The Final Stand II.
Friday 10th February 2186.
The final battle was bloody, chaotic, and utterly despairing to behold, but Cassie fought through it with her crew at her side. They landed in the war-torn London, and fought to the conduit which connected Earth to the Citadel in orbit, where Harbinger tried to stop them.
As they charged towards the conduit, Harbinger destroyed everything around them, incinerating troops and blasting Mako tanks over as they tried to advance toward the conduit. Suddenly a Mako was sent flipping backwards, towards Cassie and her crew, and she immediately signalled for everyone to drop to the ground. Once the tank had smashed down again behind her, Cassie whirled her head around, and felt her heart ache at seeing Shiala and Liara gravely wounded, and her male crew members scattered.
"EDI! Immediate extraction at my position!" She yelled over her helmet's radio. "Garrus, Javik, James! Stay on Earth, help the ground forces keep their foothold!"
"But..." James tried to protest.
"There's no time! Go!" She yelled, and the three men quickly obeyed their commander.
The Normandy landed a hundred metres behind them, and Cassie, Ash and Tali lifted Liara and Shiala up, carrying them toward the Normandy's open docking bay.
"Cass..." Liara breathed.
"Save your strength... Don't leave your daughter without her mother!" Cassie said firmly, kissing Liara's forehead, before doing the same to Shiala.
"What about us?" Ash and Tali asked.
"Stay here, with them, I'll end this myself!" Cassie said firmly, pulling Tali and Ash into a tight hug.
She hurried back towards Harbinger and the conduit that connected London to the Citadel. A deep booming laugh sounded as she came closer to the beam of light, and she knew it was Harbinger. As she ran, she summoned as much biotic energy into herself, before channelling it into something she had only created once since basic training, because of how unstable it was for her. A pulsing singularity hurtled out of her outstretched hand, flying straight towards Harbinger.
As Cassie was lifted up by the conduit towards the Citadel, the singularity exploded close to Harbinger, pulling in everything around it which was primarily the prime Reaper. To those watching from afar, all they saw was pieces of Harbinger being ripped away by an unknown force, before the Reaper retreated from the beam of light, heavily wounded.
Cassie, meanwhile, hit solid ground after minutes of feeling nothing but rushing air all around her. She slowly got to her feet, her joints aching from the impact and the effort of summoning the singularity. She picked up her pistol, checking it was still functional and that it had ammunition.
"Two shots, great..." she cursed under her breath. "One for him, and one just in case..."
She jogged through darkened corridors, seeing human bodies piled up all around her. She crossed a bridge, slowing her momentum as she ascended a small incline, expecting trouble at the top. She reached the top and found a large, circular platform, with a small terminal on the far side. The platform overlooked the vast expanse of the closed Citadel arms, glowing red in almost perfect conjunction with the Reapers currently controlling it. What gave Cassie pause was the figure standing with their back to her at the terminal.
"Anderson?" she said uncertainly.
Anderson turned slowly, his movements rather stilted, making Cassie ever more suspicious of what was going on. Suddenly she felt a pounding in her head, and her body refused to move, her pistol hand moving so her weapon was aimed at Anderson.
"I underestimated you, Shepard," The Illusive Man's snide voice said from behind her, slowly walking out until he was standing between Cassie and Anderson. "I told you control is the means to survival. Control of the Reapers, and of you... if necessary."
"The Reapers are controlling you!" Anderson said weakly, every word a clear struggle to utter.
"I don't think so, Admiral." The Illusive Man chuckled.
"You fucking idiot!" Cassie swore. "You don't see it do you?"
"I see perfectly Commander," The Illusive Man said serenely.
"You didn't have Henry Lawson investigate indoctrination with the aim of controlling the Reapers, you simply helped the Reapers harvest by tricking people into fleeing towards the slaughterhouse," Cassie stated. "And your desire to control, isn't with the aim of controlling the Reapers, they want you to try and control ME, to slow me down, so they can kill more innocent..."
"No!" The Illusive Man yelled, but Anderson quickly added to Cassie's statement.
"If you want to control the Reapers, open the Citadel arms, let the Crucible dock with the Citadel," he grunted. "Then you'll have what you want."
"No, I... I need you to understand." The Illusive Man stammered.
"You can't, they won't let you," Anderson smiled.
"Look at what they did to you!" Cassie implored him, praying to be free of his control.
"I took what I wanted from them, made it my own," He smiled, before raising his hand. "Look at the power I now wield."
Suddenly she felt the pressure intensify around her finger, and her pistol fired; she had just been forced to shoot Anderson. Suddenly she felt a warmth against her cheek, and her limbs were freed of The Illusive Man's control, but she held the position, waiting for the right time to strike.
"Controlling the Reapers is the only option we have, Shepard!" The Illusive Man repeated.
"And what if you're wrong?" She asked. "If we destroy the Reapers, this ends today; if we fail to control them, they will annihilate..."
"It will work!" The Illusive Man said desperately, taking the pistol from Anderson's hip. "I CAN control them!"
"Are you willing to bet humanity's survival on it?" Cassie smiled. "If you're wrong, humanity will fall."
"I know it will work!" his hands clutched his head and almost doubled over, giving Cassie the opportunity she had been waiting for.
She darted forward, and before The Illusive Man could try and control her again or fire Anderson's pistol in her direction, she disarmed him and let loose with a flurry of punches.
"How?" Anderson asked in bewilderment, Cassie's attacks freeing him from being controlled.
As Cassie's attacks forced The Illusive Man backwards, Anderson moved and picked up his pistol, aiming it at their foe. Cassie stopped as she had her opponent on the edge of the platform, quickly grabbing him by the throat, feeling the wires that covered his throat pulsing beneath her fingers.
"Impossible!" The Illusive Man coughed.
"You could never control me!" Cassie said through gritted teeth. "And I never truly did your bidding, because when I saw your eyes I knew you were a Reaper puppet; they're the same eyes Saren had. You claim to act in humanity's interest, but at every turn you slaughter and sacrifice humans for your masters."
"No!" he yelled.
"Your soldiers resembled Husks, your minions are essentially indoctrinated into following you, your base was powered by unshielded Reaper remains, and it's well known that prolonged exposure to a Reaper or its remains results in indoctrination." Cassie stated, and The Illusive Man offered no response. "I am the best hope for humanity, not you; which is hilarious as I'm only half human."
"What?" The Illusive Man and Anderson exclaimed.
"My human mother was a decorated Alliance Admiral, who retired to Thessia and fell in love with an Asari, from their union I was born." She said simply. "It's why I'm the most powerful natural biotic in the Alliance, why I can meld with people, and why you had trouble bringing me back with pure human DNA."
"Impossible!" The Illusive Man spluttered.
"No, impossible is the chances of you breaking free of the Reapers control and REALLY saving humanity," Cassie said coldly, hearing a name being whispered in her ear. "Jack Harper, you failed humanity, you failed the Reapers, and you failed those you once cared about; Ben Hislop and Eva Coré."
She saw his eyes widen at his secrets being spoken after decades of going unspoken and unknown by all except him. Before he could utter a protest, she threw him off the platform, watching him float away.
"Shepard..." Anderson said in bewilderment, as Cassie withdrew her pistol, and fired her last bullet at the shrinking form of The Illusive Man. "What..."
Anderson collapsed against the terminal, and Cassie quickly moved to open the ward arms, knowing that every second cost countless lives.
"Hold on David, and I'll tell you everything..." she said as she worked the terminal.
She managed to open the arms, before collapsing beside the mortally wounded Admiral.
"I'm sorry I shot you," she breathed.
"Wasn't your fault..." he breathed, blood now staining most of his uniform. "He was controlling your actions..."
"Hold on!" she urged, as the arms opened wider and wider, revealing the battle raging outside.
"I'm not going to make it," he sighed. "At least it's over, and I get to see Earth again... Before the end."
"Don't be so morbid! You've survived worse!" she encouraged him.
"You forget... You shot me... You don't miss your target..." he chuckled weakly. "I'm a soldier Shepard, dying by the bullet is how I expected to go out... Glad it was you and not him... Glad my death meant something..."
"You meant something Anderson! You led humanity through its darkest hour," she smiled weakly, feeling a tear stinging her cheek. "And please, call me Cassie..."
"You led us Shepard," he smiled at her. "I just held the line..."
"You did more than that... I promise you will be remembered for what you did!" she said, almost choking on her tears.
"Promise me one thing... Cassie..." Anderson coughed, blood dotting his lips. "Destroy the Reapers... It's the only way..."
"I will, I promise," she said firmly.
David Anderson managed a brief smile, before his head lulled to one side, and a final breath escaped his lips. Cassie closed the Admiral's eyes, praying to her mother that he be welcomed into the afterlife with open arms.
The moment the Crucible docked with the Citadel, Cassie was torn away from Anderson as the section of floor she was kneeling on lifted up towards the Crucible's docking point.
What followed was directly out of a nightmare she'd had shortly after the Reapers invaded Earth, but now it was real, and she hated every second that she could not wake from it.
"Shut the fuck up! I came here to destroy the Reapers, and that's what I'm going to do." She said bluntly, and the AI complied.
She walked slowly towards the junction the AI had said would allow her to destroy the Reapers, withdrawing her pistol as she did so. She knew this was the end, that the explosion would take her life, but also the 'lives' of every remaining Reaper, and that made her sacrifice worthwhile.
She summoned the last of her waning strength, and hurled an unstable singularity at the junction. As she watched the wires tear themselves apart near the singularity, her mind began to flash through the faces of those she loved; her lovers, her children, her friends, her fiancée, her... family. There was a deafening crack as the singularity exploded, and before another thought could register in her mind, everything went white.
"You did it! You did what no one else could." A soft voice whispered in her ears, a voice she had not heard since she was a child.
"We're so proud of you, our darling daughter," another feminine voice added, as a nurturing warmth embraced her.