Title: After the Credits
Fandom: Mass Effect
Categories: G, femShepard/Liara
Disclaimer: Mass Effect and all characters, locations, ect. remain the property of BioWare. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: Fix it fic for Mass Effect 3's ending. Spoilers, of course, for Mass Effect 3

Author's Note: Like a lot of people, I was very disapointed with Mass Effect 3's ending. This is my attempt to fix it.

Shepard stumbled forward, ignoring the pain. The babble of child, of the catalyst, of whatever it was, had faded. Now, she just had to reach the console, to make the final steps in her would be a price, she knew. She accepted that. It was… necessary. She couldn't remember why, but it needed to be done, no matter the cost.

She collapsed against the console, the last of her strength activating the great machine. There was a flash of light, an instant of agony as her skin burned away. A flash of light as the energy washed over her. She could feel it, for a moment see it, spreading out, burning away the machines, ending this plague on the galaxy. If the price was her own life, she could accept that.

For a moment, she thought she saw the Normandy crashing, a green world rising up before it as the ship fell towards the ground. A hatch opened, a slim, blue-skinned figure staring out at awe at the pristine world.

If Shepard had one regret, it was that she couldn't be there with her.

Liara. She whispered, desperate longing overwhelming her as her body was torn apart by the energies of the Catalyst.

"Shepard?"

Her eyes flew open as she heard the familiar voice. For a moment, she didn't dare believe what she was seeing.

"Liara." She whispered, her mouth dry, her body aching, as she reached out to the woman beside her. There were tears in both their eyes as they stared at each other. "Liara." She said again, before darkness claimed her again.

Shepard woke, her body aching. Slowly, she sat up, glancing around the unfamiliar surroundings.

"You're on the Citadel." A kind voice said. She turned, seeing Dr. Chakwas beside her. "You've been out cold for almost a week. We were lucky we found you and the Admiral when we did. You both looked like you'd been through hell – which, to be honest, we pretty much all did."

"Liara?" She asked, dreading the answer, but Chakwas only smiled.

"I finally convinced her to get something to eat. She's barely left your side. She's just outside, with Garrus and Legion.

"Legion?" Shepard said, fresh tears coming to her eyes. "He's… alive?" A line from an old story ran through her mind. iIs everything sad going to come untrue?/i

"The Geth were able to identify and reassemble the sub-processes that were believed consumed in uplifting them to full sapience." EDI's voice echoed from a speaker. "By pooling their resources, they were able to identify the portions of his identity that had ended up in each of them. He is fully operational again, and assisting in the reconstruction efforts with the other Geth."

"He and EDI are purging the last of the Reaper programs from the Citadel." Chakwas said. "This old place won't be a trap anymore."

"Reaper programs?" Shepard frowned.

"We found fragments of an artificial intelligence within the Citadel's main systems. When the Crucible deployed, it made one last ditch effort to shut down the Mass Relay network." EDI said. "Whether it sought revenge or if deactivating the Relays would have somehow prevented the Crucible from firing, I do not know. The program was destroyed before it could activate. Do you remember doing so, Commander?"

"I…" A chill ran through Shepard. An artificial intelligence on the Citadel. She remembered the nightmare, the child that wanted her to choose its solution, to destroy the Relays in order to save the galaxy. She remembered activating a console…

Was that real, she wondered? A Reaper program that had wormed its way into her thoughts, to make her do what Saren and the Illusive Man had failed to achieve? "Destroyed." She murmured. Some part of her had seen through its lies, had destroyed it rather than carry out its bidding. She shivered.

"I don't remember any of that." She lied.

"Not surprising." Chakwas said. "You'd lost a lot of blood, it's a miracle you were still breathing. Some of it might come back to you later. Get some rest, Commander – that's an order. The galaxy will survive without you for a few days… now."

Shepard forced a smile, but the chill wouldn't go away.

Eventually, she confessed to Liara. She didn't like to hide things from her bondmate; after everything that had happened, she didn't want anything to ever come between them.

"I don't know how much of it was real, how much of it was dreams." Shepard said. "None of it made any sense – what the child was saying, what I was doing. But I – when it was talking to me, I believed it. It scares me how easily…"

"They almost killed you, Shepard. You were broken, bleeding. You were surrounded by corpses, you had been fighting ever since we reached the Sol relay. And still, in the end, they couldn't claim you entirely."

"That's because part of me will always belong to you." Shepard smiled, gripping Liara's hand tightly. It still felt like a miracle, that any of them had survived, that so many of her friends were still here – that she was still here. She felt like she'd been given a second chance to live, more so even than when Cerberus had rebuilt her.

"The part at the end, I still don't understand." Shepard said. "The Normandy crashing, you on a garden world. The rest, the Reapers were trying to trick me, but that…"

"An empty garden world, and a galaxy with no mass relays." Liara smiled. "I think that wasn't the Reapers. That was just your subconscious. Admirals and Generals have been calling you all hours of the day since you escaped Earth – I think you're longing for a vacation."

"As long as you're there." Shepard said quietly.

"Always."