Celestine Shepard looked down to the choices in front of her. They were not choices at all. After everything she had done to stop the Reapers. All the people sacrificed, all the deals made, all the blood spilled. And for what?
She clutched her head, her already frazzled white hair in greater disarray and the glowing scars she had once thought closed opened once more. She could not accept this. She would not accept this! She fell to her knees and struggled to keep her wits about her. The circular and nihilistic logic made her head hurt.
How in the world was she supposed to combat something that had repeated the same bloody cycle for countless millions of years? The answer was right in front of her. It had to be. She stood up and looked to the choices again.
If she chose to control, she wouldn't destroy the Reapers. She would become them. She would either control them to destroy themselves or perpetuate the cycle until the end of time. She would also die. No. That was not acceptable. Too much had already been sacrificed for them to just bring it all back to square one.
The green beam of light in front of her made even less sense. A perfect synthesis of organic and synthetic life? The peak of evolution? The idea was absurd as it was impossible. Life had to grow and change in order to survive. The engineer in her understood that once you hit a peak, the only ways forward were either stagnation or degradation. She would also die. No. That was not acceptable either.
She looked to the last option. Destruction of the synthetics. It seemed no better than the first option. She would be consigning death upon both the Geth and EDI, only after they had struggled so hard to find their respective individuality. Moreso upon an entire race that had finally reconciled with their creators. And EDI's discovery of her feelings for Joker. To deprive the Quarians and Jeff of what constituted something akin to a necessary counterpart would make her no better than the Reapers.
She shook her head, which whipped her silvery hair around in her face to clear the cobwebs. She had to think. A man said once that there are no problems, only solutions. There had to be one here. She began to pace as the Catalyst regarded her oddly.
Frankly, she didn't care what the AI thought. She was not going to play its game anymore. The more Celestine thought about it, the more angered she got that all these cycles to prevent the destruction only seemed to cause more of it. And for what? Preservation inside the Reapers? The idea was as ludicrous as it was stupid. It was all about Catalyst's strange ideas and opinions that brought it all….
…the Catalyst.
Celestine turned to the starlit image as the gears in her head began to turn even faster. Perhaps the answer was in front of her the whole time. The Catalyst noticed the change in Shepard's demeanor as it began to draw close to it. While it could not sense any sort of change in the human, it did experience a feeling of confusion.
"Tell me," Celestine said with a small smile on her lips as her omni-tool activated, "all the functions that the Citadel and the Crucible feed into you to enable these three choices. Am I correct?"
With no need for deceit the AI nodded. Only at this junction was the cycle capable of ending or continuing. It would need these functions to complete its objective.
A chuckle emerged from Celestine's throat as she continued, "which means that you can exist independent and interdependently of both the Citadel and the Crucible."
The AI nodded again. However, it began to wonder where the human was going with this as she began to furiously type in commands in her omni-tool. Faster and faster, Celestine's fingers danced over the keys to create and modify programs and commands. The Catalyst was confused where her line of thought and realized, too late, of her intentions.
"Alright, you little twerp," Celestine said as she then pointed her implement at the image and the Catalyst suddenly felt itself isolated from its functions and from everything else, "I don't think I want the choices you have. So, I'm going to make my own."
Immediately, the Catalyst fizzled and began to fade as it said as its lifelines were cut. "You will…. Destroy…. Everything…."
The scars that traced down Celestine's cheeks and face began to glow brighter as the unsettling red that once shone in her eyes returned in force. The dark chuckle began to return as she whispered, "I have no intention of doing so…"
She closed her eyes and felt it. Without the AI itself, the Citadel and the Catalyst required something to direct it. She had decapitated the head of the monster and superimposed herself in its place, but with a few choice alterations.
Immediately, energy from the superstructure gathered and focused on its new focal point. Like pressure, the amount of power was focused through a single individual body instead of the station that it was once built for, was immense.
Celestine gasped as she felt the functions of the Citadel rewrite the very code of her DNA to adapt to the powers that the Catalyst once had. It was rapturous. No, it was beyond description. Now she understood what the Illusive Man truly wanted. He wanted power and dominion. To control the will of the Reapers for himself. She, on the other hand, was not so foolish.
She had taken everything the Catalyst once had for her own and now, it was all hers. The power to control, create, or destroy. It was all hers.
She knelt down and attempted to catch her breath as she felt her consciousness expand exponentially. The power had filled her to capacity and yet, while her body did not change, her mind greedily took in more and more of it.
Immediately, she could see more. She was more. Her mortality was a distant memory now. She was a part of the cosmos, with its unstoppable power flowing through her and hers to command.
Her breath settled as the lightning of various colors died down around her. When she returned to her full height, she opened her eyes…
…and a God awoke.
Back in London, soldiers fought for their lives as the waves of husks seemed unending. A pair of soldiers, after dispatching a another Brute, looked up to their horror to see a Destroyer land in the adjacent block, its optic laser ready to fire.
Everything and everyone, from the smallest husk to the largest Reaper paused when they heard a voice boom from the heavens,
"HARBINGER!"
The Reaper in question, in the air over London and about to rejoin the battle in space paused as it found itself called.
"IT WAS THE CATALYST WHO MADE YOU," the voice said, glorious and terrible, "AND IT IS I WHO WILL END YOU!"
The ancient Reaper then roared in pain and its form then began to warp and twist until the very shell of the craft itself started to implode. Within, it felt hands tear every voice apart into pieces and consume the remnants into a singular and far more powerful entity.
In each and every Reaper and Husk, across the galaxy, pure terror flooded their collective consciousness as they came under attack from something far more powerful, far more omnipresent, and far more destructive than anything they ever experienced.
In space, each Reaper began to convulse as they felt their individual nation of voices consumed by something they had no defense against. Within seconds, the dreadnaughts and cruisers' began to implode on themselves as the technology that had once terrorized the galaxy for millions of years was rendered useless.
Back in London, the rest of Shepard's squad looked in confusion at the spectacle that had just taken place. It seemed that whatever had destroyed the Reapers had done so miraculously. Immediately, the first thoughts were that Shepard had succeeded.
However, there was an air of foreboding that prevented them from throwing their hands up in celebration with everyone else.
"That… that was Celestine's voice," Liara said as she struggled to return to her feet, assisted by Garrus.
"Yes, but how was she able to do… whatever she did?" Garrus said, who felt the same unease the asari did.
The asari looked ahead to the conduit leading to the Citadel, still a light with power. She had a feeling that the only answer to his question was to follow Shepard. She hopped off the ledge and started her slow march towards the beam of light. Not far behind, Garrus, Tali, and Ashley slowly followed suit.
There was an unnatural calm in the air as they walked past and over the still remains of the husks that once barred their path. The only other sounds that accompanied them were the rustle of their boots that disturbed the ruined earth beneath their feet and the cries of joy from the rest of the soldiers in the distance.
One by one they entered the beam and they found themselves in the presidium. They all expected a charnel house, full of the bodies of those not fortunate enough to escape the process of the Reapers. However, they found nothing amiss. It was pristine, it was beautiful. Perhaps even more so before Cerberus had attempted to the coup.
Cautious, they traversed further into the presidium to the elevator leading to the Council Hall. Unlike the eerie silence of London, there was a deathly calm about the place as the doors closed and carried them securely upward.
"I'M GLAD YOU CAME," the same voice they heard on the outside said. The voice was powerful. Ubiquitous. Piercing. Terrifying. So much so that Tali found it difficult not to stand closer to Ashley, who stood with her back to the Quarian protectively, almost as if on instinct.
"IT WAS ALL A LIE. EVERYTHING WE KNEW ABOUT THE REAPERS WAS A LIE. THEIR CREATORES SOUGHT TO MAINTAIN A FALSE PEACE ON THE GALAXY WITH THEIR OWN TWISTED LOGIC. NO MORE. " it continued as the elevator drifted higher and higher.
"THEY TRIED TO DECIEVE ME. THEY OFFERED FALSE CHOICES IN ORDER TO STOP THE CYCLE IN THEIR LIMITED SCOPE OF UNDERSTANDING. I SAW THROUGH THEIR LIES AND INSTEAD, UTTERLY DESTROYED THEM," the voice continued with no little amount of satisfaction in its voice.
Eventually, the elevator stopped and its doors opened to the Council Halls. It had changed since the last time they were all there, however. It was a garden. Full of life of many differing types of vegetation. At the window near the back, the sun peeked out from the edge of the image of Earth below. It was ideal. Almost perfect. However, all four of them could not dispel the apprehension in the pit of all their stomachs as they approached the seat where the Council.
"THEIR POWER WAS BEYOND IMAGING. BEYOND COMPREHENSION. WHILE THEIR CHOICES WERE FALSE IN THEIR INTENT, THE ABLITIES THEY HELD WERE TRUE. I TOOK THAT FOR MY OWN. AND NOW, THE REAPERS AND THEIR TWISTED LEGACY ARE NO MORE," the voice said, this time now coming from a point in front of the window.
A figure stood up and turned to them. It was Shepard, her armor partially destroyed. However, the woman herself appeared utterly perfect in condition. Her white hair, now free from the bun, waved about her shoulders as though she were under water. Her eyes, always red from the cybernetic implants, shone like angry coals in the shadows. Her skin seemed as pristine as though it shone with its own luminescence.
"Oh, Keelah," Tali whispered, unsure whether to be in awe or fear.
Shepard's features softened and a smile grew on her lips as she approached them. With every step she took, a trail of pearl white light seemed to glow momentarily in its wake.
"MY FRIENDS," Shepard said with an air of regal dignity, "I AM GLAD YOU ARE HERE."
"Skipper," Ashley said, the ice finally broken, "what happened to you?"
The warmth left Celestine's face as she answered. "WHAT NEEDED TO HAPPEN. THE CITADEL ITSELF WAS THE CAUSE OF ALL THIS MISERY AND HARVESTING. ITS POWER TO CONTROL, CREATE, OR DESTROY WOULD HAVE TURNED EVERYTHING TO SHAMBLES. UTTERLY DESTROY WHAT WAS LEFT OF GALACTIC CIVILIZATION. I WOULD NOT ALLOW SUCH A THING TO HAPPEN."
Tentatively, Liara stepped forward, "but what about you? I mean, what became of you?"
Shepard's face grew warm at her asari lover and said, "I HAVE BECOME MUCH MORE THAN ANYONE CAN EVER HOPE TO COMPREHEND. IT WAS EITHER THIS OR ELSE NEEDLESSLY SACRIFICE MYSELF FOR A FALSE PEACE PERPETRATED BY THE CATALYST. HOWEVER, IT IS OVER NOW. I HAVE ENSURED THAT."
"What do you mean?" Garrus asked, his mind full of unpleasant implications of Shepard's statement.
Celestine's gaze went hard as she whispered, "I HAVE NO INTENTION OF ALLOWING WHAT HAPPENED HERE FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS TO HAPPEN AGAIN. I KNOW. I HAVE SEEN IT IN EVERY CYCLE SINCE THE BEGINNING. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN."
All four of Shepard's squadmates looked to each other. Many unsettling ideas as to what a deified Shepard would do, especially in light of the Reaper War. Their silence was not lost on Shepard.
"YOU DOUBT ME? AFTER ALL I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED, YOU STILL DOUBT?" the ground around them began to rumble.
"Shepard," Garrus answered as tactfully as he could, aware that they were all walking on landmines now, "it's not that we doubt you."
Tali finished for him. "It's… would this really be a good idea?"
"WHY NOT? IT SEEMS APPROPRIATE SINCE THOSE IN POWER REFUSED TO LISTEN TO US UNTIL THE REAPERS APPEARED! AND THEY WOULD HAVE TOSSED ME ASIDE, AFTER ALL I HAD DONE FOR THEM!" the anger in Celestine's voice grew in proportion to their apprehension. Her eyes then widened with momentary inspiration, "I DO NOT THINK WE WILL NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THEM NOW."
At that moment, Councilor Tevos, while speaking with the other remaining Matriarchs about the battle in Sol, blinked for a moment as she felt something amiss.
She brought her hand up to see it begin to turn translucent and before she could cry for help, her form dissolved. To the horror of everyone around her, all that remained of the Asari Councilor was a puddle of water.
"I don't care what it means for them. I want those ships out of that system as soon as-" Councilor Speratus growled before he realized his voice had vanished. Before he could stop his walk, he found himself tumbling to the ground.
His assistants looked on helplessly as his body transformed into stone, limb by limb. And before the Councilor could cry for help, he was completely petrified and as hard as the many statues they had of their venerated ancestors.
On Sur'Kesh, Councilor Velarn paced in his office restlessly with a data pad in his hand. Word had come that the battle against the Reapers was victorious; however, they were receiving unsettling reports of various inexplicable events.
He turned to his desk to summon a courier when he felt his skin begin to heat up. He leaned against his desk and was about to reach for a glass of water when in a flash of light, he utterly vanished into a puff of hot air. All that remained was his clothes as they unceremoniously crumbled to the ground.
"Admiral!" one of Hackett's aides said, clearly frightened, the senators!"
He turned to follow his aide to watch a security feed where the remaining leaders of the Alliance had gathered after their escape from Arcturus station.
The admiral's blood turned cold when he saw on the screen, several dozen men and women frantically running every which way as they were consumed with fire. One by one, the senators eventually combusted and left the make-shift parliament chambers a charnel house.
"Shepard, what do you mean? What did you do?" Liara asked, her fear more evident than the rest.
"AS I SAID: WHAT NEEDED TO BE DONE," she replied curtly. "WOULD YOU RATHER LEAVE IT TO THE POLITICOS THAT DID NOTHING? OR THE REAPERS TO CONSUME US ALL?"
The asari's hands still shook as she stepped forward, "No, but would this be any better? This isn't you at all, Shepard."
"WHY SHOULDN'T IT BE?" Shepard roared as her eyes blared red, which caused the entire citadel to quake, "PEOPLE HAVE DEFERRED TO ME SINCE IT'S OBVIOUS THAT THEY CAN'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES AFTER ALL I'VE DONE FOR THEM!"
"Skipper, don't do this…" Ashley said as she resolved herself.
Celestine's unnatural eyes bored into Ashley as she snarled her face with contempt. "AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO, ASHLEY? TRY TO STOP ME? IN CASE YOU FORGOT, I'VE DESTROYED EVERY SINGLE REAPER AND HUSK IN THE GALAXY. WHAT CHANCE DO YOU HAVE?"
"Probably the same chances Sovereign told us we had back on Virmire. Remember?" the soldier said, her shoulders square despite her fear.
Her words gave the goddess in front of them pause. However, whatever moment of reprieve they had from Shepard's wrath vanished as her eyes narrowed. "I DO REMEMBER. AND NOW, I AM NOTHING MORE THAN THE MONSTER THE REAPERS WERE. IS THAT IT? I GO THROUGH ALL THIS AND YOU TREAT ME WITH FEAR AND LOATHING?"
"Damn it, Skipper, no!" Ashley said, exasperated. Her heart pounded her chest furiously to find the right words to continue, well aware that her life may be at stake. "So you do that and ensure that whatever the Reapers did never happens again. What then? Is that what you would have wanted?"
Celestine faltered momentarily. "IT'S NOT WHAT I WANT, ASHLEY. IT'S WHAT MUST BE DONE."
Ashley pressed her advantage. "But who are you or I or any of us to make that choice for the galaxy so arbitrarily? We're not gods."
Ashley knew she was in trouble when Shepard smiled in response.
"I AM."
Before she could react, Shepard was on her and immediately sent her flying across the room and into the wall just above the elevator. She would have been hurt far worse than she was had she not been in her armor as she tumbled to the ground.
She tried to push herself to her feet, but when a boot forced its way into her back, she could do nothing but feel crushed as she lay back down on the floor. Immediately, Shepard's voice roared in her mind and ears, "IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING: YOUR GOD IS RIGHT HERE, ASHLEY. YOU'D DO WELL TO UNDERSTAND THAT!"
"Williams!" Garrus said as he pulled out his rifle and was prepared to fire had the weapon not completely disassembled itself and fell into pieces to the floor.
"YOU WERE ALWAYS TOO IMPETUOUS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, GARRUS. PERHAPS YOU NEED TO LEARN THAT AGAIN," Shepard said casually as the turian began to shrink. Tali gasped as she saw Garrus not decrease in size, but age and had regressed into a chick before her.
"SO, TALI. WILL YOU DEFY ME TOO? I CAN THINK OF FAR WORSE ALTERNATIVES," Celestine said as she appeared directly in front of the young woman. She stood inches apart from Tali's face, which enabled her to stare directly into the quarian's eyes, through her helmet.
The quarian found her courage gone, her voice muted, and her blood cold as she shivered uncontrollably.
"Shepard! Stop this!" Liara screamed from where Williams was. Celestine turned to see Liara help a beaten Ashley to her feet. "This isn't you! This isn't you at all!"
"NO, IT'S NOT, LIARA. HOWEVER, EVERYONE NEEDS TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT I HAVE CHANGED-"
"Bullshit!" Ashley's voice bellowed, despite her condition as she leaned on Liara. "That's the same kind of malarkey that the Reapers or the Illusive Man would spew. Or maybe you have changed, but you've just gotten too stupid to see it."
"BE CAREFUL, ASHLEY. YOUR NEXT WORDS MAY BE YOUR LAST!" Celestine rumbled angrily.
Ashley fought for her breath. "Dammit, Shepard, we know you're better than this! You're not a tyrant! You're our friend! You really think that we would have done anything if there was nothing wrong with this? If you really think that, then you're not the person that united us all against the Reapers. You're not Shepard at all. You're just a trigger-happy jarhead with delusions of grandeur!"
Shepard growled raised her arm and a beam of concentrated heat burst forth to undo Ashley. However, time slowed and Liara shoved Ashley out of the way.
Everyone's eyes widened at the sight of Liara looking down at the hole in her chest, then back up to Celestine to whisper weakly, "Shep….ard…." with that, she fell to the ground and a pool of purple began to grow around her body.
Shepard found herself frozen. She had done the unthinkable. Her face turned into a mask of horror as she realized the complete implications of what she had done. She had murdered the woman whom she had given her heart to. And for what? Defending a friend… a friend that was right.
Shepard's resounding wail of "NO!" echoed throughout the Citadel and, subsequently, the galaxy. If there was nothing she could do, then she had just damned herself and everything she had fought for. If such power could only lead to such loss, then she could do without it.
It took everything that the functions she had gained could do. By itself, the Citadel could not do this, with Celestine, however, it was possible. Immediately, time slowed down until it came to a complete stop.
The pool of purple blood around Liara's body slowly receded back into her body. The asari was back on her feet. The wound had closed.
Garrus had been restored.
The damage she had caused, undone.
When the last of the Reapers and their husk slaves were undone, Celestine then realized what more she could do. She could use the power she had gained for good…
…and lose everything she had fought for.
She tried to release the functions of the Citadel, however, they clasped onto her body and spirit as tightly as meat hooks in her skin. She cried in agony as she fell to her knees as chaotic biotic energies stormed around her. She felt as though she were being torn apart.
"LIARA! HELP ME!" she cried to the planet below.
Back in London, Liara gasped as she felt the presence of her human lover grasp desperately to her mind as though Celestine was drowning. Immediately, she felt herself, though not her body, drawn to the heart of the Crucible where Shepard writhed on the ground in pain.
"I CAN'T… I CAN'T…." the human said as she tried to form something coherent.
"Shepard!" she said as she ran to her lover's side. It didn't take much for the asari to know that she was in torment.
"HAVE TO…. LET IT GO…. CAN'T… IT'S…." Celestine cried.
The asari quickly put the pieces together and assisted Shepard to sit up. If the functions which had power over the Citadel were as dangerous as she thought, then she needed to help Shepard get rid of them. The question, however, was how.
Below her, Celestine quivered uncontrollably, "…LIARA…."
If she still had control over her faculties in this form, then perhaps she had a chance.
"Celestine… hear me… and Embrace Eternity!" she whispered as she tried to summon the dark energy reserves to force herself and Shepard into a melding state. Immediately, she felt the overwhelming power that was causing her lover such agony.
Celestine was like a pressure cooker with no release valve. Unless she did something, the functions Shepard had acquired would destroy her.
Despite her inexperience in melding, she was able to create an exit for the functions to leave Shepard's mind through her. She needed to directly connect with her in order to do so. She hoped that her incorporeal form was able to do this as she reached down and pressed her lips firmly against Shepard's.
To her surprise, she felt the warmth of Celestine's lips on her own and the human's arms wrapped around her as she felt the power between them bleed into her. She could feel Celestine's love and a horrid image of herself with a hole in her chest that caused her human lover such pain.
She would have to ask how that happened later, as more of the Citadel's functions seeped into her, she looked up and in a beam of light, sent the powers that the Citadel once had into nothingness. Immediately, she felt herself return to her body in London and quickly as she saw the Citadel begin to fall apart, "Shepard! Quickly! Run!"
The last sight of Shepard she saw was her human lover getting up and making a mad dash towards the entrance from whence she came.
It had taken them two days to find Shepard, injured, bleeding, and near death, but alive. She had lost an arm and a leg and was bed-ridden for the next several weeks. However, she seemed to be in far better spirits than her physical condition for reasons that she wouldn't elaborate on yet.
Liara had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with that unsettling memory of her. However, she said nothing about it until Shepard was ready. And when she was ready, she also had Ashley there as well.
She had told them everything that had happened. What she did. She couldn't bear to look at either one of them after what she had done.
"I was wrong," Celestine whispered with her face in her remaining hand as she shook her head. "I thought… I thought I was doing the right thing, but it all went so wrong."
Both Liara and Ashley looked to each other as the former took a seat on the bed and draped her arm over Shepard's shoulders.
Celestine looked up to Ash with the eye that wasn't bandaged, red with bloodshot instead of the cybernetics, "I'm so sorry, Ash. You were right."
Ashley wasn't entirely sure what to think of the story she had been told. However, the memories she had shared with Liara had given credence to her experienced. However, she took comfort in the fact that Shepard had admitted that Ash was right, still considered her a friend, and despite all that had happened, had a feeling that such an event wouldn't be occurring again.
Ash was about to answer when Shepard interrupted, "think there's any hope for a trigger happy jar-head with delusions of grandeur?"
She folded her arms and said with a smirk, "only if she learns from it."
Shepard laughed mirthlessly. "Considering what I could have lost, an arm and a leg are pretty minor."
While Ashley didn't consider herself to be any sort of adequate judge of what had happened, if it had happened, she could tell Shepard had changed. Perhaps for the better. "For what it's worth, Skipper, considering what you had to lose to come to this state, I won't hold it against you."
Relief filled her features as Shepard leaned back in her bed. "Good. So, could you and Liara help me? I tried doing it right by myself… didn't turn out too well."
Ash cocked an eyebrow to Liara, who nodded slightly to the silent question. She turned back to her friend and said with a nod of her own, "I think I can do that."
THE END