A/N: Just a short little one shot I've had bouncing around my head for a while. Hope you like it! Bioware owns the ME universe.
Final Log of Commander Jane Shepard
16:24
2 hours before the assault on Earth
"If you are seeing this, then we were successful against the most dangerous enemy the galaxy has ever known, and I am dead."
Shepard raises her bloody arm and points her gun at the power junction. With a sense of grim satisfaction, she pulls the trigger until it won't shoot anymore.
"This war was not won by one person, or one species. This war was won by all of us, all of you, by coming together to face a greater threat than anything we have ever known. Now, it is time to work together to rebuild, instead of to fight."
The Citadel explodes around her, all fire and twisted metal and smoke. She feels weightless, flying through the air, her purpose complete.
"Let's not forget the lessons learned, because they will not be able to be learned again. Our differences aren't what separate us; they are what make us stronger. The reapers didn't have this and that's why they failed."
She wakes some time later, crushed between debris. She tries to shout, to move, but can't. This is wrong, this isn't supposed to happen. He is waiting for her.
"I want to say thank you to everyone who served on my crew over the years. It was because of you that I kept going, kept fighting. Everyone will look back on this and say it was Commander Shepard that won the war."
She cries. For all the loss and broken promises and pain. For not being good enough to stop it all. And most of all, for still being alive.
"And they would be wrong. I won it because all of you gave me the strength to keep going, even when the odds were stacked against us. A leader is only as good the people that follow them. And I had the best."
The Normandy crew has finally made it to the Citadel, searching in earnest for their lost commander. The odds are slim that she'll be alive, but still they hope because that's what she did, and it's what she never gave up.
"My time has come and gone. With the defeat of the reapers comes the end of my purpose. I can't live forever, nor do I want to. Even legends have to die. This is your time now."
Javik picks his way slowly through what's left of the Citadel. Stepping over a fallen support, he sees the familiar red stripe of Shepard's N7 armor. He reaches to summon the others, but stops. Her eyes are open but unseeing, her body cold.
"It's up to you to make the future worth living. I did my job in giving it back. You survived everything to be a part of it. Never let hope die. That's an order."
She is vaguely aware of someone approaching and wills them to leave her be, let her die in peace. The world around her had long ago faded to nothing. The figure stops next to her. Instead of panicked white noise, she hears one word and she smiles for the first time since the Cerberus coup.
"Siha."