Ok, Turrians and Asari out there. Starting almost instantly after the End of Mass Effect 3. I decided not to continue from where I was previously due to obvious conflicts with ME 3. I will keep it all under the same story, however so no one gets lost.

Now... My chosen ending to ME 3? Synthesis. Mwhahaha. Why? Because I've figured out how it would work to become part synthetic/organic, and I think it's pretty damned cool.

Also, I figure it might solve some... ::Cough:: Issues that I avoided before because I do like to make things as realistic as possible. I will say no more on that subject, but start (continue) the story. This will be a short start I think, to kick things off in the direction I want them to go.

And there will be scars. ME 3 was way to intense for their to be no scars.

Dear Bioware. I no longer want a pet Reaper. I realize now that my request would have been hard to fulfill given the fact that the Reapers were engaged in a battle for Earth. In the place of the pet Reaper, I would instead like a pet EDI. Thank you for your consideration.

"I'm still getting used to the eyes. I mean, I know I still see the way I did before, but I'm not sure about the whole 'information processing' thing. It's not that I need to see 'Garrus Vakarian, Turian Male' your height, your weight, what you had for breakfast this morning..."

Listening to Joker ramble, even when he used air quotes to emphasize what he was saying was more like background noise than anything else. Paying attention was easy enough. It seemed that every member of the Normandy had gained a perfect memory from... Whatever had happened to them. If he wanted to know what was being said, he would be able to pull it up like pulling a file from a computer. His gaze was settled on the Normandy, looking over the damage that had been caused by the crash. There were entire sections of the ship missing. Including both port side thrusters. As he was learning could often happen when he focused hard enough, information started to scroll through his vision. He had adapted to it more quickly than most of the others. It worked in a very similar manor to his visor.

The information he had called up was directed at what would be needed to repair the ships hull. Raw materials, measurements, man power, energy requirements. Most of which he had serious doubts they could manage to acquire. The fact that he was naturally pessimistic (he liked the tear realistic, but he followed Jade's lead this time) hadn't changed at all. In fact, outside of the physical, no one seemed to have changed.

"But I can almost feel my body fixing itself. Watch this, watch this!"

Feeling obligated to comply, Garrus turned his eyes towards the human. Blinking once as he watched the man who had been crippled from birth jump three times. Nothing that would have been surprising for a normal human, but for someone with his condition the Turian expected bones to shatter right before he crumpled to the ground in agony. Blinking slowly when this didn't happen, he couldn't resist the grin that flared his mandibles when Joker let out a laugh that was as delighted as a child's. And then winced as he sat down to rub his shins.

"Ok, so I'm not perfect. That's not the point! I can walk! I can jump! Give me a few weeks and I'll be able to run around shooting random bad guys with the rest of you."

"You should not push yourself, Jeff," EDI's calm tone chimed in, though even that was edged with warmth. "We're not even sure if this change is permanent, or if it is simply a short term side effect of activating the Crucible."

Garrus tuned them out again as he turned his attention to the Normandy again, his gaze shifting to Tali as she climbed out of the airlock. "How does she look?" he called, making his way towards her with some kind of hope in his eyes.
Hope that dropped when she shook her head slowly, turning to face the Normandy herself.

"It would take a miracle just to get general systems back on line," she said honestly. "We might be able to get the lights working by hooking up power cells, which will at least let us work. Anything beyond that would take months... If we can do anything at all. I'm not even sure we can get the core back online the way things look now. Unless we stumble across something more likely to produce a mass effect field than trees and rocks. It would be like building a star-ship from scratch. Years. Maybe."

Meet me at the bar...

Damn the bar. Shepard was alive.

"I don't care how long it takes."

"I don't care how long it takes!" Shepard muttered, her eyes burning into the white haired soldier sitting beside her bed. All of the good deeds she had struggled to finish with so little support seemed to be paying off now in the end. She had been given the highest level of care available to anyone in a galaxy where worlds had been shattered, trillions were dead, and no one really knew what the future held. She couldn't say that she didn't appreciate it. When they had found her, they had almost given her up for dead.

Dumb luck. One breath. It was all it had taken for the crew searching the rubble to find her. What had been left of her, anyway. She still wondered if it was not a side effect of the... Synthesis that made it possible for her to survive at all.

"Shepard, the relays were destroyed," Hackett patiently explained again, knowing full well by this point that she didn't care. "We're still working on getting communications up with the rest of the galaxy. We're not even sure if..."

"The Reapers," she interrupted suddenly, trying to sit up in bed.

Hackett pressed one hand to her shoulder, and in a way that showed her exactly how weak she really way right now gently pushed her back. "We're not sure what's going on with the Reapers. They left the planet's surface, and retreated from the battle. We know where they are, and they know where we are. They still out number, and outgun us. But even as they withdrew they stopped firing. And right now, they're just out there. Silent."

Laying back with a slow sigh, she closed her eyes tiredly and gave a slow nod. "They won't attack again."

"Are you sure, Shepard?" he gently demanded, leaning down to look down at her.

Strange. The glowing eyes. The color was the same, the emotion in them could clearly be seen. But it was impossible to ignore the fact that they were not entirely... Human now. The same eyes that she saw when she looked into the mirror. Not that being only part human mattered in her case. She had been implanted with so many cybernetics after Cerberus rebuilt her that she had often wondered if she were more machine than woman. It was an old argument, and one that she was used to having with herself. Still, it gave her no comfort to realize that every living thing would ask themselves the same questions that had tormented her this past year.

But things remained the same in many ways. She could still feel as she had felt before. She could taste, well enough to know that she still hated hospital food. She could smell well enough to know that as soon as they let her stand, she wanted a shower. She felt her heart beating when she rested her hand on her chest. She knew that she was not a machine.

"I'm sure. I... Did this. I told you, my choice," she said sternly at his uncertain gaze. "It might not be exactly what everyone was expecting to happen at the end of this war, but it is. It was the only choice I was given that would ensure lasting peace. And when I did, when I stepped into the light, I could hear the Reapers. They have no need to fight us anymore. They have no desire to."

"That is good news at least." They were silent for a moment, and she watched as he turned his eyes towards the window beside her bed. Staring out at the blue gem that was their home. One planet. One planet in a galaxy of thousands, and they had survived. Life would go on. "It is strange. When the Reapers were withdrawing, no one even suggested that we follow them and take advantage of their sudden pacifism. And even now. We've made plans to defend ourselves if they do decide to attack again, and plans to rebuild. But no one has put forward an idea to send the fleets to finish the job."

"It makes sense," she consider, thinking out loud more than actually replying to a question that was never asked. "If what I feel is true, they are as organic now as we are synthetic. 'If we prick them, do they not bleed?' Something like that. Strange..."

Her mind was drifting again as sleep started to claim her. It was interesting. She could recall every detail of his face into her mind as if looking at an image on a screen. That cocky Turian grin, those predatory eyes, the way he tasted when they had kissed the last time. The memory was so clear and pleasant that her lips curved into a smile even as she slipped into the dark.

What do you want?

"I don't understand." She didn't understand. She was standing in the forest again, only now the forest was alive and breathing. The charred trunks, the smell of death... The lifeless feeling that had surrounded her before was gone. So were all feelings of dread, hopelessness, and uncertainty. It was calm, and she breathed in the wind as it rustled the leaves sparkling green at the end of each and every branch.

"What do you want?" The voice was the child's again, and when she turned to face the voice she found herself looking down at the same glowing figure she had encountered in the Crucible.

"What do I want?" she replied, frowning as she tried to grasp the meaning. "I have what I want. The Reapers have stopped. What am I doing here? Am I dreaming?"

"In a way," came the stoic reply from the not-child. "I called you here because you are the Catalyst. And you want something, but are not letting yourself reach it."

"I thought you were the Catalyst," she muttered, looking down at her hand for a moment as if expecting to see herself start glowing ghostly blue/white.

"I was the Catalyst. Once you gave your genetic material to allow the Synthesis, you became the Catalyst."

The simple explanation seemed to be enough for the moment, because she didn't feel the need to question that further. Instead, her gaze lifted to the not-boy in front of her again. "I just said..."

"You believed it was your duty to stop the Reapers. You wanted to save the galaxy, yes. But that has been done. And now you need to know what you want."

Silently she considered the words, and the question again. "I want.. Peace. You said that it would last if I did this."

With a patience she doubted that she herself lacked, the boy looked on her as calmly as ever. Reaching out, the glowing blue hand touched her lightly. She felt no desire to withdraw, no fear of what might happen when the touch came. When it did come, it was as warm and gentle as one might expect from flesh and blood. Which in mind, confirmed the fact that she was dreaming. "That is what you wish for the galaxy. For a moment, forget that anything else exists. Forget what has been asked of you, and forget what you feel you should answer. What do you want?"

In silence, she lowered herself to her knees in the soft grass to come face to face with the boy. When there was nothing else in her mind, when she was completely honest with herself, there was only one answer that mattered.

"I want Garrus."

"This is Hackett," came the voice through the com she had requested. "Shepard, I hope you're not out of bed again. The doctors tell me you're recovering quickly, but that won't last if you keep trying to..."

"I'm not out of bed, sir," she replied with a slight sigh. She was telling the truth. She had been laying away for the better part of two hours, just staring up into the darkness with eyes that could ironically see right through it. "I have a request that is going to sound strange."

There was only a short pause before the reply came though. "At this point, Shepard, you could ask the combined Alliance fleets to sing an Asari lullaby and they would. I'm sure that more than a few Krogan would join in, too."

A wisp of a smile crossed her lips as she gave serious consideration to that option. "That would be something, sir."

She had struggled with herself about it. The memory of what had been a dream was very clear in her mind, as were the words of the Catalyst. Former Catalyst if what it had said was to be taken at face value.

She would risk it. She would risk anything.

"I need a message to be sent to the Reapers."

The longer pause that followed made her wonder if there was actually a chance that her request would be denied. Given her history with requesting help, needing help and being turned down by her most obvious sources there was a small part of her that almost expected it at this point, no matter what the Admiral said.

"What do you want the message to say?"

She released a slow sigh at the simple reply, and she knew the tone. He wasn't asking her for security reasons, or questioning why she wanted to send the message. He simply needed to know what the message to send.

"Tell them that Commander Shepard wants to meet." The pause that followed was her own. A moment that she needed to take a breath, and steel herself for something that she never in all of her life expected she would actually want to do.

"With Harbinger."

And so it begins! I choose my ending based on what I felt would best allow me to continue my story as I saw fit. And so I shall. Not sure how quickly the updates will come, but they will come.

Review, people. Review, or I'll unleash Javik on you all!