Of all the places on Earth after The Reaper War, none suffered more than London. The Reapers hit London directly, lead by Harbinger. It was there that they were first reported to The Alliance. It was there that they built the new conduit to The Citadel. It was there where they imprisoned millions of humans in camps. It was there that they made their last stand and it was there that they were defeated.

London had been saved, although it was far from its original state. Big Ben and The Parliamentary Building were in ruins. The various corpses of husks and Reapers littered the entire country side and the cities. Cleanup was a major effort, along with the rehabilitation and recreation of the city itself. However, due to the newfound peace and organized galaxy, it was much easier and quicker than expected. What was expected to be sixty year process was moved down to a little over forty years, after twenty years it would be almost recognizable as before.

Currently, the ruins still covered most of the city. The corpses had been mostly cleaned up and the smells and sounds of construction covered most of the city. Shuttles flew in and out, carrying various raw materials and products to be implemented into buildings. In the outlaying fields of the city was a large, metallic structure. Outside, docked right to the side of it, was The Normandy SR2.

A small shuttle appeared over the horizon, heading toward The SR2. It slowed down, docking on the side of the building. It was behind the Normandy's docking point, a small metal pathway connecting their docking points. The shuttle doors opened, Shepard and Ashley walked out of the shuttle.

"Wow," said Shepard as he stared at The Normandy, "Brand new coat of paint, brand new windows, and they fixed all those scratches up."

"It looks great," said Ashley as she began to walk towards The Normandy. Shepard followed her as she walked around, looking at the dark blue letters that spelled out NORMANDY. The two stood next to each other, simply looking onto their ship with smiles.

They both heard, after a few minutes, footstep slowly coming near them. They both turned to see the pilot of The Normandy approach them, Joker. "Hey there Captain... and Commander," he said to them.

"Joker," smiled Shepard, "It's been ages! How are you!"

"Great, spent six months freaking sitting around at a flight academy," he said, "I guess 'shore leave' wasn't as great as it was supposed to be."

"At least you got to sleep in, eat hot food, and not do anything," said Ashley.

"Yeah, but I wanna help these people, I just feel super lazy sitting around with all that work still needing to be done," said Joker, "Plus, all the things that you wanna do are gone." "You really can only get drunk so many times, and all the clubs and shops are... you know, destroyed."

Shepard laughed, "Well, at least we can get back to work." They trio began to walk towards the docking point of The Normandy, still talking.

"So, you two do anything fun over your break?" asked Joker.

"Eh..." Ashley grunted, "We pretty much just sat around as well."

The three walked up to the doors of The Normandy, it glowed with the shiny metal of its renovation. The air hissed as the door popped open and slowly slid open, revealing the air lock chamber and the entrance to the inner chamber.

However, once the three entered, Joker immediately interjected, "Holy shit it's bright in here!"

Shepard too was blinded by the light, fully expecting the dim blue that he had grown accustomed to before. Now it was a bright, fluorescent color, reminding him of The Normandy back during his suicide run with Cerberus. He looked at Ashley, whose eyes were still adjusting to the new lights. The three continued their journey into The Normandy.

"What the hell," Joker yelled out as he looked towards the front of The Normandy, "They took my door out!" He slowly walked to his chair, a sad look on his face as he examined all the changes of his cockpit. "They took out my customized flight computer programs... and the extra cup holder!" Things could not have gotten any worse for Joker, "Well... at least they kept the leather," he said as he got into his chair. Joker began wriggling around in his chair, "Seriously, they downgraded the leather! Shepard!"

"Joker," Shepard sighed as he approached him.

"Commander, or Captain actually, they ruined it," Joker said, "They took out all the cool stuff Cerberus had put in." "Look," he said as he began to press some buttons on his panel, "What is that?"

Shepard squinted and looked at it, "That appears to be rear camera... number 2?"

"Yeah, but look at that quality... it's shit," Joker said, "What happened to The Alliance that made them tear the ship apart?"

Suddenly a female voice popped out of the intercom at the two. "The SSV Normandy SR2 has been fully brought up to Alliance regulations and codes," said the voice in a high pitched, British accent.

"Who are you, exactly?" asked Shepard.

"I am The Normandy's Virtual Intelligence, you may call me Jane," she immediately responded to Shepard.

"Well Joker, looks like you got a new friend," he said to Joker. The sudden memory of EDI and her demise at his hands flashed into his mind, poisoning him with guilt. However, he quickly supressed those feelings back inside of him.

"Because Jane is totally like EDI," he said to Shepard as he turned around, "Hey Jane," Joker said out loud.

"Yes flight Lieutenant," said Jane.

"Do you have a soul?" Joker said.

"I'm sorry, I am not capable of making such philosophical judgments," said Jane in a highly neutral manner, "I can give you examples of recent cases of your question or videos." "Also, it is required I mention that questions and actions that encourage the growth of Artificial Intelligence are strictly forbidden under Alliance Regulations 54.236, Citadel Council Regulations 2.78 and 2423.91, and the more recent Artificial Intelligence Act of 2187 passed by all governments of Council races."

Joker chuckled, "My god am I gonna have fun with this."

"Joker, I don't want you accused of crimes your first day back on the job," Shepard said.

"Relax, they aren't gonna kick out the greatest pilot of The Alliance," said Joker, "I'm not like touching kids or anything!"

"Okay... that's a little disturbing," said Shepard, "I'm gonna go over here," he motioned as he began to walk away.

"I'll be right here, just bugging the VI," Joker said. Shepard laughed a little as he began walking down the CIC. The crew was still a skeleton crew, only about a third of the terminals were in use. Shepard walked around the large hologram of The Normandy, now set up to display the Eezo channeling of the ship. He walked around to a familiar face, Communications Specialist Traynor.

"Oh, Commander," she said as he walked up to her, "Captain!" she quickly said as she realized her mistake, "Sorry, still getting used to it."

"No problem, still getting Commander from everyone else," Shepard said, "So, how's the ship holding up?"

"It's going great, we set up a third quantum entangler in the communication room," Traynor joyful spouted out, "It was part of a plan to be able to have the our councilors, before the reconstruction, to all be able to easily chat from their various fleets." "It's actually quite a piece of work, it requires a multi-leveled channel feed to the main..." She stopped as she noticed that she had immediately lost Shepard in the technical aspect of things.

"Oh! I'm sorry," Shepard apologized, "I'm not the best at following the whole, science of things." "Anyways, how is the rest of the ship looking?"

"Well, the bedroom is complete," said Traynor, "I believe that's where your fiancé went." "The Crew Deck is mostly the same, except EDI's parts were taken out for burial at the mass synthetic gravesite on Rannoch and Liara's room is now a XO's room again." "It'd be where Ashley would sleep if she wasn't sleeping with you... you know what I mean."

"What's in the old AI Core?" asked Shepard.

"It's actually now the home of some newer technology for The Normandy's cybernetic warfare suite," she said, "With EDI's death, uh, we lost our entire cybernetic warfare power, so we needed some newer non-AI tech."

"That pretty much cover's that deck, The Engine Level is also the same, Diana Aller's room and Javik's room are now just storage." "Are either of them coming back?" she asked Shepard.

"Diana has a better job with ANN and Javik... left us," Shepard struggled to word his suicide rightly.

"Oh..." Traynor said, "That's sad." There was a brief moment of silence between their conversation, "The Cargo Bay is exactly the same, except Vega is gone doing his N7 stuff, so his weights just are kinda gathering dust."

"Thanks for the update Traynor," said Shepard, "Glad to see everything is going pretty well back here."

Traynor smiled, "Other than the lights, everyone is happy, I even got my toothbrush back."

"That's great," said Shepard.

"Although, I think someone has been using it," Traynor said as she looked towards the front of The Normandy.

"Eww," Shepard said as he walked towards the elevator, opening up for him to enter. He stepped in, pressing the button for his quarters. He waited for a slight period of time before the doors opened again, revealing the same metal area before his quarters. He stepped up to the door, opening it up and stepping in.

The room reminded him of his old quarters back with Cerberus, the light bringing back fond memories of nostalgia. Shepard looked at his fish tank, "What the... he said as he went up to it." The tank was empty, not a single fish in it. He then looked at his glass case, horror still coming into his mind. It was just then that Ashley walked into the room, seeing the look of distress on Shepard.

"Are you okay, Skipper?" she asked as he ran over to the case.

"My ships... they're all gone, along with my fish, the books I had..." he then saw the worst thing of all, "They took Boo!"

"Boo?" Ashley quizzically stated.

"Boo! My hamster!" said Shepard, "You know!" he said as he motioned towards the empty shelf where Boo once sat. Shepard sat in the chair at the desk in front of the empty glass case. "I spent hours building and painting those models, and feeding those fish, and Boo!"

"Shepard... it's a hamster, we can get a new one," Ashley sighed, "You're not two."

Shepard looked at Ashley, "I know... it's just that I don't understand where they could have taken them."

Then, the voice of the V came over the intercom, "The Collectibles were taken to Alliance headquarters for destruction," said Jane, "They violated many of the Alliance regulatory codes, especially what was referred to as 'that screaming head.'"

"Well that's just great," said Shepard. He got up and went over to his bed, falling over onto it. He laid there as Ashley walked over and sat on the bed next to him.

"Shepard," she said, "It's okay."

"I know," said back, "I'm just tired of all the politics of this."

"We all are, but it comes with job unfortunately," said Ashley, "At least we're Spectres, so that helps."

"True," Shepard said as he sat up next to Ashley, locking eyes with her. "You know, being a Spectre does have another advantage," he seductively said as he slid his hand unto hers.

"What?" she seductively asked back.

"There's technically no rule against fraternization... even on an Alliance vessel," he said as he kissed her slightly on the lips. "So, we can do whatever we want."

"As much as I would love that," she purred back at him, "We do have to take The President around the world today..." Shepard's smile turned back into a frown as he remembered why they had come back aboard The Normandy.

"Don't fret Skipper, I'm gonna rock your world later," she said as she got up and walked away from Shepard. His eyes were glued on her behind as she walked out of the room.

"Damn," he said as he fell back onto the bed.


*3 hours later*

Shepard and the crew were all in The CIC, all of the officers were dressed in their uniforms and such. Shepard wore several medals along in his Captain's coat. They all eagerly awaited the boarding of The President onto The Normandy.

The ship had taken off about an hour ago, leaving for Washington D.C. immediately. They waited for a short while there, going through various check-ins and safety inspections. The protection of The President had been beefed up for unknown reasons, with three times as many guards and regular shift changes to assure that each body guard was ready to fight his best.

Several news reporters were on The Normandy, carrying only the clothes on their backs and their cameras. They had taken countless photos of Shepard, the crew, and even of the ship itself. Shepard watched as they scoured around, looking for something new or something they missed.

The doors to the airlock opened, revealing four heavily armed guards escorting an older gentleman in a black suit. "Attention!" one of the guards said as they entered the ship. The president looked around, admiring the stout and loyal troop of the ship.

"At ease," he said as the crew began to relax. He walked up to Joker, who was standing right next to his post. Joker was wearing a more official flight uniform, mirroring The Alliance Officer uniform. He stood as straight as he could, his syndrome still affecting him. He had refused to shave, but had trimmed his beard for the occasion.

The president walked up to The Flight Lieutenant, "Lieutenant Monreau," said The President as he shook his hand. He turned towards the camera, smiling for the publicity shots that ensued as they stood next to each other. The President broke the handshake, turning towards and making eye contact with Shepard.

He walked up to Shepard, who saluted back at The President. "At ease Captain," The President said. He turned to the camera, stating, "If anybody should be saluting anybody, it ought to be the people of this galaxy to you!" The President saluted Shepard, who simply nodded at the gesture of The President. Shepard knew the entire thing was just a big publicity stunt, hoping to get him re-elected within the next couple months.

"All right, let's not waste anymore time," said The President, "You can all get back to your duties at running this ship and prepare for takeoff!" He smiled for the camera as he tried to appear energetic and compassionate towards the crew. However, he then looked at Ashley, who he turned away from the press to speak to her.

"Commander... I would like to speak with you, privately in the conference room," he said as he turned away to head for the conference room. Ashley was nervous, not knowing what sparked this conversation or what would happen. She quickly followed as she was stopped at the checkpoint by his guards, who searched her again. She got through, going into the soundproof room with The President. The guards stood outside the room, looking outward to give them privacy.

The President spoke first, "Williams, we need to talk about your conversation with Hackett." She then realized this was about the funding she had received from Cerberus. She had checked the numbers and facts over and over again, but each time they still pointed to conspiracy and fraud.

"Mr. President," said Ashley, "I need answers," she demanded, hoping not to offend The President. "How is it that I have found papers, linking you and all The Admirals to a massive funding project for Cerberus?"

"Commander," The President sighed, "It is in the best interest that I must tell you to stop investigating." "We have cut all of those funds to Cerberus immediately after your conversation with Hackett."

"I still need to know why you did it," she said.

"We were threatened, at gunpoint," The President said, "Mikhail had us cornered of a crashing ship, we needed to follow his plan to survive."

"Bullshit," she interjected, "You could have used that data to destroy them, but you didn't."

"Williams, they threatened my family and their safety," he scolded, "I received countless emails and messages telling me how they would die and their agony!" "You have no idea what it is like to see your family put in that situation!"

"I do," she said, "And one of them still is." The room grew silent before Ashley spoke again, "So is Cerberus dead, or at least wounded?"

"I'm not sure," said The President, "They've gone dark, only spotting up in some extremely vague conflicts." "They either are down to the bare minimum of their resources or they are powerful enough to go back underground." "I would say to former over the latter, they have no more Alliance fronts, which was their entire income."

"What about Mikhail?" asked Ashley.

"He will pop up," said The President, "And then we'll kill him in some black ops raid or missile attack." "It's no problem, one man won't hide from us forever."

Ashley felt slightly relieved, "Good..anything else?"

"NO," said The President, "Although... I need you to keep this from Shepard."

"With all due respect, Shepard needs to know," said Ashley.

"No, he doesn't," The President simply stated back, "If he learns of this, it could break his spirit or hope." "He's a frail man, and a highly damaged one." "You can see it in his eyes, that cold, dark pool of death and destruction still looms, like a shadow of himself."

"I...I think I understand sir," said Williams.

"Good, then we should get back to the deck, the crew will be wondering why we left," he said as he opened the doors of the conference room and left. Ashley shortly followed behind, re-entering The CIC. The President was conversing with the staff, hoping to get some more positive publicity. Shepard approached her.

"Hey, what was that all about?" he asked her.

"He just wanted to see how our second Spectre was holding up," said Ashley, "Usually political ally bullshit."

"Figures," said Shepard, "He's been all over the press today." "We gotta drop him off all over this planet before we get to Paris."

"It's gonna be along day," groaned Ashley.


*7 hours later*

The President speech was wrapping up in Austin, Texas. He stood on a podium above a large crowd, proclaiming how we won the terrible was against The Reapers. The Normandy was docked on the platform, waiting for The President to re-board before they took off for Paris.

"And I assure you, that I will lead us into a new golden era of peace and understanding!" The President proclaimed as he was cheered on by the crowd below. He smiled and waved, then turned around to re-board The Normandy again.

Shepard, Ashley, Traynor, Joker, and Chakwas were all in the cockpit, playing a round of Skillian Five. They looked as they saw The President re-board and they stopped to return to their stations.

"How long was that one?" asked Ashley.

Joker looked at a timer in the corner of his screen, "Thirty Eight Minute and Twenty Three Seconds," he said to her.

"At least we got one left," Shepard said.

"That's gonna be like five hours long," groaned Joker.

Shepard walked back to the CIC, talking to Ashley along the way. The ship took off from its port, flying quickly over the ground and out to the sea. They had to take it slow, a new shift change for the escort fighters was about to arrive. Joker softly flew The Normandy across a seemingly endless horizon of sparkling blue.

"Uh, Flight Escort 93, you are free to take off, Flight Escort 42 is here for the rest of the trip," said a voice over the intercom.

"This is Flight Lieutenant Monreau approving the transfer, Escort 93?"

"This is Flight Escort 93, all signs are green," said a female voice over the intercom, shift change is now in effect."

Joker watched as the current fighters slowly left his radar as newer ones began to take their place. Then, suddenly, one of the fighters flew over the top of The Normandy, almost grazing it.

"Hey! watch it!" Joker said, "God, you think these Presidential Pilots would know how to fly!" Joker looked unto a screen that popped up, he was confused over what the box said. "Hey, Shepard, come here!"

Shepard walked across The CIC to Joker, "Yeah?"

"I'm getting a weird reading from these sensors," said Joker, "It's says that there are a bunch of pieces of debris on the hull." "I think that fighter hit us," said Joker.

"I'm sorry," said one of the guards who approached the two, "Attention Flight Escort 42, we are getting some unusual hull readings on The Normandy, do you see anything out of the ordinary?"

The fighters quickly responded, "Negative, we see nothing unusual on the hull, that fighter might have grazed the top or something."

"They keep moving," said Joker, "Look, this one is heading for the front window here," he said as he pointed it out on the screen. Shepard watched as the dot got closer and closer to the front, the guard pulled his gun out and told them to guard The President.

Then, a small piece of metal rolled of the front, flying down into the ocean.

"Oh thank god," said Joker, "For a minute, I thought..."

Then, the window shattered opened as a figure propelled into the ship, revealing a long sword in one hand and pistol in the other. The figure revealed itself to be a Cerberus Phantom as it dove towards the guard who was shooting it. Shepard was tossed a pistol to help fight off the phantom. However, as they finally killed it, the guard had died from a slit to the throat.

Joker, "Shepard, we got more on the hull, I think they are placing bombs to blow the wings!"

"Get us out here!" Shepard screamed as another phantom broke through the top of the ceiling in The CIC.

"I can't, these fighters have us boxed in!" Joker exclaimed as he tried to escape.

Then, a huge blast tore open a huge spot in The CIC, the port side corner. Shepard watched as a shuttle, with a clearly marked Cerberus logo on it, opened up to reveal three huge shields guarding a group of Cerberus troops as they entered The Normandy.

Shepard watched as Ashley and a few others flanked them and began to cause a disarray in their formation. However, he needed to protect Joker so the ship could still fly. Shepard shot several bullets into the head of a phantom, which feel immediately to the ground dead.

Then, Shepard looked to see the airlock door open, someone had docked with the ship midflight. He pointed his gun at the doorway, expecting to see a group of troops come pouring in. However, he was taken by surprise as his gun was overloaded by a single man.

The man was very young, could not have been more than twenty. He had slick black hair that had been compressed from a helmet he recently had been wearing. He was wearing the basic armor of all Cerberus Troops, the dirty lines of orange and black along with the rusty white of the armor clashed. He looked Shepard in the eyes, finally glad to see him.

"So," said Shepard, "You must be Mikhail."

"Yes," said Mikhail, "And you are the legendary Commander Shepard." "Hero of The Citadel, Defeater of The Collectors, and Killer of The Reapers." He pulled a knife out of its holder around his waist, "I have waited so long to challenge you."

Shepard watched as the kid approached him, holding a knife in a very firm manner. However, Shepard had been trained in knife combat, and quickly was able to disarm him and throw the knife aside. He then landed several punches against Mikhail, nearly knocking the kid out.

"Okay," Mikhail said as he pulled himself together, "Let's," was all he was able to get out before Shepard took a swing at him with his gun, shattering it and knocking Mikhail out.

"Why didn't you shoot him?" asked Joker, "The gun only overloads for like a minute!"

Shepard stopped, "Dang it... it was the heat of the moment. " "Besides The Alliance is gonna have funny interrogating him."

A voice came over the intercom, "Warning, complete engine failure, evacuate immediately." After hearing the news, Joker immediately drove the ship as far up the atmosphere as he could. He then pressed some buttons, disabling the artificial gravity.

"Joker!" screamed Shepard, "What are you doing?"

"I'm saving us , that's what," he said as he turned the ship downward, creating a free fall from space back towards the ocean. Now that the gravity was disabled, Shepard grabbed Joker along with Mikhail, who both were now floating due to the free fall, and moved towards the nearest escape pod.

"Shepard," Ashley said as popped out of the escape pod, "Give me Joker and let's go!"

"Where's The President," asked Shepard.

"He's coming, let's go!" said Ashley as she tugged on Shepard.

Shepard handed Joker over and was about to hand Mikhail over, when Mikhail jolted up and stabbed Shepard in the back of his right shoulder with and Omni-blade. Shepard screeched from the pain of molten plasma tearing through his skin and bone.

Mikhail swam up, grabbing a gun from out of his secondary holster and waited for the door leading to the conference room to open. Shepard was grabbed by Ashley who then strapped him i to the seat next to him, still wincing in pain. The door opened and the president popped out to get to an escape pod.

"Mikhail!"exclaimed the president who now had a gun on him. Mikhail flew to him, holding the gun to his head.

"You think my death will further your goals?" The President remarked.

"...yes," said Mikhail as he shot The President straight through the head. The President's body floating through the air as did the blood. Mikhail was soon rejoined by a Cerberus shuttle that was following the ships fall. He was tossed a cable as the doors opened, allowing him to get to safety.

Before the doors closed, he waved goodbye to the crew and left. Ashley, who was still in shock, pressed the escape pod button. the doors closed as the pod shot out towards the vast ocean.