Author's Note: I do not own Mass Effect characters but all the writing I am posting are all personal thoughts of my own, so please do not take them. I am not any English major, but I will do my best to try and write out this story to my best of ability.
Chapter One: Destruction
One moment there was communication feed from Admiral Hackett about the catalyst not doing anything then the next he had been crawling with blood flooding out from his side until he felt limp. Closing the eyes felt like he greatest relief possible, to not move felt even better. Before he knew it though the ground beneath him had started to rumble and he felt himself being elevated. Opening his eyes upon a new portion of the Citadel he had never seen before stood before him a VI… or maybe a ghost, or maybe he was just out of his mind. Looking at the VI in front of him who now named himself as the catalyst he had been aware. Unsure of what was to come until the catalyst had told him to make his decision. To control or to destroy; both were dangerous and one ensured his life to be gone while the other he may still live. Looking down upon himself and his bloodied body and the partially melted fragments of his N7 armor in him he shook his head. Who was he kidding, there was no chance of survival here. Sitting himself down with the catalyst looking upon himself John was stumped, he had come this far only to have limited choices, destroy the reapers or control; with control they would never rebel in the coming legacy to come but also costs him his life and possible future. Destruction would get rid of the reapers but the damage of destruction and causing the citadel to probably then throw him back down to earth would most likely result in his death as well. Once again it seemed like he had to choose his path. The last time he felt like this was back on Virmire when he had to choose between Ashley and Kaiden. He had fell in love with Gunnery Chief Williams and chose to save her over his lieutenant; a decision he still feels horrible about but content with at the same time. To take control of the reapers would mean that his relationship with Ashley that he had so adamantly sacrificed another soldier to have for would be worth nothing. It was then he rose from seated position and made his way to the generator tube. Pulling out his pistol he shot multiple bullets into the generator and then within moments he felt the Citadel rumble as if preparing a shot and before he could process what was going on he felt a thud and it all went black.
Three figures stood atop rubble from base camp as they watches three comrades run off towards the streaming light that was to lead to the Citadel also where the catalyst's main control was. In despair all three had watched all three of their comrades, one of which being their commander go down from a reaper beam. A human female had tried to run as if she could save them but was held back by the Turian and Asari. Hope had filled their eyes though when a figure was seen being shot up into the Citadel, and then another; for once there might have stood a chance against the reapers but now it was a waiting game. The female human walked over and sat against a broken wall just staring at the stream of light, refusing to make any form of communication or eye contact with the other two present.
Leaning over to the Turian the Asari whispered lightly, "Garrus, do you think she will be okay?"
Garrus could only shake his head, "To be honest Liara…. I don't know, hell I don't know if I will be okay if this son of a bitch doesn't come out of this alive" Garrus gave a grunt in frustration, "If he gets himself killed I am going to bring his ass back and shoot him with my rifle right between the eyes" there had been a look of dismay in his form and even worse worry in his eyes.
Liara sighed softly, "Garrus we can't lose hope yet… there were two people at least that got up there and hopefully everyone comes back alive; they might not be in one piece but alive is better than dead" putting her hand on the shoulder of Garrus in a sign of comfort she finished in saying, "We have to hold our own because whatever has happened to Shepard is going to put Ashley through hell and she will need us even if she won't admit it now."
Garrus repositioned himself and gave a small look of thanks to the Asari, "You are right T'Soni, but for everyone's sake I hope he comes out of this alive, plus he owes me…" Garrus was then shut silent as a stream of a red beam hit the Earth's surface and spread all around it and in moments the moving reaper forces just stopped, followed by an explosion. It was the most heart-warming event to see as each and every reaper had been destroyed then his eyes went to the relay where the red beam was then shot into causing an overload and the relay to explode as well and in an instant he looked to Liara and said, "What the hell was that?"
Liara looking baffled at the destruction of the reapers and then the mass relay thought for a moment and smiled, "That beam is the salvation for all the other galaxies to survive; that blast is clearly going out to destroy all the reapers in every system, that means Shepard did it… he saved us all even though it may have cost us the loss of the relays" there was a hint of glee in Liara's voice, yes the relay's may have been destroyed but the reapers had also gone with it.
Ashley stood up and looked to Liara and Garrus, "… he got ported into mid-air and fell into rubble…" she had a look of pain but determination at the same time and it was at that moment that Garrus and Liara knew that she not only meant Shepard but she also meant that they needed to get a search party going.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get to camp and get us a search party" Garrus said with a grin and in return got a small smile from Ashley, but he could tell she was hurting and knew that she had to have feared at this moment that the man she loved might have once again been taken from her. He looked to Liara and she nodded and without hesitation they all sprinted off towards the London base camp to gather up troops for their search party for the commander.
