Darkness. Complete and utter darkness. Was that how death felt like? Seeing the last moments of your friends' fate, the result of your sacrifice? If that were so, it wasn't so bad. At least you get to know what happens next. But now it's just darkness. How long will this go on?

Gasp. Shepard's eyes suddenly opened again and the extreme necessity for air made him vehemently start breathing. His surroundings were not bright, and yet after seeing so much darkness, he still felt the need to squint for a while. He felt completely numb and he could also feel the taste of blood on his lips. The incessant buzzing in his ears that he could feel a while ago began to slowly die out. Now he could clearly hear the sounds of battle, the distinguishable noise of a Reaper firing its beam. He still felt a massive headache, but it took him some time to realize that maybe he is not dead, after all.

Slowly, he began to lift his head so that he could see exactly where he was. His armor was significantly damaged and his helmet had fallen off and it stood beside him, completely broken. The bright light of the beam he thought he had used to travel to the Citadel was in visual range again, not too far away from him, and made him squint once more. Only now could he hear the sounds that it emitted. Still going through the shock, he found it difficult to move as it caused him a lot of pain, but the vanguard adapted quickly.

Shepard was definitely still on Earth again. But if the Reapers were still here, then what had he just experienced? He could clearly recall that he had destroyed them all, seeing through the lies of the Catalyst who tried to sway him towards the opportunity to merge with them or control them. It must have been a dream. He looked at all the dead bodies beside him that had been ripped apart by Harbinger's beam. Then it dawned on him: Liara and Garrus. What had become of them? They hadn't made it to the beam because they weren't on the Citadel, but now he began to question whether he had. They couldn't be dead, they just couldn't, they had to be alive, and they had to be here somewhere!

He struggled to get back on his feet, but not long after he had that thought, he stood above the many bodies and began to frantically search for anyone alive. If he had survived, there was a chance for the others to be still alive, as well.

Not long after he started doing so he nearly fell back down once he heard his name being called by the voice of a Reaper behind him. He had heard that voice before, and he had no doubts that it was Harbinger as he turned around and faced him. He was absolutely massive in person, as big as the beam itself, and Shepard could immediately feel his head starting to throb again and he could swear he could also hear some kind of ominous whispers around him.

"Impressive, Shepard. But what you'll never comprehend is that it's all in vain, no matter how hard you try", Harbinger spoke, "With you or without you, we'll succeed. A pity that you brought everyone here only to make their deaths quicker and easier."

"And you…", Shepard began to respond as he coughed from the pain, "…will never understand that no matter what our odds are, we'll continue to fight. We'll never surrender. We won't be your thralls."

"Your words are once again empty as they always have been. You don't speak for the entire galaxy, only for yourself. You've never even realized that the thralls you've encountered is evidence enough that you are incorrect.", Harbinger replied, "The cycle will continue, and a lone human is not going to stop us. You've been a hinderance to our plan long enough. Goodbye, Shepard."

That was it. The real death was just around the corner and Shepard was all alone. He turned around to run, but he tripped over a body and fell down. He could already see the red light on the floor being emitted by Harbinger, and the beam would inevitably follow. He thought about everything he cared for in one quick second, what he had achieved and what he had failed, almost coming to terms with his death, until he heard a laser being fired, not the one that the Reapers used, and an explosion behind him.

Turning around, he saw that Harbinger's attack had been interrupted by a couple of Turian fighters that had descended down to Earth. They had hit him right in the center, it seemed, which Harbinger didn't seem to expect. It wasn't long before he once again opened his firing laser and Shepard knew that it was his cue to run; the Turians had bought him so time, yes, but Harbinger was adamant on finishing Shepard off and largely ignored them while they continued to fire on him.

Shepard had only enough strength to hide behind a big pile of concrete rubble and then had to stop to take a breath. He was bleeding badly, but he inwardly thanked the Turian fighters for keeping Harbinger occupied. That's when he heard that somebody was trying to contact the team that had been sent to the beam via a comlink that belonged to one of the dead soldiers close by. It took all of Shepard's remaining strength to pick it up as he hissed in pain as he did so.

"Is anyone there? Anyone? Please respond! Over!", Shepard could hear Major Coats' frantic voice on the radio.

"This is Commander Shepard!", he replied as he heard an explosion nearby; probably one of the Turian fighters had been shot down already.

"Commander? You're alive?", Major Coats exclaimed.

"Yes, and there could be more survivors out here! Send somebody over to help!", Shepard desperately pleaded as he started to move further away from Harbinger towards another suitable cover position.

"We can't risk anything with Harbinger there! I gave the retreat order!", Major Coats ruefully retorted. Shepard was about to reply when he heard Anderson's voice on the same radio channel, "Shepard! Is that really you? Hang tight! We're coming for you!"

"Anderson?", Shepard said, but the radio seemed to have been suddenly jammed. Harbinger was closing in.

Just as he had realized that, the unmistakable noise of a Reaper firing its beam echoed around the graveyard around him. The pillar of debris he was using for his hiding place began to collapse and Shepard was on the move again. Adrenaline, and most importantly, hope, kept him alive, but his eyes never stopped searching for any survivors around, particularly Liara and Garrus, who were with him when he was hit by Harbinger's beam and blacked out. He couldn't see them anywhere, though.

As he looked behind him to see where Harbinger was, though, Shepard tripped over and hit his head on the road, feeling the immense pain take over him, and seeing Harbinger move in for the kill… And complete darkness again, like the one he had before. Was he going to dream again? Or was he dead for good this time?