The Godhead

Shepard moved through the "halls" of Habringer quickly, his goal the heart, the core of the being itself. There was an eerie silence about the ship. There were no troops, no defenses he saw, just empty corridors and lights.

Then he saw it. He entered into a vast, cavernous chamber, and before him stood the monster that haunted his dreams.

Harbringer was not what he expected, not at all like the human reaper embryo he had seen at the Collector base. He was massive, frightening, but terrifyingly beautiful as well. Its face was that of a race long since forgotten, but it was strangely angelic, almost human. Upon his head, rays of light shone out, giving the impression of a halo. Its body was dotted with thousands of protruding faces, each representing a fallen race, Shepard thought. They seemed to have frozen expressions of dismay, fear, and awe at being part of so glorious a being. Harbringer was the peak of forced evolution, the synthesis of a billion years of sentient life, the combination of the strongest traits of all that had thus yet existed.

Suddenly, a fire emerged from its eyes. From the back of its head emerged a long, tentacle like arm. Shepard moved forward, drawn ever closer to this being that he felt increasingly like kin to.

He at first touched the end of the tentacle, almost as if he were greeting it. Then, in a flash it snapped back and whipped around Shepard, plunging through flesh and bone directly into the implant in his back. Shepard reeled in a moments pain, but then he felt something else.

Shepard felt as if he had over a thousand eyes, his mind capable of processing quadrillions of thoughts, he felt free, connected. Suddenly a voice echoed in his head. No longer was it the harsh, imposing sound that had taunted him on Horizon or the Collector Base. Now it was more grand, more powerful and pleasing than any voice he had ever heard. Each word was not jarring, but like a beautiful song made into common speech.

"We have waited, we have wanted, and you have come", it began.

"We have come to respect you, Shepard. Our malice towards you has gone; we have sought for some time to join ourselves to your being. Why do you think the road was made clear, why else has all else transpired as it has"

Shepard could not yet speak, it seemed he mind was still expanding, still learning to control its situation like that of an infant learning the most basic skills of communication.

"All the roads we have followed, all of this was foreseen, arranged that you might know the glory of everlasting life, the promise of ascension for yourself and your people."

Suddenly, one of the thousands of images racing this Shepard's mind became clear. Earth, surrounded by many white ships. Alliance ships, human ships, though increasingly his connection to this race was fading.

"Look at them, ask yourself why we have not simply crushed them with our sheer numbers. Why we endure their irritating and pathetic attacks. Is this what you want for your people? To become like all the other races, weakly resisting and being erased from the annals of history?"

Shepard could not help but feel a sense of pity for those beings before him. Occasionally, a few of their ships would flicker out, coming apart under the fire of a Reaper ship, but he could feel a sense of restraint among the other dark ships surrounded Harbringer.

"We let your Illusive Man conduct his experiments; we allowed and facilitated the discoveries he made. We knew you would come to us, and we joyously have opened ourselves to you, a brother to replace that which was lost,"

Suddenly, Shepard felt his attention again being refocused. Away from Earth, those ships, and towards the edges of the solar system. Quickly they were coming, Asari, Turian, Quarian, Geth, and so many others now. Bearing standards of war they would soon be upon the Reapers.

"Now, your moment of glory soon arrives. Look upon this pathetic collection of creatures, insipid, ugly, beyond the salvation we have offered yourself and your kin. I give them to you, as a fitting gift. We have drawn them to this place, a blood sacrifice that will mark your ascension into the Godhead itself"

Shepard could finally begin to clear his mind, focus his thoughts into words.

"I…I don't understand. What is it you ask of me?"

"Shepard will die in this place. There is no question of that. Yet, from the first of your victories you will claim your ancestry…"

Suddenly, Shepard was overtaken by a great sadness. He saw a black ship…Sovereign…it was outside the Citadel. He felt a many stabs as if against his own flesh as human ships fired upon it. Then he felt its death, a loss so profound that it caused him to crumble to his knees and gasp for air…

"Our brother, slain by your works. He fell doing much in our names, and without his passing you would not have been known to us. Redeem yourself now. I will strip you of Shepard, cast away your old life. You will arise from the final death of your body, your ascended name will be Sovereign, Lord of Men, Scourge of this Age, Master and Commander of all Armies. Already your people are being prepared for your reign, though they resist…but if they hear your song, your words of command, they will accept this fate, this glory we have chosen for you"

They were here. The far off ships had arrived. They were firing. He recognized a few of these invaders. The Destiny Ascension was at their center, surrounded by a collection of dreadnaughts. Forward surged cruisers, frigates, and fighters. All were converging towards the Reapers.

"Now the time has come. Submit, and lay waste to last defenses this Galaxy has against your rule. They defy you, they weaken you, their very presence the vilest obscenity before you."

Shepard felt a surge of power running through his being. He looked again at those foreign ships. They were rushing to flank the Reapers, making way for many drop ships to go flying towards the Earth itself. If only they knew they were going to their death, a place made to become a graveyard to their ambitions. He knew the Reapers were holding back, purposefully allowing all these things to happen. A devious trap, one that would swallow whole this suicidal venture he saw before him.

More and more he felt old memories and thoughts slipping away. He was forgetting names, remembering now only faces. He saw a Turian with a wounded face, a large Krogan, a red haired human, so many, all of them were slipping out of his mind, being hidden away in some part of his being to make room for a rush of knowledge, power, the history of millions of generations before him.

He didn't feel sad or afraid. Why should he not have this, why should his race not accept this gift? He began to give in. He felt millions of nanomachines in his insides, remaking his very body. His veins turned black as even the smallest cells in his being were being transformed. He felt free yet safe, embraced by a warmth of belonging to something so much greater than anything he had ever experienced.

It would not be long now. Shepard was fading. Sovereign…perhaps was a more fitting name after all…