Author's Notes: This is my first fan fiction. It is centered around Mass Effect universe and CMD. Shepard's and ADM. Tali'Zorah's relationship. I'm not a native English speaker so I will apologize in advance for any mistakes. Please feel free to leave feedback and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.
Once and for all
Mass Effect 3 alternative ending
By Sauf'cok
Chapter 1: Redemption
"Your time is at end. You must decide"
Before catalyst, stood Commander John Shepard, a spectre and a hero. He nodded silently to the catalyst and limped further. He stopped at the place where the three paths crossed.
Shepard glanced to his left.
"Controlling the reapers. That's what the Illusive Man wanted. I can't and I won't do that." Then he looked forward.
"Synthesis." He thought about it for a while but he remembered Saren's words: "Union of flesh and steel, strengths of both, weaknesses of neither." He remembered how Saren ranted and quickly changed his mind. The only option was on the right.
He started limping towards the red-glowing tube and whispered to himself: "This is the end, once and for all." He raised his M6 Carnifex and took the first shot.
"I'm sorry Legion."
With a determined look on face he took three more shots.
"I'm sorry EDI."
He walked right in front of the cracked tube and took two more shots.
"I'm sorry Tali."
Shepard was consumed by the explosion and everything blacked out.
Suddenly he regained consciousness. He was on Earth, lying on the ground some distance from the conduit. He could hear gunfire, explosions and shouting. It took a few seconds to realize things.
"Indoctrination. It can't be anything else"
He raised his head and saw Anderson, badly wounded but alive, sitting behind a destroyed tank. Harbinger was defending the beam. Shepard tried to get up, but every muscle he had screamed in pain. He slapped on some medi-gel, got up and went to Anderson.
Anderson tried to say something but Shepard couldn't hear. Then Shepard heard Anderson saying: "You must keep going! You cannot stop here!" And then he died in front of Shepard. Shepard was devastated but he had to keep going. He took Anderson's radio, contacted Admiral Hackett and told him he was going to the Citadel.
Shepard stormed to the beam and went to the Citadel while Harbinger was distracted by something else. The beam brought him to the meeting chamber of the council. This is where it all started and this where it all will end.
When he made his way up to the control panel, he saw the Illusive Man. He was interacting with the panel and didn't see Shepard climb up.
Shepard raised his weapon and shot at Illusive Man, but his barriers blocked the shots easily. TIM was now aware of Shepard's presence but did not attack. He just started ranting about how the Crucible could give the control of the reapers to him.
Shepard shot until he ran out of thermal clips. It didn't have any effect on TIM's barriers. Shepard was running out of ideas. He had two grenades and his trusty combat knife. He then took out the knife and charged towards TIM. They were engaged in a duel for some time but then TIM used his biotics to throw Shepard back. Then he said:
"I've had enough of this waste of time." He then unsheathed his own weapon and aimed it at Shepard's head. "Before you die you should know that you are one of my greatest disappointments."
Shepard then grinned and said: "You lost." TIM noticed that Shepard had strapped his grenade belt to his back. Shepard stood up and Sparta- kicked TIM off the platform when he was trying to remove the grenades. And then a sweet sound of explosion was heard and the Illusive Man was no more.
Then Shepard proceeded to open the station's arms and hailed Admiral Hackett: "The arms are opening! Get over here and fucking fast!" Hackett replied: "We are on our way." The Crucible took a few moments to get to the Citadel and it was docked. Shepard saw a bright flash of light appear in the control panel and slammed it with his fist.
The Crucible started to build up purple-colored energy and it released massive burst to Earth and to the mass relay and from there, to all galaxy. The Sword fleet started to disembark and head to the rallying point which was near Saturn.
Shepard started to work his way back to the conduit but every step hurt like hell. He got to the beam and made it back to Earth. He saw reaper capital ships falling in the horizon. The radio he took from Anderson was fried so he couldn't call any backup. He tried to walk away but didn't get very far before he fell unconscious. There he just lied, in the middle of rubble.