MASS EFFECT CHASM: CHAPTER 28

FINAL

The force of the battle was draining. Despite this, Shepard and her team pushed ahead. They couldn't let up now! She ignored her aching body and gripped her M-8 Avenger as she dashed out from the shuttle to join with Hammer. Captain Anderson was to her left while Kaidan and Garrus were at her right. The bright shaft of light that spiraled down from the Citadel above the Earth's atmosphere was their finish line. They went against a heavy barrage of Reaper ground troops minutes ago and took out the Reaper that was blocking the beam. They had a chance! They were going to make it and initiate the catalyst with the Crucible.

The battleground before them was littered with charred vehicles and dead soldiers of various races, who were not so fortunate to make it this far. Their deaths would not be in vain. Zalena would see to it. Kaidan looked her way as they came to a halt at the ridge of the slope that led them down to the beam. "This is it, Shepard. We are going to make it. Just like Ilos."

Swiftly, a black towering figure descended from out of nowhere and landed just behind their target. The glowing threatening eyes of Harbinger aimed directly at the troops. The ultimate boss battle was about to arise. Zalena gritted her teeth. It would come down to this. Up against another Reaper on foot, just like Rannoch. She took one down already and she could do it again. Too bad, she didn't have the quarians backing her up from above. No matter. This would not scare her. Gasps of shock and defeat already came from the nearby troops on both sides of them. The grim reaper arrived. Literally. "Shit," Kaidan grumbled as he activated his L2 implant to harness dark energy to create a barrier for another layer of protection.

"We can do this!" Garrus yelled over the noise of hovering airships and rumbling armored rovers. "Just like old times, Shepard!"

Shepard looked over at her former superior officer, giving the man an encouraging head nod. "You ready, sir?"

"I'm not done yet, Shepard," Anderson replied loudly over the cacophony. "We will all get medals for this one."

"I have your back, sir!"

"Let's move out!"

Like their ancestors against ancient foes, a primitive roar erupted from the soldiers before they took off in a charge towards the beam. Shepard pumped her legs faster and gripped her gun. A weapon against the skyscraper tall being would be folly. Their only hope would be their numbers. Harbinger wouldn't be able to mark all of them. A few may slip through the cracks. That was their best hope. Any retreat would collapse the whole mission and this was their final push. As she noticed Harbinger making quick work of the soldiers off to the far right, Shepard noticed that the Reaper seemed as if it was staring right at her. Did he have a way to pick her out from the group? If so, why target the others? Why not her head on? Leviathan said that Harbinger saw her as a threat, which baffled the old race. The Reaper on Rannoch even told her that Harbinger spoke of her. Machines were cold and calculating without any emotion or humanistic traits such as resentment, anger, or sadness. Then again, EDI was an AI infused with Reaper tech after Cerberus got their hands on the rogue AI from the base on Luna. During her time with Shepard's squad, the AI became unshackled, thanks to Joker. EDI began to mentally grow and develop further. Zalena picked up on this during her interactions. At her last talk in London, EDI even sounded like she was scared about what they were going to face. The machine's logic was that the statistics showed they had a low chance of winning or surviving. Yet, there was hesitation in her words. Was she turning more human at the end? What did that mean for the other synthetic beings? Like the Geth? At the end of its life, Legion even differed far more than any other Geth. Did this ring true for Harbinger? He was the oldest Reaper out there. Did she somehow harness new emotions that inflicted him?

Her mind raced and she tried her best to keep focused on the violence in front of her. The troops were getting slaughtered on all fronts. She barely dodged a few close calls. Yet, Harbinger avoided her. Was it purposeful? Or was he simply toying with her till she got near the end? No other Reapers were being called to the location. What was going on?

Suddenly, a rover bolted up from a ray and toppled towards her. She dove to the ground and covered her head.

Broken and battered, Shepard limped around the upper part of the Citadel to where she joined up with a holographic image of a small young boy. The imagery resembled the same child that she lost on Earth. It identified itself as the catalyst and spoke of its creation and the Reapers' intent. She learned that it was the solution to what Leviathan wanted: A way to preserve life. Shepard's ears rang and her body ached terribly in pain as she struggled to maintain consciousness. Captain Anderson succumbed to his fatal injuries by the Illusive Man. Now, it was all her. She was at the ending. Things were getting complicated. She had no idea if she too would join Anderson in the afterlife or not from her wounds. If that was the case, she wanted to make sure to end this war before she fell to the darkness. There was no Lazarus Project this time. Cerberus was done with her. The Illusive Man was dead.

The catalyst gave her three choices to make. The first one was to destroy the Reapers once and for all. This was the result she desired ever since she learned of the machines' existence years ago with the beacon on Eden Prime. However, the intelligence explained that if she went with this outcome, then all synthetics would cease to exist including the mass relays. Civilizations would be separated and without the technology, it would take countless years to fix or recreate such a feat. The Geth and EDI would be terminated. The catalyst also pointed out that due to her cybernetic implants that she received after being resurrected, then her life would not be spared. The latter did not bother her. She already figured this was a one-way street. The child strongly discouraged this by the tone in his voice. On top of the synthetics being killed off, he stated that the peace would not last. At some point, maybe not in her lifetime, that more synthetics would be created and the struggle would come about again. Just like the quarians and the geth.

Then there was the second option: Control. A term that she heard too many times from the Illusive Man. He dabbled with this idea ever since he salvaged technology from the Collector base. She came across this time and time again with various side projects: Project Overlord, Omega, and Sanctuary. In his mind, to make humanity on top, they had to control their enemies to make sure they had complete power over the other races. Very similar to what Leviathan had long ago; the ones that opened Pandora's Box to begin with. The child did not discourage this choice as it did with destroy. She noted a lightness to it as he described it. There were no negative side effects. If she used the catalyst's energy for this, then she would control the Reapers. The Illusive Man could not do this because his mind was not that strong-willed, but the catalyst assured her that she could. No logical explanation was given. A power-hungry option at best.

The last option was Synthesis. A meld between organics and synthetics. Pure harmony. To the child, this was the best of the three. There would be no harsh division between the two entities. All would work together and life would be preserved. The child argued that the reapers only wanted this and they were doing what they were designed to do. However, their outcome was all wrong. The child reached out and touched her arm as it spoke or at least made the warming gesture. Its composition was not solid, so it could not physically touch her flesh. She mulled over this in her mind. It felt all too familiar. "Like Saren…." She thought back to the turian spectre that she went up against with the geth. "He saw this coming."

"Yes," The child agreed.

She narrowed her eyes. Something about this didn't sit right with her. "If this is the best of the three, then why not him? Why indoctrinate him?"

The question and insinuation did not insult the child. "Saren despised humans. There would not be harmony in his decision."

She teetered her head from side to side a little. It was right. Saren was prejudiced against humans following the Relay Incident and the loss of his brother. When the Council partnered him up with David Anderson to see how well the young candidate would be as a Spectre, Saren was insulted. Anderson confirmed this and Saren undermined him and any hope that humanity would have a spectre for the years to follow. "Maybe…."

"What is wrong with this choice?" The child inquired. "You have created peace among all the races and they have worked together to get this far. Would this not be what you wanted?"

"I can't force this on them…" Zalena felt defeated. A terrible decision to make. A knot formed in her stomach.

"They would accept it," The catalyst simply countered. "You lack faith. After all, you would save everyone that is left. Including those close to you. Isn't that what you desire?"

"Is submission not preferrable to extinction?" There were Saren's words again.

Closing her eyes, Zalena took a deep breath as tears hit her eyes. The child was right. She was tired of losing so many to this. The conflict needed to end. She felt a ringing in her ears and her head pounded. A groan escaped her lips as she held her head with her free hand. Her weapon draped by her side with the other.

"Are you okay?" The child poked at her.

"Yes, "She shook her head. She would fight this migraine off. Not like it matter soon anyway.

"The path is yours. You are free to choose."

Zalena glanced over at the three different routes. A bright green funnel of energy glowed brightly in the center of her. The straightest path. The one that the child indicated would be synthesis and the best choice to make overall. Her feet dragged as she forced her body to move forward. She had to make it. She was ready to leave this body. Her fight was over. This had to be right.

Tears streamed down her face as she got closer. There would be no goodbye or farewells. She could see Kaidan's smiling face in her eyes. Surprisingly, the migraine's severity decreased to a dull ache as she moved closer to the energy. She looked back to see the child's form standing there in observation. Dropping her gun as she was about twenty feet away, she broke off in a sprint, then leaped over the edge into the energy. The light was so bright and warm, almost comforting. Her body tingled by the new sensation. Inside her mind, she saw glimpses of Mordin, Thane, and Dratin all watching her with approving smiles.

"It's done." Harbinger's ominous voice came from of where the child was.

Her world started to turn black and she could feel the life force draining from her body. This was it. The point of no return. She accepted her death.

Zalena wasn't too sure how long she went dark or where she was when she started to come to. A wet feeling snapped her awake. The sound of waves crashing on a shore made her lift her head as the salty water taste oozed on her lips. Groaning, she looked up to see a beautiful bright lavender color sky and crystal teal water at her waist. The sand was white, gritty, and very soft at the same time. It's shores stretches as far as the eyes could see in both directions. "Wh-where am I?" She looked around to see that she was still wearing her war-torn armor, though, all her wounds were healed and there were no signs of blood. What was going on?

"Siha!" A welcoming voice called to her.

This had to be a dream. At first, she ignored it. She would not be plagued by teasing imagery of her old deceased lover. Pushing herself up on all fours, she crawled until she was no longer in the water. Then she saw a pair of legs and feet at her side as an unknown figure came to her aid. Drell legs and feet. Thane leaned down to help her. "Siha, you are here."

"Thane?" Shepard blinked as she saw him. She could feel his touch on her. In her past dreams, she could not feel him. Was her mind playing a horrible joke on her?

"I waited for you, Shepard," He took her into his arms and held her. "I see too that you have fallen."

"Am I?"

The drell nodded his head. "I told you that I would wait by the shore for your arrival. Siha, we can now be together."

Zalena hugged him tightly and cried.

Epilogue

EDI stood amongst the Normandy crew. Her metal chin lifted high with her back to the memorial wall. The latest plaques were placed to honor the fallen: The last one was Zalena Shepard's. No one could choke out any words as Kaidan took the honor of putting her name up. The black-haired man struggled with the task. All were implanted with cybernetic implants that made them both organic and synthetic. EDI no longer stood out as being different. This was Shepard's choice. The choice that ended all hostility between the two factions. Joker smiled wryly over to the robot and took her cold hand. EDI nodded her head. "Shepard, thank you. Because of you, I am truly alive."