It had been about six months since Commander German Shepard discontinued her work with Cerberus and turned herself into the Alliance. Following such events she was grounded indefinitely, put under constant surveillance, and her entire crew had disbanded. She didn't really care that much about what had happened to certain members of her crew, and she'd even lost contact with her brother, Alan, who'd fled to avoid any consequences of being an Admiral who betrayed the Alliance to work with Cerberus. He saw what happened to his sister, THE Commander Shepard, and thought if they'd treat her like that, what would happen to him? Stripped of his title? Jail time? Fuck it, he fled to Omega, disguised himself with a cheap black wig and brown contact lenses, changed his name to the pseudonym, Seymour Butts, and started working as an assassin for Aria T'loak.

Shepard was basically just a paper pusher at this point, and she sat at her desk in a Vancouver Alliance office doing busy work when she was intruded upon by Admiral Anderson.

"Anderson, I heard you and the Earth Council wanted to see me. What's this all about?"

"Shepard, we've got a big problem on our hands," he started, leading Shepard through the corridors of the building. "It looks like we're facing a possible oncoming reaper invasion."

"Whaaaaat? A reaper invasion? Right now? Naw, really? You mean after all those times that I warned you guys over the past like three years, you mean to tell me that the reapers are coming? Woe is me, what ever will we do?" she replied sarcastically, even going as far as to throw the back of her hand over her forehead like a true damsel in distress.

"Ha ha, very funny, Shepard. But this is serious. The council wants to speak with you to ask you for you advice."

Just as they were turning another corner, Shepard was greeted by a familiar face. Ashley Williams.

"Shepard? Is that really you?"

"Woah who are- My Lord Jesus, Ashley Williams, is that you? I mean wow..."

"What? What do you mean 'wow'?"

"I mean, wow you just look really different. Who'd known what a difference letting your hair down could make. I can't believe it took you 3 years to figure out how to be hot."

"Excuse me?"

"Look at the time, I gotta go talk to the Earth Council, catch ya later, Ash!" Shepard finished with a wink.

Just as Shepard and Anderson were traipsing off to the council, James Vega asked Ashley, "you know the Commander?" To which Ashley responded, "I think she just hit on me."

"Shepard, we need you to take a look at this footage and tell us what you think it could be," requested one member of the council.

Shepard barely even glanced at the footage before responding with, "Yep, those are reapers."

"Oh, God. Shepard, what should we do?" asked a frightened elderly council member.

"Honestly, I don't think there's much we can do. The reapers have WAY better technology than us, they're bigger than us, they're stronger than us, and just to top it all off there are so many of them. So many. My best bet is submission. We all just lay down on the ground right now, come on, everyone do it with me, we all just lay down and submit." Shepard finished as she slowly began crouching toward the ground.

"WHAT? THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY? SUBMISSION? WELL I'LL BE D-" the council member was cut off by a giant reaper beam cutting right through the center of the building.

"Jesus Christ!" Shepard burst, ducking out of the way, her and Anderson barely making it.

"Shepard, we've got to get out of here!"

"No, I was thinking we'd just-"

"No time for sarcasm," he interrupted. "Here, take this gun, we've got to go now!"

Shepard followed Anderson from the hole in the building, through the demolished pits of what once was Vancouver. She could hear the reaper's beams and people screaming all over. Once they made it to the next building, Shepard saw a little boy crawling into a ventilation shaft. She went over to him.

"Hey, what are you doing in there? You've got to get out of there!" Shepard cautioned.

"I can't," The child responded.

"Yes, you can. Take my hand, let me help you."

"No, no one can help me..."

"Shepard," Anderson boomed, "we've got to get out of here, now!"

Shepard looked back toward the shaft, where the child was no more.

She began following Anderson once again when they were thrown back by a surprise explosion. Regardless, they forged on. Once they made it passed the multitude of new reaper forces, they made it to a ship, that specific ship being the downgraded version of the Normandy, the one that the Alliance confiscated from Cerberus and took all of the cool Cerberus tech out of.

Although the Normandy was no longer as interesting, technologically, it was still pretty neat to see Joker and the new and improved Ashley on board covering Shepard's back. Oh, and James was there, too.

Shepard hopped aboard, proud to be back on her ship.

"You know I'm still stripped of duty, according to the Alliance. I can't command this ship."

Anderson tossed Shepard her Alliance dog tags, which he just happened to have in his pocket for some reason.

"Consider yourself reinstated, Commander Shepard!"

"I've still got room on the ship if you want to come along!" Shepard persuaded.

"I can't, Shepard. You know someone's got to be leading these people here on Earth." He took a long look at the destruction behind him, then back at Shepard. "I've got to go, Shepard. Take care of yourself and your crew." He saluted and went off.

As the ship began to take off, Shepard once again saw the little boy from the ventilation shaft near the emergency evacuation ships just wandering around.

There's a little boy wandering around aimlessly and no one seems to notice him? Where are his parents? Am I hallucinating? Shepard thought to herself.

She then saw the little boy pull himself onto the ship, no one helping, and still no one seeming to notice him. Once the ship took off it was immediately hit by a reaper beam, killing everyone on board.

Shepard felt as if she was the only one who saw what took place, so she turned to Ashley who was standing right next to her.

"Hey, Ash, did you see what just happened?"

"What you mean that ship going down? Yeah I saw that, sad stuff. Anyway we gotta go."

"No, I mean, the little boy on that ship. You didn't see a little boy on that ship?"

"No, but if there was one he got on the wrong ship. The ship that takes children is over there." Ashley stated, pointing to the evacuation ship that was to the left of the one that had just exploded.

Maybe I WAS just hallucinating, She thought once again, turning into the ship and shutting the airlock.