Author's Note: A short interlude here. My time has been mostly filled with Cub Scouts, and probably reading a bit too much about post-apocalyptic ponies. As always, I love reviews, so tell me what you like about the story!


They brought the corpse to the med bay, letting Chakwas fill out the paperwork. Three Shepards stood vigil from inside, while Garrus and Nassar stood outside the door, maintaining their privacy. Every member of the crew, even their new trio of biotics, came by the window at some point during the two hour autopsy, though Angela couldn't tell if they were paying respect like everyone else or just trying to satisfy some curiosity.

When it was done, and his body cleaned up and carefully wrapped in the Alliance body bag, they bound him to one of the beds and emerged. Garrus and Nassar saluted gravely. "I don't know much about what he did in our world," the female turian said, "but it's clear that his actions here were of the highest possible caliber."

"Thanks, Vakarians," Neville said. "We'll be heading for Elysium to give him a proper burial. He deserves that much."

They walked towards the elevator, every crew member in the mess standing at attention. They were almost there when Miranda's door opened and she hurried to join them in the elevator. Halfway between decks, she pressed a command on her omni-tool and brought it to a halt. "EDI, turn off all monitoring devices in the elevator," she ordered. All three Shepards turned towards her, almost looming in shared distrust. "I, ah, think we need to take the comm system offline for maintenance immediately."

"And just why is that, Operative?" Angela asked, leaning forward.

"Because the Illusive Man gave me five minutes to convince you to turn Charles' body over to him for study." Both shoulders were pressed against the back wall of the elevator from the force of their glare. "Even if I wanted, I couldn't bring him back the way I did you. There's not enough brain matter intact. If I thought there was, I'd suggest it." She swallowed against a dry mouth. "If the comm system is offline, including the QEC software, he can't order EDI around until after you bury Charles."

Angela stared down her assigned second in command, and nodded. "Then let's get to the CIC." A tapped command set the elevator moving again, and they stepped out. Even Kelly was subdued at the death of a Shepard, nodding silently as Angela stood in front of the galaxy map. "Joker! Turn on the stealth systems, and turn off the comms." She waited until the system status lights changed. "Set course for Elysium. Victor, get everyone ready. We're going to have the entire ground team planetside for the ceremony."

Frowning, Victor nodded. "I though Charles was Mindoir, not Elysium," he rumbled.

A tiny smile spread across her face. "He was. But he was a hero on Elysium."

Two hours later, a shuttle and a gunship dropped into the sensor net of Elysium Planetary Control, sending a number of technicians into hysterics and the local Alliance garrison two alert levels higher. Both vessels dropped quietly through the atmosphere, ignoring all hails, and landed on the edge of Shepard Memorial Plaza in front of the guns of a full platoon of Alliance Marines.

The marines watched in confusion as a dozen aliens and humans disembarked from the white, black, and gold shuttle. Their lieutenant gaped as the gunship settled down onto its landing gear, squeaking softly, and the hatch opened. "Ah, fresh air!" the burly pilot declared, squinting up at the sun. "Too bright. Needs voltage turned down, da?"

The equally burly tattooed woman behind him just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Nice welcoming party. You kids want to put those down before you hurt yourselves?" she taunted, waving a cybernetic hand towards the assault rifles.

"Faridah, play nice. Hello, Lieutenant," Victor said stepping forward easily and seizing the officer's hand in a numbing handshake. "Relax, we are not here to cause trouble. Only here to pay respects to a friend and a hero."

"Y-y-you're a Shepard!" he stammered out, numb hand trembling almost as much as his mouth.

"Da. There will be more of us before we're done," he said sadly, turning his eyes to the sky again. A few minutes passed in silence, broken only by an occasional unintelligible noise from the lieutenant as he tried and failed to come up with something else to say.

The next shuttle landed with another half a dozen people climbing out. "Now, is time," Victor said. He strode up to the shuttle, ducking into the shadowed interior. "Honor guard, attention!" he shouted out.

The fabric of the universe shuddered, as more people, humans, aliens, species from mythology, legend, and science fiction popped into existence. The Marines all snapped to attention as well, most of them darting their eyes from unicorn to griffon to elf (or maybe Vulcan) to the twenty Shepards arranged in a corridor stretching from the shuttle door towards the eternal flame installed in the plaza. Crowds were gathering, quiet and respectful as they felt the pull of Shepard on them.

Victor and Neville stepped out, hands on the stretcher. Garrus and Nassar were behind them, and Angela and Bradley took up the rear. Polarity stepped out in front of them, her horn shining a deep navy blue. They stopped at the flame, hundreds of people surrounding the procession and watching in respectful silence.

The unicorn circled around the bonfire-sized flame, staring across it at the rest of the procession. "We are gathered here to pay respect to Charles Shepard. He was a hero to many on Elysium, even if it was his world and not this one. He saved many lives, human and otherwise, in his travel across this galaxy. The Reapers are dead because of his leadership. Charles Shepard, we consign you to the flames. May you find peace in the next life that this one denied you."

Every engineer and infiltrator in the crowd, Shepard and not, raised their omni-tools as the body was carefully lowered to the ground. As the pall bearers stepped back, three dozen balls of plasma in every shade of orange arced forward, dropping down and bursting over the body, reducing it, the stretcher, and three meters of grass to ashes.

Bradley stepped forward again. "Gun salute!" he barked, and twenty-five Shepards pulled out their pistols, aiming them at the ground. "Fire!" The retort echoed over the crowd and off the buildings surrounding the plaza. In the last moment of silence, the doubles all vanished, their sudden absence pulling the crowd apart, stumbling forwards.

"Commander Shepard! Khalisah –"

"I know who you are," Angela interrupted the rushed introduction as the frazzled-looking reporter shoved her way through the crowd to the open space around the shuttle and the flame. "What do you want?"

Al-Jilani took a moment to steady her breathing and tuck loose hair behind her ears. "Commander, after your reported death, your first appearance is here as a Cerberus agent?"

Angela stepped forward, shoving a finger in her face. "I am not a Cerberus agent." She grinned, and looked right at the camera. "I am making some Cerberus people work for me."

"Does Charles' funeral mean the famous 'Shepard Immortality' is no longer in effect?"

Before Angela could answer, Zaeed stepped forward. "Take a good goddamn look," he said, jerking a thumb at the milky-white eye. "Surviving a gunshot to the face is a one in a billion piece of luck."

"Nobody lives forever," Tavius said, standing next to the mercenary. One of the Zero doubles flanked him, and in seconds a wall of people stood between the three Shepards and the reporter.

"Why don't you crawl back under your rock," Jack said, her pointed finger glowing with biotics. Khalisah stumbled backwards, almost bumping into Hunakai.

"Would hate for anything … untowards … to happen," Ishell said, one hand resting on his pistol.

"Sergeant," the Alliance lieutenant said loudly, "I think Miss al-Jilani needs a protective escort out of the area. This crowd looks ready to lynch someone."

The sergeant looked at the quiet, peaceful crowd, filled with nothing more than a couple of dirty glares, and grinned. "Sir, I concur. Corporal Suzuki, escort the reporter safely out of the area."

"You can't do this!" Khalisah shouted. "This is blocking freedom of the press!"

"It's ensuring your safety, ma'am," he said, watching six marines forcibly drag the reporter away. "Commander, Lieutenant Nelson. Hope that helps."

"It means I don't have to teach that goddamn idiot what oppression is," Faridah spat.

"Thank you, Nelson," Angela said, giving him a quick handshake. "We need to get back into the Terminus now."

He nodded, turning back to his platoon. "Marines, attention! Salute!" To their crisp gesture of respect, the first shuttle of Normandy crew lifted off.


Dossier: Sue

Sue is one of the Subject Zero duplicates. Like Jack, he went through the Pragia facility, supposedly in Quistis' universe. Despite his biotics, that Pragia was focused more on turning biotics into more traditional super-soldier types, leaving Sue with training most closely resembling Vanguard training. Unlike most Alliance Vanguards, he uses an assault rifle instead of a shotgun in combat, his biotics mostly tuned to enhancing his physical attributes.


Dossier: Jayne

Jayne is the other Subject Zero duplicate. His past was also on Pragia, which in Bradley's universe apparently had multiple facilities. Unlike the other two, he has no biotics at all, and was instead subjected to at least a dozen genetic enhancements. Estimates are that Jayne can outwrestle an average krogan, and has bragged about being able to wield a shotgun with each hand. Upon meeting Joker, the soldier had to be restrained from breaking the pilot over some altercation about a hat.