The wing of a butterfly is made of numerous filaments, scales, cells of color and flexible material, but at the instant of a finger brush can be smeared and weakened. Peace is a metamorphosis such as a chrysalis that must be formed by a single unit interacting with many. And time takes it through the proper changes before it can form into its calling.
There is no peace for Gala Shepard who must recreate what took centuries to form before the Reapers thundered through the delicate fabrics that held the galaxy together and united. Now she must face the new realities following a bitter victory and handle her own losses caused by her own gun.
Friendship has been lost in more ways than one and many still suffer while she plays the overwatch. The galaxy that was once united against a common enemy must be reassembled into something close to what it once was, for the Reapers will return.
Alone and yet not, Gala steps through her own valley of destruction in the aftermath of her decisions to save the world and worlds beyond her own selfish desires….All the while supported by friends she withholds the truth from and her feelings of regret. The wings of the butterfly will never be the same as they once were….Or piece by piece, can they be?
All references, names and places are fictional and draw upon—extend outwards from—original characters and events in the storyline of "Mass Effect" (games 1–3). Everything else is coincidental. Artwork is property of SpecialDelivery.2, the author.
Rating: M for mature situations dealing with grief, reckoning, violence, and sordid opinion.