Shepard stood before the Catalyst. Three colors: blue, red, and green. Yet only one decision was to be made.
"Now, you must choose," the A.I. ghost child repeated.
Shepard wasn't quite sure what to do. She didn't want to die herself, ruling out control and synthesis. I mean, what's the point of saving the whole galaxy if you won't even be around to see it? Yet she also didn't want to kill the Geth who she'd gotten to cooperate with the Quarian, and Joker would be crushed if she'd killed EDI, ruling out destroying all synthetics. None of these options really made any sense at all to her. She turned to face the child.
"Uhh, are you sure there aren't any OTHER options? These options don't really seem all that logical."
"You COULD allow the cycle to continue, but I'm sure you wouldn't want that, so just hurry up and choose one of these three option I've already laid out for you."
She sighed. She knew what she had to do. Slowly, she began to approach the red beam. She drew her gun and covered her eyes with her arm.
"WAIT!" the child shouted.
Shepard paused and turned swiftly.
"What?"
"There may be ONE other option, but it's a little risky."
"What do you mean it's a little risky?"
"Come this way." The child led her to another beam that had just sprung up behind where they'd been standing originally. She looked up and down at it.
"It's... purple?"
"It's just come to my attention that we could channel the energy of the Crucible to do something that's never been done before."
"None of these options have been done before, if you haven't noticed."
"Quiet," the starchild boomed. "We could off the Crucible so that everything that is here and now will have never existed and you will be sent back in time."
"Back in time? How far back in time?" She supposed that's where the risk came in. Back in time could mean anything from five minutes ago to when Jesus Christ was born.
"I don't know. What I do know is that this... second chance option was implemented some cycles ago. The idea to turn the Crucible into a time machine giving one chosen leader of a cycle to go back in time with new evidence to inform others of the reaper threat."
"And what are the consequences? I know there's got to be consequences."
"The only one I can think of is not knowing how far back in time you will be going. You could end up anywhere from five seconds ago to the stone age of humans."
Shepard turned her head to look at the three choices behind her, then back in front of her to face the bright purple beam. It was a risk she was willing to take. She nodded at the child took a running sprint, and leaped forward, soaring backwards in time.
When Shepard came to she was lying on her back on an operating table.
"Shepard you have to wake up, this facility is under attack. I know you're not ready yet, but you have to get moving if you want to survive."
That's Miranda's voice.
Shepard stood uneasily and hobbled to the locker, grabbing a pistol and her old N7 gear.
"Shepard, you have to-" Miranda's voice continued on in the background, but Shepard already knew what she had to do, so she ignored it. She hastily disposed of her opponents and met up with Jacob.
"Shepard? What the hell?"
"Yeah, I know. Let's just get rid of these mechs so we can get to Wilson."
"Wait how do you-" Shepard cut him off by throwing a pull field to the mechs.
"Let's go, Jacob."
"How do you know my name?"
Shepard stumbled over her words, realizing her mistake. "I mean- black guy I've never met before and whose name I do not know."
"Slow down, Shepard. Don't you have any questions?"
"No, I don't. Let's go black guy."
"My name is Jacob."
Shepard and Jacob continued on looking for Wilson.
"We should probably keep a look out for Miranda. I mean, she can handle herself, but there are a lot of mechs out here."
"Don't worry about it, she'll make it. Let's look for Wilson."
They reached a room where they found Wilson bleeding on the floor from an apparent leg injury.
"Help me, goddamn it. Get the medi-gel off that wall and- GAH!" Shepard shot him in the head, ending his sentence.
"Shepard, what the hell?"
"I wasn't going to waste Medi-gel on him just so Miranda could kill him later."
Jacob looked to Wilson's dead body and shook his head with wide eyed fear. "Okay if I tell you who I work for, will you trust me?"
"Cerberus. I know. Let's get to Miranda." Shepard kept walking and, hesitantly, Jacob followed. Once they reached the elevator they pressed the button, revealing Miranda who was holding a gun of her own. She was visibly bewildered by the scene before her.
"W-Where's Wilson?"
"Dead. I killed him."
"But I w-," she looked down and shook her head. "How did you know?"
"I have feelings."
Miranda stroked her chin, still looking down while biting her lip. "Well then I suppose it was for the best. It doesn't matter who killed him, he would've died anyway. Let's go. The Illusive-"
"Man will want to see me. I know."
"I... okay." Miranda finished, closing the elevator doors.
"Shepard, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."
"I bet it is. Listen Mister... Man, you want me to go through the Omega-4 Relay, is that right?"
"You're very well informed, Shepard. That is precisely what I was eventually hoping you would do."
"Yeah, I bet you already have a ship for me, and Joker is probably right outside that door."
"Yes... he is. What's going on here?"
"A lot more than you know. I already know my objective. I'll be going now." Shepard stepped off the communication device and turned to leave the room, meeting Joker on her way out.
"Commander. Just like old times, huh?"
"You don't know the half of it," she finished, boarding the ship with Joker, Miranda, and Jacob.