A/N: And here we are. The end. I'll keep this short...thank's the stnemele for editing and Bioware for creating.
So, I was pretty damn fucked up from fighting for ten straight fucking hours. I kind of staggered towards the beam, for the last few yards. Took out Marauder Shields on the way...
Question.
Oh, I don't know! Figured I would name the last Reaper husk I killed? He told me that was his name? I'm mildly insane? Who fucking cares? I shot a turian husk, hoorah for Johnny.
Sarcasm, Pully... Wow, I haven't said that since... Huh, I just haven't said it. Go figure. The story got a bit darker, hasn't it? That's what a fucking war will do to shit…There's chasing a bunch of assholes and then there's fighting a goddamn war. Two different monsters if you ask me.
I mean, not that I minded. Yeah.
Comment.
No, no more asides. I want to get to the end. I'm tired of this room, tired of this chair. Tired of you? Maybe, I'm not sure. Haven't decided that yet.
Shepard smirks.
So yeah, up this grav beam I went. Why? I don't fucking know. I just knew the final objective was up above, the Illusive Man up there, too. Popped out on the Citadel in some Keeper tunnel, gray human mush everywhere. Reapers might've been using it for building another human Reaper. Trudged through the muck, the cracked up armor, ripped up clothes, crunch of leftover bones… Shit, I was fucking covered in everything. My blood, geth insides, husk liquids, the shitty gray… Probably smelled terrible, ha.
Anyway, finally got to some secret part of the Citadel. The Crucible was plugging into the station, blah blah science shit… Hackett going on about how I'm the last hope. Hope… There is no fucking hope, Pully. Bullshit concept. It's just a stupid word…hope is like trust; it leads to shitty things. But… Crucible and Citadel connecting, right.
One last obstacle, though. The fucking Illusive Man was standing between me and the goddamn panel that did something. He was blocking it so I figured the fucking thing was important. There the fucker was, finally face to face. I knew my fucking biotics were glowing, the fucking cybernetic shit pulsing under my skin.
I was ready to rip him apart…
A question from the interviewer.
Say stuff? Yeah, he just started monologuing about how he wanted to control the Reapers, how he'd use them for humanity. I don't fucking give a shit…they needed to die. Remember, Johnny versus the goddamn Reapers. Controlling them…ha, a fucking ridiculous idea. There's no way anyone would be able to control those robot fuckers.
Oh, by the way, the Illusive Fucker was Indoctrinated beyond all hell. He's fucking standing there with his skin all rotted away, supposed fucking upgrades under his skin. Smelled like rotting flesh, too. Gross fucking guy…still wearing his goddamn suit though. At least he'd die classy, right?
Johnny let him talk for a few minutes, but the pressure from the Indoctrin... I had a headache, yeah... I finished his goddamn speech with a bullet to the chest. Not a killing shot, of course. Enough to collapse a lung, though. He went down, stunned that the mighty Shepard wasn't looking for power. No one understands, Pully! I'm in it for me! Power doesn't matter. Revenge. Killing. Death. That's what matters to Johnny…
Strolled on up to the fuckers pathetic body, stomped on his arm till it fell off. Hard work, by the way, dismembering with only blunt force. Remember, too, I was fucked beyond all hell… Bleeding from fucking everywhere, same old shit… Illusive Fucker crying out for mercy on the ground while I pummeled him to death. Biotic punches to the limbs that dented the goddamn floor… Broken bones everywhere. He realized that he should've never fucked with Johnny. No one does, no one gets away with it.
Murmur.
Come on, Pully…ninety nine percent of the galaxy wanted that goddamn asshole dead. I was doing them a favor, again. I was happy to obli…oblij…do it for them. Tore the fucker apart. And he screamed.
The whole goddamn time, Pully, the whole goddamn time. Music to my fucking ears.
One final stomp on his mutated Indoctrinated piece of shit ugly fucking head and Cerberus was gone. Finally. Fuckers went at me a thousand too many times. So, there I was, all alone with the galaxy at my fingertips. Time to activate the space gun, the Reaper killer, the war winner…
Pully, I wish I could say something incredible happened up on the Citadel when I turned on the Crucible. Kicked the Illusive Man's mangled arm around, sure, but nothing else. No galactic revelation, no AI telling me fucking history... Just a button. Pressed it, started up the Crucible and...dead Reapers. "Experts" say that the giant gun reversed a massive code sent at FTL speeds to all Reapers everywhere. A communication system or some shit. Something Sovereign would have used back if it made it through the Citadel relay. The signal turned into a kill code, though. The Crucible was actually pretty incredible...used the bastards' own tech against them.
The signal hit every goddamn Reaper in the galaxy. Weaker ones on the ground just fell over. Reapers in space went limp and got torn apart by frigates and shit. Stronger Reapers tried to fight, but just couldn't hold up. Sure, it was too late for Palaven, but they fucking deserved that. Thessia was only half destroyed so I guess I "saved" them, too. Unintentional, of course. I got to see some of the bigger ones get torn up in the space around the Citadel. A shame I couldn't fire a shot at them, but it was satisfying to say the least. I beat a fucking army…
Skepticism.
No, it was all me. You fucking assholes couldn't have won without Johnny. Fuck you, Pully, I didn't get help. All fucking me. Husks dropped dead, the Harvesters crash landed…beautiful sights on the vids. Fucking brilliant…
A bit anti-climactic, eh? Button press and blamo, a win. Harbinger did get what was coming to him, at least.
Comment and question.
Well he was my last kill, Pully. My final enemy. The Reaper fucker zipped up to the Citadel once it knew I was turning on the space gun. How it got there and knew something was wrong, I won't ever know. The fucking Reaper was weak, though...machines always have that little weakness for a few lines of coding.
Anyway, Harbinger pretty much Reaper limps to the Citadel to find me, maybe take its last revenge? Funny sight, that was. I was on one of the station's arms, relaxing as I bled out. I was actually fucking happy then. Just sitting...I don't think I ever had a good "sit" in my life... Just bleeding and relaxing. I was finished, ya know? Beat the Reapers, destroyed the turians, revenge for Jackie. Just a sit.
A long pause.
Um, yeah. Want to know a funny sight, Pully? A fucking Reaper panicking. Ha ha ha, their movements get all zippy, horns get higher in pitch. Holy shit, I was laughing my ass off. That's how the fucker found me...because I was laughing, I mean. Thing is, Harbinger wasn't shit at that point. It came at me, ready to vaporize me, but it just kind of collapsed...
The red eye just staring at me. Slowly trying to get close, get a shot, but it was too fucking weak...fucking computers. So I fired my final shot, my final attack in the goddamn war. Johnny versus the Reapers...
It was a single bullet to the center eye of the biggest Reaper. The leader. Smack in the center...took the robot down immediately. It just collapsed while I fucking laughed myself to the point of pain. Hysterical, Pully, it was fucking hysterical. Ha ha ha ha, I fucking won!
Ha ha ha, shit...I fucking won! All me. All me...
A grin.
So yeah, that was the end of the Reapers. The virus shit killed them all across the galaxy... Passed out right next to the dead fucking "body" of the big Reaper...would've been nice to die then. Of course I couldn't, though. Assholes needed your goddamn hero, the savior of the galaxy... You know the rest. It's goddamn history...
Sighs from the interviewer and Shepard.
I know... Fucking medals, parades, memorials. All of it pissed me off. No one got it...I never did anything for them. Just...fuck. Obnoxious. I played hero for a while, sure. Then the tapes of the assassinations surfaced, evidence of Genophage tampering. Murders, blah fucking blah. Suddenly the hero isn't so great anymore.
No shit, right? I never claimed to be a fucking nice guy. Fucking hell... Anyway, the new government needed someone to blame the near extinction of three species on, outside of Cerberus and the Reapers. Why? I don't fucking know. Maybe people just don't like me...
Shepard smirks.
But my Mass Effect was...is over. Now I'm here talking to you, Percy, so someone can hear the non-vid version of Commander John Shepard, not that glitter covered pussy version the media puts forward and the snarling rabid dog that the courts portray.
I'm Johnny Shepard. The real person, who was there through it all. I know what really happened, who actually did what. The fucking journey... I'm the man that ended the Reds, the fucking soldier that killed Saren, Reaper slayer. Johnny Fucking Shepard...it was all me. The Xenocide, the quarian killer, the destroyer of that fucking batarian system, the assassin who killed the Council, the street rat who killed the Reds, the god that killed Reapers. It was me. All me, Pully, all me. I'm Commander Johnathan David Shepard, Alliance Navy. Badass...the best in the fucking galaxy. I guess I deserve the nickname, though. I did kill a lot of people... Yup, Percival, you're right...
I'm The Butcher.
Afterword:
Former Commander John Shepard spent 82 days in prison while awaiting a trial with the newly formed United Species Alliance. During his stay, twenty three prison guards (primarily turian) were attacked and injured. Shepard killed fourteen fellow inmates, most of whom were incarcerated on charges such as treason and desertion.
Representatives from the now defunct Systems Alliance, Vol Protectorate, Council of Dekuuna, the Turian Remenant, and Salarian Union presided over the trial of the most hated man in the galaxy. Likely due to backroom corruption and votes in exchange for personal favors, the tribunal decided four votes to one for Shepard's innocence, with the condition of banishment to the Terminus Systems. Despite the outrage expressed by the various warring Asari Republics, nearly all turians, and the remaining krogan clans, the new Council allowed the "Butcher" to leave. As of the publishing of this transcript, John Shepard has evaded or killed his monitors and is considered very dangerous. He is the most wanted man in the galaxy.
- Percy Gillet (Pulitzer Prize for Journalism, 2188)
A/N: So there you have it. "The Butcher" is finished. It'd been an interesting ride, writing this guy. I never thought I would hit 100K words (or the FFN equivalent. The line breaks count as multiple words for some reason). Thirty six chapters, over a hundred reviews. From the first post in March (I started writing before ME3's release, by the way) all the way to freaking October! I spent a lot more time on this that I thought I would.
The Butcher started out as a third person narrative based on the Shepard twins, John and Jane. The idea was to have one of them die by the end of the series...remember, there is only one Shepard. But, for everyone's benefit, that idea was scrapped when Stnemele informed me that I am absolutely terrible at writing third person narrative and any imagery. I figured I'd try writing first person a real Renegade Shepard, which leads me to my next point.
The Mass Effect series is fantastic, do not get me wrong. The number one problem through the series, though, is that you still save everyone no matter how "Renegade" you become. When compared to Paragon (blue) Shepards, the Renegade (red) are really, when it comes down to it, just asshole versions of the Blues. You let a few people die, punch a few guys, but the outcome is the same; Blue and Red are just conversation (and quick action) options. The endings do not change. "Johnny" allowed me to write a real bad guy playing "hero." Some may call him an anti-hero, but the character doesn't even deserve that. He is a villian that happens to agree with the general populace on a base level. As Ivan Drago once said, "I fight for me!"
When looking back on this story, I see a change in the tone of the story as it goes. At the beginning, Johnny is very aloof, going on silly asides, expressing sarcasm (Sarcasm, Pully!), and just plain lighter. However, with the dawning of ME2, I saw a change in how I wrote him and how the story went. People needed to start dying, characters that I like. Garrus' fall was the first step, which I had been planning since the beginning. As for the survivors of the SM, I chose the characters I needed for Mass Effect 3 long before I started writing the Suicide Mission (In fact, I was usually about five chapters ahead of where I was posting, so all those "Should I continue?" questions were moot.) Jack's death (by the way, I never liked Jack in the game) was a lot more important than I thought it would be. I wrote the character deaths (Tali, Garrus, Liara) weeks before I wrote the actual chapters, too. Surprisingly enough, it turns out that I knew what I was doing...although I did come up with the end two weeks ago.
I want to finish this ramble with a giant "Thank you" to everyone who read. This wouldn't have been possible without you and I thank you all...if anyone ever needs someone to edit, I'm around. (I need something to do at work, afterall...) But, thank you. Readers provide a good deal of motivation to continue and...oh yeah, I forgot. Sometimes you guys were "Pully." I used him as a device to talk to some of you and actually get some points across without acknowledging you...tricky, eh? Sometimes it was even aimed at Stnemele, my editor (one final plug for Delving Into Hell now).
But, thanks to you all. It's been an experience. Never forget the importance of feedback, reviewing, critiquing...it's the best way to learn and improve. Hopefully you guys do a better job on other stories than you have on this one. (A smirk.) Seriously, though...thank you. I hope you won't forget Johnny. I might, so someone needs to remember the Butcher...
- GoogleFloobs (James)
P.S. I've been thinking about doing something like Cerberus News Network to cover the aftermath of Johnny. PM me with opinions!