She was running as hard as her legs could carry her, her body was bruised, bleeding and sore all over but she didn't care at the moment. 'You better not be dead otherwise I'll...' she couldn't even finish the thought as everything began to run through her mind and what she would do if he was dead. Just as she began to tear up she shook her head and pushed her legs to run faster than they already were, memories that the two had made just recently and in the past began to run through her mind, driving her to run so fast she felt like she was going to pass out before she could even get to him. 'I can't lose you again, I just got you back,'.

"Tali!" Garrus yelled trying his hardest to keep up with the quarian, but with her light armor and suit compared to his heavy bulky armor, she could move much quicker than he ever could. 'Dammit, she's gonna get herself killed from running too hard,' he thought as he pushed himself to try and catch up to her. 'I swear you had better not be dead or else I don't know what I'm gonna do about her,' he thought talking to no one but himself. Even though he was sure everyone that got near the crucible died he had hope that he could come back one more time for everyone, especially for Tali.

"Garrus, you there?" Joker called on the radio bringing the Normandy back towards the main wreckage looking for the man in question. "I'm here!" he yelled back over the radio but joker could hear the slight panting in his voice, 'he must be running after her,'. "Where are you two?" he was still circling the wreck trying his hardest to see any movement but with everything on fire and so many other soldiers trying to find survivors it was kind of hard to pick out any certain person, except for one. Joker saw a small frame running towards the middle of the wreckage, no one else was anywhere close to there yet, and he knew exactly who it was. "Tali," he said out loud, Joker felt horrible for her as she had just gotten the commander back about four or five months ago and now he might be gone again but this time there wouldn't be any way for him to come back.

Liara was rushing around trying to help anyone that she could that was injured on the ground helping humans, turians, asari, krogan, quarians, and salarians who had been shot or wounded. She may not have been a medical professional as the other doctors around her are but she was skilled enough that she could treat most of their wounds. Liara could see Dr. Chakwas rushing from patient to patient trying to save as many as she possibly could but Liara knew they wouldn't be able to save everyone. As she was rushing to another tent she got a view down one of the main streets and could see the wreckage from the crucible in the center of the city, 'I hope you can make it through this,' was all she was able to think before she set back to work, not having any time to wait around.

Grunt was helping the search and rescue teams using his strength to pick up rubble and tanks and the like to free the survivors. Even though he hated how soft and squishy the humans were he knew they were a formidable enemy especially when you had someone like his battlemaster leading them which is the only reason he agreed to help the humans in their search. Grunt then thought of his battlemaster and how he charged headfirst into the enemy to put a stop to the war, 'If you did die at least you went out with incredible honor battlemaster,'. Grunt was never one to have any sort of emotions especially since he was tank grown and never knew the love and care of a mother but he felt a small ache in his heart at the thought of his battlemaster being gone and leaving him on his own. The large krogan shook the thoughts from his head quickly though as he pushed forwards and continued to help find more survivors.

Jack was with a separate search and rescue team, using her bionic powers along with her student's powers to help in the search for any survivors. None of her students had been killed in this war as they had just supported them from the back due to their lack of experience in combat, and this brought Jack joy knowing that she was helping to make these kids better than she had been. However, she knew who had helped her get into this position, 'You had better be alive down there,' she thought as she looked at all of the wreckage in the center of the city, 'Otherwise, I'll bring you back just to kick your ass,' she said trying to keep herself from getting emotional. Jack had never been one for emotions but in recent years she learned how to let people into her life and how to care for someone, at least just a little, and there was only one person she has to thank for that.

James, Javik, Samara, and Kasumi were all aboard the ship looking out the front viewport of the Normandy as Joker flew around the main wreckage as he began to try and land the large ship as close to all of the wreckage as he could to both help any survivors and help Tali in her search, or bring her back aboard the Normandy. All four were staring in anticipation waiting for someone to say something over the radio to give them some kind of confirmation of the situation. All three had their different experiences over these last few months but they all had one thing in common, they wanted to bring as many homes as they could, and that included the mean that had changed all of their lives.

Ashley Williams was helping to organize ships incoming and outgoing to get the wounded off-planet and onto their ships where they would be better supplied to take care of all of these wounded. 'I wish we still had the citadel with all of its medical facilities,' she thought as she looked to the sky seeing the wreckage of the citadel in orbit around the Earth with some of its debris catching fire as it entered orbit and burned through the atmosphere. She then looked down at the main site of all of the damage to London, 'So many lives lost and so much damage,' she thought as she shook her head. She was then caught off guard as her radio crackled to life hearing the young woman's voice she had been waiting to hear for about twenty minutes now. At that moment she took off in a sprint towards the wreckage yelling at one of the soldiers to take over as she left the area.

Tali had finally made it to the wreckage and began searching through as much of it as she could without moving anything until she could see a bit of armor sticking out from underneath one of the larger pieces of rubble. She immediately recognized it and it almost brought her to tears as she ran over to it and began to try and lift the rubble. "I found him!" she yelled over the radio knowing she wouldn't be able to move this on her own but not willing to give up just yet. "Tali I'm here!" she heard Garrus yell as he was jumping over rubble until he began to help her lift the heavy piece of concrete. with both of them lifting the piece began to move but with their wore out bodies, they couldn't get the entire thing moved. "We're here!" they both heard Grunt yell as the entire Normandy squad was beginning to make their way towards the pair. Tali felt relief knowing that they were all on their way, "You had better be alive under there!" she heard the krogan yell as he helped pick and flip over the large rubble much easier than Tali and Garrus tried to.

Tali reached down as soon as the rubble was moved and drug the man she had been looking for out onto the open ground getting a good look at his current status and possible injuries. As she looked over his face she could see some new small scars that had appeared on his face, nothing fatal but it'll be a few new scars, she ran her hand over his face before looking down over his armor. His armor had been melted almost melting to his asking but his undersuit and some of the upgrades had kept the armor from attaching itself to him, luckily, but he wasn't in good shape at all and would need medical attention almost right away. "We need to get him to a medical station!" she said looking at the rest of the crew as Garrus nodded and turned to them and took charge of the situation.

Tali looked back down at the man who had given her everything and smiled with tears in her eyes, "Just hold on a little while longer John, I don't want to lose you again," she said as she very gently tapped her helmet to his head in her form of a kiss. Garrus then came back over to her after he finished giving out orders to everyone as they all didn't need to be here to help with the commander's situation, "Alright Tali, we need to get him onto the Normandy so we can get him to one of the human ships," Tali just nodded and helped Garrus carry him back to the ship, but the entire way she took notice of the blood John was trailing behind them.

A.N. (Ok just to answer some things quickly, the DLC characters are in this story's universe I am just trying to put them where I think they would be if the events of Mass Effect 3 had just ended. The only major change is that of course the Normandy isn't stuck on a planet or doesn't do anything out there like we see in the ending credits of the game, instead they just turn around and come straight back to earth to try and find Shepard. Also, the commander is just the base character model but that's where I'm going to end the base character stuff, everything else is going to be his custom things and not just being a soldier class type of character and I will have his appearance change somewhat later in the story. But anyway that's enough of the plans for the future, thank you guys so much for reading this and if you have any ideas for the story or any suggestions please just let me know and I will be glad to think them over and possibly even put them into the story. Thank you so much for reading this story!