Commander Jane Shepard lay slumped against the wall in the Normandy med bay. The sheer exhaustion from her recent ordeals prevented her from moving significantly in any amount, yet her spirits had never been higher. She had every reason to be as they had accomplished the unthinkable; gone to a place no one had ever returned from, completed a mission no one had ever succeeded at, and not a member of her team was lost in the process. At the cost of the mission however, the Normandy was barely holding itself together. With the exception of few crew members that were serious injured, the rest were working round the clock on repairs. Mordin was administering lighter medical assistance as required, Grunt, Jacob, and Garrus were helping to carry away some of the heavier ship debris that had been damaged and thrown about during the raid, and Dr. Chakwas was patching her up in the med bay. Legion and Tali were repairing the engine with the Donnelly's, and the rest of her team were either resting or helping the others. The drive core had taken a toll from the crash on the Collector base and they had been lucky to make it out in one piece, much less at all. Unfortunately, her decision to destroy the collector base and its unfinished reaper had been in direct conflict with the Illusive man's orders. After telling the Illusive man to piss off, he had withdrawn his considerable funds from her Normandy repairs account. Yet despite their dire circumstances of being trapped in a potentially irreparable ship, there was much to be thankful for. Shepard had no idea what she would have done without the help of her team. They were truly best of the best. They had turned a complete suicide mission into nearly a walk in the park - Anyone else would have needed an army. It was remarkable and not to be taken for granted. So much so, in fact, that her present circumstances made her the happiest in a long time.

She had been born and raised on Mindoir, a small border colony in the Attican Traverse. A space probe had crashed near the town when she was in-utero, and among the ten infants who were exposed to the element zero, she was the only one to develop biotic powers. Becoming a scapegoat after most of the other children had died of cancer, growing up had been tough. When she was sixteen, slavers raided Mindoir, slaughtering her family and friends. She was the sole survivor of the attack because of her biotic powers and was saved by a passing Alliance patrol days later. During the attack every single person she knew had been killed, and she suffered through many dark days in the aftermath. Her hope for the future, then, had been shattered. If only she would have known then that everything would have worked out far better than she had hoped for.

Before her emotions threatened to overcome her senses she quickly pushed the memory to the back of her head. It was time to think about present matters. After all, there was much rejoicing to be done! The Collectors and their human-reaper abomination was gone forever, obliterated at the center of the galaxy. Best of all she finally struck a blow to the Illusive man's smug face when she told him to take the collector base and shove-it-right-up-his...

"Commander!"

Darting upward, she almost knocked heads with Dr. Chakwas, the medical doctor aboard the ship. She was an elderly woman that was a dear friend from the original Normandy. She still enjoyed working well into retirement age and enjoying the occasional bottle of Serrice ice brandy.

"Shepard? How are you feeling?" the elderly woman asked her, ready to shine a small pen-light into her eyes.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Shepard replied, waving away the bright light. "I'm just… still reeling from all of this."

"Hmmm. I don't blame you, we'll all need some time to bring ourselves back to a stable mental state." the doctor said. "Staring into the face of your own morality this often isn't healthy. And you, you need to get some rest. Don't even think about going to the shuttle bay to help the others, I'm sure they have everything is under control. No excuses, I don't want to hear it Shepard. I'm afraid if you don't head up to sleep this instant, I will be forced to abuse our doctor-patient relationship and tranquilize you for your own good. Do you understand?"

"Yes, mother."

"Splendid.", the doctor said as she sat back down to look at some papers. "Now go."

.

Shepard exited the med bay and started limping toward the elevator, and as she did, noticed the empty seats in the mess hall that would have normally been occupied. Some of the crew had already been "processed" before they reached the base. They had been too late to save them. When the elevator doors finally opened, their resident Krogan gave her a respectful snort.

"Grunt, feeling better?" she asked. After the destruction of the human Reaper, they had almost been squashed as the platforms they were fighting on had dropped straight down. All three of them had blacked out and Grunt's arm was barely attached to his body after they awoke. However, that didn't stop him, as he got up and continued firing his Krogan shotgun one-handed like an absolute madman.

"Much better. But that was nothing, we've both been through worse. Ah, the benefits of a redundant nervous system." He boomed, flashing a toothy grin.

Shepard rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh, yeah, humans don't have that."

"No? Well you're still standing." He said, banging both of his fists together. "We fought a great fight Shepard, and for that I am proud to call you my battle-master!" Then without a word more, he left her, presumably to head back to his quarters.

Now alone in the elevator, Shepard thought to bend her orders and pressed the button for the Shuttle Bay. She would be heading up to her quarters for a rest, but Chakwas said nothing about how she got there. When her fingers tapped the button, EDI's voice sprung into the elevator.

"Shepard, I will not allow you to go anywhere but your Cabin. Chakwas has given you specific instructions to get some rest."

"Ugh. Fine, EDI. I'm going up. Have you finished decrypting the reaper schematics yet?"

"I'm currently working on them, Shepard. They should be completed by the time you wake in several hours' time", said the blinking hologram.

Shepardscowled. "Thanks, EDI"

Against her wishes, the elevator stopped at her quarters. It was exactly how she left it and she could see no visual damage to this part of the ship… till she turned toward her fish tank and found all of her aquatic pets floating at the top of the water, clearly dead.

Groaning, she stumbled into her loft. She should invest in one of those automatic feeding thingies, she thought to herself in her sleep deprived state. It was the twenty-second century for goodness sake, why didn't all tanks have automatic feeding? If they had artificial intelligences so advanced that they fought for their own rights, why didn't her tank have automatic feeding? If the Illusive man had spared no expense at furnishing the Normandy and gave her a massive wall fish tank in her quarters, why hadn't he outfitted it with automatic feeding? The cockpit had leather chairs, she had a friggin skylight built into the Normandy's hull, but there was no automatic feeder on her fish tank.

She staggered toward her bed, set an alarm and dropped down onto the mattress, too tired to remove any of her clothing. Within moments of her head hitting the sheets, she was asleep.

.

She awoke with a start, for a few seconds not recognizing where she was before she saw her dirty fish tank. She glanced at the time and crankily scowled as she had been asleep for far longer than she would have wanted to. Her alarm been disabled.

Nearly every muscle in her body ached painfully. She lifted herself out of bed and limped up to the bathroom to get her bearings. Just outside the door to her quarters someone have left her armor. She grabbed the pieces and placed them on her desk to see the extent of the damage. It was heavy. They needed repairs but with their nonexistent funds it would have to wait. Her armor also needed a good cleaning as it was encrusted with dried blood. Some of it was hers, thankfully most of it wasn't.

She dragged herself to the mirror. Her shoulder length red hair was riddled with dirt and grime. She smelt like something dead. Her cheeks were gaunt and dark circles surrounded her bloodshot eyes. She looked and felt like hell. As least she still had a face, she thought, as she pressed a hand against one of her cheeks. She turned the knobs on the shower all the way and stood under the waterfall for a long time without moving. Thankfully it still worked.

.

She took the elevator down. While in-transit she managed to rip off the Cerberus insignia from her top. Those would be the first to go.

First stop was Joker. She found him talking to EDI.

"EDI, we've got venting from the number sixteen lithium heat sink." He says, his hands darting to and fro on the board. Although his back was turned, he noticed Shepard via the mirror he had installed on the console for himself.

"Hey Commander, I was starting to think that Chakwas really did use the tranquilizer."

"Jeff, as I have repeatedly told you, she was given strict orders to rest." replied the ever-present A.I.

"Speaking of rest," Shepard mentioned, turning to face the hologram with a cocked eyebrow, "I found my alarm disabled when I clearly remember setting it. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you, EDI?"

"You needed the rest, Commander, you've been through a lot."

"I agree with EDI, Commander, we barely escaped with our lives less that seventy-two hours ago in case you happened to forget."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Joker. Plot a course for Illium, we need to get to a dock for repairs. EDI, is the decryption done?"

"Yes, Shepard. I have forwarded the files to Anderson and to your private terminal"

"Good. And EDI?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"Don't ever disable my alarm without my permission again."

"Of course, Commander."

"See you commander" Joker aforementioned.

Shepard wanted to find the other members of her crew, but decided against it. They needed to rest, they deserved it. Instead, she went back to her cabin and began the mind-numbing work of sorting through her mail. With the flip of a switch on her terminal, an automated voice spoke.

"It has been 4 days and 13 hours since you last checked your Inbox...You have 63 unread messages!"

Great.

Most of the mail she received was spam or junk except for a few she had received from people she had helped during her travels. She especially loved reading those, and kept every one. When she had completed clearing her inbox she sent a message to Anderson for a meeting and a request to meet the council. Hopefully with the schematics EDI uploaded, she could finally prove the existence of the reapers to the council members. She couldn't wait till she saw the look on the Turians face. With a satisfied nod, she proceeded to take a look through the Reaper tech schematics, but was interrupted by a voice over the comm. It was Joker.

"Commander, I know you really don't want to hear this, but the Illusive man wants to speak with you."