-EVERYONE'S CATALYST-

Author note:

set after the events of ME3, from the activation of the Crucible onward. This will have a few Original characters and many appearances of the faces from the original trilogy appearing as the crew work together to save and rebuild the galaxy.

Please note that I will treat every character as important as the last and everyone's stories will be touched on. Each segment will be from someone's point of view and may be happening simultaneously as another persons.

Enjoy.

Garrus

"I was the officer in charge of the investigation into Saren" Those were few of the first words he had shared with Commander Shepard.

It had been years since Garrus had spoken them. Recalling on events now he could remember that his boss had pulled him from the case and before he could turn to speak further there she was, his opportunity to continue his investigation. The famed Commander Shepard, the first human spectre. It seemed impossible that his investigation lead to what was happening now. A war with a super advanced robot race. His investigation lead to him meeting some of the toughest and most dedicated soldiers, scientists and mechanics he had ever known on the Normandy. The ship itself was an ingenious design all brought together to encompass more than its cost in credits. But it wouldn't have been anything without her.

Saren. The Reapers. The Illusive man. They had overcome these things together. A rag-tag group of aliens, on a Human-Turian ship, led by arguably one of the most well-known spectres in the galaxy by the events of this war. But that wasn't the amazing part for Garrus, the part that caused his mandibles to near split even after being told to rest was her. Admiration and friendship nurtured by mutual trust and an adventure that no Asari scholar would believe.

But why was he thinking of this now? Her home planet was in ruins around them, near the entirety of the forces on the ground had been decimated and even he had been wounded. Still he stared blankly at Shepard, his optic lense flickering as it began to fail. The commander had called for backup, an evacuation of him and Ashley. He didn't want to go, he still wanted that kill shot they joked about earlier.

Ashley's grip on his arm pulled him back up the ramp despite his gaze locked on Shepard.

"Shepard" he called out. That woman was going to steal the final shot from under him, but that wasn't what was upsetting him. What was upsetting him was knowing what conversation was about to happen. 'There is no Shepard, without Vakarian'. To him that saying was far truer the other way around.

"You gotta get out of here."

Ashley pulled him further back up the ramp, knowing the urgency of the moment.

"And you've gotta be kidding me."

"Don't argue, Garrus." She didn't even glare now. Even in all this chaos she could make the hard decisions.

Garrus cursed internally. He couldn't argue with his commander, not even now when it felt like another separate world was ending, it dawned on him that she had promised him to come back. He responded quickly before it'd be too late. "We're in this till the end."

He tried to take another step forward but again the human girl pulled him back. Ashley was far stronger than she looked in many regards. All three of them had been through a novel worth of adventures together. Garrus didn't want this one to end now, there had been too much time apart. The only time they had spent together was during chaos and imminent destruction. He couldn't take his gaze of Shepard. Trying to burn the image of her into his visor, into his memory. Hair like... well, he wasn't one for poetry. But it outclassed the sunset on Palaven.

Just like that every memory was playing through his mind again, trying to find any reason to why she would be leaving him behind. Was the comment about her hips being supportive actually offensive? Had he hurt her in some regard? He knew that none of these statements were true but he was grasping at nonsense right now.

His heart sank as she stepped towards him. "No matter what happens here…" He wanted to tell her to be quiet, that she owed him more than this. Not even his carapace could hold up how heavy his heart felt at those first few words. "You know I love you. I always will." She had paced up the ramp, fingers brushing against those scars he had once thought to remove. This was worse than getting shot, this was dying.

This was goodbye.

"Shepard, I…" he leaned his mandible into the soft of her glove, drawing up his hand to grasp at her wrist. This might be the last chance he had to hold her. But he didn't want to let go. But she had a mission, it would only slow her down to take him with her as injured as he was now. His grip slowly wavered and with it she began to step back. Those green irises of hers still on his as he spoke his reply quieter than a breath.

"I…. Love you, too." His heart had collided with a mass relay full of emotions on that phrase. Her hand left his and while he still reached for her, Ashley pulled whatever remained of him back up the ramp as Shepard gave her final order.

"Go!"

The door closed quickly, and before he knew it they had pressurised the ship so they could meet the fleet further away from the combat. He looked to Ashley who gave him a small unfaithful smile.

"Hey, she'll be fine. It's the commander." She pet his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. The universe has already tried to kill her once, and it just made her angry."

He had this conversation with the commander before. Hoping someone is okay and assuming they were didn't bring comfort. It only made him worry more in this instance, but it was nice to be comforted in a small way, especially from Ashley who seemed so obtuse when they had first met. She didn't want Aliens on a 'human' owned ship, but she had changed over the years. Everyone had in some way or another. He focused his attentions momentarily on repairing the damaged visor that sat across his eye, the interface flickering every few minutes due to structural damage.

His shoulders sagged as they ached. His armour had been ripped through by the explosion of the tank before. No one who had been on the ground seemed to of gotten out alive. Ashley's words however caught him off guard, spoken in a fashion he assumed was poetry. Turian poetry was mostly about combat, taking the shot. Who had the better war story or whoever served better but this was nothing like that.

"Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods." She relined back against the cool steel wall. "Tennyson."

"Who?"

"Tennyson, he was a poet. My father loved his poems. Old world sort of stuff. Well, old for us humans." She was trying to distract him, and for the moment he let himself be distracted.

"Turians don't live that much longer than humans do."

"They don't? Figured you guys were like lizards, or turtles."

"I don't know what any of those things are." He rose his head to take a better look at her, trying to read her expression for any indication of what she was speaking about. "The first humans our people encountered said we looked like birds."

"Earth animals." She loosely shrugged it off. "What do animals look like on Palaven anyway? I haven't seen many."

"Like normal. Metal shellings, radiation protective lenses over their eyes. Delicious with a good hanar spice." That seemed to of caught her in as much surprise as he had been.

"That isn't normal."

"It is, if you're Turian."

"Not normal. You've at least seen vids of... dogs, right?" she leaned forward, it was clear to Garrus that she was making an effort, far more of an effort than most would of in this situation. "I figure you for a dog person. Bet you would be the sort of scales to adopt a pup, raise it with your partner then decide that is sufficient training for raising children."

Garrus fell silent again. Raising a dog? Whatever that was it sounded like it would only not be a hassle with Shepard. "Are they…difficult to take care of?"

"Depends on the breed." She added. "If you're lazy you could just get a cat though."

"Another earth animal?" he leaned forward as well, raising a hand to gesture dramatically. "Does it breathe fire? Have hair all over its body?"

"Well, it has the second thing." she smiled weakly.

He paused again "…weird. I think i'd stick to a Varren"

Ashley pushed herself from the frame of the wall before entering the artillery command control hallway. "Come on, we best check on the rest of the crew here, let them know what has happened."

"You uhh, go on ahead. I'll go make sure Edi and Joker are alright, calibrate something." he was in pain, a lot of it both physically and worse still, emotionally. "We'll need all that help if we don't want to end up dust in space."

Numbers and adjustments were two things he could focus on. The two things left in this galaxy that he could drown himself in while whatever chaos was going on the surface played out. He walked without realising he had forgotten to even greet edi and joker, walked until he stood before the elevator. His steps slow and damaged as he turned to look at the memorial wall. So many had already died with Shepard. Kaiden had died years ago on Virmire and at times he still thought Ashley along with Shepard still blamed themselves for his death. Garrus would feel more guilty but it wasn't always possible to save everyone.

The mass hall was empty for the first time in weeks, most hands on the upper levels organising the command deck. As he headed down the long corridor towards his usual spot he slumped against the wall one hand pressed against the new damage to his carapace. Another dent, and possibly another scar to show off.

'Let's see…' He leaned against the railing, his omnitool bringing up the interface to the arsenal and engines. Someone had been adjusting it when he had been away for a few hours, it always bothered him how often this happened and part of him took the time to glance around as if to catch the calibration scrambler. The doors closed with their familiar song, a woosh like slide as they concealed him to his lack of work. A place that he could be alone in the galaxy was not this room.

This room was full of memories.

Joker

Sirens screeched through the Normandy as the surface of earth and the space above had become too dangerous to manoeuvre in. Those onboard could hear the shrieks of the reapers. The clutches of death that decimated all life in their path for some innate goal.

The low rumble of the engine kept his mind off of the glowing Amber spots on earth as he made his way back to the cockpit. His sounds hadn't been sealed yet, there were more important things on everyone's minds for now. The crew had survived worse on this ship, even he had survived hell on this ship alone.

The Comms had lit up, earth was declaring its loss, their casualties were in the billions now and the fleets they had sent had not gotten through all the defences. Joker's voice broke over the comm as Garrus finished calibrating the guns. Joker was thankful someone who knew the systems was manning them.

"We've lost communications with Shepard, trying to re establish them now." Hackett's voice alerted the Normandy over the com.

This seemed to only be sent to a few sectors of the ship, yet it was obvious that the time of reckoning had come.

Ashley stormed passed the mass hall, up the elevator and down the bridge to pull on jokers shoulder. Time was running out and if there was anything they could do it was not here, not in the midst of all this danger.

"No communications, still?" garrus prompted over the comm, understandably impatient.

Garrus didn't get his reply, the crew too busy avoiding what they could in the shitstorm they had been talking about for years.

"We must prepare evasive maneuvers, Jeff." EDI was right, yet they were both working to full capacity as was.

"I know I know.." He protested, fingers rapping along the lit keys. Time was running short for everyone. Without the crucible active, they had a countable number of hours left.

Shepard

"Shepard" his voice was the first thing she heard as she hit the ground, the beam had teleported her somewhere.

"Anderson? you are.. up here too?"

"I followed you up, But I don't think we ended up in the same place." he seemed concerned.

"What does your surrounding look like?"

Shepard groaned, the pain catching up to her as she used her strength to stand and take in the architecture. Red, it was all red.

"You okay?" Anderson could hear her pain over the comm.

" I feel like death, but i'm moving. It's dark, there's … human remains scattered "

"Sounds familiar, I'm in a dark hallway, reminds me of your description of a collector base" Anderson replied on his comm, the only channel available to her at this moment. The voice of a mentor and the closest thing she had to a parent left called out to her.

"Makes sense" she replied, continuing to walk at a slow pace.

"You think they're making a reaper in here?" Anderson didn't want to know the answer, and Shepard wasn't sure there were enough remains to even feasibly make part of one.

"Sure. They round them up on Earth, then send the people..up here to be processed." she needed to motivate him.

Anderson cursed about the abomination the Citadel had become..

A jolt of pain sparked up her adrenaline again, she had never been this wounded before in a way she could remember it. This plain slow and torturous compared to the suffocation she vaguely recalled from years ago. No amount of cybernetics could erase this plain. She clasped a hand to her side, placing pressure on the puncture to slow the bleeding.

The mission was still on.

"Wait for me, Anderson." She replied to herself., knowing it would be disregarded like her previous request had been. He had gone on ahead of her as it was, they had no idea what else was on this ship. Aside from the keepers and piles of bodies they were supposedly alone in the catalyst of fate. Whatever happened here was going to determine the success of life itself.

"Anderson?"

"I see a clearing I'll meet you there." She saw him not before too long, hunched over a console. His movements mechanical and broken. He wasn't himself. His voice breaking even as the Illusive man came forward, more than human now. An abomination in his own regard.

His speech fell on deaf ears, his preach for humanity lost as he had sacrificed his own for this attempt to control those which wanted to end them all. Shepard tried to fight his words, her arm raising without her own will, aimed at Anderson as they were locked in conversation.

"I've dedicated my life to understanding the reapers. We can control them. Look at the power they have given me. Look what they can make me do." A bang filled the open space between the three of them, a shot fired into Anderson's chest. The Illusive man had taken her power in some way, yet lost his own grasp. Indoctrinated, his soul lost to the one thing he wished to destroy.

"I.. I tried Shepard." The illusive man trembled with his words, What she had said was a blur, the pain setting in before the second bang of a gun rang out from the illusive man's gun. His body hitting the floor to echo out the gunshot.

A calm before the storm commenced as each of them found sanctuary against a cool ridge.

Shepard looked to Anderson, staggering to his side. Her breathing ragged and strained in the aftermath. Neither of them would have to move again anytime soon.

"Commander?"

"We did it.." she gasped.

"Yes.. we did." Anderson looked out to earth beyond the veil of glass. The spectacular blues and whites broken up every so often by streams of fire and light. "Its.. quite the view."

"Best seats.. in the house." she confirmed, adjusting her position to sit comfortably. if this was going to be the end, she wanted it to go peacefully. She had completed what she thought needed to happen. The weapon was primed and what else would be, would be.

Anderson spoke with a sigh on his tongue, relaxed for the first time in a while. "God it feels like years since I have just - sat down."

"I think you earned the rest, Anderson. Stay.. with me." she closed her eyes. "Stay with me, we're.. almost through this." she looked to him once more, seeing his head droop, his hat still remaining vigil on his head. There was no measure to how much she wanted him to follow her orders. Just once.

"You did good, kid.. You did.. good." he began to hunch slowly, the exhaustion getting to him. "I'm.. proud of you." his breathing faltered until it were too quiet to hear, until it was only a memory.

"Thank you, Sir…." she looked to him, the fate of her mentor sinking in. "Anderson?" They had saved all they had set out to save. Shepard's warm blood the only reminder she were going to die shortly after him. Part of her hoped she had more time with those on earth, more time with her friends and co-workers. But dying protecting life itself was something she figured the crew would forgive her for.

There was nary a time to rest before communications with Hackett lit up, nothing was happening, the crucible wasn't firing. Her strength was just enough to pull her to the console yet upon activating a series of buttons the light encroached around her consciousness.

Shepard

"Wake up.."

The blurred white vision turned to sound then to a vision. A vision so familiar from her dreams. The afterlife.. sure was different to what she thought it was. Earth was still on fire around them. The realisation it was not over only sank in shortly as she replied to the boy. "What.. w-where.. am I?"

He looked like a human, yet he told her that he was the catalyst. Everything was far more complex than it had to be. All she had to do was ask how to end this, to destroy the reapers. They had been created to fix chaos, the reapers had been created to wipe out organic life and harvest them to return the balance between machine and organics again. Everything he was saying made no sense to her. An intelligence beyond her own understanding, he was the embodied intelligence of all reapers according to his information. His creators had become the reapers.

"All artificial intelligence, including the Geth will be destroyed." EDI would be gone, Legion's sacrifice would have been for nothing. Everything had its own price. No matter her choice there was the price of her own life.

The second option was more grim. All of his solutions were convoluted. Shepard in her weakened state could merge all life as she knew it together. Would they turn on each other still? She could try and follow the illusive man's wishes. Control what were seen and perceived as gods. Or she could end the existence of the reapers, end the cycle for however long it lasted. Thousands, or longer than that, of years.

Her gun arm fell limp at her side as she weighed the weight of her decisions.

The third option was alien to her, in a way it made its own sense. To merge all existing forms of consciousness. Machine and Organic. Synthetics would no longer be necessary as they would be the same as organics in the state of the world, all of them with their own developed personality. But the price was her life. A fear gripped her heart tightly in its claws as he continued to explain what would happen. Could humanity adjust to this change? there were already signs of co-operation between the Geth and the Quarians, even without the change all it had taken was understanding and patience.

Boot by boot she heaved her weight across the metal floor, raising her gun as she focused on her decision. Sacrifice always meant something. If there was.. the slightest chance this could happen again if life forms meged, she would not have it. Not that there were any way she would she trust the illusive man after all he had done to humanity. New synthetic life could be reasoned with. This lesson would not fall deaf on the ears of those who suffered. Nor did Shepard want to remain conscious as her friends perished without her. Organics should remain, as organics.

BAM. One shot. She steadied her arm. BAM. Two. The lived which had touched her passed through her memories as she staggered forward, a strength in her final moments. People would be born, people would live because of her own sacrifice. BAM.

All turned to light, all turned red.

Joker

The sirens continued to sing as the crucible activated before the Normandy and the alliance fleets. The battle was won, it seemed almost a dream that it would be over. Years in the making, a battle which was far longer for some on the Normandy crew than others.

"The crucible is active, alert, the crucible is active." Hackett reported over every alliance communication network he could. Joker nodded, EDI alongside him working to stabilise the ship as the force from the initial beam alone nearly shattered their barriers.

He had to save the commander. This was one mission he wouldn't fail, there was no way he was leaving her to die on some space station that wasn't in any shape or form the Normandy.

Joker looked back to Ashley, not once had he let down the commander. He was the best pilot in the Alliance and if this were to be on the record, it would be his only failure. But it would be the greatest failure of all time.

"Disengage and get the hell out of here!" hackett's voice was clear over the com.

"Joker… It's time to go." Ashley tugged at his shoulder and there were no truer words spoken.

His fingers fell weakly against the keys as commands were rerouted to save the lives of the crew. "Damnit" he drew the ship back, the mass effect engine beginning to whirl and hum as massive amounts of energy were redirected. The orange beams aimed for earth first, he could see them from his scanner as dangerous. The commander had done it, she had activated the weapon yet nothing seemed to remain of the citadel now, it looked as if just firing the shot had decimated everything that once was. It might take years to rebuild.

Around them the reapers began to fall, blink offline or worse, explode upon a few shots of the alliances vessels. Dodging the fallout from this was more than any crewman would of been tasked with. His teeth grinded together as he and EDI navigated the storm. "Shit shit shit." he activated another series of switches.

"Joker.. Earth its.." Ashley began to speak, watching the monitors. "They're reporting that the reapers have stopped. All of them, have gone inactive. Showing no signs of life at all."

"I'm a little busy here!"

"Sorry just - Its saved! Shepard did it!"

"If you're done yappin, great. I'm trying to save our hides!" No man had done this amount of work with such limited resources. "The relay is going to blow."

EDI nodded. "We will want to evacuate Sol space to avoid the effect. I can calculate it will have catastrophic effects on my programming."

"Well, Duh! That and we'll be blown to bits." Joker forced the engines beyond capacity. They could repair later when they landed somewhere safe, it was a risk they had to take. EDI was at stake, their lives were all at stake.

Click click. Before long they were riding beyond the impact point of the explosion, EDI's gaze drifting from the computer towards Joker. "Jeff-"

He tried to focus on the escape, but their FTL engines were down.

"Jeff, The crew will be fine." EDI continued, the lighting in her physical body dying. "You can ride out the impact, warp towards the closest system and rely on organic's hope. Survival otherwise is not probable."

Joker nodded along. Even now EDI had his best wishes a heart. "You'll be -"

"Gone, Joker." She wasn't moving her fingers now. "My systems are failing. Processes are limited."

"EDI? are you… dying?" Ashley spoke quietly, yet did not need the answer.

She quoted legion in her final moments. The speakers of the normandy online to Shepard's crew. "Organics possess an aspect, a concept called a soul which departs on death. I must.. ask.."

There was a silence which penetrated the loneliness the ship would feel before EDI spoke again.

"Do I, have a soul?"

Not one person replied an answer, the warm hum of the engine pittering through the ventilation shafts as orange light engulfed the ship. Pushing them forward beyond the eye of the storm. Warp initiating a little too late for them to be saved. Systems were failing, the ship headed towards whatever location EDI had set for them. Impact imminent in seconds. Every crew member was told to secure themselves, the frantic rush for safety beginning until the atmosphere broke on the normandy's wings and guided her violently down through the forest of clouds and shrubs.

Light returned to the ship after a few hours of jiggering with the manual controls. The ship's systems online and all readings gave positive signs that the air outside was safe for humans and other life forms on the ship. For once joker focused himself completely on the rest of the crew, drawing himself from his chair to hobble down the walk of the ship's neck to shout. One by one Shepard's team came forward, exhausted and some injured.

Liara looked to the others first. Speaking quietly. "Glyph went offline. But I should be able to salvage his data from my files." She furrowed her brow. "My Intel has no knowledge of this place, everything is inaccessible for the moment but we should prepare a recon team to scout-"

Garrus interrupted. "If anyone is going to scout it should be me. My tech is still working. My scope will come in handy if we aren't alone." He leaned on his gun with a small grunt, still hurting.

At least the family was arguing like normal again. Some normalcy was necessary now.

"No, you should get patched up. Before you end up with an infection." Ashley crossed her arms. "I can scout ahead, it would be easier that way. Doctor chakwas can tend to you and the others can-"

"You aren't the leader here, princess." James spoke up. "How bout I scout and find us some grub? You lot are loco if you think we won't find something bigg'n scary out there."

Joker gritted his teeth together, pushing past the group that were assembled. Without a leader they were like cats. All independent with no direction. Selflessness wasn't in all of their agendas. He needed air. For once the Normandy didn't feel like home. It was just another war zone.

"I'll be in the cockpit." he staggered back into the ship, the others would find him soon.