So this is the beginning of the fanfiction. Congratulations, you found the entrance! I don't own Mass Effect or I would just make every single idea in here incorporated into the games. Thank you for reading, please review.
For once, Tali felt grateful that she had a visor; no one could see the stupid smile on her face. Tonight she and Shepard planned to be… together. The antibiotics gathered, the research done, finally their time arrived.
According to the digital clock Tali had on her HUD, Shepard's shift ended a few hours ago. She didn't want to wake him up, but she felt certain that he was already awake.
He didn't sleep well, nightmares of Torfan, Virmire, and numerous other battles woke him up; as the thought crossed her mind a pang of sorrow rang through her for Shepard's pain. She suppressed it and activated the elevator to ascend from the Normandy's hanger.
As the elevator reached the quarters deck, a violent tremor shook the Normandy, throwing Tali from the elevator and onto the staircase. "Keelah, we're under attack! I have to get Shepard!" As Tali picked herself up and ran through the quakes towards Shepard's quarters she noticed him at the end of the hall, between the sleeper pods.
She reached him just as he put his helmet on. Another vibration threw Tali into Shepard's arms, he looked into her eyes through her visor, "Tali, the distress beacon is ready for launch. I need you to go help people into the shuttle."
Tali was shocked, now especially he would need the extra help, "No, John I'm not leaving you here, besides Joker is still in the cockpit, I need to go get him!" Shepard looked around, the whole area was ablaze and the Normandy was going down. "Tali, that was not a question, go now!"
Tali cocked her head, surprised at him. In a gentler tone he added, "Please go Tali. I'll get Joker. And I'll be back. I promise." Tali reluctantly nodded and ran towards the escape pods against every instinct she had.
Shepard waited a moment to ensure Tali left and ran for the command deck. He had to get Joker out; there was no way in hell he was going to let him die. As Shepard opened the door to the command deck all the air in the lower decks rushed out, making it difficult to walk.
When Shepard looked up he could see the ship that was attacking them, it was massive, and clearly not geth. He would figure out what was attacking him later, now he just had to get himself and Joker off the ship. Shepard was moving as fast as he could, which wasn't much without air pressure, but nonetheless.
In front of him Shepard could see Joker was still trying to fly the Normandy to safety. In slightly less dire circumstances the dedication that the pilot was showing was admirable, right now though, it was idiotic. As Shepard walked through the kinetic barrier that had been initiated he immediately felt relieved to see Joker still alive, and not joining the scattered corpses.
The air pressure allowed Shepard to run up to Joker so he could yell, "Come on Joker! We have to get out of here!" Joker didn't even bother to look at Shepard, as he refused, "No I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!" Shepard leaned over the pilot's chair, "The Normandy's lost. Going down with her won't change that."
Joker sighed and nodded, "Yeah, alright, help me up," as Shepard was about to pull him up, Joker noticed the hostile ship turning around, "They're coming around for another attack!" Shepard grabbed Joker and practically yanked his arm out of its socket pulling the man up, much to the pilots discomfort, "Hey, watch the arm!"
Shepard shuffled to the escape pod with Jokers arm around him. Just as Joker got in, the center of the Normandy exploded, hurling Shepard away from the entrance to the pod. Barely conscious of his actions, Shepard pressed the button to launch the escape pod. The last words he heard were Joker yelling "Commander!" The spot where Shepard had been standing was now being ripped apart by the enemy ship. The ensuing explosion slammed Shepard against a wall and sent him flying past the wreckage of the Normandy.
From a distance Shepard could see the Normandy, his home, destroyed and gone. "Agh...Alright, a few broken bones and I'm spaced. Not the worst thing ever, my oxygen might be able to keep me until a ship-oh crap what was that sound?" It was the oxygen tank of Shepard's N7 suit rupturing. "What? NO!" Shepard had been ready for his death ever since Torfan, but now he had someone to live for, Tali. Garrus, Ashley, Liara, and Wrex were all great friends, but in the end, Tali gave him his reason to life.
As the last of Shepard's air began to fade, his life flashed before his eyes. His childhood was just years of…nothing, he was a spacer, he lived on starships his whole life; and then he enlisted in the alliance, a few crap missions, and the Battle of Elysium. His father was part of the first deployment, and he was murdered by the batarians. They said that Shepard had heroically held the line until reinforcements arrived, they were wrong. His childhood was nothing, but Shepard still loved his parents, the death of his father sent him into a homicidal rage. He barely managed to retain his strategy, he channeled all the rage he had into murdering every batarian he saw.
After he got off of Elysium he went to world after world and murdered every last batarian on each and every one of them. As the war was coming to a close, he went to Torfan to clear out the batarians. He had exactly 24 soldiers under his command (technically they were under Major Kyles command, but Kyle broke during combat), and he killed them all. His desire for vengeance controlled him, he sent them all into a batarian bunker and refused an opportunity for retreat. Only a few soldiers survived, only him and five others, including the Major, survived.
For years Shepard endured the trauma that he had suffered, for years he played it down. He spent hundreds of nights with a pistol on the table, contemplating whether or not it could change anything. After Torfan Shepard was immediately promoted to Commander and enrolled in the N7 program.
Eventually he was assigned to the Normandy, and then he dropped onto Eden Prime. Jenkins died, yet another death on Shepard's conscious. He met Ashley and found Nihlus dead. They went to the Citadel to report it. There he met Garrus and Wrex, and then…Tali. She was under attack by mercenaries, and holding data that would make his life so much easier.
The Council made him a Spectre. The first human Spectre. Honestly, Shepard didn't care; he just wanted to bring Saren to justice. Anderson gave up his title for him, and he made sure to honor the former Captains memory.
As the Normandy flew from world to world it was the best time of Shepard's life. He developed feelings for Tali, and in turn, she developed feelings for him. He even gave her classified data about the geth that they had retrieved together in the Armstrong Cluster. On Therum the Normandy picked up another passenger, the asari Liara T'Soni. On Noveria Shepard saved a Rachni Queen, on Feros, he didn't dare shoot a single colonist, he saved Terra Nova from batarian terrorists, but then came Virmire.
A message came asking Shepard to find an STG team on Virmire. After the team got the STG camp they had to begin the mission, they were going to detonate a nuke in the center of a cloning facility Saren had on the planet. Shepard took every measure to make sure that the STG's Captain Kirrahe and his team would survive the mission. Enough people had died, he didn't need any more. Nonetheless there was one casualty. Just one. Kaiden Alenko.
Kaiden had been a friend of Shepard since he had joined the Normandy. It was the most difficult choice Shepard ever had to make. No matter what, he was going to have to kill one of his close friends. On top of this came the revelation that Sovereign, Saren's ship, was in fact a Reaper, and that should they fail, thousands, maybe millions others would come back.
In the end it had to be Kaiden who stayed behind. Ashley had a family, sisters who depended on her. Kaiden was a great man, but it had to be him.
Shepard spent weeks mourning Kaiden, one day he was simply talking to Tali in his quarters. "He trusted me, and… If I… I fucking killed him. I left him to die. I could have gone back. I could have done things differently. Just like Torfan… I sent him to die." Nothing could erase the trauma of Kaidan's death. It was then that, half delirious from a suit puncture on Virmire, Tali confessed her feelings to Shepard. He admitted his reciprocation of her feelings, and they spent the night consoling each other about Kaiden.
The Council called Shepard back to the Citadel, supposedly to muster forces to chase Saren down. They pulled him to the Citadel, grounded his ship, and lectured him on subtlety. Tali came to Shepard, and reassured him of his capability to figure a way to leave.
Anderson called Shepard and explained how the Normandy could leave, Anderson would have to unlock the Normandy, and so he had to use the computer in Udina's office. Udina got a fist in the face, and Shepard got to leave for Ilos to find Saren.
Tali and Shepard had considered being together, but in the end Shepard refused. It could have gotten Tali sick, and Shepard couldn't risk her health, especially not before Ilos, if that went wrong, the whole universe was screwed. He couldn't do that for any woman, not even Tali.
On Ilos Shepard met the program Vigil who explained that the Conduit that both Shepard and Saren had been seeking was in fact a miniature mass relay to the heart of the Citadel. After a drive through a Prothean bunker, Shepard and his standard squadmates, Garrus and Tali, reached the Conduit. The Conduit flung them across the galaxy, out through the Relay Monument on the Presidium.
After over half an hour, a spacewalk, and dozens of geth and krogan, the team finally reached Saren, he was at the same location where Shepard had met the Council. Shepard had always had a silver tongue, he had managed to talk down Wrex on Virmire, and then he managed to talk Saren down.
Actually, he convinced Saren to shoot himself, he didn't want another death on his conscious, but the turian was too far-gone. Shepard opened the Citadel's arms and opened the mass relays for the Alliance fleet to come and save the Destiny Ascension. No more people would die that day.
Sovereign was able to bring Saren back as some kind of mechanical monstrosity, the team managed to kill what was left of Saren, and he disintegrated. With the loss of his pawn, Sovereign's misplaced power was gone, and the Alliance ripped apart the weakened Reaper.
Pieces of the broken Reaper flew throughout the Citadel; a certain piece hit the Presidium Tower, right where Shepard, Tali, Garrus, and the rest of the six man team stood. Tali and Garrus made it out of the way of the incoming debris. Shepard didn't. Fortunately enough, he lived with nothing but a broken arm.
Humans were offered a seat on the Council, and Shepard suggested Anderson be named humanity's councilor. Udina was pissed, but Anderson would fight for humanity and never give up.
For a long time there was nothing, just missions hunting geth, they weren't exactly glamorous and they weren't too dangerous, just the way Shepard liked them. Then…this.
All these thoughts raced through Shepard's oxygen-deprived head in a few seconds. As he reached the final stages of suffocation, one thought passed through his head, "No…can't…die…can't…leave…Tali…"Then the body of the man that had saved Elysium, Torfan, the Citadel, and the galaxy, went limp.
Tali sat on board one of the escape pods from the Normandy, that ship had been her home, and she didn't enjoy seeing it burn, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that everyone got out safe, and so far most people had escaped, Ashley, Liara, and Garrus were all in the same escape pod with her. A few servicemen hadn't gotten out, but at least most people survived.
Everyone waited silently for one call, the one that would ensure that the one most important man on the ship was alive. Finally it came, and the previously silent space lit up with thanks that Joker and Shepard were ok. Ashley answered; the call was broadcast through the small speakers in the pod, so everyone could hear Joker.
Ashley asked the question everyone wanted to know the answer to; "Joker! You made it out alive! Shepard's alive!" A few moments of silence occurred, then the crippled pilot forced out his response, "Shepard's…well he's…dead…I saw him, he…got spaced." As these words were muttered, the excitement that had risen died as quickly as it had arrived.
Immediately the room went silent, no one could believe or accept it. Shepard had helped them all, done his best to ensure their safety; he was a good friend of everyone on the Normandy. It couldn't be true, he couldn't be dead, everyone had thought the same thing on the Presidium Tower, but he survived. The same had to be true now, right?
No matter how much she tried to deny it, a voice inside her knew the truth, "He couldn't survive being spaced, even if he didn't die from the explosions, by now he probably suffocated." However, Tali wasn't going to let that part of her win, "No, he can't be dead. He can't be, turn this thing around, we need to go get him."
Ashley turned to Tali and choked out her reply, "I don't want to accept it either, but we can't turn around. This escape pod has just enough resources to get us to safety, and we need to get away from the Normandy, debris or that ship could kill us too."
Tali shook her head, "They have to turn around, Shepard was alive! He was… he… was… he… wasn't. He promised..." Once again Tali pushed away those thoughts and turned to Liara and Garrus, they would agree, "Come on, Shepard is alive! We have to turn around! We…we can't just leave him to die!"
Since they had been on the Normandy, Tali had bonded with Garrus more than Liara or Ashley, which made it all the more devastating when he stood up and quietly said, "No…he isn't alive…he can't be. I'm so sorry Tali." Garrus was actually the only one who could say this, Liara was sobbing silently, and Ashley was holding back tears in a similar manner to Tali.
Tali continued to stare at Garrus, and then she looked down and collapsed down onto a seat. He was dead; there was nothing she could do. As Garrus sat down and stared at the walls of the escape pod, Tali turned off the sound output of her mask, so that no one could hear her. With this in mind, she put her head in her hands and began to sob for her lost love.
Please review.