ano kousaten de
minna ga moshi skip wo shite
moshi ano machi no mannaka de
te wo tsunaide sora wo miagetara

(What if everyone skipped
through that intersection
What if in the middle of the city
we held hands and looked up at the sky)

/Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: Pon Pon Pon/

Diana Allers took a sip from the celebration-issue cup bearing a triple portrait of Hero and now also Protector of Sol, Minister of Information and Consul of Peace. It was genuinely and irresistibly cute – and much as she had the determination to avoid the hype and see things as they were, an infernal deal , she couldn't resist a smile. She had been freed from detention on Exarch VI, commonly known as Raskolnikov, resulting from the Tribunal's dislike of the tone in her banned and data-purged tell-all holo about her stay on the Normandy SR2 – pardoned on the celebratory occasion and given a second chance. As much as she had managed to stay away from the images and plush renderings of all three heroines of the day, especially since two of the trio were the ones directly responsible for the persecution - she had already given in with the cup. Damn cup. Peer pressure no less – no one was talking about anything else than a celebration over the entire last month.

As for her second chance she had always been good in the editing room but this time she had surpassed her own expectations. Of course it was not just a documentary, it was a mother of all propaganda holos but whatever. She had almost convinced herself to see things the Tribunal way. Moreover her previous attempt at stardom was not entirely truthful either – she had never been involved in anything more than light petting with the Commander. But this was something different, something magnificent.

Diana switched on the master copy and jumped to her favourite scenes. The military parade was a large part of it. The bright aurora borealis like effect visible in colours during the day and induced in the skies of London by geth weather control, Marines in their heavy, servo-assisted metallic armour worn for a more impressive presence – she had been there and sensed the ground shaking. She added an almost imperceptible screen shake effect in tune with their step. 4th, 18th, 22nd ...camera gliding over Marine General Vega's athletic body interplaying with the sunlight reflections from the blue-tinged steel of his armour.

The Army was an equally impressive sight, all in gray, though without the pixel-block camo pattern of their field uniforms, Generals Javik, Petrovsky and Salek looking all important – the protean had a silver halo suspended in the air behind him by two hanar biotics floating at his sides, the serious and proper Petrovsky was a capitulated Cerberus general from the Reaper War, as a professional military man with no record of specific war crimes reinstated in the Council Army at the rank of a Lieutenant and risen again to prominence during the Terminus conflict. Salek was a batarian in command of his Red Company with a pretty similar story of advancement through the ranks during the Terminus battles - except he had been fighting his own blood, seeing as his nephew had been one of the highest ranking officers of the emerging New Terminus League. Had been.

The performance of geth and turian fighters and the Krogan airdrop in straight lines one after another from the shuttles zooming overhead until a full unit in formation stood beforwas a sight to behold. She zoomed in on Urdnot Wrex, the leader of the united krogan clans who was not taking part in the parade and was standing on the Throne terrace with the Hero – accompanied by the cute krogan child image known by everyone all over the galaxy - Wrex's firstborn daughter, Urdnot Mordin, who currently stood next to the two no less famous asari girls. She was not small by any means anymore, already reaching up to his chest in height.

The ceremony reached one of its peaks when Generalissimo took off his Visor of Storm Command and presented it to the future Protector of the Galaxy. Shepard donned it to the cheer of 'Shepard' from the soldiers, gave the anticipated reply of 'Victory' – and herself issued the mental command to the last third of the parade participants. The shiny black of the Storm Brigade complemented the gray of the Army and blue and metallic of the Navy and took their places in front of the Throne. The Biotic Corps apparently was not led by the Archmagister but by the Dean of the Academy of Military Biotics. She delightedly brought everyone's favourite media disaster closer, the camera exploring her muscled body (although mostly covered by the uniform with sleeves replaced by bracelets – Allers did not began to even guess how they managed to get her to wear it anyway) and the head tattoos on both sides of the strip of long dark hair worn in an strange semblance of a horse's mane.

Another wing of fighters flying in perfect geometrical formation and a low rumble heralded the arrival of the Vindicators...thundering static discharges tore through the brightly lit skies as they descended and took their places – Majestic to the left with the Navy, Hierophant center with the Army and Nemesis right with the Storm Brigade – their shells painted the respective colours.

Pontifex, the Vindicator of Sol itself, descended, landing as lightly as it could – but still scoring some points on Richter scale and bringing about a maelstrom of lightnings arcing between it and the steel spike of the Throne– there was no place for it in front of the Throne so it stood over the city, it's 'feet' carefully placed on road intersections. It was the first time this had happened since the Reaper War and understandably so – but now that the most immediate and traumatic experiences had faded, it was time for the Vindicators to take their place with the other nations in their common living space. It was both an extremely beautiful and extremely terrifying sight – if there was something Diana was thankful about, it was about being on the same side with them.

'Shepard,' thundered its machinelike, metallic voice.

'Victory' – replied Protector of the Galaxy, the soldiers' voices this time joining with hers, easily reaching the same volume as the Vindicator's.

The holo froze and continued as a series of stills – of Shepard, soldiers, Vindicators. It was an army with no equal, commanded by the woman twice risen from the dead. Her speech of address to the people of the Galaxy began in the background.

'...but we know this day today is not about me. It is about you, people of the Galaxy those who have always stood besides me and come the need would do it again. And especially my loved ones...'

Doors in the centre of of the terrace opened. The camera slid over the elaborate, ceremonial asari robes worn by Liara and Samantha – similar but in the same time subtly different, and 100% adorable - white with red accents. They slowly walked across the terrace, hand in hand - and stood in front of Shepard. She held both of their hands for a moment and turned to the city, Samantha and Liara stood at her sides.

'Too late i realised that there is no authority in the galaxy capable of accepting my wedding vows as the line in the Council space is 'in the name of the Council and Tribunal' and since 15 minutes ago it says 'Council, Protector and the Tribunal' and it would not be appropriate to conduct the ceremony in the name of myself. So i am going to say my vows in front of the true power i represent – the people of the Galaxy united.

In sound mind and by my own free will i, Serena Shepard stand before you, people of the Galaxy and announce my intention to take already joined Liara T'Soni and Samantha Traynor as my wedded and lawful partners – and swear to be faithful, love and cherish them forever. '

'In sound mind and by my own free will i, Samantha Traynor stand before you, people of the Galaxy and announce my intention to take Serena Shepard as my wedded and lawful partner – and swear to be faithful, love and cherish her forever.'

'In sound mind and by my own free will i, Liara T'Soni stand before you, people of the Galaxy and announce my intention to take Serena Shepard as my wedded and lawful partner – and swear to be faithful, love and cherish her forever.'

'So - do we agree?'

'Yes'

'Yes'

'And yes. The joining has commenced. We,' Shepard smiled – 'may kiss each other...'

Diana wiped off a tear, mumbled something to the effect of 'she's just greedy' and fast forwarded the mush of them holding hands in the middle of new London and the lips of the three touching to a scene she had left in on principle, her favourite little gem. It featured the closest thing to an overweight asari one could find in the galaxy, mouthing 'if you hurt my girl' and slowly and expressively dragging her hand across her neck while looking at Serena – with a half empty can of Elassa in the other hand, as if to say 'i don't care about the ceremonies'.

Now only one thing remained. Allers had to think of a name. What was it about? Shepard? Galaxy? Victory? Love? Yes. Victory and love...got to go with those. Now the exact phrasing...

Half an hour later her fingers entered the final letters and confirmed the change of the filename.

The Triumph of Love.

Exhausted and sleepy Samantha placed her arm around both of her sweethearts, and wrapped her leg about the closest who happened to be Serena. Still deep down in her heart she disbelieved the fact she gets to keep both. Nevertheless it was the 10th day of their marriage.

Suddenly Serena's body tensed and her glowing, red eyes went wide open...

'What happened, love? A bad dream?' Samantha asked.

'No... that is, yes. Don't worry. Sleep. I'll try too.'

And Samantha happily lost herself to dreams, hoping to remember to ask about the dream in the morning.

'Code Infrared'

She did not need to wear the Visor to access Storm Command, only have it nearby – and presently it sat on her bedstand. Her Legacy machinery had established a wireless connection on the 2nd day of use. But Infrared? What was it? She had been almost asleep and could not focus immediately. Very slowly it dawned on her that the formulation was nothing less than 'a possible existential threat'

'Generalissimo to Protector. Shepard. We may have a situation. Nothing immediate, but the content of the message obliges me to let you know immediately'

'Victory, Garrus. I'm listening,' Serena wordlessly formulated a message.

'Our analysts ran a comparison of data from two different geth servers on the opposite sides of the galaxy running deep space recon and stumbled upon something.'

'I don't know how to say this but one of the stars presumed to be a part of Triangulum galaxy is not behaving as it should.'

'How...how do you mean that?'

'There are slight distortions in its spectrum, things where they shouldn't be, seemingly out of nowhere.'

'Is that all? Just a nonstandard star? You would not have woken me if it was just that.'

'It isn't. I run the data by Regulus and Pontifex. It is them who are ...i don't even know, scared? Even geth don't understand them half of the time but they say they can read the quantum 'shadow' of the stars, some sort of instant reflection. This one supposedly does not have one – or more precisely it has but not where it should be – but halfway between Triangulum and Milky Way. A check two consecutive weeks in a row by both Vindicators agree on a slight shift, which can mean only one thing.'

'Which is?'

'It is moving. At a FTL speed.'

'A whole star system?'

'Yes. At the present course, estimated collision with Milky Way ecliptic roughly 50 years from now.'

'What does that mean for us?'

'Like hell i know. Like hell Vindicators know. Just that it's something that can FTL-jump a star system. Your guess is as good as theirs.'

'Shit.'

'Shepard?..'

'Sorry. Victory, my Generalissimo. Victory.'