AN: OH MY GOD A NOTE BEFORE WE START. Alright, first off if you haven't finish Mass Effect 3 yet – please leave. This has the entire ending right below this lovely bolded text. I hate spoiling people – so RUN! Also, this is a companion piece to my other story After. If you're too lazy to go read that really long fanfic, I'll sum it up for you.

Giselle 'Gaz' Shepard (female) – mostly paragon – soldier – Earthborn. Romanced Kaidan in 1, no one in 2. The fanfic After fills in the gap between 2 and 3. It has Shepard and Joker getting together and stuffs. There will be LOTS and LOTS of references to that story in this – which I can't all explain in this little note. Right. To the story!

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Beyond the Fall.

Chapter One: The end

'We're almost there. We just need to reach the beam.'

Her feet beat upon the ground beneath her – heart pounding in her chest. This was it. They had to reach the beam to get into the Citadel. They had to beat the Reapers. She had no idea what would happen once she reached that beam. Maybe it was a trick from the Reapers and they would all perish upon touching it. They were being fired at by Harbinger now. She watched men disintegrate in front of her – dying too fast to even scream in pain. Gaz dove to the side as another shot was fired at them. More men died around her. Almost there now. Her entire life had led up to this exact point in time. She had to finish this. There wasn't another choice. Gaz stared at the blue beam. It close now. So close. Only a few more seconds and she'd be there. She quickly glanced up at the Reaper as she ran. The woman's feet froze in place as she covered her eyes from the blinding light.

There was a loud screeching noise, and everything went dark.

She heard voices. Harbinger was dead. No one survived. A high-pitched ring distorted the sounds that made words. A dull ache grew into a sharp one. Gaz opened her eyes. The beam was right there. She just had to move a little more. Forcing herself to her feet, she moved toward the beam, taking a gun with her. She glanced down at herself, noticing the blood staining most of her. One of her arms was severely burned. Breathing was difficult. Thinking hurt. She was going to die – but at least she could die after she completed this one last task. Just this one thing and she could finally stop. Stop with all this nonsense. Stop having the pressure of the entire galaxy on her. Shepard was tired. But she couldn't sleep yet.

Limping forward, she felt a bullet graze her burnt arm. A Marauder was guarding the beam. She fired at the creature – noticing it take more damage than it should have. It fell as she moved towards the light. Her legs gave out, crashing her to the ground. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Carefully she stood again and made her way to the beam.

A rushing sensation filled her – a white light blinded her.

Suddenly, she was on the Citadel – Anderson's voice speaking to her.

'How did he know I was up here?' she wondered as she responded to his calls, 'How the hell did he get up here?'

Bodies littered what she assumed was the Citadel – however the more she looked, the less it felt like the galactic governmental center. Parts looked like the Collector Base and the Shadow Broker ship. She even picked out a few other ships in this area's design. She continued moving through the bodies, talking to Anderson the entire time. He was the only thing keeping her going, now. The pain had grown to a dull noise in the back of her head. Every time she blinked, she was afraid she would lose consciousness.

She was being...guided by this strange section of the Citadel. The only way was forward. Somehow Anderson was ahead of her, though he claimed to have been beamed up at the same time – even though she hadn't seen him get into the beam.

None of this was making sense.

Or maybe it was, and her brain wasn't connecting the necessary dots, due to internal bleeding.

She coughed, sending blood splattering to the ground, as she moved into a large chamber. Anderson was already there. This place seemed...familiar. Had she been here before?

Anderson looked injured, but was still functioning at a higher level than her. How had he managed to avoid so much damage? Had he even been running towards the beam with the rest of the team?

'No...he wasn't,' she realized, as she moved towards him. Her head was pounding. None of this made sense.

Then the Illusive Man joined them. His face peeling back to reveal the extent of his cybernetics. He wanted to control the Reapers. But how did he get here? Did the Reapers just let him walk in? Shepard's eyes studied the man as he ranted and raved about how right he was, and how wrong they were.

Then he controlled Shepard. While she watched his hands glow with a biotic blue, this felt different. It wasn't her hands being forced – it was the thought pattern to move her muscles in this way. To aim the gun at Anderson. To fire. Gaz was scared. None of this was making sense. How was he controlling her like this? She tried to talk him down – convincing him he was indoctrinated. He sounded like Saren. Like he was able to beat it just by being himself. He then lifted his weapon and fired into his own skull, before falling to the ground. Shepard felt a shaky sense of deja vu flood through her. It wasn't as though the situations were similar – it was the issue that they were the same. The way his body fell. The placement and type of pistol. It was the same.

With the few presses, the arms of the Citadel opened. Gaz sat herself next to Anderson, and glanced down at his wound, then at her own. They each had a hole in their stomach in about the same place. The exact place where Shepard had been forced to shoot him. Her mind attempted to process the thought for a moment, but quickly gave up.

He said he was proud of her.

He was one of the few men who fought his entire life. While she craved nothing more than an eternal nap from this life, she knew he deserved it more. He was in pain – and she wanted him to feel nothing. Finally close his eyes and go to that bar that Garrus talked about. Anderson's head slumped to the side, causing a slight smile to tug at Gaz's bleeding lips.

'I'll be joining you soon, Anderson. Save me a seat and order me something green.'

A radio call from Hackett brought her back to reality. Something still wasn't functioning. It was on her end. Gaz let out a frustrated sigh. Couldn't they just let her die already? She had earned it. Saved the entire fucking galaxy three times now. Cured the genophage, gave the quarians back their homeworld, and brought the quarians and geth together. What more did she have to do? She crawled forward – her face feeling flush. Every movement sent various unpleasant signals to her mind. She was nearly at the console now. It just...hurt. She had died once before and knew the feeling. Gaz was nearly there. The platform she was on suddenly lifted, bringing her up to a part of the Citadel she was certain didn't exist.

The little boy who had haunted her dreams stood before her in the form of some sort of hologram. He explained the Reapers to her as she stood. Somehow her death had been postponed – the pain she felt was muted. She had been on Death's door only seconds ago – yet now she was capable of speech and standing.

His explanation made little sense. Create synthetics to kill organics so synthetics don't kill the organics? Then there was something about letting new life grow – which sort of made sense. Gaz continued to watch the boy, as he set the options before her – because apparently saving the galaxy was a multiple choice test.

She could either take control of the Reapers – an option that oddly glowed blue – or destroy all synthetic life – that option glowed red. Either way, everything would be destroyed but life would have a chance.

Gaz narrowed her eyes, as a thought waved over her – sending a chill down her body.

"You aren't real."

"Real is a subjective term. Is an AI more real than an organic life?"

"You look like that little boy," Gaz's mind shifted uncomfortably, making speaking difficult, "Anderson couldn't even see you when I tried to get you out of the vent shaft. You were never real..." Gaz continued to grip the gun that never ran out of ammunition, her head shaking, "No one else took notice to you when you were in the landing zone when I left Earth. Everyone would notice a scared looking little boy. No one even glanced at you."

The hologram remained silent – though the options appeared to glow brighter.

"This...this isn't real..." Gaz's voice broke, her mind washing several thoughts, "This...this is the Reapers in my head. You're trying to indoctrinate me. Anderson was what part of my mind that's clean – Illusive Man the contaminated part. You're...still trying to trick me with the colors. Blue means good, but it means selling myself to the Reapers. Becoming the 'Reaper hive-mind.' That's indoctrination!"

"You're mistaken. This is real. This is your choice."

"Saving the galaxy can't boil down to two choices after this long. This means..." emotion ran over her, causing her to pause, "this would mean that everything I've done is for nothing. That I could have just skipped to this point after taking one step into the Normandy and this wouldn't end any different."

"You're mistaken."

Gaz began limping towards the red glowing 'destroy' option, her hand gripping the weapon within her hand.

"You will be destroying all synthetics by doing that," the holographic child warned.

"Kindly fuck off."

Gaz raised her weapon and fired repeatedly into the cylinder which conveniently destroyed all synthetic life, somehow – as well as the Mass Effect Relays for no real reason.

The pain suddenly returned, causing her to fall to the ground. An explosion shot out of the cylinder, turning the air around her hot and causing it to ripple. Gaz finally closed her eyes, ready to welcome death. She wasn't sure what just happened, but was growing more eager to meet Anderson in that bar in the sky.

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AN: TWO AUTHOR NOTES THIS IS MADNESS! (no it's SPARTA -kicks things-) Anyway, for those of you who read my other fanfic WELCOME BACK. Your comments on my last story inspired me to write this. Most of you – via comments and personal messages – told me you were unsatisfied with the ending and/or wanted to know how ME3 played out with them in my little head-canon (because obviously Bioware was like YOU SHALL NOT PASS on Joker as a romance option...bastards). So this story happened. I know it seems like THE END (haha chapter title) after this – but yeah. It isn't. As for the indoctrination thing – as you all (well most of you) read in my last story, I had the idea ages ago. The ME3 ending just sort of...made it canon for me. Then I saw a Youtube video that beautifully explained my original thoughts. Go to Youtube RIGHT NOW and type in "Mass Effect 3 Indoctrination" and click the one called "Mass Effect 3 – Shepard's Indoctrination (NEW)" by ACAVYOS. I'd just post the link, but this site doesn't respond well to that, last I checked. I'll continue on the next chapter RIGHT NOW so you don't have to wait much longer to see what happens!

Rated M for: Language, future sexual situations, violence, and so I can have freedom without fear of scarring a teen for life.

Oh – and I don't own anything ever.