A/N:

Phygmalion: I admit it's a bit of a leap of imagination for Sword to win, hence the Crucible-bomb and a bit of artistic license - it was the only way I could really have written it at the time.

Revan Lord of Revenge: The rachni are alive in this playthrough, I just haven't mentioned them yet. As mentioned by Hackett, the batarians are well on their way to extinction (their fleet was wiped out, and the refugees on the Citadel are all presumably dead).

jaass20: I debated that quite a lot, but my main thought was that if the dead Reaper in ME2 still maintained husks, they'd survive the death of the Reaper itself...

"Easy there, Shepard, baby steps..."

"I wasn't planning on running a marathon, Kaidan..." the commander growled, as he staggered out of bed. It had been at least a day – maybe more, he couldn't tell – since he first awoke in the med bay, and now he was finally able to leave his bed, albeit with the support of one of Joker's crutches. As he staggered upright, he felt a familiar burst of pain through his spine, but stayed up regardless. Chakwas and Kaidan were both watching him apprehensively – if he showed so much as a stumble, they'd probably put him back in bed for another day.

"How do you feel?" Chakwas murmured, from across the room.

"Fine," Shepard grunted. He took his first few tottering steps, to the end of Liara's bed, and peered down at her sadly, then added, "Will she be okay?"

"She's comatose, but stable," the doctor replied. "She'll be fine, Commander..."

"Good, good," he murmured. That news alone made him more calm than he had been since leaving Earth. "Where's Garrus?"

"Where do you think?" Kaidan muttered.

"Right. Forward gun..."

With that, he turned on his heel, and moved slowly off across the med bay, leaning rather heavily on the steel crutch. His legs were fine, but his back was agonising – a jolt of pain along his spinal cord every time he took a step. That said, he was nothing if not determined – or stubborn, some might say – and kept up the effort as he limped around the corner and down the long corridor to the forward battery.

When he finally reached the door and stumbled through it, Garrus was working away at the gun, on the gantry below, and looked up at him in utmost surprise.

"Shepard!" he called. "What are you doing out of the med bay?"

"Limping?"

"Very funny."

"Seriously, though, Garrus... we need to talk. Chakwas and Kaidan didn't even want to let me out of bed, let alone tell me what the heck's going on..."

"Alright," the turian muttered, walking back onto the upper deck and leaning against the calibration computer. "Where do you want me to start?"

"Casualties."

"Cheerful as ever, Shepard..."

"Well, I figure you can cheer me up with the good news afterwards... there is good news, right?"

"More than we expected," Garrus nodded.

"Alright, we'll get to that later," Shepard sighed. "Start with the casualties, I need to hear it."

"We don't have an exact figure, but it's in the hundreds of thousands... Hammer casualties were ninety percent or more, every Sword fleet suffered at least half of their ships destroyed..."

"The turian fleets?" Shepard inquired, with a note of concern.

"Eighty percent losses," Garrus muttered, shaking his head. "Victus is alive, though... that's something."

"Yeah... what about the Alliance? And Earth?" the commander continued, noting with a hint of guilt that he had asked about the turians' fate before that of his own people.

"The Alliance fleets lost sixty percent," replied the turian, matter-of-factly – he evidently thought that would lessen the blow. "As for Earth..." he grinned, "we won. There's a hell of a lot of Reaper corpses down there, but our ground forces are massacring Reaper infantry across the planet."

"What about the Normandy, then?" Shepard persisted, determined to get any bombshells out of the way. "Who did we lose?"

"All of the flight crew made it, Commander..." Garrus murmured, counting off on his fingers. "Kaidan, Liara, Javik, EDI... Tali..."

"Are you and Tali still...?"

"Yes. Now, moving on... the marines are the only ones unaccounted for. They're, ah... presumed dead. Most of Hammer is."

"That includes James... right?"

"I don't think so, Loco..."

Shepard wheeled around as quickly as his crutch would allow. Behind him, Garrus was grinning knowingly, and in front of him, Vega's hulking figure was filling the doorway. The lieutenant had a bright red scar across his cheek, and his arms were all cut and bruised, but he was very much alive, and that was all that mattered – one less loss amongst the devastation.

"You look like hell, James," Shepard laughed – laughed, that was an irony... Just as he had before, he was finding mirth in these most weary moments. A coping mechanism, maybe?

"Take a look in the mirror, Shepard, you look like you just crawled off the battlefield... have you even had a shower?"

"I damn well hope not... If I have, it means someone gave me a bed bath, and Liara's unconscious, so..."

"Too much information, Loco," the big marine chuckled, but the smile had dropped from Shepard's face at the thought of Liara. Quickly, he put his worries to the back of his mind, and tried to carry on the conversation.

"How bad was the fighting down there?"

"You were there for the worst of it, Shepard... After we linked up with the krogan it was easy pickings, just sit back and let them go at it... Wrex is a tough son of a bitch, isn't he?"

"It's taken you this long to figure that out?" Garrus asked, in mild surprise. "He is a krogan."

"Hey, all krogan are tough," James replied, defensively. "But he's something else. You know he was just pickin' husks up and tossing 'em into the river?"

"We heard," the turian nodded. "Wrex is brutal on the battlefield, but he's got some sense at the negotiating table. That's what we need."

"Hey, I'm not criticising the guy," the marine laughed. "He saved my ass more times than I like to admit down there... He's an incredible soldier, I'll give him that."

"Looks like somebody's got a crush on a krogan," Garrus chuckled, sarcastically, and Shepard cracked a smile. "Was it the muscles, or the personality?"

"Neither, smart-ass. What was it about Sparks? The fact you can see your own beautiful reflection?"

"Sparks...? Oh. Damn it, Shepard!"

"I didn't tell him, I swear!"

"Nah," James grunted, with a roguish grin. "He didn't have to. I mean, the forward battery? Really?"

"With the utmost respect, Jimmy," Garrus growled, playfully. "Go boil your head."

"Good to be back, Scars..."