A/N: Part two of two – Shep's side. Common parts are in bold.

We've spent a lot of time trying to overcome history.

And, I think we finally have.

I've never blamed you for your mistrust, Ash, for your skepticism. It's part of who you are, beautifully imperfect. Those doubts about Cerberus, those doubts about me… It hurt, but I understand.

I spent a lot of time in those six months sitting in the dark observation lounge and talking to Kasumi.

She asked me what I would have thought if I walked into a bakery one day years later, following the ghostly smells of my mother's kitchen, and found her standing there, smiling at me, arms spread out to hold me and tell me everything was okay, be my hearth and soul and comfort.

I guess that's what it was like for you.
And I guess seeing me in Cerberus armor with Miranda and Jacob behind me…

I don't know how to help you overcome that.

And history can never truly be overcome. It can only be amended.
I wonder if we've spent so much time bogged down in history that we can't see the present anymore.

There's too much wasted time between us.

When you asked to meet me on the Citadel, I didn't know what to expect. I may be a so-called savior of species, I may be looked upon now to save all organic life… But when it comes to us, Ash, you've always held all the power. I have a hard time releasing control to someone else; but, I've never been in control with you.

So, I had to wait. And when you asked to meet me on the Citadel, I didn't know what resolution you'd come to, but I knew you'd decided something.

We've spent too much time apart, Ash.
There's a way forward for us. I'm glad you see it too.

We can't forget the history between us, but we can amend it.

And we're lucky to have that chance.
I'm surprised we've made it last this long.

It hasn't been easy. Nothing worth having, worth fighting for ever is.

But, I wonder what things would have been like if we'd met under different circumstances. If we hadn't met during the beginnings of a struggle to survive. If I hadn't… left… for those years.

It feels like this fight has been going on forever. It feels like it was a different lifetime ago when I met you on Eden Prime.

Eden Prime. Three years ago. That was the beginning of everything.
The geth.

The recent loss of a friend.

I used to think they were synthetic killing machines.
But it sometimes just takes knowing one to change your perspective.

To make another imprint on your heart. A wound too fresh to heal.

He sacrificed himself to elevate his kind, to ensure a peace between two factions that have been long at war.

Was it worth his sacrifice? Undeniable, by the numbers. But as we draw closer to end, I hold them closer to me – my ones. If I forget, I lose my reason to fight.

So I live on and remember.

Kaidan.
Mordin.
Thane.

Legion.
The many in the one.

At the end, it wasn't a matter of consensus, or a matter of logic. It was an act of sacrifice and selflessness that was more human than things I've seen from organic creatures.

I added him to our memorial wall. He will always be among my ones.

I keep coming back to the question that sparked a centuries old war, unable to be answered still:

Did that unit have a soul?

Who knows.
But he touched mine.

Another imprint on my heart, too many now to remember or quantify.
I doubt it'll be the last.

There's a story in there somewhere, some deep thought about what separates man from machine, about what makes us human, sentient.

Are we any different from EDI or Legion?

The geth had religious and philosophical differences, just like us.
And there's always hope. Even the geth admired our capacity for it, how it could sustain us during difficult times.

As we stare into the face of annihilation, what else do we have left?

We've been fighting, gathering, working to ensure the survival of organic life.
But will it be enough? Or has the path that's been laid before us overshadowed what we've tried to accomplish? Is three years – a cure for the genophage, an end to a war between synthetics and their creators – enough to combat the missteps of a species? Of a galaxy?

The Reaper on Hannoch repeated something I've heard many times before now: the cycle must continue.
We are chaos; our deaths bring order.

But, I can't believe that.

I asked Hackett why he chose me.
He said it's because I believe, and I make others around me believe, too.

So, I have to believe.

And I have to hope.
Hope that we can make it through this.
Hope that we can break a cycle of destruction untold millennia in the making.

There's an old phrase out of the Human Bible: "You reap what you sow."
That's why we have hope.

I refuse to believe that our destruction is all that man has sown.

And I'll spend my last breath proving it if I have to.

It's what I owe to you.
It's what I owe my galaxy.

And that's why we continue to fight.
So, if this is how the world ends… it'll be with a bang, not a whimper.

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out
in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom
of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.
- Jack London's Credo