Shepard's Office- November 20th 2203

Abigail Shepard sat behind her oak desk in her office, working on a PAD that her VI and assistant had put together for her review. Its title, Intelligence Operations across the Galaxy. She frowned.

She stretched taking a break from the operation and looked around her cluttered, but organized desk space. She glanced over to the picture, now taken so long ago, of her and her crew…right before…but they were mostly intact then. At least except for those already dead and those who weren't actually on that particular mission at the time. She looked around her office and her eyes froze on the door, reading the commendation on the wall. Office of Admr Abigail Shepard, Dir OANI.

I'll never get used to that, she thought to herself wearily, even though it had been a year since Jameson's retirement and her moving on to take the position from a squadron command in the fifth fleet, she would never get used to the idea of her actually being the director. Though it made sense, it gave her a semi-retirement while still helping the Galaxy stay safe.

Like what happened when I got promoted to Captain. She smirked.

But there was still something odd about this day, something she was missing…

Her intercom buzzed at her interrupting the thought.

"Yes?" She said pressing the button.

"James Vega on the line for you Admiral."

Abby had to smirk. Once just after taking this position the secretary made the mistake of saying 'your darling husband is calling'. Since then Abby had kept things strictly professional.

"Put him through." Abby waved in midair.

Her desk's holo display whirred up in front of her. And then it had it start whirring to power up, and James's mostly blue mostly three d image popped up on her desk grinning up at her.

"Hello my darling wife." He greeted.

Abby blushed deeply. "Haven't I told you not to do that?" She muttered.

"But where is the fun in that? Besides, it's not like anyone is listening." He stated confidently.

She sighed, "So what's up, anything I should know? What's going on?"

He frowned, "Hitched a ride on Cynthia's ship, we are leading a Special Operations team out by the Yagh boarder, apparently they are making noises again and the Quarian, the Geth, and the Batarian Governments asked us to look into it."

Abby grinned, "How is Cynthia handling command?"

He shrugged, "It has been a few years, and she's gotten used to it, mostly. Doubt she'll ever make Admiral, and with things being so quiet out here it's bound to be hard to continue to distinguish herself."

"Yeah, but come on can you ever see her behind a desk?"

"Hey Lola, I remember thinking the same thing about you a few years back." He teased.

True. She shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "So how is Alyssa doing?"

James grinned, "Don't you know? She's your daughter?"

Abby snorted. "No, she was always your daughter. Such a perfect little Daddies girl. Always taking after you, following you around, and always asking you to save her from her hard ass mom."

James got a wistful look on her face, Abby rolled her eyes.

"Ah well," James shrugged with a smirk, "I guess no woman with the Shepard genes can resist my manly charms."

"Nah, that's not it, she just knows that you can't resist her feminine wiles. Which she inherited from me by the ways." Abby teased.

He chuckled. "And she's good, just started at the Alliance academy. She just called me the other day."

"She hasn't called me in a while." Abby blustered, not wanting to say it, but she did, and winced.

James sighed. "And Miguel is doing fine too by the ways, though I'm sure you knew that."

"I did." She nodded, "Him I hear from often. And yes he is doing quite well in school."

"Well that's good, I haven't really heard much from…"

Abby was distracted by Miranda Lawson rounding the corner and entering her office and then freezing at seeing James Vega in the holo panel. She gave Shepard a curious look

The Admiral pointed vaguely and dramatically to the chair opposite her desk, mouthing for her to sit down.

"Shepard? What was that?" James asked, and then whirred around in the display. "Oh hey Miranda."

"Mr. Shepard." Miranda greeted.

Abby saw him frown through the display, "You know I don't like being called that."

"Yes, but we both know who probably wears the pants in the family."

Vega chuckled, "True enough. How is the Phoenix group coming?"

"Very well recruitment drives are still up and we continue to gather surveillance on issues vital to Alliance Security."

"Anything you want to share?" Vega pressed.

"That is why I am here now, to brief Shepard."

"You know Lola," he said over his shoulder, "I'm still a bit uncomfortable that we are letting a private organization do some of the heavy lifting for us."

Miranda scowled again but Abby waved her down.

"Phoenix will do the job that most Governments would be unwilling to do, but Miranda is no TIM, the Phoenix is no Cerberus. As long as she is in charge, and as long as I am in charge of OANI, we'll have an arrangement."

"Right, anyways as I was saying how's Alan?"

"He's fine, just started Middle School in fact."

"Tell him Daddy misses him."

"I will James."

Abby thought that was all and moved to cut the connection but something in the way James was frowning at the screen made her believe otherwise. She sat back down and arched a curious eyebrow at the screen.

"Anything else?"

"You don't know what today is do you?" James asked bluntly.

"No," She furrowed her brows crossly at the screen, "I've been in intelligence briefings most of the morning and facing the gathering hoard of reports about a bunch of minor minutia. Why, what is today?"

"It's the twentieth anniversary of the attack on Eden Prime." James replied.

"What?!" How could I forget?

"Yeah I heard they are running a lot of special programs and wondering…well where you are. Daniel Hudson, Jameson, and a few others have made their own reports and commemorations of the day's events, remembering what it means and what it started."

"Anything good?" She smirked.

"No not really, they're making me out to be some pathetic two bit character who came in after the fact."

"We all know better James," She soothed.

He nodded, and then scratched the back of his neck.

"Still, twenty years later and we still haven't really fixed the Galaxy, not after the war." Abby pointed out. "Still a lot to do."

"Hard to fix things when a major crisis comes along every couple of years to mess everything up again."

"That's the nature of the universe James." Abby murmured.

"Yeah, almost like we weren't supposed to survive the last cycle so everything and everyone is out to get us to make sure we don't."

"We'll make it James."

"Yeah," He breathed, "Speaking of which I should get back to it."

"Take care James."

"You too Abby."

And with a slight air kiss Shepard cut the line.

Then swiveled to look around at Miranda. "Anything good to report?"

"Yep," Miranda nodded, "All I have to report that is good is that there is nothing to report. The Galaxy is pretty quiet for a change. Other than the…"

"Yagh making trouble?" Abby arched an ironic eyebrow. "When are they not making trouble?"

"They still don't have ships of their own really, not a major fleet certainly, and they lack the funding to build more since they do not participate in the Galactic economy. But they could always have something of value to trade which they could use to leverage a fleet out of someone. That is what has the Quarians so bent out of shape the possibility of a hostile race like the Krogan building an empire in their backyard."

Shepard steeple her fingers and nodded slowly, "Keep my apprised."

"Will do Shepard…and Shepard?"

"Hmm?"

"You might want to take the day off; you could really use it with everything."

Shepard nodded slowly, smiled, "Thanks Miranda."

And with that the genetically engineered former Cerberus operative left the room heading for wherever it was she ran the Phoenix group was from.

The Admiral sat there for a long time, rocking in the chair, sitting with her index finger bashing against her lip. She felt old; she thought she could hear her bones creek. Even though by modern standards she was still quite 'young' she felt like she had been through hell.

Of course I had died and if my sensibilities are correct that might not be too far from the truth.

She had fought through several major campaigns in her life, two major wars, several incidents and struggles, investigations, and was a central part of some of the largest most life changing events in the history of the Galaxy. Part of a rich tapestry, but she had survived. Survived when so many others had not, did not, and could not survive the crucible that had engulfed the Galaxy for a billion years.

But now it was over, now they could write their own history, a unique history, forge their own messy destinies.

But now she felt tired, she always felt tired. Despite her youth, despite the long rest since the last major crisis she had to personally face down, despite everything else that had happened she felt tired. Happy to be alive, exhilarated, eager to face whatever challenges would face the Alliance now and until her death, but also tired and loathing the idea of facing another serious threat. What if the Reapers were not dead after all? What if something else was out in the universe waiting to tear down her world? What if the Yagh became a threat?

And she would play a role in those events if they happened in her life time just like everything else, but now was the time for new heroes, rising heroes, now was the time to begin writing the next greatest saga of humanity, the Alliance, and the Galaxy.

She would guide, she would help, she would give her advice, but leading the Galaxy to war was a youthful sport. And she would no longer have any part of it.

Smirking suddenly she realized, wow I haven't seen them in a while. So she got up and began to head over to her door. "VI, hold all my calls for at least an hour," She said back into the room.

"As you wish Admiral." It responded mechanically.

With that she headed down for her special room.

The Memorial Room

Abigail Shepard arrived, complete in dress uniform, in the room she had remodeled for this very purpose. It somehow did not feel right, it made her feel uncomfortable, not having a place where she could remember the dead near her.

It's entirely selfish of course but I just don't give a damn, I'm the Admiral after all. It was one of the only perks of her job that she actually enjoyed.

It was dark in here, peaceful, small pin pricks of light floated through the air like points of starlight blazing in the darkness, guiding people to their rest. She could just barely make out the stands through the blackness around her, a more concentrated area. But she knew this area by heart and could find them even without visual aid.

As she approached they whirred to life, turned on slowly, their holograms showing pictures…pictures of the dead…as they were best known to her in life.

Tali…Wrex…Mordin….Legion…

"Hello old friends." She breathed.

To no answer, but she had to do this from time to time, had to talk to them.

She sighed though, a spike of guilt going through her veins, her sinews, her very soul.

"It's been too long since I've been here…my visits are becoming more and more infrequent aren't they?"

She looked down, then back up.

"Today is the twentieth anniversary of Eden Prime. If you didn't know….well you wouldn't…not you as holograms anyways. But it's the twentieth anniversary of when this all began. When several of you marched on into your deaths. Of when we discovered the monsters in the dark spaces waiting to tear down our world."

She glanced over to the orb of Kaidan, sitting there, smiling at her. This really was selfish of her, to keep them around like that, to hold onto their memory. But it was the last thing she had of them. And this would be something that would be honored for ever, even after her death; future directors would come and add their mementos to it. She just hoped that they had found peace wherever they were.

"I miss you guys, I just hope to see you all on the other side." She nodded at the room, stayed a few more minutes….before leaving.

She arrived back at her office and collapsed in her couch facing the wall, thinking, trying to relax, she didn't have a meeting for another several hours, and she was thinking about cancelling it. Nah that would be unprofessional…but what to do in the meantime?

Inspiration struck her suddenly and she smiled, she toggled her Omni-tool and popped on the vid screen, it slid off the wall and it turned on suddenly. On it was a program of a documentation program commemorating the Eden Prime anniversary, a 'where are they now' segment.

Shepard decided this was good enough; she laid back, rolled her arms out along the back of the couch, and wanted to see if any of the information was actually accurate. It seemed to be.

"Today commemorates the twenty year anniversary to the Eden Prime Mission. When the SSV Normandy,led by Captain Anderson and Lieutenant Commander Shepard, responded to a distress call on the human colony which was under attack by the Geth led by the Rogue Spectre Saren. In the course of this mission it was discovered, via a Prothean beacon that a race of sentient machines wiped out the Protheans fifty thousand years earlier. This set off the sequence of events that would lead to the Reaper War just a few years later."

"Abigail Shepard, now an Admiral, is heading up the Alliance Naval Intelligence is rumored to be happy in her relationship is James Vega."

"Ashley Williams is in command of the Alliance Fifth fleet out of Arcturus station and is marrie with several children of her own."

"Jams Vega is married to Admiral Shepard and is rumored to be a special assistant to the Alliance Naval Intelligence and a special field operative advisor. His current whereabouts are unknown."

Abby winced, Well the press has the right to the information and the truth but sometimes I wish they would not act so…entitled.

"Miranda Lawson has gone onto found the Phoenix Coproration. An organization that supposedly, to quote its mission statement "use the best parts of Cerberus and former operatives in a new and peaceful light." Whether or not they live up to that mandate is largely unknown since Ms. Lawson has refused several attempts for interview from this network and the ANN."

"Justicar Samara is now rumored to have retired to a villa on Thessia, she still deals with crime from time to time but lives with her daughter who is rumored to be an Ardat-Yak-Shi…whatever that means."

"Urdnot Grunt is one of the main military commanders and is still on the ruling council of Governors set up by Urdnot Eve and Ranaak Kurl, the Krogan continue to lead several campaigns to colonize and tame the uncharted regions, though their still recovering population makes these efforts lackluster."

"Since the movement of the SSV Normandy SR-2 onto Reserve status Captain Jeff 'Joker' Moreu, and his girlfriend EDI enjoy their off time celebrating and exploring the universe, while the Normandy continues to remain on call for any major incident."

"Jacqueline Nought has moved on to become dean and headmaster of the Grissom Academy's Ascension Project."

"Palin Solus, who recently has passed away, was trying to find solutions and cures to several diseases that have swept the Galaxy in the wake of the Reaper War. Towards the end of his life him and his research were beginning to reveal several potential breakthroughs and the drugs they are producing will enter clinical trials early next year."

"Garrus Vakarian is now Primarch of the Turian Hierarchy in the wake of Victus's death several years ago, the Turian economy has been one of the first to recover in the wake of the Reaper War under the policies of the two Primarchs."

"And to all those who aren't with us, to all those who gave their lives in service to the people of the Galaxy, we thank you. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the Alenko….the Krios…the Urdnot…the Zorah…the Solus…and to all those countless others, though time may continue on, though we may get old and gray, and die, you will never be forgotten. To your families and clans, thank you, you have our deepest condolences, and our most reverent gratitude."

"Amen." Abby whispered.

AN/ Final Note: Well this is it, the last Chapter. Picking up the Shards of a Broken Galaxy…yeesh…is officially in the can.

And this chapter came out…a bit more odd then I was expecting it, but probably still nice in its own right. But this is pretty much it, the end of the saga of Abigail Shepard…or is it? More on that in a bit.

I wrote this for two main reasons. One my novel I was working on was not really going anywhere and I needed a complete revaluation of some of the ways I wrote, and of the universe/ setting I was going to be writing in. I came to several important realizations in my writing and who I was as a writer that I did not think about the first time that I started to conceive the project years ago….and this is a rant I apologize. Reason number two was, as many of you can imagine, was nerd rage over the ending to ME 3.

Now I really enjoyed ME 3 it is probably the third greatest video game that I have thus far played and far above most of its competition in most anyway imaginable. But there were several things that kinda bugged me about the game, and about the game thematically.

And I ended up enjoying the ending of the game, especially with the Extended Cut, but yet there are a few things that bugged me.

First off was the 'clarity and closure' issue. Yeah fine it provided good closure in the end with the Extended Cut but there was still something missing, mainly proper closure with my particular Shepard, any of them. Cameron got his in Come Back to Me, Abby got hers here. This fic was an attempt to bring closure for both myself personally, and a character that I had spent hours of my life, forging, creating, coming up with head canons and was a great joy and pleasure to play an be entertained by. I do not think there are many other characters, in any other medium, which I have connected to more than Abigail Shepard. And thus she did deserve a certain amount of closure, she deserved to get an ending that was not dictated to her by some intelligence that had deemed itself to be God. This may sound a little entitled, and it probably is, but I forged a unique character in my head and through her actions that is different probably then most people's Shepard's.

Secondly: One of the greatest affronts from the ending on the game series as a whole was what it did to the rest of the characters. The games were not about Shepard and Shepard alone, it was about her entire squad. And through most of the games reflected this. With few exceptions Abby Shepard had a group of people around her and had to take two of them on any specific mission.

This changed on the ending. She had to make this important descision…by herself. With no friends and no help.

How Shards dealt with this problem is I put her in situations where she was alone, where it was her against an antagonistic force, and she got either badly injured, or at one point she was indoctrinated by Harbinger. And it was only through the help of her friends and colleagues, banding together, was she able to be reeducated and brought back to herself.

But this happened to other characters. Cynthia Jackson, Ashley Williams, Miranda Lawson, and Palin Solus all suffered from being alone, or were incomplete as characters until Shepard forged them into the armor of her team.

To put it as the song put it earlier in the fic, united they could break even the strongest chains…or something to the effect.

This was the motivations and the reasons why I wrote this. To try and 'correct' some of the problems and issues I had with ME 3 as a whole. To make James into a romance option and I even went as far as having Shepard marry him, etc.

Though it was hard to find someone to kill off in the mess considering basically everyone who was going to die and should have died in ME, did die, if that makes any sense.

So now what? What's next?

Well, for the immediate future I will be doing a series of Chuck, Doctor Who, and Mass Effect one shots. I do not know how many I am still thinking about them and may not do that many. But right now their release dates is going to be about every week or maybe even every two weeks. But don't hold me to any of this.

For the far future as far as my fan fic writing is concerned I have a couple longer Mass Effect fics in my head that I want to do. Either a pre ME 1 fic that is set in a 'secret mission post Torfan'. Or a post Shards fan fic, as in post last Chapter where Shepard is still a Captain and Cameron crosses over where together they face down a threat.

I will also be doing a few chapters of the Terminus Wars, I highly recommend that story as well and if you have read and reviewed this story you will probably like that one as well.

Now whatever you want to see, or what you want to see me do, or if there is any great interest in this write, comment, in the review section what you want to see, what you want me to do next and we'll see.

In speaking of reviews as this is the last chapter and the compilation of my fan fic I would love to see your thoughts. Not only on this chapter, but the fic as a whole. And more than just a couple of sentences if you could really put some thought into it. What worked in this fic, what didn't work, did you notice the themes that I was trying to set up what did you think of the overall story arc was there some chapters, arcs, or characters that I could have left out?

These are all valid questions and I hope to hear from you, and hear from you more in the future. Thank you.