Music:
On the Normandy: My Fault, Imagine Dragons
Fight music: Tom Sawyer, Rush; TEARS, by HEALTH; Texx Mahrs by 12th Planet and DatsiK
Epilogue: Champagne Supernova, by Oasis
Complete playlists are linked to the author's profile
On board the Normandy
James
Shepard felt every bit as good in his arms as he remembered. Just like the time he kissed her years ago, he lost himself in the feel, the taste, and the presence of her.
"You know," James mused when they came up for air, "I think this is the first time we've been alone since the last time we met on Earth."
"You're right." Shepard pulled back to look at him with undeniable lust. "Oh, this is happening. EDI, lock the doors," she said in a voice like silk, tugging his shirt up.
"Yes, Commander."
"What, now?" He looked over his shoulder at the door the led to the bridge, but he didn't hesitate to shed his Alliance tee.
"I'm tired of waiting for a better time, aren't you?" She sat back on the long table behind her and loosened his wide belt. Her fingers dipped behind it to skim the fine hairs below his navel. The hard muscles of his abdomen knotted at her electric touch.
She sucked in a breath. "Better than I imagined."
"Thought about this a lot, have you?"
"I had a lot of spare time recently." Spreading her fingers, she explored the tattoos on his upper chest and arms. He flexed for her with a cocky smile.
His smile turned into a grin when she bit her lip and hummed in her throat. "Very, very nice, Jimmy. Do you do anything but work out?"
He chuckled. "I had a lot of time recently, too."
She claimed his mouth again, sucking at his lower lip, and he struggled against an impulse to just throw her down on the table. Though he thought she'd probably like it if he did, he also wanted to draw this out as long as he could.
His hands swept up, tugging her shirt free. None of the tattoos he remembered still darkened her pale skin. The only ink that adorned her now was an image of a reaper which dominated her back. Though disturbing in its probable context, there was something incredibly sexy about the way the image contracted as he skimmed his fingers down her spine.
"Why a reaper?" he asked, reveling in the feeling of her soft skin.
"A reminder. Even if I lived forever they would still hunt me."
The thrill of danger which always surrounded her sparked him into action, and for a long moment all he was aware of was the brush of her skin and her breath as they rid themselves of the last offending garments.
He pushed her backward until she lay flat on the table, then spread his large hands under her hips to lift her up to put his warm, soft lips to the cleft between her legs. Her legs stiffened at his touch and she gripped the edge of the table until her knuckles were white. When she shuddered out her release, he lowered her to the table and unfastened his belt, stepping between her thighs.
But she shoved him back and slid off the table to kneel on the ground in front of him. "My turn."
He sucked in a breath when she began to work him with her hands and mouth. "Dios. You're blowing my mind, Lola."
"Is that what I'm doing?" she murmured, her voice muffled against his skin. He leaned against the table, weak-kneed.
But after a minute he lifted her back up. "You can do that later all you want, but I need to move this along or I'm gonna lose it."
He made love to her hard and fast against the edge of the polished table. When her body spasmed with another release her hands slipped off his shoulders. He caught her before she could fall backward, looking into her half-lidded eyes as her clenching muscles drew him to completion. He could have easily spent all day taking his fill of her, but all too soon reality stepped in.
"Commander, there is significant reaper activity at the original coordinates. Ms. Lawson sent a new set. You may wish to observe the scans of the new area. ETA, approximately twenty minutes."
"Roger that, EDI," Shepard said breathlessly. She lay back on the table, stretching her flushed arms over her head.
The only sound in the room was their labored breathing. He looked down at her, sweaty and disheveled on the table, and rubbed his mohawk in agitation.
"You're beautiful. Fuck. We have to go fight some reapers and all I can think about is fucking you again. We have the worst timing."
She heaved an exhausted, satisfied sigh. "At least we had this time together first."
"No, don't play it cool. Listen to me." He pulled her up to a sitting position. "This isn't something I want to happen once and then we go our separate ways. It's a done deal with me. I want us to be together. If you don't want that, I'll respect it - but it'll fucking kill me."
"I'd rather be with you than anyone else. Except for my father, of course, but that's different," she said, putting her arms around his neck. "You make me feel like nothing bad can happen. I wonder if I'm still dead and this is some kind of afterlife."
He made a purring sound. "You feel alive to me, mamacita." Then his eyes popped wide. "Wait. Did you say your father? You actually met him?"
"I hired him for the Omega mission. I'm sure you've read his dossier. Zaeed Massani."
"He's your father?" Relief shot through him. Massani hadn't seemed like easy competition.
But after moment of thought, he shrugged. "Actually that explains a lot about why you are… you. Your reputations are both pretty badass. Your mom must have been a knockout, though, 'cuz you sure don't get your looks from him."
At this, she winced uncertainly. "I hope I'll get the chance to introduce you to him. I think he'd like you."
"Hey, we've just got to get to the base, right? We see whatever Miranda cooked up and you push the big red button. Easy." He began pulling on his clothes.
She frowned and grabbed her shirt. "If that's all there is, then what does she need me for? It's never that simple. But I'll handle it."
"We'll handle it together. From now on, I'm not leaving your side."
The scans revealed more than a dozen reapers laying waste to the area around the original landing zone to the north. A secret entrance connected to the ancient underground roadway where Miranda set up her base, but outside it hordes of husks, marauders and banshees ran patrols, killing everything in their path.
Muffled sounds of combat penetrated the hull of the shuttle, the faint patter of human gunfire cutting the silence between the sonic booms of reaper cannons. The floor slanted as Cortez swerved the shuttle to avoid incoming fire.
James watched Shepard reach up to grab the handhold by the door to steady herself with one armored hand, picturing one more time the way she looked sprawled naked across the conference table in the CIC boardroom. They exchanged a private smile and his face heated up when her eyes raked over him suggestively.
Nicky cleared his throat to get her attention. "Commander Shepard, thanks for letting me lead the support team. I won't let you down."
"I know you won't, Nicky."
"Do you think we really have a chance?"
"Yes, but we can't win with traditional warfare. That's why going to this secret base is our best bet over joining the fleet. If we can find a back door to the reapers, some way to even the odds, then we will defeat them. But that's my job. Your job is to help us get to the gate and to attract as little attention to yourselves as possible. That's all."
She faced the rest of the squad. "You're to retreat to the shuttle pickup as soon as James and I reach the gate. I don't want to see any heroics. This is a simple escort mission. None of you are to try facing down a reaper."
The sound of a reaper cannon firing close by thickened the tension in the shuttle cabin. Shepard met their apprehensive looks with a confident smile. "Don't hide from what you're feeling. Fear is healthy. It makes you strong. It tells you when you need to pay attention. And there's only one way to deal with fear: face it. If you don't face it, you're already dead. Are you alive, Sergeant Nicky?"
Nicky stood up a little straighter at her challenge. "Yes, Commander."
Her assertive gaze swept over the others. "What about the rest of you? Are you alive?" she asked, her voice rising.
"Yes, ma'am!" they answered her, their spirits visibly rising.
James grinned in admiration while she continued her pep talk. She earned her reputation as a leader with good reason.
"When this door opens, you will be more alive than ever before. This is the last firefight before the final battle, the last time the reapers have the upper hand. You'll be telling your grandkids about today, so now is the time to fucking show up. Are you with me?" she shouted.
"Yes, ma'am!"
The final cheer of the men and women on the shuttle was nearly - but not quite - drowned out by the whine of the engine as they began to descend. At Shepard's nod, James punched the door mechanism and let the cacophony of the battle below flood into the cabin. With her helmet tucked under one arm, she leaned through the open door to look at the ground as it rose to meet them. Groundfires burned freely, lighting her face from below and making the wisps of red hair that escaped the bun at her neck look like an extension of the flames as her serene face took in the battlefield.
Cortez lowered the shuttle to hover a few meters from the ground and shouted through the cockpit hatch. "Good luck!"
"See you in a few hours, Esteban," James called out, then followed Shepard's leap to the ground with the others close behind.
The towers of the London megalopolis were scattered like straws across the cityscape, sheared clean from their bases. The once-graceful metallic curves of the architecture now reflected, instead of blue skies, the flashes of explosions and black clouds from the burning city below, an eerie scene set against the backdrop of the night sky.
The long open space where they stood had once been a residential block like the one where he had lived as a child, perched on the edge of the old spaceport landing field. Slagged columns of steel jutted out of the ruins with rivers of molten metal still trickling out of the pilings like a bleeding wound. They crept along the edge of the depression where the block had caved into the garage, headed toward the gate on the far side.
The nearby sound of a firefight echoed off the remaining buildings from the north, interspersed with the deep, resounding boom of a reaper's cannon. It vibrated through James' feet and all the way into his molars. The acrid taint of burning plasticrete and heavy metals, remnants from the reaper's superior firepower, penetrated his helmet's filters. The odor clung thickly to the back of his throat.
Shepard took point, leading them from cover to cover as they picked their way through the debris toward their goal. Everywhere James looked around the square, he could see the bobbing crests of reapers above the remaining rooftops as they lay waste to the area to the north. The gargantuan enemies focused on their one and only strategy: complete obliteration of everything in their way. Fortunately none were facing their little group, but James doubted it would stay that way for long.
The entrance to Miranda's base was nothing more than a road leading underground with very little security visible, aside from a few turrets tucked under the eaves of the guardhouse.
"Smart," James muttered as they inched their way closer to the gate in front of the base, tagging stragglers with the scope of his sniper rifle. "No one will be looking here with the spaceport right across the way."
"That will change if one of them sees my face. All those destroyers will stop what they're doing to come after me. If that happens we'll have to make a run for it."
Shepard activated a drone and sent it on a scanning sweep before ducking back into cover with the rest of them. She typed a sequence into her omni-tool and whispered to the team. "Marauders and husks at eight o'clock. We won't make it across without them seeing us so we need to get a surprise advantage. I've activated warp ammo for the team. Remember to focus on the marauders first. Wait for my signal."
They crouched behind a low, broken wall of plasticrete and reinforced steel as the horde passed. The marauder's spiked helmets swiveled back and forth as they led the husks through the killing field. The husks loped along behind them with their long arms trailing the ground, the unnatural brilliance of their blue-veined bodies proving the macabre travesty of humanity they had become.
When the last one shuffled past, Shepard called out, "Now!"
Nicky's team hammered the marauders with heavy weapons and tech damage from a distance. The glow of Shepard's omni-tool drew a crescent of orange light across James' vision as she sent a crackling web of lighting into the husks, stunning them. James pumped round after round into the marauders leading the horde.
A husk ran by with flames trailing behind, mindlessly attacking friend and foe. The marauders recovered and attacked with the single-minded determination of the living dead. Shots sparked against Shepard's shield, illuminating her resolute face behind the faceplate of her helmet. To James' eyes, she looked more predatory than he'd ever seen her.
It seemed they had almost won when a piercing, terrifying scream ripped through the air. Across the field, James saw the grotesque blue form of a banshee appear, followed by several more of its kind. Once asari commandos, banshees were one of the more potent reaper creations.
"Dammit! I hate fighting banshees," Shepard hissed, peering at the creatures through the rubble she hid behind.
"You've fought worse," James said.
"Their biotics are more powerful than mine. It pisses me off. "
"Sorry to hear we didn't install equipment up to your expectations, Commander," Miranda's voice came over the comm. "Sending some help your way."
The crooked, long-limbed banshees flitted across the field with biotic boosts until they halted on top of the marines. Their shrieking battle-cries echoed over the killing field.
"We don't have time to screw around. Let's make directly for the gate," Shepard said to James, and sprinted out of cover.
"Hell yes! Let's do this!" Ducking out of cover, James unloaded his shotgun into the nearest banshee as he ran after her.
"Support team, fall back to the rendezvous point!" Shepard shouted over the fray.
As she ran, a banshee flitted across to loom behind her. Time slowed for James and he watched in horror as the grotesque grin of the banshee widened, its long fingers ripping upward on the back of Shepard's armor. It tore through the underarmor at the back of her neck. Her helmet spun off in the opposite direction while she sailed through the air, slammed into the crumbling wall and fell to the ground.
"Shepard! No!" James ran toward her limp form, his legs and arms pumping.
The banshee quivered, then stalled as it powered up for another blast, its black eyes staring unblinkingly at Shepard's still form. Its thin blue lips curled back over its needle-sharp teeth in a rictus grin. The jaw of the creature seemed to unhinge as it let out another bloodcurdling scream.
A grenade rolled from his hand under the banshee's bare feet as he passed and he slid into cover feet-first, sheltering the commander from the explosion with his body. He could hear the rest of the squads unloading on the towering banshee as they retreated while he gathered Shepard in his arms and bolted directly for the gate.
The gate dropped to admit them and the turrets spun into activity, spitting a stream of nonstop fire into the banshees. When he reached the door at the bottom of the decline, it opened and a familiar figure in yellow armor stepped out.
Zaeed's sniper rifle trained on the closest banshee and the bang of its powerful concussive shot rang out in the narrow space. "Get inside!" he shouted.
Shepard stirred. She saw something over James' shoulder and pulled out his sidearm to fire shots behind them while he ran into the open doorway, not letting up until the shielded inner doors clanged shut.
When he stopped, she slid out of his arms unsteadily. He held onto her until she caught her balance again. Her face lit up when she saw Zaeed, but before she could say anything he was all over her.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Zaeed asked. "Running into all those banshees with no backup... you gave me a goddamn heart attack!"
James shuffled back a step when Shepard pushed him away to get in Massani's face with a look that easily matched his in anger. "Don't tell me how to run my mission! And what exactly are you doing here, anyway? You're supposed to be hiding out until the trial blows over."
"You stopped calling the shots when we came back through the relay, remember? I go where I please." Zaeed sniffed and adjusted his chest plate. "Miranda pays top dollar for good security. Plus I wanted to be nearby, just in case."
"She was in good hands," James said, holding out his hand. "It's an honor to meet you, sir."
"Sir?" Ignoring James' outstretched hand, Zaeed looked at Shepard. "The fuck is this?"
"This is James, he's my... ah..." She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she sought for the right word. She was nervous, James realized. This was new ground for her too.
Zaeed wheeled around to glare at him. "Oi! You shagging my daughter?"
"Um." James' mouth worked, his eyes shifting rapidly between Zaeed and Shepard. "I mean, we…"
Zaeed exploded into laughter, surprising him. "You poor sod! She'll eat you alive."
Shepard shoved her father with one gloved hand. "That's not funny. You can be such a jerk sometimes. This is James. The one that was friends with Tom, remember? I told you about him."
"You knew my boy?" Zaeed eyed him speculatively.
"Yeah. We were real close for a couple of years."
"Oh yeah?" He jerked his head at his daughter. "She talks like he was an angel."
"An angel?" James scoffed. "Tom was always getting me grounded or called into the principal's office at school. I was the careful one of the two of us. That should tell you something."
Zaeed's thin lips curved into a slight smile. "That right?"
James nodded, still chuckling. "Man, could I tell you some stories."
"I'd like to hear 'em. Must've been a lot going on behind the camera during that trial too. I about pissed myself when she called the court-martial board assholes." He rasped a laugh and reached out to ruffle Shepard's hair.
"When this is over we should have a drink and shoot the shit."
"Right on. First round's on me, old man."
A shapely brunette in a skin-tight white bodysuit approached them. James recognized Miranda from her file. "The reapers are moving this way. I think they know you're here. We don't have much time."
"What else is new?" Shepard muttered.
"There's more," she added. "The reapers have brought the Citadel here."
"The Citadel?" Shepard's eyes widened. "Of course, it's the gateway! They'll use it to bring the capital ships through. We've only seen the little destroyers so far."
"Those were the little ones?" James asked incredulously.
Shepard had to jog to follow Miranda to the lift. "What's this secret weapon? Will it help against a reaper like Sovereign?"
"It's-" Miranda hesitated. "It's best to show you, I think." The lift began to descend.
Shepard raised an eyebrow, then turned on Zaeed for answers.
"You're not gonna like it, love," Zaeed said, shaking his head.
The lift slowed to a stop and Miranda led them down a long hallway toward a large, heavily shielded door. They passed through it to a wide platform that looked out over a chasm, the top part of which had once been a central hub for the old underground rail system. The roughly cylindrical hollow extended about fifteen stories under the surface, James thought, but he couldn't see the bottom of the chamber.
The platform where they stood hugged the wall, part of a massive scaffolding that extended all the way up to ground level. In the center of the framework, thick cables secured an enormous human-like construct at the shoulders, its legs dangling into the dark abyss. The head hung over them, its lidless eyes dark and empty. Inside its open maw, layer after layer of jagged rings stretched into its throat.
At the end of the short walkway, the chest cavity split open and the platform led directly - ominously, James thought - inside.
"No," Shepard said, shaking her head in openmouthed horror. She paced back and forth on the walkway, examining the - whatever it was - with wide eyes. "You didn't. I destroyed it. I blew that thing up on the other side of Omega."
Shepard stormed up to Miranda, who to her credit didn't bat an eyelash in the face of Shepard's naked fury. "This is what you brought me here for? You know how many people they killed to power this thing. It has liquefied human beings in its veins! Where did you get the material to finish it? Did you- did you-"
"I didn't mass murder any humans, Shepard. We stole the Illusive Man's supply."
"Is that supposed to make it better?" James interjected. "Man, I knew this was gonna be fucked up. What the hell is that thing?"
"It's a human reaper," Miranda said. "We found the Collectors building it on the other side of the Omega 4 Relay. Shepard set the base to blow up, but Cerberus sent other ships through the relay with us."
"I should have known he'd hedge his bet." Shepard shook her head tightly.
"The Illusive Man wanted access to reaper technology. After serving with Shepard, however, she convinced me that I could no longer support his goals."
"It was you that started the Cerberus rebellions," Shepard said with an air of discovery.
"And won them," Miranda said, putting her hand on her hip.
Shepard folded her arms across her chest. "If you had this thing all this time, why do you need me here? Deploy it."
"It's not that simple. The reapers designed this shell like their own, probably their way of procreating. The human reaper is meant to have its own sentient neural network: an artificial intelligence. We knew the reapers would mount a swift counterattack after our trip through Omega 4 and it takes more time than we had to create an AI up to the task. Instead, we designed it for human interface."
"Human interface," James repeated flatly.
A heavy silence settled over them and all eyes focused on Shepard.
She swallowed. "You have got to be shitting me. I blew off supporting the Alliance fleet so you could turn me into another freak show?"
"We designed it to interface perfectly with the implants I inserted before your resurrection. You'll be the most powerful human that has ever lived. The reapers think Earth is the front line. It isn't. The front line is you." Miranda jabbed her finger at the reaper shell. "With this, you can save everyone. You can fight them on their level and make sure they never come back."
Shepard looked up at the monstrous shell. A tremor from the surface shook through the scaffolding and the sound of hydraulic adjustments at the joints hissed and echoed through the chamber, flaking ice off its metal skin. James saw the moment when her look changed to one of resignation.
"They'll indoctrinate her," James objected, suddenly desperate to stop this from happening. All their talk of being together earlier seemed like a joke. "She'll become one of them."
Miranda shook her head. "She can't be indoctrinated. We made sure of that when we rebuilt her. She'll still be herself, just a lot more powerful."
"You don't have a problem with this?" James asked Zaeed, who shrugged.
"She can handle it. She can handle anything, that's why they hate her so much." The mercenary's voice rung with pride.
"Can she – I don't know, disconnect? After she kicks ass?" James asked.
Miranda frowned. "It's not a mech suit. Maybe, if we don't leave her in there too long. Once the connections become strong enough they may be impossible to break."
"People are dying while I stall." Shepard said with a grim to look James. "I'm sorry. She's right. I can't pass up this chance. There never seems to be time for us."
All James could think was that he wanted to grab her and run. "You don't have to do this."
"She does," Miranda said. "Or everyone dies."
"I wasn't talking to you," James snapped. "This is her choice. You aren't going to force her."
"She doesn't have to force me. She's right. I have to do this. But…" She looked up at the human reaper shell with anxiety furrowing her brow.
He studied her for a moment, then slowly nodded. "I'll cut you out with my combat knife if I have to. I'll bring you back, I swear."
He kissed her, mindless of the audience, until he felt her pushing him away.
"Good." She released a deep breath. "Then I'm not afraid."
"You'll have to remove your armor," Miranda said.
Shepard pulled off piece after piece of the plates until she was left standing in her underarmor, the black one-piece clinging to every curve of her body. James stared with undisguised longing until Zaeed coughed conspicuously.
"How long will it take to learn to control it?" Shepard asked.
"It won't be any different than controlling your own body. It's tailored to you at every level. Some connections will take a little longer to develop, but the basic processes, like movement, should come very quickly. I envy you this chance, Shepard." Miranda gazed up at her creation with her hands clasped behind her back.
Shepard said goodbye to her father. The older man said something quiet in her ear that James couldn't hear. She nodded, kissed Zaeed on the cheek, cast one more look at James, and climbed into the heart of the human reaper.
Cables coiled around her, lifting her arms and legs. A deafening hissing sounded from behind her; she grimaced and cried out in pain. Her eyes clenched shut. James walked slowly backward out of the path of the door that slowly shut over her, unwilling to tear his eyes from her face until the last possible second.
Miranda activated the lift. They elevated past the massive head of the human reaper. The light on the lift reflected eerily off its skin as they passed, casting strange shadows through the chasm. The eyes of the reaper flickered to life, dimmed, then shone steadily. James stared into the glowing circle, trying to detect some sign of the woman he loved.
"Excellent," Miranda said with a pleased smile. "Just as I expected. She's integrating quickly. This transition should be easy for her with the amount of trauma she's accustomed to processing."
James bristled at this callous remark, and one look at Zaeed told him he wasn't the only one tired of seeing Shepard used. "This had better be worth it," he said to her, a warning implicit in his voice.
When they reached the top of the framework, they stood at ground level on the edge of the spaceport's older airstrip. The nighttime sky choked with clouds of dust and smoke, but the steady wind on the landing field allowed James to catch a glimpse of the the Citadel suspended in space near the waning moon.
His jaw dropped as the arms of the space station spread wide, opening like a flower, and an almost blinding light streamed out. In all the times he'd been on the Citadel, he'd never seen it do that.
"More reapers coming through," Zaeed said, checking his omni-tool. "Capital ships, from the looks of it."
The platform must have taken them horizontally as well as vertically during their original descent because James could see the battle still raging, but to the east now. As he watched, one of the reapers cleaved off another of London's elegant spires with a beam of fiery plasma from its cannon, then danced backward on its insect-like legs when the structure came tumbling down toward it. The sound of the reaper's cannon echoed off the barricades around the landing strip.
The platform he was standing on began to move. Knocked off balance, James grabbed the handrail. The aperture underneath them widened, taking the platform with it along the ground as it opened,until the chasm below was completely exposed. When James peered over the edge of the rail he saw movement in the darkness.
"She's coming up," Miranda announced with excitement.
"Already?" James asked. His stomach clenched in anxiety.
There was no need for Miranda to answer. Right at that moment two enormous hands clamped on opposite sides of the shaft and the first human reaper launched herself out of the ground, landing in a crouch. James had seen Shepard move just like that when they leaped from the shuttle what seemed like a few minutes ago.
The head swung around until its bright eyes settled on the group of them. Her head cocked to the side and she flicked off a salute.
"I knew it," Zaeed said, returning the gesture. "It's still her."
Evidently Shepard could hear them because she nodded slightly at her father's comment, the cables winding around her neck creaking with the movement.
A resonant boom made Shepard twist to look over her shoulder. On the far side of the landing field another residential block collapsed into the ground. A reaper destroyer rose out of the thick cloud of dust and heat, heading south.
They hadn't noticed her yet, but they soon would. Shepard straightened up, up, and kept going until at her full height she was taller than the destroyer. The ground shook as she took her first ponderous steps toward her enemy and away from where James, Zaeed, and Miranda stood.
The reaper altered its course to meet her. To the north and west, more reapers rose above the remaining buildings and headed her way.
James felt dizzy, then realized he had stopped breathing. "Oh man, this place is gonna get hot," he said, flipping the comm open. "Cortez, we need pickup on my coordinates."
"Just dropped the others on the Normandy. On my way."
"Those destroyers shouldn't give her much trouble," Miranda said. "But we can go below if you like."
"And miss this? She'd never forgive us. I'm taking the shuttle too." Zaeed clapped James' armored shoulder. "Just wait till the capital ships show up. They won't want to miss a chance to dance with our girl."
The closest destroyer's forward panel slid aside to reveal its cannon. James felt the gathering power in the air. The reaper fired and the Shepard reaper ducked to the side, jamming her hand inside the panel before it could close. She ripped it off, sending the panel flying across the field behind her. It drove a deep groove in the ground, hit the edge of the crumbling runway, then flipped end over end until it crashed into the barricade with a sound like a thunderclap.
Shepard gripped the destroyer from the inside, swung it over her head and slammed it into the ground so hard that it exploded, flinging her backward. She crashed into a glass-faced office building, sending a shower of glass pouring over her shoulders and neck.
"Get up!" James shouted. "You're surrounded."
Zaeed pumped his fist in the air. "Get your arse off the ground!"
Two more superheated streams of plasma struck the wall near her head. Shepard jerked down and took cover behind a partially demolished skyscraper until the cannons depleted. Setting her sights on the mass of destroyers, she put one foot in front of the other, pounding through the city toward her enemy faster and faster, hurdling over buildings and ruins like a marathoner. Every step she took vibrated through the ground like an earthquake while James and Zaeed cheered her on.
With a flying leap, Shepard slammed into one of the destroyers feet-first. It hammered into the ground and skidded through the debris, kicking up an immense plume of dust and black smoke in its wake. Her massive fingers dug into the plasticrete roadway to slow down, then she pivoted on one knee and launched herself at the floundering destroyer. With three lightning-fast punches she pummeled its cannon into its midsection, then pried the panels off with a piercing scream of ripping metal. Her fingers yanked out the plasma core of the cannon, tearing through the thick cables and wires, and held the sparking device up for the other reapers to see before tossing it over her shoulder.
The watching destroyers hadn't been idle during this fight. They swarmed just out of her reach, firing on her at every opportunity. She dodged them fluidly, a dance of strength and heightened perception that had James shouting in admiration. "That's it! Go, Lola!"
Grabbing the broken reaper shell by its crest, she swung it at the other reapers like a mace. The destroyers swung just out of range, powering their cannons back up.
James turned around, hearing Cortez approach in the shuttle, and the three of them jumped on board. "Move south of the field," he instructed Cortez. "Let's watch from a safe distance."
The Shepard reaper was surrounded by more than a dozen destroyers, all of their cannons powering at once. Her hands clanged together and pushed forward reflexively, a move which, in her human form, would have activated her biotic shield. When the reapers fired together, a shimmering dome of light surrounded her and the blast absorbed into it, rippling with color and energy. All of the windows on the block around her simultaneously blew out and one of the closer buildings began an uneven collapse.
"Yes!" Miranda shouted. "She found her biotics!"
"She's still biotic?" James asked, unable to believe his own eyes.
"She can do anything she can do as a human being, only better."
Surprised, Shepard stumbled backward. When her shield dropped, one of the reapers hit her and flung her down the road until her shoulders came to rest against the garage by the spaceport terminal. The structure shifted under her weight and dozens of cars spilled out from under her arms.
"There's too many of them!" James shouted over the wind, leaning out of the doorway. "Shepard, get out of there!"
"She's just getting warmed up," Zaeed said. "Watch."
She rolled off the parking garage, shoving off the debris that impeded her, and in the same smooth movement she got to her feet and pounded back down the road to face the pack of reapers head-on. Her fist cocked back and grew to a painfully bright shade of white-blue with biotic energy before she ran behind a mass of collapsed buildings. A moment later a blinding flash erupted from the other side of the wreckage, followed by a roaring explosion that sent enormous chunks of debris flying through the air. Three of the reapers tumbled out from behind the building, flipping end over end and sparking electricity wildly into the night before crashing violently to the ground.
A loud, rhythmic hum descended over the field. James looked up to see a mammoth capital ship. It was two kilometers tall, more squidlike than its insectoid brothers. The leviathan's forward appendages, several times longer than the Normandy, spread open and a dull red glow appeared within its maw.
The Normandy's shuttle, tiny in comparison, hovered between the capital ship and Shepard. The panels opened and James stared directly into the open mouth of the largest barrel he'd ever seen. The air around them crackled with energy as the cannon powered up.
"We gotta move, Cortez!" James said, but he knew there was nowhere to run.
And then Shepard was between him and the reaper. She flipped over the shuttle with her feet arcing overhead, her eyes coming so close to the open door that James was certain she was looking directly at them. Her face turned toward her enemy and she thrust her hands forward to activate her shield. As massive as she was, the capital ship dwarfed her. He didn't realize he stepped toward the edge of the open hatch, his arm outstretched as if to help her, until Zaeed pulled him back.
A river of fire burst from the reaper cannon, its sonic boom so loud that James' ears rung and the shuttle vibrated violently. The blast radius was wider than Shepard's shield, but the beam of energy coursed around it without penetrating. She held her stance, straining against the powerful volley until it ran out. Then, racing up the reaper's shell with long strides and frog-like leaps, Shepard dove head-first into the cannon before the panels slid shut.
"Give 'im hell, Jazz!" Zaeed bellowed into the wind.
The reaper froze. A thumping sound came from inside its body. It swung left and right, tearing through the upper floors of the block beneath its grasping, tentacle-like appendages. A metallic screeching cut through the night air. It fell, crushing a swath of the city beneath it.
"That's my girl!" James shouted.
A front panel on the enormous reaper twisted outward as Shepard's feet kicked it open. She climbed out carrying a large black orb trailing with cables under one arm.
"A reaper AI core," Miranda said, breathless with anticipation.
"I'm guessing you're calling dibs on that," James said, eyeing her with distaste.
She planted her feet on the ground in front of the dead reaper with the core glowing between her hands. Painfully bright, the orb pulsed with energy so intense James could feel it against his skin.
Blue lightning licked down her arms and legs and stabbed into the ground, popping violently. The lightning spread to the destroyers around her, who shuddered and gyrated wildly under its influence.
A fog of blue energy lifted Shepard into the air. The reapers followed, their cannons closed and quiet. Glowing brighter and brighter blue, she shot upward, racing for the Citadel with the mass of reapers close behind.
"Bug out, Cortez!" he shouted, slamming the door shut. "Let's get back to the Normandy."
A few minutes later on board the Normandy, James, Zaeed, and Miranda watched from the cockpit of the ship as Shepard approached the Citadel. Rising out of the Earth's atmosphere, thousands of reapers followed behind her. A space battle had raged above Earth ever since the Reaper's arrival. How they held out this long James didn't know, but now the reapers broke off to join the others of their kind that amassed around the human reaper.
"Why aren't the reapers doing anything?" he wondered aloud.
Miranda shook her head, unable to tear her eyes from the spectacle.
EDI answered him. "The Commander has taken control of the reaper fleet in this system."
Shepard raised her left hand. A stream of light poured from the central hub of the Citadel into the AI core while the great cloud of reapers grew. They watched in suspenseful silence, barely breathing. The beam of light sputtered out and Shepard's arm swung through space so the globe was pointed at the Normandy.
"What's she doing?" he asked.
"Shepard accessed the reaper's network, amplifying her reach with the Citadel Mass Core. She has already converted all reapers in this system and the effect is spreading through the rest of the Mass Relay network." EDI's voice warbled with distortion. "Now she is moving... -nto the reaper... leave them without..."
The voice broke off, unintelligible. Several panels in the cockpit blinked out.
"EDI?" Joker asked, rapidly working the controls before twisting around to look at them in disbelief. "She's gone!"
"How is that possible?" Miranda asked, bending over the console.
But James couldn't think about the Normandy AI. The human reaper's eyes went dark and its limbs floated freely in space.
"It's time to get her out. Can you dock with that dark area in the center of its chest?"
"I think so," Joker replied.
Chakwas' staff waited with them by the airlock as it pressurized. James, remembering his promise, stood with his combat knife ready.
"Probably not gonna need that," Zaeed said.
"We'll see."
The door clanged open and Miranda stepped inside, scanning with her omni-tool. Before she could touch anything, the chest cavity drew open on its own.
At first all they could see were the churning veins of the human reaper as they uncoiled, filled with the liquefied remains of a million human beings. The undulating coils forced an irregular lump out from deeper inside, a tangle of wires wrapped in a thick membrane which was filled with viscous fluid. It thumped to the deck, almost as large as the corridor itself, and the coils retreated.
James sliced open the membrane. A wave of thick liquid slopped out so fast that he almost missed catching Shepard before she hit the deck. Where the cables had connected with her implants, holes were ripped through her underarmor, leaving red welts behind. She was covered with them from head to toe.
He scooped the goo out of her eyes and mouth. "Shepard? Shepard, can you hear me?"
Zaeed crouched nearby. "Come on, wake up!"
"Everyone, step back." Chakwas called out, shoving her way through. "Give me some room to work."
The doctor placed a device over her face which performed CPR. James leaned over Chakwas' shoulder, watching Shepard's face intently. Finally she coughed and sputtered. The collective breaths of everyone in the small chamber released at once.
"She's stable. Let's get her to the Med Bay," Chakwas ordered after a quick scan. They loaded her onto a stretcher.
"What happened to EDI?" Miranda asked as they walked to the lift behind the stretcher.
"She's the human reaper now," Shepard said, her voice hoarse. "The reapers... they were still just... children. EDI will teach them compassion for other sentient beings... and love."
"She's the perfect choice." Miranda nodded in approval. "Most AI's are created in a lab, but EDI was discovered on a moon substation, the only naturally occurring AI we've ever discovered. With her unique perspective, she'll be an excellent mother to them."
Shepard lifted her hands, shaking with exhaustion, and held them up against the lights that passed by overhead. Her face contorted into an expression of immeasurable sadness.
"I'm so small now," she whimpered, and burst into tears.
Zaeed, following behind them, laughed. "Small is one thing you'll never be."
Epilogue
Summer 2196, in a modest home on the coast of San Diego
James opened the door to the bedroom holding two mugs of coffee in one hand. He padded through the room in his pajama pants and sat on the edge of the bed where Shepard slept.
She lay on top of the tangled sheets in a pair of flannel shorts and one of his old tees, her long red hair inelegantly streaming over her slack-jawed expression. A few strands of silver now wound their way through her hair, sparkling in the beam of sunlight that shone across the bed.
He brushed the hair out of her eyes. "Hey. Time to get up. We've got a busy day today."
She groaned and slowly sat up, pushing her hair out of her face. It lay in tangles on top of her head while she blinked the sleep out of her eyes.
"Morning, Lola," he said, holding out one of the mugs.
She took it and smiled in greeting, wordlessly lifting her face in invitation. He bent to kiss her on the lips.
She dropped back on the pillow with a yawn. "Fine. Just don't tell me what time you got up. Morning people disgust me."
"You could get up with me if you didn't stay up all night working."
"Don't start that again. It's not like I was really working, anyway. I was helping Sam with his school project."
"I know. And I gotta say, you're pretty cute when you're sleepy."
She twisted her mouth at him sardonically and sat up, tugging at the tangles in her hair. When most of them had settled down, she lifted her left wrist and activated her omni-tool.
"Oh, no," James said, setting his mug next to hers and reaching for the black bracelet. "You promised. No omni-tool in the mornings. This is family time."
She scrambled across the bed away from him, bringing up the interface. "I just need to send a message to Sanshou about these last specs. I have a deadline - hey!"
"Assuming direct control!" James said, grabbing her ankle and dragging her back. He plucked it out of her hands and held it behind his back.
"Why, Mr. Vega," she said in a sultry tone, walking across the bed on her knees until their noses were practically brushing. "If I wanted to, I could get it back."
Her hand came up to his bicep and she began an exploration of the ridges and soft valleys of his well-muscled arm. She gave his bicep an irritated tap with one finger. He chuckled and flexed the arm. She cuddled up closer, her fingers so thorough in her examinations that he started laughing and bent down to kiss her again. When their lips met, she reached behind his back to get the bracelet, but he was ready for her.
"How dumb do you think I am?" he asked, tossing it away. The bracelet clattered to the floor and he pinned her arms to the bed beside her.
"If you think you can beat me by holding me down…" The hair on his arms stood on end as her biotic amps warmed up.
"I know I can't. But I also happen to know the human reaper's one and only weakness." Releasing her arms, his fingers tickled up her ribs under the t-shirt. The biotic field immediately collapsed. She shrieked and tried to push him away, breathless, but he yanked her back.
"Don't call me that, you know I hate that," she gasped.
"What would you rather I do?" he ask with a crooked grin, his fingers slowing into a caress.
"You can start by-"
She was interrupted by a high-pitched wail from the next room.
"Impeccable timing," James muttered.
"Shouldn't have tickled me. Never a good idea."
"Oh, I beg to differ. I can think of a number of times I've used it to both our advantage."
But he stood up, lending her a hand. She wrapped her arms around him contentedly, burying her face in his chest. He held her for a moment, then kissed the top of her head. "Duty calls, ma'am."
Light footsteps pattered down the hall outside their bedroom door. "I've got her!"
"She is fast," James said.
"I was the same way when I was six. All about the baby. Are the others up yet?"
"Tommy was up at the crack of dawn to go surfing, of course. Don't worry," he held up a hand to forestall her next question. "Uncle E was with him."
"Where's Sam?"
"On the back deck with his nose stuck in a book."
"Should have guessed." She smiled slyly. "So… since Jessica has the baby in hand, do you think we have some time before we have to make an appearance?"
"I believe we do. But we can't be too long. It's an important day."
They walked out of the room half an hour later, freshly showered. Both of them were dressed unusually formal, with James in a suit and tie and Shepard in a finely tailored pantsuit.
Emilio stood at the counter in the kitchen, frying up a large batch of scrambled eggs.
"You didn't have to cook for us, Em," Shepard said, stretching up to her toes to kiss his cheek.
"It's my pleasure. I've been looking forward to today for weeks. I get the kids all to myself."
"Have any plans?" Shepard asked, seating herself at a table surrounded with pictures on the wall of family vacations on various worlds. In the middle of them all hung the picture of her, her brother Tom, and little James at the San Diego Zoo.
"A picnic at the beach, then later we're going to watch the Championships on the big screen outside."
"Pop is here!" Tommy shouted, running into the house along with two wet dogs, all of them trailing wet sand across the kitchen. Shepard rose to her feet with a wordless cry around the bite in her mouth, almost knocking the table over as she shooed them all back out to wash their feet on the back step.
James turned to look when he heard the front door open. Zaeed entered the kitchen and opened the fridge. "You don't have anything good," he said sourly, slamming it shut.
"Want some eggs, Z?" Emilio asked, tilting the pan so he could see.
"Nah, I've got the brigade waiting outside. Thanks though, mate. I'll grab a bite when we get there." He surveyed James approvingly. "You clean up good, son."
"Thanks, Pop."
"And what about me?" Shepard said with her hands on her hips.
Zaeed crossed the room to put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her forehead. "I've told you a million times, you're the most beautiful woman in the world, love."
James scarfed down the last of his eggs and grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair. "All done."
The kids saw them off. Even little Rosie made an appearance, clinging to Jessica's hip. She took her thumb out of her mouth long enough to say, "You look pwetty, mama."
Shepard waved to them and put on her helmet, climbing onto the bike behind James. She rested her head on his wide back with her arms around his waist as they drove to the end of the drive, where the security escort waited. James smiled inside his helmet when he felt his wife squeeze him, and he knew she was thinking of another bike ride they had taken, long ago.
Zaeed climbed into the head car and the escort lifted like a flock of birds, soaring above the bike as it sped down the road to the newly-rehabbed Championship Park. In the ten years since the reaper invasion much of the city had been rebuilt, but they still passed by remnants of their destruction as they raced through the city. Sections of the once-majestic towers were still spread across the city, surrounded with memorials and signs for lost loved ones.
Their escort cleared out the media cams between them and the side entrance to the central tower. They rode into the small private garage, stopping at a space reserved for them. They parked the bike and rode up the elevator together, holding hands.
When they neared the top, he asked, "You ready?"
She smiled up at him. "Been waiting for this all my life."
The door opened. Camera lights shone from every direction and many voices babbled at once, all of them clamoring for their attention - but mostly for hers, James knew, and he was fine with that. She managed them like a pro, offering a soundbyte here and there and snubbing the reporters she disliked. From outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, an announcer's voice could be heard above a roaring crowd.
"No screaming teenagers this time," Shepard noted, snickering when he rolled his eyes.
"Seriously." He shuddered. "I'm surprised it doesn't bother you too."
"I can't blame them," she said, shrugging. "But I feel kinda bad for them since you're mine." She hooked her hand into his arm possessively.
They made their way through the crowd of reporters and fans, greeting their friends in the groups of humans, krogans, salarians, and other species that congregated in the room.
Finally they made it to where Cong stood in their private box. He took Shepard's hand with a smile, patting it paternally, and nodded to James.
"This is quite the spectacle. It's amazing what can be done in a short period of time."
"Ten years isn't a short period of time." Shepard said. "It's been a lot of hard work, but if there's one thing I've always known, it's that everyone loves a good game."
"You've done an amazing job of bringing the galaxy together with this event. I believe everything is prepared for you, my dear." Cong held a hand out to the patio in invitation.
Over the loudspeakers scattered throughout the arena, an announcer spoke in clipped, expertly delivered tones when they stepped outside.
"And finally, we bring you our MC for this momentous day, a woman who goes by many names but needs only one. We give you the Hero of Elysium, the first human Spectre, and the protector of our galaxy, the Human Reaper - the one, the only - Shepard!"
She waved and blew kisses to the crowd, still clinging to James' hand. When the clamor reduced a few decibels, she leaned forward to speak into the comm.
"The final round of the Galactic Combat Championships may now commence!"
The roar of the crowd rushed over them, taking their breath away. James stepped forward and put his arms around her waist. He bent his head to whisper into her ear.
"Welcome home, Lola."
A/N: Well, what a wild ride it's been! This story has been an entire year in the making, and now it's finished.
Check out my profile for links to my other stories and the new story update list, and please don't hesitate to share this with someone you think will enjoy it! Thank you so much for reading, you rock!