ENDING TWO: Jack Dies

It was not the first funeral the Normandy had ever seen. The fear that it would not be the last remained unspoken.

Mordin, Legion and Thane all died off the ship, their bodies sent on to their people or their families. Their memorials were held in the Captain's Quarters, as they were aboard for the Collector Mission, when the majority of the current crew weren't there.

Jack had no family to invite or inform.

Shepard was still listed as Next-Of-Kin, and thus he had to decide the funeral arrangements. Of the crew they had lost, Jack was the only one they managed to recover. Most of her anyway. Enough to bury. Enough for a memorial.

It was impossible to equate the crazed biotic with the polished box in the shuttlebay, with an Alliance flag draped over it.

The crew was looking to him.

"I have nothing to say." Shepard said finally. Ashley looked to him, surprised.

Long heavy silence. Nobody else stood up to speak.

Finally, Ashley stepped forward herself. The crew reacted.

"And ask ye why these sad tears stream?
Why these wan eyes are dim with weeping?
I had a dream - a lovely dream,
Of her that in the grave is sleeping." Ashley recited.

With angel-hand she swept a lyre,
A garland red with roses bound it;
Its strings were wreath'd with lambent fire
And amaranth was woven round it.

I saw her mid the realms of light,
In everlasting radiance gleaming;
Co-equal with the seraphs bright,
Mid thousand thousand angels beaming.

Shepard nodded slowly, and it was like there was nobody in the room but him and Ashley, just looking at each other across the coffin that held Jack.

Ashley finished the verse, and took in a shaky breath.

"I didn't like her." Ashley said simply, and the crew chuckled, despite themselves. "My reasons are more varied than what everyone on this ship knows; but they mostly don't matter. I never liked Jack. But she earned my respect. We are soldiers. And Jack died as a soldier would, giving her life. The job of a soldier is to destroy the enemy, complete the mission, protect the innocent, and if possible, come back alive. Jack did almost all of those things, and failing at the last only makes the gesture something grander, and better. Better than I would have thought her capable of." Ashley took a breath. "Her last day was one of honor, duty, and love for her crew. When she came on board, I was not here, but from what I hear, there's nobody who would have thought she'd ever do something so... good."

The crew was nodding, forced to concede that.

"And so here's to Jack, my sister in arms, who gave her life to gain a victory, who tore down walls that would admit no army of man to pass. Her life was one of pain, and her death was one of victory and hope." She saluted crisply. "To Jack."

"To Jack." Everyone echoed, raising their own salutes.

Jack's coffin was ejected out into space, toward the Asari Sun. She would be cremated and scattered to the cosmos.

"Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust." Shepard intoned, following the rituals.

As the second in command, Ashley turned to the crew. "Dismissed."

Shepard kept watching out the viewport as the crew shuffled out. Ashley stayed with him, not saying anything, as they were left alone.

"That was nice, what you said." Shepard said quietly.

"I meant it." Ashley said honestly.

"That poem you quoted... Tennyson, right?"

"Yeah."

"That letter you sent me, after... well, after. You said you read a lot of Tennyson."

"That one in particular." Ashley admitted. "I read it so many times I know it by heart. I think I was trying to focus on it so that I didn't have to think about you."

Shepard sighed. "I've been pretty awful to you. To you both."

"Skipper, you've been a prince." Ashley responded simply. "The whole galaxy has been after you, and if the worst you did to me was try to put off a heavy conversation... Just how petty do you think I am?"

"No." Shepard conceded. "You're not petty."

Ashley stepped forward and gave him a hug. "Now. Talk to me about Jack." She said.

"Seriously?"

"Well... You two had something. I have no idea how to define it-"

"Neither did we." Shepard put in.

"But it was something. Whatever else it was, it was real. I don't really want to know the details, but when you died, I didn't talk about it. With anyone. It was... bad for me. When you wouldn't even speak at her funeral... So, I'm worried."

Shepard was silent a long moment. "You know, back when I was still a cadet, we had shore leave on Earth. We went out for drinks at a tourist town, I met this waitress at a Navy bar. We met up the next night, and the next. A few days later I went back to Boot. It was quick, it was passionate, and we both knew it wouldn't last longer than a week."

"Love life. No regrets." Ashley echoed the old slogan.

"No regrets." Shepard confirmed. "It's wasn't like that at all... Jack and I weren't like you and me. We both knew we'd burn out long before... Everyone assumed wrong. We talked, but not about all the things people really talk about. Mostly we just... forgave each other a lot."

Ashley blinked. "For what?"

"Ah." Shepard responded. "Now those secrets... I won't tell you. She trusted me with them, and Jack has never trusted anyone with anything." He toasted again, and drank. "See, me and Jack, it was hard to define but it was solid, and it was personal. We kept everything that happened between us private, so if I got up and spoke The Last Word in front of the whole crew... She would have reached back from the grave and throttled me for it. We were together for all of two weeks but... I think that Jack… didn't put a lot of stock in love."

"Well… whatever it was she needed, I think that she got it." Ashley smiled at him, just a little bit. "You really meant a lot to her. That's... I barely knew her, but I think that you were something extraordinary to her. I think you made her a real live person."

"Yes." Shepard said without ego. "Yes I did. That's why she left. And why she came back. And why she died."

Ashley sighed. "John, I'm not leaving. I had a chance to back you once and I took it. It was the best choice I ever made. I had a chance to follow you again two years later, and I didn't take it. It was the worst mistake of my life. I'm not going anywhere. I don't know where your head's at after all this, but when it's on straight again, I'm here for you."

"Ash..." Shepard said softly. "Thank you."

Ashley smiled for him. "Dinner?"

He blinked. "Really?"

"John, don't understand me so fast. I mean, let's face it: The Mess Hall ain't exactly candlelight and soft music. I promise, I'm not trying to pounce or anything. You haven't eaten in over a day, and the war goes on."

"Then... I'd love to."

They both stood to go, heading for the elevator.

They turned to go when EDI chimed in. "Commander, we have new reports from the front lines coming in."

Shepard sighed. "Raincheck?"

"No. You need to eat. I'll bring a tray to the War Room." Ashley followed him out of the room to the elevator. He pressed for the command centre, she pressed for the engineering deck. "Hang in there Skipper. You and me, we'll hold the galaxy together yet."

Shepard smiled. "Yeah we will."

He left the elevator first, feeling lighter than he had since the invasion started. The guilt was gone now, healed with Jack's permission and blessing. She had found a way to make her stand and leave things better than she had found them. Given who she was, that was miraculous.

Jack was not the first life lost, wouldn't be the last, but she was something truly special. And in her time with the Normandy, she had changed from an isolated, brutally damaged girl full of murder and fear into something truly noble and extraordinary. As epitaphs went, it was one of the better ones. Shepard knew Jack better than anyone did, maybe better than she did herself, and he knew: If he'd offered her the life, and the death she had received at the moment they met on Purgatory, she wouldn't have believed herself that lucky.

Jack had been more than powerful, she was special. She was more than special, she had been amazing. Her story would be one of a wretched exile who found beauty and purpose, who had redeemed a lifetime of destruction with a few acts of love.

Not a bad eulogy. Shepard thought to himself. Jack would have slugged me if I'd spoken it aloud in front of people.

But the war went on.

AN: And with that, the story is done. Again.

Thank you all once again, and I hope you liked it.