"This will be the most important day of your life. Remember to treasure every moment, and cherish it, until the day you pass from this world" Her mother told her as she sat on the corner of her bed.
"Mom, I don't mean to be rude, but it is just basic training. I doubt the Alliance is going to be this sentimental when I get there" Shepard said. Her mother chuckled.
"Sweetie, your father and I both still reminisce on our time in basic. I am not being sentimental, I am just passing along friendly advice, that I wish my mother could have given me". Shepard's mother was a soft woman. She had a heart of gold, but you did not want to cross her in a firefight. "Basic isn't easy, and you will want to kill yourself from the aches and pains from muscles you never thought you even had. But at the same time, it is the beginning of a wonderful, long, and promising career that your father and I could have only dreamed for you. We love you, and we will see you on the other side".
April 11th, 2172, the date this all had started. Her enlistment year. 2186. Just a year. One long year where it all ended. She didn't know it would come to this. Her entire life, culminated in this one, rather large ceremony. Shepard looked around the room at everyone she knew, loved, and respected. The Krogan, Asari, Quarian, Drell, Geth, Volus, Hanar, Batarians, Vorcha, Elcor, and Humans all in the same room, which no fighting or war on the brink. How did this happen? Everything was happening so fast. She was a spectre, she took down Saren, she blew up the Collector Base, and she had eradicated the Reapers from the galaxy. Her crew was found, all alive and safe.
She stood up facing the microphone. Glancing again around the room. Her heart was racing, and her mind was fuzzy. She adjusted her sling, and winced a little at the pain. The crowd seemed to wince with her.
"As I look around this room, I see life. I see multiple species that just months ago were at war with each other. I see friends, and enemies." The crowd chuckles at her joke. "However, most of all I see possibility".
Shepard glanced up at the balcony at her proud crew. Garrus nodded at her, Tali waved. Joker was smiling with his arm around EDI. This was her family.
"From the beginning of my career, I had to face heartbreak, fear, and pain. Any soldier does. I ask myself every waking moment, 'What made me so special'?" Her eyes fell on Sidonis. "To this day, I cannot answer that question" she says straight to him. Sidonis's eyes focused on the ground. Shepard looked up, and ahead. She squared her shoulders, with pain, and stood at attention. "It's not the answer that matters, but the question. I was asking what it was about me that was special. After Mindoir, I was a mess. After Saren, I was reborn. The Collector Base made me resolute, and today, after the defeat of the Reapers, I stand before you" She trailed off, and took a deep breath. "I stand before you, a whole woman, at last. I have fought, lost, loved" Her eyes meet with Garrus and they both smiles softly. "I have gone to hell and back. Hell, I even died once." She paused for the uneasy laughter. She looked at Hackett, and back to her audience. "There isn't much that will keep me from goals."
"You can say that again" Hannah and Frank Shepard said. The audience laughed again. Shepard smiled at her proud parents.
"The point is, the question I was asking myself, wasn't my question to ask. It was yours. What makes us special? It is the ability to come together, as a galaxy. We have set aside our differences, and together we have defeated the biggest threat this galaxy as faced. I stand here today, not as your hero, but as your comrade. We did this. Not me, not my crew, not the people on this stage. Every last one of you gave something to this war effort. Whether it be those we have lost." She paused for a moment of silence. "Those we have gained." She looked at the Elcor, Vorcha, Batarian, Hanar and Vorcha Council Representatives. "I stand here today, as a symbol of your unwilling effort, to work together. Let this be the first of many Galaxy-wide Conferences that we meet, and make a new, better life. Not just for ourselves, but for our future."
The audience started to erupt in applause. Garrus was looking at his wife with love. Shepard looked at her husband, and then at her stomach.
"I, your Commander Shepard, declare this first Inter-Galaxay Peace Conference to begin!"
Everyone in the room erupted in cheered, hollars, and applause. Shepard was ushered away by her parents, but before looking up at her crew congratulating a visually Garrus.
"Spirits help me".