Authors Note~ (Don't read if you don't really care about knowing some background information)
• This Mass Effect story is (obviously) based on my play through of the game. I am nearly 100% Paragon, except for those little renegade actions in the cut scenes. I also punched that Quarian and told him to get the hell off my ship (that felt good). I kept everyone alive in my Suicide Mission at the ending of the second game. In the first game, romanced Kaiden Alenko and killed off Ashley Williams. In the second game, I romanced Garrus Vakarian and kept the relationship going through the third game. Miranda is still alive, along with her sister Oriana. I did not shoot Wrex in the face on Virmire, and he lived through to the second and third games. In doing so, my female krogan survives the Reaper assault on Tuchanka (sadly, there was no way to save Mordin, needless to say, I cried). Thane Krios also dies, but I don't think there's any way to save him either (waterworks again). But other than that, everyone important is alive, I've only lost Mordin and Thane (If I remember more, I'll update you). I do not have the From Ashes DLC or any DLC for that matter (except the omnitool, but) so there is no Kasumi, Zaeed, or Javik (I really want Javik though, he's so funny..). I would add the DLC characters into my story, but I'm not sure how their personalities would work since I've never played with them, so I'm going to avoid that. When given the ultimatum on the Quarian home world, I chose to upload the reaper code, then used the paragon option to rally the fleet, having the Quarians live in peace with the Geth together on their home world (Legions sacrifice meant something! .. Oh hey, I lost Legion too guys. Teehee, oops, almost forgot). At the end of my game, I synthesized all organic and synthetic life through the Catalyst and got the ending of the man telling his son/grandson a story, saying he could tell him one more story of the Commander Shepard, and here it is. I hope you enjoy reading! ~ SaphyMarie
The world was black. There were voices breaking into this dark world, but no light shone through.
"I'm surprised I could work my magic this far, sir. She was horribly wounded and the burns... I managed to get rid of most of them, but that one on her left arm will be there to haunt her..." This came from a light, airy voice. An intense urge to move shot through the dark world, but it couldn't. It had to live in darkness for a while longer.
"You did an amazing job, I couldn't have done better myself! Though, that's not saying much seeing as I have no medical expertise, but can't I still be proud? You've done a lot better than most doctors here could do." A deep voice resonated through the black void and the urge to move came over the black world again, but it still could not move. The void let out a groan and it heard many different sounds, coming from more than two sources. The black realized it could speak, and so it tried communicating to the entities that surrounded it.
"Ugh... Oh... What happened to me..?" said the darkness, unaware of how close to gibberish it words actually sounded. Then a violent flash of memory flashed into the darkness. A vision of a race dying, slaughtered by sentient machines that were all too familiar.
"Reapers!" The void cried out, and with this urge to move, it shot up and light came into the world. It saw many humans in white clothes surrounding it. The entity looked around the room, trying to regain its senses. It tried to move it's arms, and realized it was bound by something. It turned it's head and there was a machine near its bed, beeping and reading life signs in its victim. Using the word victim because the entity was held back by chords running all through its arm and was difficult (and somewhat painful) to move. The same arm that was hooked to this machine had a burn going all the way up its forearm to its shoulder, barely brushing its hand.
"Commander Shepard! Your.. Awake! .. Already..!" said the first voice that had spoken into the void, that light, airy voice (now tinged with shock).
"Who are you..?" asked the void, or Commander Shepard (as we will be calling her for the rest of the story). She scanned her eyes around the room to all the doctors. The female doctor that was speaking with her had long brown hair, pulled back for the sole purpose of keeping it out of her eyes. She had no make up on as far as Shepard could tell, except the tiniest bit of gold eye shadow around her eyes. Her uniform was dusty and dirty, not what you'd expect a doctor to be wearing (for sanitary reasons). She must have been digging for survivors or bodies among the rubble of the Reaper invasion, depends on how long Shepard had been out of it. Shepard remembered everything so clearly now, one the Citadel, she had spoken with the Catalyst. It gave her an ultimatum and she had chosen to synthesize all synthetic and organic life together in one DNA code. There was no longer a need for a cycle to destroy all organic life just because things got too "chaotic" for the machines. She was thankful for finding the Crucible that the Protheans had adopted and started modifying from the cycle before them, and the cycle before them, and so fourth. The galaxy was much better off this way.
"I'm Alex Monarche, and I'm a... um... I'm a well known doctor for... uh.. my work in... Are you listening, Commander Shepard..?"
Shepard, lost in her memories, was brought back into reality by the sound of her name.
"Sorry, my mind went blank there... So Alex Monarche, well known doctor, always great to meet someone who cleans me up from my near death experiences, and that one death experience but who's counting?"
Alex cringed back at those words and refused to look Shepard in the eye as she spoke.
"I'm sorry, I knew I couldn't help some of your burns... I've never had to deal with a burn quite like yours on a living victim. I don't know how to make it leave ma'am, I'm sorry, I'll look int-"
"Hey, calm down. Did I say I was upset, or sound like I was upset? I didn't. It's okay, you don't have to apologize, I'm happy to just be alive, so I'm even happier you were able to get rid of most of my burns. This should be the.. Third time I've cheated death now? I should look like a husk, but thanks to good doctors like you, I don't."
Alex gave a shy smile and got the courage to look Shepard in the eyes again and gave her a small bow.
"I had heard stories of you, Commander Shepard, and how you treated people. You live up to all your rumors, thank you, Commander."
"Dismissed, Monarche." Shepard had said before she realized who was she to dismiss her? But Monarche dismissed herself, seeming to Shepard a little happier than when she first started talking to her. As she left the room, Shepard heard clapping and turned her attention to the person responsible. He was an aging man, salt and pepper hair and his eyes seemed closed off from emotion, even though they were a beautiful shade of green. This man was also the only one in the room with black clothes on instead of white. As he started to speak, she realized he was the other voice she had heard while she was unable to move.
"Well, well, Commander Shepard. To make Alex, shy little Alex, warm up to you in no time like that... As she stated, you do indeed fit all the rumors. about you and your leadership skills."
"I'm honored to hear you say that, sir."
"Please, call me Ka Fai, General Ka Fai, I'm one of the military powers. The Alliance is... gone, disbanded if you will. The countries are trying to reestablish themselves instead of uniting as we were, but I'm not going to let that happen."
"To save yourself a seat on that Council, right?"
"Shepard! I'm very hurt by your correct assumption! You've sucked all the good out of my intentions."
"It's what I'm here for."
"And to be a damn good leader. I believe now that we have you involved we can everyones ass in gear. It's been seven months since the Reaper invasion, we have aliens stranded on Earth, we're not rebuilding Earth, not yet anyway. It's not what's important right now, our time and effort have to be put elsewhere at the moment." The General stopped to cough into his hand, the living conditions for the planets residents was taking a toll on him.
"What? Of course it's important- it should be the top priority! Look at you! Your coughing so violently I would think your dying! All because you don't have a proper home to sleep in at night."
"Shepard, please... Right now I'm not worried about my health. We have more pressing matters at hand."
"I would love to hear what has your attention away from keeping the planets residents from, oh I don't know, dying?" Shepard said angrily. She could hardly contain her temper, this man was supposed to have the planets best interest at heart! Just because he doesn't care about his own health doesn't mean that the others don't care.
"Shepard, this is a planet-wide consensus. We all decided these projects were more important, by popular vote, we decided to focus all our time and effort on them. We have small task forces working on the rebuilding of Earth, but our main goals are those projects."
Shepard was stunned to silence. She had never heard of anything like this coming from the people of her planet.
"What do you mean? What 's your little project General?"
"Projects, Shepard, more than one. Years ago, on Mars, we found different kinds of technology left by the Protheans. This is also the location where we found the Crucible plans. All files were taken from the Prothean base on Mars, and our scientists made an amazing discovery." He stopped to cough a couple more times, they sounded as if he were trying to hold them back so that Shepard wouldn't comment on them.
"I'm listening." She said, moving her arms and legs to get them used to actually moving again. She knew there would have to be a certain number of hours put in at a gym before she went back into combat, she was no where near fighting shape.
"To make the adjustments to the Citadel as they did to keep the Reapers out for good, had Saren not interfered, they had to have its blueprints. According to these files, they put their top scientists on the task of investigating every inch of the Citadel through a computer network and they came across the blueprints for the relay!"
Shepards attention was immediately focused on every word the General had to say. The Protheans had the blueprints for the Citadel! Could they build a new one? Was that the important project they were focused on?
"Are we building a Citadel General?" Shepard asked in amazement.
"Not a Citadel, not yet anyway. We have the blueprints to the Mass Relays Shepard! That's where all our attention has been diverted to- building a Mass Relay and using it to find more solar systems and giving them Mass Relays. We can recreate this Reaper technology and have zero threat from the Reapers. Besides, like I said, we have aliens that fought for us here, and I'm sure they would like to get home. The Mass Relays are the only way to get around the galaxy, we need them to get everyone home." The General let out some more nasty coughs, then let them settle down again as Shepard tried to process all of what he had just told her. To think, she could once again be Commander Shepard of the Normandy...
"Hey! What happened to my ship?" She asked in a panic, and it only got worse when he looked away and had almost cringed when she said it.
"The Normandy flew off when when the flash that made the Reapers retreat shot around the solar system... Only two of your crew members were off the ship before it took off, and they are Dr. Chakwas and former Spectre Kaiden Alenko."
Shepard inwardly groaned at the sound of the Spectres name. Kaiden Alenko, man who made her feel most awkward out of all her crew members was one of the only two that were off the Normandy, lovely. But.. If they were the only two...
"Where is Garrus Vakarian?"
"He flew off on the Normandy."
Shepard could feel her heart shatter inside her chest. Garrus... For the first time, wouldn't be there when she needed him. Garrus Vakarian, love of her life, wasn't there. Now she truly felt the sting of all that had happened. The Mass Relays were destroyed, she might never see him again... But... The blueprints were her only beacon of hope. "How far along is the Mass Relay in production?"
"You seem to be a bit more interested now that your crew is involved, don't you? It's almost complete, we just have to launch her into space, and that's where the other project comes into play- the Normany SR-3! Joker took off with the SR-2, but this one has even more improvements than what Cerberus added. Better stealth, outstanding speed and strength, maximum shield strength... This Normandy is the human equivalent to a Reaper."
"I don't feel comfortable with your referring to it as such, General."
"My apologies. But once we get the Mass Relay launched, we can get you back in your captains seat on the Normandy, Commander."
"Now that I like the sound of, but without another Relay, where would I jump to?"
"That is an excellent question, and scientists are, right at this very moment, working on an answer."
"... You have no idea."
"Basically."
Shepard shook her head. People sure loved to send her out on the front lines while they stood back and reaped the benefits. Maybe she should be happy that they all have so much faith in her, but it was obvious that they just didn't care if she lived or died. Besides, she's cheated death three times already, lets keep the kill streak going or something of the sort. But that didn't matter so much, the only thing she truly cared about was getting back into the galaxy on the Normandy again, and the thought was much nicer when she threw Garrus into the picture. "Alright, I'll be Earth little guinea pig for the Mass Relay your building, and I'll help you find a way for me to make a jump safely. But I get to choose my team when the time comes. I realize I have to have a lot of people who know how to construct a Mass Relay come with me, but they only do minor jobs. I get to choose my helmsman, my engineer, everyone. Deal?"
"Deal. Pleasure doing business with you Shepard, you cost me less credits."
"We can talk about my payment plan later."
"I hope your joking.."
"Not anymore."
"Fine, we'll see." The General laughed himself into a coughing fit. After a few moment of violent coughs, he regained his breath and stopped himself. "You know, it will really be a victory for us humans around the galaxy to get these Relays working. Who knows, maybe we could be the next 'enkindler's for a species."
"I hope not, General. That would mean we'd have to die off somehow, and I don't think I almost died on the Citadel for nothing."
"Of course. Now, is there any more information you need before I leave?"
"Do you have something like a gym in this area? I need to get into shape before I go anywhere."
"Right, we need you at peak condition. The gym is on the far side of this little camp, and last I heard, Kaiden Alenko was there as well. Maybe you two could do a little catching up, learn what happened while you were out of commission. I have to go check on the Relay, I want to make sure it's up by the end of the month. Now, is there anything else you need?"
"Just one thing General."
"Yes, Commander?"
"Help me out of this bed? My legs fell asleep while you were talking...