Epilogue

The crackle and snap of sparks bursting was near constant as Shepard made her way towards the conference room. Wires were hanging from the ceiling where the panels had become dislodged, one of the beams had been forced out of place and now was running through the doorway, keeping the passage open. Shepard grabbed a piece of debris and moved it out of her way, more evidence of the toll the fight had taken on their worthy vessel. She ducked under another live wire, thankful she was still in her insulated armour as the quantum entanglement communicator began to hum. Stepping into it, her image shimmered into being in the Horsehead Nebula, half a galaxy away.

"Shepard" The Illusive Man spoke with no pleasure in his voice. "You're making a habit of costing me more than time and money." The promise of the opportunities of the Collector Base's technologies lost was still a bitter wound, and it had only festered into anger. The blazing star behind him now reflected a shade of blue over his shoulder, accentuating the azure lights in his eyes.

"Too many lives were lost at that base" Shepard replied defiantly and unashamedly. "I'm not sorry it's gone."

"The first of many lives" the Illusive Man corrected her, seemingly unfazed. "The technology from that base could have secured human dominance in the galaxy; against the Reapers and beyond." His words were coloured with scorned ambition.

"'Human dominance'?" Shepard challenged, "or just Cerberus?"

"Strength for Cerberus is strength for every human" the Illusive Man declared, rising from his chair at her implication. "Cerberus is humanity. I should have known you'd choke on the hardest decisions; too idealistic from the start."

"I'm not looking for your approval" Shepard told him. "Harbinger is coming and he won't be alone. Humanity needs a leader who's looking out for them. From now on I'm doing things my way, whether you agree or not."

The Illusive Man's eyes flared in anger. "Don't turn your back on me Shepard!" He snapped in a rare loss of his composure. "I made you, I brought you back from the dead."

Shepard snorted. He may have held sway over her death but he would never again control her life. "Joker, lose this channel" she called, leaving the communication without a further word.

No one had ever left the Illusive Man like that, and anyone had come close had not survived for long. The Illusive Man sat back in his chair, examining the star's many facets as he took a heavy draw on his cigarette. This had not gone according to plan, but he was a man of vision and had many backups. The next phase was going to reshape the galaxy beyond the imagining of limited minds.

The engines barely hummed as the Normandy eased her way through space, making isolated jumps through the relay, back to Sol. Her hull was charred, barriers were up to prevent venting in the breaches, but she was still space-worthy approaching the bright hue of orange and purple hues of nebulas. The decks were alive with activity, feet pounding as both Cerberus and Shepard's team were constantly on the move, cataloguing and repairing damage, taking stock and assisting others where they could. Shepard rounded a corner to see a host of familiar faces. Legion and Jack running weapons checks, Grunt and Garrus moving crates of ammunition. Joker stood from where he was downloading information from a data cache before handing Shepard a copy on a data pad. Shepard looked down at it, it was a collection of information all listed under a single tag; Reaper. There were diagrams and diagnostics of everything slightly associated with the enemy, from the Collectors and their base, to the image of Harbinger that had revealed himself on the Project, to Sovereign himself. The cache also had several translation programmes already loaded; it wasn't just a collection, it was a package to be distributed to every single species and civilisation that could fight. Shepard looked up at Joker and nodded, their journey had just reached an end but in so many other ways, their stories were just beginning with a dark new chapter on the horizon. As EDI steered the Normandy towards refuge, the ship angled and a light fell upon Shepard's face. She looked up to the light of a blazing star, shining bright and undaunted. Shepard stared, her conviction resolved to carry out this war until the end. Far beyond the stars, eons and eons away, still in the reaches of dark space between galaxies, Harbinger stared back. The light of Milky Way barely illuminated the new vanguard of destruction but pushing forward, it revealed Harbinger wasn't alone. There was a Reaper at Harbinger's side. And another, the void suddenly full of immovable death bearing down on the Milky Way, the cycle on the precipice of the end.

Jax looked up from his gear locker in the Crew Quarters as Kelly walked in. "Are you ready?" She asked.

Jax nodded as he closed the footlocker and secured the clasps. "I am now."

The Normandy was abuzz with activity, the word was already widespread that Shepard was planning to take the Normandy back to Earth, to surrender herself to the Alliance for what had happened with the Project in the Viper Nebula, and suddenly it made a lot of people with affiliations to the orange diamond on their shoulder wondering about their place. Their Commander had ordered one detour before the ship reached its ultimate destination; the Citadel for anyone who did not wish to relinquish themselves into Alliance custody. Jax was human, but Earth held no special significance to him, it was just another planet in a million he had never seen. Jax knew Grunt was planning to take a drop back into Tuchunka, the ways of clan and kin in Urdnot called to his blood. Jacob seemed strangely distant, as if his purposelessness had manifested into melancholy, he needed a new place in the universe. Mordin was bound back for STG, Tali the Migrant Fleet and Legion to a location the consensus had decided to not disclose. As for the others? Jax assumed they would fall back into the shadows, live some semblance of their new lives for the limited time they still could before Hell broke over them all again. It had been a day after the Normandy had made the first round trip through the Omega 4 Relay when Jax had asked Kelly to leave with him. He had assumed she would probably elect to stay with Shepard but she had said yes immediately, seemingly troubled. Jax noted her terminal was full of off-the-books extranet searches of Cerberus and their activities, seeking an outside perspective. He was only too happy to be the one to take her away from all of that.

Jax stood with the locker and took Kelly's hand, leaving the Crew Quarters for the last time. There were memories here that he would miss, and some he could wait to forget, and he was sure he wasn't the only one. Kelly flinched slightly as the elevator doors sprung apart at their presence, relaxing only when she could see it was empty. Jax gave her hand a squeeze as they stepped into it together, taking the trip up to the CIC. They stepped out into the same flurry of activity of people moving around. Jax had managed to requisition a crate of supplies from Rupert that would last Kelly and him at least two weeks, more than enough for what they'd need. The airlock door opened as they approached.

"Jax!" He heard his name being called. He turned to see Garrus sidestepping his way through the crew, Shepard wasn't far behind him, this time in her Alliance dress blues. Jax turned back to Kelly. "I'll be there in a minute" he told her, handing her his gear.

"I wasn't sure we'd catch you" Garrus told him as they approached. "You've chosen to leave?"

Jax nodded. "We're taking a private shuttle, not much legitimate traffic going in my direction." He looked at Shepard.

"I know" she said, "it's not my first choice of garb either."

"Are you staying on for the long haul?" Jax asked.

Garrus looked pained. "I wish I could," he replied, looking at Shepard. "But there's other places I have to be, promises to keep now that target practice has been finished up." He looked back. "I'm heading back to Palaven, to prepare for the next war."

"Palaven?" Jax asked, surprised. "I thought we agreed we weren't telling others where we were going, that it would be safer, what with Cerberus putting us all on the top ten wanted list for galactic bounties."

"Top fifteen in your case" Shepard corrected with a wry smile, "and actually I'm not on it. The Illusive Man still thinks I have worth it seems, Miranda and Jack have tied the top spots for their bounties."

"And I'm hot on their heels at three" Garrus added, stretching his neck with his hands on his armour's collar.

"So we'll all have some looking over our shoulder to do while we're preparing" Shepard said. "This isn't a holiday, who knows how much time we have."

"It might be the last time we can take a holiday" Jax reasoned.

"You have a destination?" Garrus asked.

Jax thought for a moment; besides Kelly, there weren't any person he trusted more than these two. "It's back to Omega for us" he said, "but I think we'll take the scenic route there."

"Any particular stops in mind?" Shepard asked.

Jax shrugged. "I don't know" he said before smiling. "Somewhere with dandelions."

"Aria?" Shepard asked, wondering if he was joining the Pirate Queen.

"She's made me an offer" Jax admitted, "I haven't accepted it though. I'm not sure if I will yet, she's expecting my answer when I get there."

"Stay safe" Shepard told him, "I'm sure we'll need you before this is over."

Jax nodded, a seemingly formal farewell for someone he trusted almost beyond compare, but then Shepard was still his commander and the crew was all about revering their Commander, seemingly larger than life. "You too Shep" he finally said. Jax then looked at Garrus who offered his arm.

"Good luck" Garrus told him. "I wish for you all the happiness you can find. I'm proud of you, I know your mother, Sensat, all of us who aren't here to say it would be too."

Jax slapped Garrus' arm out of the way and wrapped his arms around him in a solid embrace, never wanting to let go, leaving suddenly felt like taking a piece out of himself, just when he had found a family again. Family was all he had ever been searching for, a place to belong and people to welcome him home to it. But leaving home didn't mean it wouldn't still be there, or that he wasn't welcome to return. Home was permanent, irreplaceable and something that could never be taken from anyone. It was a thought that held a bright smile on his face as he stepped away from Garrus and into the airlock as Kelly finished the last of the pre-departure checks. He didn't look away until the doors had closed, no more words were needed.

He joined Kelly in stepping out of the airlock, the doors closing behind them as they were allowed out into the shimmering megalopolis of the Wards. They looked at each other and burst into a shared smile. Jax touched the exterior of the Normandy as they walked down the dock, towards the elevator for the spaceport. Jax took this moment to take one last gaze at the Normandy, held securely in the docking clamps. He spied a ball of biotic energy as Samara gazed out the window, Kasumi curled up with a book on the other observation deck. From the pilot's chair, Joker gave a wave of farewell.

"Where shall we start?" Kelly asked him, gesturing to the miniaturised galaxy map on her omnitool, the screen much less grand than the Normandy's 3D holographic display. "We have a whole galaxy in front of us."

Jax looked at a few options, overwhelmed with choice but chose to keep things simple. "Let's try there" he said, selecting a relay with no particular reason.

"What's there you want to see?" Kelly asked.

Jax didn't know how to answer but his own words rang back in his mind. "Somewhere with dandelions" he repeated softly.

Kelly smiled and programmed in the coordinates to be uploaded to the shuttle. She offered her hand and Jax took it in his, the slightly inhuman sensation of programmed cybernetic nerves in his fingertips a permanent souvenir of their trip, and his sacrifice. They smiled again as Jax confirmed the shuttle's location to be picked up. The elevator door at last closed on their fateful voyage, but would open again to whatever was next for them; hope, the unknown and the sunrise of a thousand new stars.

~ Fin ~

A/N: Thank you all for reading, especially to those who stuck through it in the massive hole in the middle I fell into. I'll be back eventually but next up for me is a personal project of my own that doesn't fit here. Thank you to those who sent messages, reviews will always be welcome. Keep safe out there, keep kind.

Small Mistake