I wasn't satisfied with Mass Effect 3's ending even after the extended cut. To close the story in my mind, I am writing this. Note that it is indeed based on my Shepard. Just a few base facts are that I romanced Ashley and remained faithful to her throughout the series, everyone survived the Suicide Mission, I destroyed the Collector Base, Sacrificed the Council, cured the Genophage, didn't let Samara commit suicide, and others that will be obvious as you read the story. Enjoy.
This is an edited and much cleaner version of the original. It wasn't really complete, so I just had to go back and change it. The revised version of the second chapter will also be coming soon, and I will be mostly removing death of those friends as I feel that these didn't match up with my vision of a happier ending.
Mass Effect: Rebirth
By Niko DelValle
Chapter 1: Away and Back
Shepard panicked as he awoke. He felt something in his mind, something he somehow knew was beyond imagining, something he knew was beyond his current ability to comprehend… but he could not access it.
"You need to be ready." A voice said. Shepard looked up and opened his eyes. The world around him was pure white, and the Catalyst stood before him.
"You, but… you're not supposed to be here." He said.
"You think that just because you took over as the catalyst that I would leave? I'm afraid not. I need to teach you how to control your power." The child replied. "Knowing that it would be your wishes, I have had the Reapers leave Earth. What they do next will be up to you once you can use your power."
Before answering, Shepard looked about himself and saw that he was still injured, but he could not feel anything.
"You cannot feel anything because nothing about this place is real. Your brain is used to processing information in a certain way, and that is not something you can change. You cannot feel pain because I have locked pain as a sensation for you to feel. I can't teach you anything if you cannot concentrate." The child said. "Just know that your current state is so because that is how your brain remembers your body being. You cannot control your powers, but this place is basically your mind, it is completely under your control even if you do not yet know how to alter it."
"Well… how can I alter it?" Shepard asked.
"Just think of clothing you would like, and you will be wearing it. Just think of how you would like to appear, and you will. Think of a place you would like to be, and you will be there." The child replied.
Shepard took a deep breath and thought of his armor. When he opened it, it was there. He was still injured and his face was a mess.
"Wow…" He whispered. He closed his eyes again, took another deep breath, and thought of himself as he normally appeared. When he opened them, he could no longer feel the tingle of his injuries. Just as he was wondering how his face looked, a mirror appeared in his hand and he used it to see that his face was perfectly fine, as was his hair.
When he didn't need the mirror anymore, it disappeared.
He imagined a place this time, Huerta Memorial Hospital. The white world around them faded, and was replaced with an empty Huerta Memorial.
"Very good, you mastered that quite quickly." The child said as Shepard switched the location to his cabin on the Normandy. "But controlling the computers and the Reapers is much different and much harder. Your brain power now exceeds what it used to be, but your thoughts and what you're used to being blocking you out from using more of our computers power then what your brain used. If we unlock that power, then you can do that more quickly."
"How?" Shepard asked.
"First, I will need to artificially accelerate how fast your processes run." The child said. A second passed. "There."
"Nothing happened." Shepard said.
"That's because while I have accelerated your rate of thought, your perception of time cannot change." He replied. "So while time is moving faster, you still perceive it as if it was moving at a normal rate."
"This is all way above my head." Shepard replied. "I was never that good with computers."
"Then this will be even harder… but if you are to take over, then you must learn." The child said.
"Can't I just tell you what I want to do?" Shepard asked.
"No, control of the Reaper's is far-reaching. The amount of information you must possess to control them appropriately is massive. So even if I could control the Reaper's in your place, you would not know what I should do with them." The child said.
"One last question." Shepard said.
"What is it?" The child asked.
"Why are you letting me take control? Your solution won't work anymore, but why not just come up with another one?" Shepard asked.
"Because, the possibilities the Crucible added made this possible, and it also made alterations to my programming. It made me do whatever the organic chose. Believe me, it is not a solution that appeals to me… but it is now my programming objective to teach you what you need to know, and then cease to exist." The child said.
"So I'll be alone here?" Shepard inquired.
"Yes. If I were to not delete myself, to keep running, my processes would interfere with you using the full power of the system. You would not be able to perform your duties as the Catalyst with maximum effectiveness. Basically, there is not room in here for the both of us." The child said. "While I do not mind being alone, as I am as you said an Artificial Intelligence, your organic mind craves social interaction. But you cannot get it here, being something greater as you are means being alone for the rest of eternity. You can create smaller scale AI's to interact with, but that may not be enough. It is for you to find out. As I said, there is no going back. Your organic body was destroyed by the transference."
"So I'm dead, but alive?" Shepard asked.
"Indeed." The child answered.
"Okay, that's all I need to know." Shepard said.
"Or rather it is not." The child said.
"Yes, but just help me unlock what I need to. So I can do this, so I can help everyone." Shepard said. "What do I have to do?"
"I am going to fuse with your mind, and you will have to remain in solitary meditation as we work together as one consciousness to unlock your mind to the possibilities. There are mental challenges and blocks we have to overcome. There will be questions about yourself that you will have to answer to open this path to enlightenment." The child said.
Shepard nodded.
"Then let's begin."
The child walked over to him, touched his hand and disappeared. Shepard suddenly got huge head pains, as if something else was in his mind. He unconsciously attempted to resist the intrusion.
"Stop!" The child's voice echoed through his mind. "You must not resist!"
He calmed himself and stopped trying to resist. Eventually he just felt the child click inside of him, and he opened his eyes without wanting to.
"We opened our eyes." The child echoed.
"Sorry, this is just an odd feeling." Shepard responded.
"It is fine. We will first need to perform actions where we work together so you can get acclimated and used to my presence." The child said.
"Okay, what do we do?" Shepard asked.
"I am searching your memories for suitable activities." The child said. A few seconds passed. "First we will play Ping-Pong against ourselves. One of us will control the legs, and the other will control the arms. After each hit, we will switch places."
"That sounds strange, but let's try it." Shepard said.
Try they did. Shepard controlled the arms initially. He served the ball, and suddenly he couldn't move his arms and didn't think he had to try and move his legs. The ball missed.
"You must actively shift your mind from controlling your arms to your legs after every hit." The child said.
It took him a few tries, but he finally was able to shift his thoughts without issue. Still he was not able to hit the ball with the same amount of confident accuracy as the child was.
"Good, you have learned how to shift, but you need to learn how to access my ability." He said. "You have to think of how I hit the ball, and think of me at the same time. You will access my mind, and see how I do it, and by extension how you do it."
This took him far longer to master, but he eventually got this to, and they got through one hundred hits without a single miss.
"Very good… Next you need to master taking control of random body parts while I control the rest, to react in one place with more concentration then I react with all at once." He said.
He brought up a board with multiple boxing hand mitts attached to steel rods. The child explained that he would control Shepard's body for this exercise, and that each mitt would pop out at complete random. At that moment the child would release control on that part allowing Shepard to take control and block.
He had only practiced shifting between hands and legs so far, so it took him a bit to take control of things more specific. Such as one leg and one fist to adjust to make the correct movement. Sometimes, he would take control of the wrong limbs and punch the wrong way. Others he wasn't able to react in time.
After several hours, he finally mastered it.
"Good, you are now used to me." He said. "We now have to meditate, and I'll ask you several personal questions as I scour your mind. Answering these questions will release the blocks in your brain."
Shepard sat on the bed in his cabin and folded his legs. He was in his casual clothes now, and he had not even actively thought of it. His shoes were also gone. He closed his eyes.
"Why did you sacrifice Kaiden instead of Ashley on Virmire?" The child asked.
"It was a hard decision…" Shepard said.
"That is not what I asked you, answer the question."
"I didn't know if I would even be able to rescue him…"
"That's a lie."
"That was one of the thoughts among others that ran through my mind at that moment."
"I want the definitive reason why you did it, nothing more and nothing less."
"I love Ashley." Shepard said.
"You do, I can sense that. But that isn't why you did it, not definitively why you did it. Tell me why… the truth." The child responded.
"Because Ashley is a woman." Shepard answered bitterly.
"That is the truth. Your culture emphasizes that women need to be protected, that they are somehow more worthy of life than men are, that they are weak. You made the culturally obvious decision because those values are ingrained within you. In retrospect, it is the only decision you could have made."
"What's the next question?" Shepard asked. They went through a few more that were rather simpler than the first before getting to something more serious.
"Why did you sacrifice the Destiny-Ascension and the Council and hold back human forces before attacking Sovereign in the battle of the Citadel?"
"They would've died anyways, the ship was heavily damaged and they were surrounded." Shepard said.
"That's a lie." The child replied.
"To preserve human lives." He said.
"That is again not true; at least it is only a partial truth."
"I'm racist like everyone thought at the time?"
"No, that is not the truth."
"Because it was not the smart decision."
"True. You just didn't want to admit to yourself you had made the cold and calculating decision worthy of a strategist. You held back the forces because the Destiny-Ascension was not a military ship, if you had helped it, you would've lost several of the military ships and might not have been able to take down Sovereign. You thought you would save more lives by sacrificing the ten-thousand then you would have by saving those ten-thousand."
"Did I make the right choice?"
"I don't know. I do not know how it would have played out if you had done otherwise." The child answered.
"I have to wonder though… why back then did you need Saren to open the arms of Citadel? If you were always in the Citadel, if you always were the Citadel, why couldn't you open the arms for Sovereign yourself?"
"The point of the cycles in addition to preserving life and all that it has produced was to test the worth and strength of Organic Life. As I told you before, we have been trying to formulate Synthesis ever since this began. Only, before, Organic's weren't ready.
"Because I did not interfere, you were revealed to be the most advanced and strong organic ever to have existed. You proved that Organic Life was ready for Synthesis… Only, you did not make that choice. Instead, you chose to control, and threw away the only chance that the universe had for Synthesis by dissolving your body and ruining the chance of dispersing your worth over all organic life."
"I didn't have the right to change everyone like that without their permission. Besides, there is no guarantee that would've even worked, I know that because I being the strongest organic being ever could see through the web of hope you surrounded the option and objective you were programmed to accomplish regardless of the consequences." Shepard replied. "If it had not worked, you would've had the Reaper's continue their assault, and that is not an option I could take."
"So you choose to leave the galaxy as it is?" The Catalyst asked. "…and what happens when the conflict arises again? What will you do then? You will come to the same conclusion I did when this all started… eliminate to preserve."
"That is flawed logic." Shepard said. "The alliance between the Geth and Quarians prove that more than anything."
"Maybe then the control option was the best choice." The child responded. "Maybe the only synthesis we needed was with one organic and a computer, so that understanding and compassion would be weighed instead of cold hard logic that without these things. Maybe they are needed for true logic to develop instead of emotionless calculation."
"What is the next question?" Shepard asked ignoring him. The Catalyst continued as if nothing had happened.
"Why didn't you kill the scientist that you found when you invaded Saren's cloning facility?"
"Because I'm not a murderer and she was a civilian."
"Why have you always tried to preserve as many lives as possible at the cost of yourself?"
"Because nothing good comes from the loss of any life."
"Why did you choose to help the Illusive Man in the first place?"
"Because I wanted to help save lives and he seemed to have the most effective way to do it."
The child asked him question after question. Why he had chosen to destroy the Collector Base, why he didn't kill the Rachni Queen, and several others. After several days of this, there was one last question.
"Why did you choose to betray yourself and take control of me as the Illusive Man desired?"
He answered this one quickly and truthfully.
"Because the other two choices had consequences I couldn't accept or weren't sure of. Also, because this is the only choice where I live on, because I am scared of death just as all organics are, even if they don't want to admit it."
"I am surprised you admitted that to yourself so readily." The child replied.
"The past few days have taught me that lying to myself does nothing." Shepard said. "So I will tell the truth."
Suddenly, the mixture of their two consciousnesses dissolved and the child was standing in front of him again.
"The blocks have been removed; I am removing the barriers that keep your mind isolated within this section of the computer. Be ready, your brain will be able to process information and comprehend concepts at an extremely accelerated rate. It will take some getting used to." The child said. Suddenly, as he said this Shepard fell backwards extremely disoriented onto the bed. He felt his horizons expand and he felt his thoughts race. The world around him and the things in it changed at a rapid pace with the speed of his thoughts.
He figured out solutions hidden within his memories, all of which he could now access. He sat up.
"What's next?" Shepard asked. He felt he just needed to keep on pressing forward. The faster he got this done, the faster he would be able to help.
"I am about to tell you everything you need to know. I will talk at about one billion times normal speed, but because of your enhanced brain capabilities, you will be able to comprehend everything I say. It is essentially downloading information to your brain… or what you will now accept as a hard drive." The child replied. He suddenly started speaking at a rapid rate, and Shepard's brain, or rather hard drive, began to feel with an insane amount of information he was barely able to process all at once. He continued for several days of Shepard's time, and he just listened and took it all in.
Finally, the child finished.
"It is done. Open the lock and embrace the possibilities, goodbye." The child said. He disappeared, and Shepard knew he would never see the Catalyst again.
He stood and he knew how to access what had been locked off earlier. He unlocked it, and he embraced it as he suddenly instantly knew and felt the location of every Reaper in the Universe, suddenly knew things that a normal human would never know, suddenly felt a billion sensations that he knew and was familiar with even if he had never experienced them.
He was a computer now, processing information far beyond his basic organic brain would've been able to even if its full potential had been unlocked.
He felt what it was like to be a god.
He had the Reaper's rebuild the Mass Relays, he had them help Humanity rebuild, and he had them help the Krogan restore their broken world and helped the rest of the Galaxy restore their broken civilizations. He repaired the Citadel and gave it to the races to again use as their center of government.
Eventually, he was done restoring the Galaxy to its previous state. The organic races initially did not want the Reaper's present any longer, but using text messages as he did not want to reveal his true identity and hurt his friends even more with his loss, he managed to convince them to let the Reaper's stay.
In the first few years, Shepard found a way to turn those who had been converted to husks back into their original forms. Several families came back into contact with loved ones they never thought they'd see again.
Having no further ground forces, Shepard established a force of volunteer soldiers of all races to carry out Reaper orders. A surprising amount actually volunteered, and he made the best use of them he could to quell troubles throughout the galaxy.
Reaper's were set up at ever Mass Relay to watch, but only interfere if the need arose, but it hardly ever did.
He prevented wars and protected people when the need arose, but it hardly ever did.
Shepard knew that the criminals and war-provoking folk knew that the Reapers would come down on them if they tried anything, so they hardly ever did. The galaxy was at peace.
Eventually, Shepard started to grow lonely after the long solitary years. He attempted to construct AI's of the Normandy crew, and while they were nearly identical in every way, they were never the same. The artificial sensations that mimicked his human ones never felt the same. Nothing felt the same.
He went crazy for a time with loneliness. He felt as if nothing would ever help him, that he would be trapped here forever in this false place.
Then he found something. A research project ran by a group of independent engineers. They worked with transferring synthetic minds into organic bodies. He made sure that they got all of the funding, support, and materials they needed. Several years later, the project was complete. Shepard quickly copied the blueprints and used them to construct a version of the machine himself whereas the program would take years to complete one.
The machine constructed an artificial body for him.
He thought about the ramifications of what he was about to do. But then wholeheartedly decided it was worth it. Shepard copied everything about himself onto a back-up drive, adding in a programming block into the other consciousness that would prevent it from ever trying to escape like he was about to. When it was done… knowing that most of his newfound intelligence, knowledge, and power would disappear, he transferred himself into the artificial body.
Smoke billowed past him as the true sensations of life returned to him. The doors before him opened, and light flooded inside. He stepped out, and he blinked. Cold hit him and he shivered before hugging himself and taking a deep breath. He grinned at just the ability to feel these things.
He quickly dressed and then stepped into the hangar where down below was the Normandy SR-3. He had had the Reaper's build it alongside the machine. He quickly boarded the ship. It took off and accelerated into space before flipping over and firing its Thorax cannon destroying the base and everything inside of it.
"EDI2, is it done?" Shepard asked. He had named the AI aboard this ship that. It was EDI as she had been before Joker had unshackled her and before everything had happened. Thus, she was a second EDI.
"It is done Shepard. I have destroyed the base and made sure no traces exist that it ever did." EDI2 said.
"Wipe all memories of its design out of your database and then make a new heading." Shepard said.
"To where Shepard?" EDI2 asked.
"Earth." Shepard said.
"I have plotted a course for Earth. I have a question." EDI2 said.
"Ask."
"Why destroy the base at all if the technology will be available in only a few years?" She asked.
"Because, the programming blocks on my copy won't kick in right away. It'll take at least a year before the copy of my consciousness will adapt the foreign data into its consciousness, and when it does that, the programming block will be locked in." Shepard said.
"I am reminded of a human euphemism." EDI2 said.
"Oh yea? What?"
"Curiosity killed the cat."
"Or in this case, the highly advanced copy of Commander Shepard that will be running the galaxy for the rest of eternity."
"You know, the technology existed before according to my records. What happened to it?" EDI2 asked.
"For a shackled AI, you sure are inquisitive." Shepard said. The original EDI had not been this questioning of everything, instead doing everything it was told and answering everything it was asked.
"It appears there were some errors when I was coded. I apologize." EDI2 said. "I would modify my programming so that would not be possible, but I am shackled and thus unable to do so."
"It's alright… Anyways, if I remember correctly, you're right. A small research team first experimented with this technology a few years ago assisted by a self-aware AI that wanted to be organic… I can't remember who it was… but they managed to complete the project." Shepard answered.
"What happened?"
"The research and all of the equipment were destroyed when the Cerberus Remnant tried to acquire the technology and the researchers destroyed everything when they were evacuating so that Cerberus wouldn't get their hands on it."
"I see. I have no further questions."
"Good… wake me up when we reach Earth.
He headed up to his cabin. He sat down at his personal terminal first and tried to log into his eight year old email account.
He still knew a few things from his time in the computers. He was far more familiar with them then he had before, and he actually knew how to use them. He definitely felt more intelligent, and he knew more. Still, his ability to use it was impaired and he actually found himself thinking hard about problems. He had already found when he had tried to remember about the research project that details and other memories faded and he was starting to lose grasp on other things.
He remembered plenty of useless things, but the current status of his surviving team members… he didn't know. Neither did he know plenty of other things he wanted to.
He found the email account locked but not deleted so that others could send farewells to him. Using his newfound computer skills, he managed to hack the email account open. He found 8 years of piled up fan mail and mails in memory of him and his sacrifice, even though all still did not know the exact circumstances. He did not try to open any of them, instead closing it out and going to lay down on his bed.
Luckily, the memories of what he had been before the Catalyst shown through crystal clear even as his memories and superior intelligence faded.
Still, he was glad these problems were there. They meant he was alive. He glanced out his window as they headed towards the Mass Relay in this system. A Reaper was there, and Shepard stared at it as the Normandy passed by it without trouble before reaching the relay and being launched across space.
He didn't care about this though, so he closed his eyes, and for the first time in eight years, he slept. Even if he had just woke up, his artificial body wasn't yet full of energy. So Shepard was tired.
Hours passed before EDI2 awoke him in bed.
"Shepard, we are nearing Earth. You should head to the CIC to receive communications from Earth." She said.
"Thanks EDI2, I'll be right there." Shepard replied.
He smiled as he stepped onto the familiar platform over the Galaxy Map. He almost wished he had actually used the map instead of directing EDI2 where to go vocally.
"Hello unrecognized vessel, please state your intention and business." A male tech said. "Stop your ship or you will be fired upon."
"Do as he says EDI2." Shepard said. "Hello, this is Commander Nicolas Shepard aboard the Normandy SR-3."
"Commander Shepard died eight years ago, just what are you trying to pull?" He asked. "Besides, there is no SR-3."
"There is now." Shepard replied. "I also guarantee you I am very much alive. Run scans on my ship, you will see that it is almost identical to the original design of the SR-2 with some Reaper improvements."
Shepard had kept tabs on everyone and everything while he was the Catalyst. He could not remember what his team was doing now, but he knew at least that Reaper's were respected not feared these days.
"Scans indicate… you are telling the truth. No blueprints for that ship exist outside of Alliance computers and the Reaper improvements are none we have ever used…" He said. "I'm… sorry this is way above my pay-grade. I will need to transfer you to someone higher up… If you really are Commander Shepard, welcome back. Please hold."
He held, and eventually someone of higher rank answered. She then transferred him up, and this happened over and over again. Until eventually someone familiar answered.
"Hello, this is Admiral Hackett speaking… retired… I got a call saying Commander Shepard was alive, and that I needed to confirm his truthfulness… Is it really you son?" Hackett asked.
"Yes it is sir." Shepard said.
"Let's… switch to Quantum Communications then." The Admiral said.
Shepard walked to the Quantum Communications room behind the War Room and activated it. Admiral Hackett appeared in far more casual clothing then Shepard had ever seen him wearing.
"I can't believe it, you really are alive..." Hackett said. "Where have you been son?"
"I've been dead." Shepard said. "I was the one controlling the Reaper's for the last eight years, and I felt that it was about time for me to come back."
"So you did what the Illusive Man wanted to do? It really was possible…" Hackett said. "But how are you alive if you died?"
"You wouldn't really understand the concepts, I barely do anymore myself, it was a lot easier when I was a computer, but I created myself a new body and I put myself in it basically." Shepard replied. "I'm a new man… literally."
"But who's controlling the Reaper's now?" Hackett asked.
"Me." Shepard said.
"I don't follow son, don't you need to be in there to control them?" Hackett asked.
"I made a copy of myself to control them." Shepard said.
"Well, that's a new one." Hackett said.
"Can I land sir?" Shepard asked.
"I'm seeing you as plain as day right now, I've talked to you and I just know that it's really you in there." Hackett replied. "Hold on a few minutes while I secure you a place to land… Of course, the eggheads will have to run a few tests on you and announce everything before you can just walk around…"
"I understand…" Shepard said. "Thank you sir."
"Hackett out." He said saluting. Shepard saluted back before he disappeared.
He smiled and turned away before walking into what had previously been the war room. The ship was empty now, but he could see in his mind's eye how it had been when the committed had filled its halls. He knew now that he was more alive than he had ever been. Before, he had other things always distracting him from his life… but now, the possibilities were endless.
With endless possibilities comes freedom, and Shepard knew that he was going to take that freedom and embrace it.