"Jack...my tortured, troubled, psychotic soulmate...may you one day find the peace you deserve ."
...BANG!...
His mind screamed: "THIS MAKES NO SENSE!"
...BANG!...BANG!
And the conduit finally responded with an almighty BOOM! spraying accelerated chunks of red hot metal and hellish orange flames into the hero of the galaxy, Commander Aristotle Shepard, killing him instantly.