She felt like death, but Shepard knew she had to press on. The fate of the galaxy rested on her shoulders. She suffered through broken bones and the pain and marched forward, gun aimed at the device in front of her. If it's the last thing I do, I'll destroy the Reapers.

For her, it was never a choice. No ghostlike figure was going to convince her otherwise. Anderson had died with the same goal, and Shepard couldn't let him down. Slowly, but surely, she reached the power conduit and began to fire her heavy pistol into it. A bright red light filled her vision before everything went black.

I did it.

Relief washed over her as she let the darkness take her. The last thing she saw was Kaidan's face before everything went black. See you on the other side, Major.


TWELVE HOURS LATER…

A red-haired woman, clad in light armor, walked through the wreckage of the Citadel underbelly. Her mission was simple. While the fleets were distracted from the victory against the Reapers, piecing themselves together, she and her partner were to try and locate Shepard. It was unlikely they would have another opportunity such as this.

"We don't even know if she's alive," came a voice in her ear. Tango, who was exploring an area nearby.

"No, but the boss wants her body, for whatever reason. We need her memories. Or at least, Sierra does," she replied.

"I know, Echo," Tango replied.

"Let me know if you find anything."

Echo disconnected and continued her path down a dark hallway, which was littered with bodies and debris. At the end of it, she came across an open area and immediately caught sight of a body. Older male. Alliance. She moved carefully to inspect the body, fingers gripping a silver chain and inspecting the metal tags at the end. Admiral David Anderson, according to these. Not far away, she spotted another. Red hair, just like her. She glided over to the body to get a closer look.

"Tell the boss I found something," she said into her comm unit. "I think it's Shepard."

"He's already listening."

Echo said nothing, otherwise occupied looking over the body, checking for signs of life. As soon as she touched the woman's neck to test for a pulse, a gasp came from her, and Echo could tell she was still breathing. Closer inspection of the woman's bruised face made Echo feel as if she was staring into a mirror. We truly look just like her. Well, minus the wounds.

"Echo? Report," Tango called out after a moment of silence.

"It's her, I'm certain," said Echo.

"Good," said a third, male voice. "Secure her and get back to the shuttle before the Alliance finds you."

"Roger. Echo out."


A MONTH LATER...

They'd taken Shepard, who Echo still couldn't believe had survived, to their ship just outside the Sol system. The Alliance was too occupied with relief efforts to notice their presence. For now, at least.

She had spent the past month working to heal the commander's injuries, working day in and day out to nurse her back to health. There was a joke in aiding the woman she was made to heal, at least through use of her limbs and organs, but there was no time for jokes. Not with her boss counting on her.

When he had made his presence known, out of the blue, it had taken Echo for a loop. Usually, Tango was the one asking for a status update on his behalf.

"How's our patient?"

"Comatose," said Echo to the man, name and appearance unknown to Echo, face hidden in the shadows. "But stable. She could wake up at any time, or we can prevent her from doing so until we need her."

"Keep her alive, don't wake her," the man ordered. "The galaxy is in ruins. There's much to do before we can use her."

"Sir, there was some trauma to her brain, likely from an explosion," Echo said, sounding worried. "I am not sure if her memories -"

"Are intact? I can work around that."

Without another word, the man disappeared completely, leaving Echo to her work. She was unsure of how they could move forward without Shepard's memories being completely intact, but she was not dumb enough to question her boss. That line of thinking tended to get her kind killed.


PRESENT DAY

"I just received word from November's second-in-command on Omega, sir," Tango said over her comm unit. "November has been killed. Lawson and Alenko are not dead or captured as we'd hoped, Vakarian is rumored to have been involved, but we cannot seem to locate any of them."

There was a hint of anger in the man's voice when he replied, "We'll find them. India is on Illium, send her after T'Soni, tell her to find out what she knows and then kill her."

"Yes, sir. What about Shepard?"

"I think it's time to wake her up. Put her in a cell, so we can monitor her, see what she remembers. Once we know enough, Sierra will take over from there. You and Echo will report to her. Destroy all files before you leave."

"Yes, sir. Tango out."