Disclaimer: Mass Effect is copyright of Bioware. Many of the characters contained herein—Shepard included—are property of Bioware. Shepard is partially of my forging, since I could imagine his background and actions during his military career. The sequence of events and their outcomes are property of Bioware. The interpretations of the events are my own. Ci-Ci is mine. Please do not repost this story or any parts of it herein. Always give credit where it is due. I owe the Mass Effect Wiki a great deal for helping me figure out timelines, details, and other such things.

I welcome constructive and/or encouraging reviews/critiques. Thank you for reading. Enjoy!

2 September 2183—Council Chambers, Presidium Ward, the Citadel, Serpent Nebula

Shepard stepped back. "It's done."

For a brief moment, the euphoria of victory hit. They had stopped the Reapers by shutting down the Conduit (the Citadel's mass relay alter-ego). Saren was gone. The Alliance was on its way. Everything was, for once, falling into place.

Corinthia checked her omni-tool. "We've got fifteen minutes to destroy Sovereign."

Shepard gritted his teeth. "Leave it to you to ruin a moment."

"You're the one who's been worried about time. I was just trying to be—Duck!" She tackled Shepard as Saren rushed them on his hover platform. A concussion grenade hit right where they had been standing a moment before.

Corinthia rolled off Shepard into cover behind a low shrubbery wall. "Why the hell does he always have to do that?"

Shepard pushed her aside and took her place. "At least I don't have to save your ass this time."

"Not yet."

"Commander," Saren called, barely able to mask the anger in his voice, "you have been a thorn in my side for too long."

"Same here," Shepard answered. He took out his pistol and readied his biotics. "This has gone on for long enough."

"I agree. Are you ready to die?"

Six months ago, Shepard would have answered, "Are you?" and gone out, guns blazing. Something had changed in him, though. "You're going to kill us all. The Reapers aren't you allies. Didn't you listen to anything Vigil said?"

Vigil was a Prothean VI on Ilos that both Saren and Shepard had found. It had been there when the Protheans were wiped out by the Reapers, storing their memories, intelligence, and warnings.

"I did," Saren answered. The determination in his eyes faded. "Don't you understand? It can't be stopped. We can't fight them." He sounded desperate and defeated.

"Yes, we can fight. We can stop them. We have the advantage. We know they're coming. You know more about them than anyone else."

Saren twitched, like he'd just had a programming glitch.

Shepard took the opportunity. "Fight with me. This isn't over. You don't have to do this."

Saren's shoulders drooped and he took a deep breath, as if for the first time in years. "You don't know what it's like, being near one of them. I can't get it out of my mind. Sovereign has… I haven't had hold of my own mind since… No, Shepard, I can't fight this. I'm not strong enough. But you…" Saren straightened, drawing his pistol. "I was wrong about humanity: You are the future. Make sure that we have one. Thank you, Commander." He put the barrel to his chin and fired.

Corinthia squeaked in shock. "Did he just…" She gulped, paling. She'd seen death, she'd killed, but she'd never seen someone take their own life.

Shepard stood up and looked to where Saren's body fell. "Wrex, make sure he's dead."

Corinthia came up behind Shepard. "That was too easy. Really. Sovereign wouldn't just let him… You know…" She shook her head and took out her omni-tool, scanning the area over Saren's body. The turian lay prostrate in the garden beneath the Council's stations, peaceful despite the chaos around them. Wrex jumped down, put his foot on Saren's chest, and blasted his head with a shotgun. Wrex grinned up at Shepard and Corinthia. "He's dead."

Corinthia's omni-tool beeped. "Ci-Ci, this is Joker. Where the hell are you guys?"

"Funny thing, that… We're in the Citadel," she answered. "Where are you?"

"We've just arrived with the Fifth Fleet."

"Then why're you talking to me? Go kill Sovereign."

Shepard held up a hand. "Joker, if you can, save the Destiny Ascension."

"The Council ship?" Joker answered. "I thought you hated them."

"Just do it," Shepard snapped. Though Joker was right, Shepard was going to need the Council's help later… Assuming they destroyed Sovereign. But Shepard was taking one hurtle at a time.

The first one was conquered; Saren was dea—

"Oh, shit," Shepard muttered. A piece of debris from the battle outside hurtled towards the Council Tower, hitting two levels below the Council Chambers. The resulting jolt caused the platform Shepard and Corinthia were on to collapse into a ramp. He grabbed her, covering her protectively as they slid into the garden below.

As soon as they'd stopped moving, he propped himself up on his hands before he crushed her. "You alright?"

She didn't answer, her eyes wide in terror.

"Ci-Ci? Cassie!" he shook her shoulder.

Behind him, Saren's body twitched. The flesh burned away, revealing the blackened, blue, oganomechanical skeleton of the turian.

"Husk," Corinthia finally managed.

"I hate those things," Shepard growled. "Wrex, kill it."

Before the krogan could do a thing, the Saren-Husk crouched and leapt onto a wall. "Shepard…" Wrex called, firing his shotgun two steps behind his target. "Stop worrying about your mate and start shooting!"

4 September 2183—the Council Tower, Presidium Ward, the Citadel

Anderson directed the rescue team into the remains of the Council Chambers. The smoke and dust had yet to settle, even though the battle had ended almost eight hours before. Thanks to Shepard and the Normandy, the Council had been saved, Sovereign had been destroyed, and the day was won. However, there had been no contact from Shepard or his team, leading the Captain to believe the worst: They didn't survive. One of Sovereign's arms had crashed into the Chambers, almost ripping off the entire top of the tower. The debris from the battle had been falling onto the Wards, making travel and rescue missions difficult. Shepard was a top priority, though. He was about to become the most influential and famous human in the galaxy; they couldn't let him go unfound.

Anderson found Wrex first. The krogan was leaning against a fallen statue, almost asleep. He opened one eye when the Captain approached.

"What happened?" Anderson asked.

Wrex let out a slow breath. "Saren's dead."

"Where are Corinthia and Shepard?"

Wrex shook his head, closing his eyes again. Anderson's stomach dropped a little. "Keep looking," he ordered.

The party fanned out, trying to weave their way through the debris. Sovereign's arm stabbed into the gardens like a stake. From all the devastation around, there was little way anyone could have survived.

"I have Commander Corinthia!" one of the team called. He helped her out from under a slab of rock. She was bleeding, bruised, and battered, but alive. "It's alright, Commander. You're safe now."

"Where's Shepard?" she demanded weakly, clinging to the rescuer. She could barely stand.

"You need to sit down." The man forced her to the ground and applied a dose of medi-gel. He scanned her with his omni-tool. "You've got some fractured ribs, broken wrist…"

"Whatever." She waved him off and tried to stand. Her knees buckled. "Damn it…"

"You have a broken leg, too," the rescuer continued. "I take it that slab of rock fell on you."

She ignored him. "SHEPARD!"

"We haven't found him, yet."

"Then you aren't looking hard enough." She took out her omni-tool and started scanning the area. "What the hell… Ooh… Sovereign…" She gritted her teeth and started cutting through the fields still being emitted by the fallen Reaper. "Note to self: NEVER invent anything sentient, because once it's smarter than me…" She trailed off and bashed her omni-tool into the floor. Of course, that was the arm with the broken wrist. She winced and blinked back tears.

Anderson squinted through the haze. A shadowy figure was clambering over rocks and coming steadily towards them. "Someone's coming…"

Corinthia looked over. "Shepard!" She sprinted to him, ignoring the pain and falling over several times. He closed the distance between them, catching her in his arms and kissing her with reckless abandon. Her feet dangled a good foot off the ground. She pulled away and grabbed his collar. "Don't EVER do that to me again," she hissed, "or I will bring you back from the dead to kick your ass back to Hell. You got it?"

He grinned. "God, I love you…" He kissed her playfully and carried her back to Anderson. "Captain."

"Shepard," Anderson answered, chuckling at the sight. Shepard was holding Corinthia with one arm, wrapped around her thighs, and carrying a pistol in the other. With a torn, busty, skin-tight red dress and a nice pair of heels to match, she'd look the part of the just-rescued damsel in distress. "Somehow I knew you wouldn't be dead."

"Yeah, well, at least someone's happy to see me," Shepard answered.

"Hey," Corinthia protested, bopping him on the head.

"Do that again and I'll spank you."

"That's threatening a fellow officer," she warned. "That's punishable by—"

"Ci-Ci?"

"Hm?"

"No."

She blushed and smiled bashfully at Anderson.

"You two are going to get into a lot of trouble," Anderson murmured.

"With all due respect, fuck them," Shepard answered. "Let them try and court martial us. I have more important things to do. C'mon, Wrex."

"You're going to have to wait," Anderson interrupted, stepping in Shepard's way. Corinthia sighed and shifted to lean over Shepard's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "The Council wants to see you."

"To thank me for saving their asses? I don't have time for that!"

"Please, Commander. It will help get you both out of trouble."

Shepard snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Listen, I'll keep quiet about the two of you. It isn't technically against regulation, but if the Alliance really wants to discredit you, they're going to have more than enough evidence. Please, Shepard, just take five minutes and let the Council actually talk to you. Then you both can go get some rest. Corinthia, at least, needs some medical attention."

Shepard's mind was already on the battles ahead of him. "Whatever. Are they here?"

"They will be shortly. You may want to put Ci-Ci down before we see them."

Shepard flipped her off his shoulder so that she could hobble next to him. She winced, but swallowed the pain and tried to act like she didn't care. It was hard, though. All of her other major wounds had rendered her unconscious or hadn't affected her movement. A bad omni-tool arm and gimpy leg made everything difficult. But at least she had Shepard to carry her around for a while.

Then again, he was limping slightly, too. There was no way he'd gotten out of that unscathed. "You alright?" she murmured.

"Fine," he growled. "I'll have the doc patch me up after you." He was pretty sure that he also had broken bones (or, at least, broken ribs, from the way it hurt to breathe) and he needed to sleep for about twenty-four hours to recover from the ordeal he'd just been through. But he didn't have time to be injured or tired. The Reapers weren't going to stop coming because he destroyed one and stopped the Conduit from opening. They'd find another way.

He'd stop them.

26 September 2183—Presidium Ward, the Citadel, Serpent Nebula

Shepard knocked on Corinthia's door. How the hell she'd managed to afford a place this nice, he had no idea, but then again, Shepard owned an apartment on Intai'sei in the Argos Rho system. He hadn't been there since he got it, but he had it. He wasn't really sure what it meant to have a home to go to.

Corinthia opened the door. She looked strange in her casual clothes (black cargo pants and a t-shirt printed with skulls), which didn't match her smile at all. "Hey…"

He raised an eyebrow. She sounded and looked like someone had died. "What's wrong?"

She gestured for him to come in. Her apartment was an odd conglomeration of artistic, modern, and antique furniture with posters and expensively framed art on the walls. From the way that there was nothing superfluous on the surfaces, and knowing that she was something of a slob, she must have just finished cleaning to impress him.

"Want something to drink?" she asked.

"You're avoiding the question." He sat heavily on one of the sofas, putting his arm out to indicate that she should sit next to him.

She did, sitting sideways and leaning against his chest. "The Council approved my Spectre status today."

After the Battle of the Citadel three weeks earlier, Corinthia and Shepard were forced to take a week's leave, which they spent planning their next move to find the rest of the Reapers and not relaxing at all (they'd only kissed once a day, by Corinthia's count, and she had not had her Shepard quota filled; he still hadn't made it up, but she'd make him). For saving the Council and the Citadel, humanity was granted a seat on the Council and Corinthia was put up for Spectre status. Though she hadn't wanted it before, she didn't argue this time.

"Congratulations," he murmured, kissing her head, "but you don't sound happy."

"I am. Sorta… It's going to make things a lot easier for us."

"I don't like your tone."

She took a deep breath. "I submitted my resignation this morning. I'm leaving the Alliance."

Shepard stood up. She fell over, legs flying up comically into the air. "WHAT?" he shouted.

She righted herself. "What did you expect me to do? I was going to be reassigned and I couldn't change the orders without getting us into more trouble than we were already in." Anderson, now an Admiral, had agreed to let Corinthia and Shepard's romance stay secret if she agreed to a transfer. She had accepted the change, but hadn't had the heart to tell Shepard until she figured out how to fix the problem. She leaned forward. "Look, this way I can do whatever I want to."

"You know what happens when you work on your own. You get hurt. I don't want that to happen."

She rolled her eyes. "Protective doesn't suit you, John. I can take care of myself, believe it or not. I just… can't when I've got you to come and save me. It makes me not try, you know? I kinda like you swooping in, guns blazing, armor sparkling… But that can't keep happening. We've got Reapers to worry about. I don't need you worrying about me."

"And you're going to help that by leaving?"

"You can't do this alone. You're going to need all the allies you can get. Having another Spectre on your side is going to be useful. I can get my own team and we can double the work—or I can do all those errands that the Alliance keeps making you run, you know? It's going to be better this way. Really. I thought this through. We don't know where to start hunting the Reapers. If it's just you looking, then we probably won't finish in time." She hesitated before adding, "I'm not breaking up with you."

"Sure as hell sounds like it."

She grabbed his hands. "You don't have to worry about losing me. Ever. You got that? I love you. That isn't about to change. I've seen every side of you—okay, well, all of your bad sides—and I still do. Seeing each other every few weeks is going to be hard, but we'd have had to get used to it eventually. I wasn't going to stay with the Alliance forever. If the whole Saren thing had happened, I would've left after the Normandy's maiden voyage. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to worry you."

"Yeah, well, good job with that." He ran a hand over his head. "I probably won't be able to concentrate."

"Yes you will. You have soldier mode, you know? Just switch it on and you won't even think about me."

"I'll need my hacker."

"You have Tali."

"And a sniper."

"Garrus."

"And my girlfriend."

"Video link."

"In person."

"Look at it as a way to make chastity easier."

He gritted his teeth and pulled his hands out of hers.

"It's already done," she continued. "I have one last mission to Ilos to recover Vigil and then I can do whatever I want. Just call and I'll be there, alright? We still have those omni-tool links. They'll work anywhere through anything." She smiled. "It'll be okay, you know?"

He shook his head. He wanted her nearby so that he could watch over her. He wanted her safe; being a Spectre was not safe. She got into trouble all the time and got hurt on nearly every single mission. She had more scars than he did. He would never forgive himself if she died (or was injured or something) and he hadn't been there to save her.

"John?"

He glared at her and stormed out. She rubbed her eyes. She'd known that he'd react badly. For all his bad assery, he was a pure romantic at heart (not to mention that he loved to cuddle). He believed that she was a damsel in distress and would always be one. She was tougher than he thought. Hell, she'd lived through everything that he had. Yes, she came out more scathed than he did, but that was only because she had been oblivious to the danger.

She wasn't anymore. She knew what it would take to succeed. Unlike Shepard, she believed that duty came before love. She wanted them to have a galaxy to live in once it was all over, not just share stolen moments in his cabin.

He'd come round, though. He usually let her win and, frankly, she believed that she really was right. Only time would tell for certain.