A/N: My Shepard is an Earthborn/War Hero soldier who made only paragon choices throughout the series.

"Gasp"

Shepard took a deep breath as he began to wake up. His head was throbbing due to whatever it was that knocked him out. How long he had been out was up in the air. The first thing he noticed when he had fully woken up was that the lower half of his body was pinned under rubble. It didn't take long for him to figure out that there was no way he could get the rubble off by himself. With nothing else he could do, he took a look around and saw that the room he was in looked like a bomb had gone off. Shepard barely recognized it as the room on the Citadel where he had activated the Crucible. In fact, activating the Crucible was the last thing he remembered before being knocked unconscious.

When he first arrived in the room, he met the Catalyst. The Catalyst, the critical piece needed for the Crucible to work and originally thought by Shepard to be the Citadel, turned out to be an artificial intelligence that was revealed to be the source of the Reapers, the living dreadnoughts Shepard and the rest of the galaxy were currently at war with. After explaining a little more about itself, the Reapers and the Crucible, the Catalyst gave Shepard a choice. Shepard could use the Crucible either to destroy the Reapers, control them or use it to merge organic and synthetic life. The Catalyst then went on to say that of those choices, synthesis was the best choice for the galaxy. Shepard however had to disagree. Forcing that big of a change on the galaxy was not his choice to make. As for controlling the Reapers, Shepard felt that there would be no guarantee that somewhere down the line, he wouldn't become corrupt and use the Reapers for evil. In Shepard's mind, the only option that had a chance at lasting peace was to destroy the Reapers. Unfortunately the Catalyst had warned him that the destroy option would not limit its effects to just the Reapers and would destroy all synthetic life. This meant the geth race and Shepard's A.I. friend EDI would be killed as well. Sadly Shepard felt there was no other choice.

After remembering everything that had happened before, Shepard began to assess his current situation. He should've been dead. He may have survived many things in the past but this if anything should have been what finally did him in. It had to be a miracle. That was the only thing that could explain it. But even if he did survive the Crucible being fired, the real question now was how to get out from underneath the rubble. He had been severely injured when he raced to the beam that took him from London to the Citadel. He had used every bit of strength he had getting to the Citadel arm controls, taking down the Illusive Man, and apparently surviving the activation of the Crucible. Shepard sighed in frustration. Even though he had survived one hopeless situation, he only ended up finding himself in another one. Before he had the chance to think about the problem more, he began to drift back to unconsciousness.

"SHEPARD!"

A voice calling his name snapped Shepard awake.

"SHEPARD!"

Another voice different from the first one was heard next. Shepard couldn't help but notice that there was something familiar about each of them. Suddenly he heard a large group of voices calling him at once.

"SHEPARD! SHEPARD! COME ON COMMANDER WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Finally Shepard figured out where he had heard the voices before. It was his crew from his ship the Normandy. He tried once more to get the rubble off of him but it was no use. The rubble was too heavy and he just didn't have the strength to move it on his own. He then tried to call out to the crew but he didn't even have the strength to get any words out. The crew was now beginning to move on to another location.

"Come on Shepard," he thought to himself, "you've gotten yourself out of tougher spots before. This is nothing compared to Elysium."

Then he looked to his right and found his pistol lying next to him. He had almost forgotten he still had it after using it to help activate the Crucible. To his relief it still had its thermal clip inside. Deciding that the gun was his best and last chance to get himself out of this mess, he reached for it. It took a little effort but his hand was able to reach just far enough to grab it. The gun had saved his life many times in the past so Shepard had no doubt that it would work this time. He fired one shot into the air. The sound of the shot caused the crew to freeze where they were.

"What was that?" somebody called.

"Get down! Somebody's firing at us!"

Shepard proceeded to fire a couple more shots into the air.

"Something's not right. I'm hearing the shots but I haven't felt any bullets fly by us. Do you think it's….?"

"SHEPARD!"

The last voice that Shepard heard speak was female and it was a voice that he would know anywhere. Suddenly he saw the source of the voice running up to him. He was right. It was Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams; Alliance soldier, the second human Spectre and most importantly his girlfriend.

"Shepard!" she exclaimed upon finding him. "Thank God you're alive! Medic! We need a medic over here! Shepard can you hear me?"

"Ash," was the only thing Shepard managed to say before he passed out again.

"Shepard? Shepard! WE NEED A MEDIC NOW!"