And here it is. The final chapter of my story. It's been a long time coming, but at long last, I've finally ended it the way I'd always imagined. Whether you like it or not, don't be afraid to leave a review or two. I shall never improve without continuous feedback. And in the meantime...enjoy!

The production crew from "Citadel 60" had gotten up early on January 24th, 2184. It had been just three days since the "Eden Prime War", as it would come to be known, had come to an end with the Citadel having been attacked by the monstrous "Sovereign". Thousands had died thanks to the attack, and people wanted to know as much as they could from the best source available: Commander Shepard and his crew. The crew was inside the Normandy at a spaceport just one mile away from where the Council was going to be interviewed much later for the Citadel 60 Report, a special one-hour-an-episode TV series that aired every month, focusing on a new, important topic every time. Hosted by Emily Wong, her crew all were overjoyed to learn that she'd gotten in good with the Commander and had been quite glad to be the first news crew to get access. Especially over Khalisah al-Jilani of Westerland News.

News cables snaked through the Normandy as it became a makeshift studio for Citadel 60's prime correspondent. She eagerly shook hands with her host, who was the perfect gentleman that day. Emily had been very happy Shepard had agreed to this, it had given her comfort after losing a friend they both shared less than THREE weeks ago.

Commander Shepard sat in the chair, grey eyes softly staring over at the camera crew. He sighed a bit, trying to put a positive spin on things. "We built this part of the Normandy just so we could do this very thing." He joked to her as he gave her a nod, the camera drones rolling, trying to get multiple angles of the telegenic Shepard. He rested his hands on his lap, sighing a bit before looking a little off to the side. "It's over, yes." He admitted. "At long last, it's over...but I'm not happy. I'm smiling, yes. But I'm definitely not happy."

Shepard looked deep into Emily Wong's eyes, and she was struck by how thoughtful and composed Mr. Shepard was. "Defeating Saren...defeating SOVEREIGN, really...that's a part of it. But "happy" is just an adjective and it doesn't do nearly enough to explain how I feel. And the sad things is, after all that happened, I didn't think I'd feel pity for him."

"For Saren?"

"Years from now, people will be debating what he did. He led a life, did this, yadda-yadda, but in the end, it doesn't change the facts. No matter what he did before, no matter what he was or tried to do to, he's going to be remembered as the "Greatest Traitor in Turian History", I'm sure." Shepard admitted. "He was a symptom, not the disease. And I truly pity him."

"Even after what he did? What he...cost your crew?" Emily inquired, her voice slightly flinching at the memory of their dearly shared friend...that sweet, kind medic.

"Even then." Shepard murmured. "Though it's hard. But I suppose I ought to start at the beginning. We'd just arrived back at the Citadel. We knew where Saren was going."

"And Anderson was all too happy to help." Ashley Williams admitted to Emily, sitting slightly cross-legged in her chair, gesticulating in the air. "And it LOOKED like Udina was too. We couldn't believe it. Anderson and Udina both happy? The Council actually taking action because of what we told them? It was too good to be true!" Her face turned dark as she stuck her tongue out. "UGH. Turned out it was." She muttered.

"Because the Council had no intention of going anywhere near the Mu Relay, right?" Emily inquired.

"The Council had put patrols at every Mass Relay linking Citadel Space to the Terminus systems. They thought a blockade would be enough. We knew it wouldn't be and we knew they weren't going to send in a fleet. So we said "Well just let us go alone to stop him, it'll be like all the other times we went on our own." Ashley said, shrugging. "Udina thought things were fine. We knew better. He still had Sovereign."

"But no, nooo. They didn't think we could be discreet anymore after we blew up a nuke on Virmire." Kaiden Alenko mumbled, taking a drag of a cigarette. "...I didn't USE to smoke. They've driven me to smoke. Those stupid council idiots." He groaned. "Shepard was right, he said "they just don't want to believe the worst". They were like peacocks with their heads stuck in the ground. And HUMMING. Humming as loud as they could." He blew some smoke through the air, shaking his head. "So then Shepard asks about the Conduit, and the Reapers."

"Didn't work out so well." Ashley remarked, sitting next to him as she shook her head. "Not one bit."

"They said the Conduit was just made up. A distraction from his real plan to attack the Citadel. They didn't buy that Sovereign was a Reaper and they refused to believe that the Visions Shepard was having were real. They wanted more firm proof." Kaiden groaned. "They wouldn't believe anything we said, even after EVERYTHING Shepard had done! So Udina says he's locked us all out of the Normandy's primary systems and until further notice, we were ground. Ashley almost punched him."

"Udina DID. He stormed into his office, punched him in the face. Down he went."

"Like Liston."

"Ohhh, it was glorious." Ashley sighed wistfully. "One of the most glorious hours in my entire life."

And not just because of that. Scuttlebutt had it that she and Shepard had begun consummating their relationship. When Emily asked if that was true, a blush briefly flickered over Ashley's face before she covered her mouth with one hand. "No comment." She mumbled.

"So what did you find on Illos, Ms. T'Soni? As an archaeologist, finding a Prothean planet filled with artifacts must have been like being a child on Christmas." Emily wished to know, Liara softly smiling as she steepled her hands together.

"I confess, I...did feel a swelling surge of glee. For a few minutes I believe I "geeked out", is the proper Earth term?" Liara intoned as she gave a little Mona Lisa smile at the reporter, sitting in her finest deep blue dress, hands laid in her lap, eyes a-sparkling. "I was scurrying about from statue to statue after we landed the MAKO on Ilos, hands rubbing over every one, examining the compositional data I was acquiring. I could have spent months in the one room we landed in alone, but, ah…" She tilted her head back and sighed. "We had much more important work to do, and Shepard soon found a console that had some horrible news to relay."

"What was that?"

"A warning beacon. Trying to alert other Protheans about the oncoming assault of the Reapers. It evidently didn't make it out in time." Liara confessed, her face turning somber and sad. "A 50,000 year old recording. Shepard's face was quiet and solemn as he imparted the message, and we weren't surprised he understood. Between the beacons he interacted with and the Cipher, an understanding of the Prothean language had been transferred into his mind."

"So he could read and write Prothean too?" Emily Wong asked as Liara nervously rubbed the back of her neck.

"Well, we tested that out with some Prothean artifacts I'd found which had the text of forebears gone by. He was able to translate it, and I made up a kind of rudimentary alphabet for the Prothean species. With a bit of work, I can fully refine it and I'm sure it'll lead to fascinating new discoveries. I'm already getting many requests from various museums and science conventions to be their premiere guest speaker."

"Was there anything hopeful in the message? ANYTHING at all?" Emily inquired.

"The good news was it mentioned "the archives". That's just about the only good thing, because then the message "Cannot be stopped" kept repeating again...and again...and again…" Liara whispered softly, her eyes turning into little pinpricks. "We made our way through overgrown stone, long-worn by time and vines. The air was musky and thick, as if we'd been stuffed into a attic that was a century old and nobody had bothered to clean inside. Then we found the bunker deep within, where thousands upon thousands of Protheans laid."

"Liara was almost squealing with delight." Wrex chuckled as the Krogan leaned back in his chair and rested his head on his hands. "Talkin' about aaaall the secrets the place could reveal. We had to remind her not to get swept up in the moment, though seeing all those stasis pods on the walls got her all excited again. Liara thought the Protheans tried to save themselves through cryogenic freezin'. Turnin' into popsicles so somebody could thaw 'em out later."

"Did it work?"

Wrex shook his head. "Nah. Not one bit. Cuz shortly after we passed through aaaall those statis pods we met with "Vigil". This big ol' Prothean VI that was waiting for us. We could barely see what he was supposed to look like, he was more a blurry blob of red and spastic lines than anything. He said every Prothean in the pods were dead. In order to keep the facility going, he'd had to keep sacrificing power...power meant to keep them alive. Bit by bit he had to shut them all down just to stay on in the hopes SOMEBODY would find him, and he could talk 'bout what had happened to his kind."

"That's morbid." Emily murmured.

"Practical, but morbid, yeah." Wrex confessed. "We were amazed we could understand it. Vigil said he'd been watchin' everything we did, hearing how we talked and he modified how he spoke so he could talk to us. Liara was pretty darn excited, of course. She wanted to ask SO many questions, but we didn't have the time. Shepard got right to the point, talking about the most important stuff he could think of."

"Like what?"

"We asked about the Citadel. We kept hearing it was important to the Reapers. Vigil admits the whole thing's a trap. The station's one big mass relay that links to dark space, and out beyond the galaxy, in the dark space...theeere's the Reapers." Wrex said with a dark grin. "If the right switch on the Citadel was activated...the Reapers could easily pour through. So naturally I asked why the FUCK nobody noticed the damn thing was an inactive mass relay."

"How DID nobody notice?"

"They kept that hidden through those "Keepers"." Wrex confessed. "Those creepy green bug things you see around."

Emily flinched at this as Wrex gave her a playful little smile. "Yeaaah, guessin' y'all ain't gonna think about getting too close to them from now on. They existed to make sure nobody else could figure out the Citadel's true nature. If they got close to doin' that, well...people DO tend to go missing on the Citadel a bit too often."

"YECCHHH." Emily cringed, shuddering in disgust, wrapping her arms around herself, shaking her head back and forth. "I'll never look at them the same way again. So what exactly did befall the Protheans?"

"The leaders of their kind were all stationed at the Citadel too." Tali informed Emily as she nervously rubbed over her gloved hands. "They were caught off guard completely by Reapers leaping in from Dark Space, and then the Reapers seized control of the Citadel and, through it, the mass relays. Once they had that, they just took control of the galaxy one chunk at a time. They cut off communication, isolating every single star system, and thus making them easy prey. That was the downside for the Protheans; their homogeneity did them in."

Emily felt a deep shudder rising up her spine as she cringed. "How awful." She whispered.

"They methodically wiped them out and...Vigil went into some VIVID details for what little he gave us. Shepard was horrified at hearing all this. I asked asked the question that rose up to my mind. "Why didn't you surrender? Maybe you would have lived". At first I was ashamed for asking that, I-" Tali blushed behind her mask, resting a hand on her chest. "I thought I was insulting Shepard, almost parroting Saren's mindset, but nobody was mad. I could tell on their faces they had been thinking the same sort of thing."

Emily took in a deep breath, biting her lip. "What happened next?"

"No offer of surrender was given. All the Reapers cared about was the destruction of advanced organic life. They took advantage of all Prothean records, maps, census data. Some worlds were just utterly destroyed. Others got conquered and their populations enslaved. They were "indoctrinated", that's the term. They'd been taken in as refugees to other worlds and had no idea they were sleeper agents. Neither did the worlds that welcomed them...until it was too late." Tali confessed softly. "They were betrayed to the machines and in a few centuries every Prothean was dead or enslaved."

"Wait. Something isn't right. Why did the Reapers just...LEAVE after they'd conquered what remained of the Protheans?"

"I asked that. I was confused. We all were. Vigil explained they went back to Dark Space...after the worlds were stripped bare. All resources, all technology was taken, with the Reapers going back and sealing Dark Space behind them as they did. They made sure no proof of their existence was left. They had, after all, years to cover up their tracks. Decades." Tali murmured darkly. "Those...monstrous machines just chewed up worlds and spit them out, and then left the slaves behind as mindless, dumb husks who either starved to death or died of environmental reasons. It was total genocide."

The camera crew was silent and stared in confusion. They were positively horrified beyond all thought. Emily's voice was barely a whisper as she croaked out a simple question. "...why?"

"I don't think we'll ever know why." Garrus murmured as he hung his head and shook it back and forth, the Turian gritting his teeth. "It was one of the most disgusting, horrific things we'd ever heard done. And we had seen and endured some foul, monstrous things." He slowly raised his head up, blue eyes softly glimmering at Emily Wong. "Shepard promised he wouldn't let the Reapers succeed, and we drove off after Saren, finding ourselves emerging, on all places, at the Citadel. We passed through a miniature mass relay right into the Citadel, when it was under attack."

"I imagine that must have been a shock."

"Oh it WAS. And there, waiting for us, were hordes of Geth, and the Machinist. Themis Nar'Terra." Garrus's eyes narrowed. "Grey's own family, separated by decades of lost time. His own blood. And we had our guns out when...we noticed he was holding a child."

Emily gaped. "WHAT?!"

"A baby. Couldn't have been more than a few months old."

…

…

…

...Shepard and the others couldn't believe it. Lying around them were slain husks, indoctrinated victims they'd had to put out of their misery. The Citadel's VI stood across from them, stupidly smiling in that dumb way she did, the large lake's surface softly rippling behind her as they aimed their weapons at Themis. Yet then when the Quarian turned around, they saw the child in swaddling blankets and their mouths gaped, their weapons being lowered. It was a Turian baby with distinct, deep, lovely blue eyes.

"You'll have to excuse us. This is my new nephew of sorts, Kierk S. Gaard. I've been entrusted with a very, VERY special little boy to care for." He intoned, one gauntleted hand held up as Geth troopers swarmed around him, forming a barrier to keep them from aiming at him and the child. "I couldn't let him stay on Sovereign, after all. Not with it being so...giddily happy over taking over the Citadel."

"That thing is "happy"?" Shepard asked as he felt the Citadel shudder a bit.

"I can tell when it's happy. It...starts to laugh." Themis whispered, the half of his face that was exposed to them showing a look of absolute disgust and creeping, slow horror, the likes of which Shepard hadn't seen on the Quarian/Human hybrid before. "I hope to everything good and sacred you never have to hear it."

"Wait a minute. It was staying on Sovere-" Shepard's eyes widened as he realized what the child was. "Is that SAREN'S child?!"

"Aren't you keen?" Themis remarked with a grin. "Yes, he is. We have so much to talk about. And I know you won't fire on me, Shepard. You're...kind." He intoned, his expression getting less dark, and more thoughtful and pensive. "You really are so much like my own family. They were kind to a fault. Many humans dislike aliens on principle, kind of view them as being just the next big problem but they were so welcoming and kind. They always had their hearts open, and you're just like them. Always trying to find a better way. I really do admire that. It's the sort of trait my family loved."

He gestured across the way, at the elevator. "So I'm going to give you some help out of...appreciation for what you've done. I don't know if you really can stop Sovereign. But I need to get Kierk away. The best you'll probably be able to do is STALL him while I do what must be done. Saren's on his way to the council room. Just take the elevator up, you can't miss it. I'll even call my Geth off."

Shepard grit his teeth. "Aren't you considerate." He grumbled, motioning for the others to race over to the elevator. "I promise you, I WILL find you. I WILL make you pay for what you've done."

"I don't think you will." Themis said with a little smile. "While away from Sovereign I've been getting to know so many other great "mechanically-inclined" friends. I think we'd like to pay you a visit sometime. Maybe make a collect call, or just stop on by. Sure to be a great time." He laughed, sweeping into a nearby hallway, carrying the little tyke off as they entered the elevator and Liara folded her arms over her chest.

"...it's eyes." She murmured. "...their color. Their shade. And from how Saren spoke of her, I...do you think…?" She asked Shepard as he quietly nodded.

"I have a feeling, yeah. They might have actually...and he might be...well…"

"The thought of any brother of mine, even if only a half-brother, being cared for by that...that manipulative MONSTER…" Liara groaned. "I've got to find him after this. Get him away from Themis." She insisted as the elevator began to rise up, higher and higher, ascending to the upper levels of the Citadel, close to the same floor the Council was on. "He may be the only blood I have left in the world-"

And then the elevator came to a shuddering stop as Shepard cringed, the lights inside flashing red. He knew what was happening. "Saren has cut the elevator power. He's trying to keep us from reaching him!"

SHUDDA-THOOOM. Red lines seemed to snake through the elevator and a kind of...high-pitched, squealing, sickening NOISE filled the air. It sent shivers down their spine, all of them shuddering in disgust as the stomach-wrenching unearthly sound filled their eardrums, the Citadel shaking briefly as Kaiden cringed. "What is that awful sound?" He inquired, all of them deciding to activate their gravity boots. They'd have to walk on the walls and make their way to the council room manually.

"I think...that's Reaper laughter." Shepard whispered. Everyone looked at each other, cringing in disgust as they made their way along the walls of the Citadel, the wind powerfully whipping around at them as they climbed higher and higher...seeing Sovereign off in the distance and getting closer and closer, hearing its foul, unnatural laughter ringing in the air even now.

The good news was that there weren't as many Geth. The bad news was that there WERE cloned Krogan. Wrex's eyes were filled with dark, intense fury as he stared at the dumb, mindless krogan warlords that were racing towards him, and he whipped out his grenades. They shot towards the krogans who stared stupidly a tthe little orb barreling at them, an explosion ripping into their forms, the explosion knocking many off their own gravity boots and sailing off, off the walls to plummet down to a horrific death.

Wrex shot forward at a few that remained, his arms held out as he clotheslined them, knocking them off their feet too to make THEM plummet down as well. Garrus's sniper rifle was aimed high, and the KRAK-KRAK of sniper fire sent would-be Geth snipers soaring away, their heads blasted apart. Tali's hands forth, grenades shooting out and blasting aside husks that stupidly tried to charge at them as they made their way into the council's main room, looking around at the empty expanse, their faces solemn as they beheld the many, many dead bodies lying about…

With Saren at a control console not too far away. It glimmered a golden color, almost like the fires that had lit up various parts of lighting fixtures to the sides of the council's main meeting hall. The Citadel Tower was empty save for them and Saren, various bushes lit on fire, a dull, throbbing alarm filling the air, everything bathed in a faintly eerie, fiery light. Saren was still typing for a moment before he heard Shepard and the others approach. He tilted his head slightly to the side, then seemed to hop off the edge, past the console, the others looking about at each other before remembering-

"He has a hover platform, get behind cover!" Shepard cried out, everyone diving behind the nearby stairway walls, Shepard gripping his paladin pistol tightly, gritting his teeth as a glowing red grenade BARELY missed launching them all backwards. Saren held up his own pistol, chuckling a bit.

"I was afraid you wouldn't make it in time, Shepard."

"In time for what?" Shepard roared back over the hissing cackling of flames, a nearby tree alit with fire as Saren put his pistol away, and folded his arms over his chest. He spoke solemnly and pensively as he stood atop his hover platform, looking in Shepard's direction.

"For the final confrontation. I think we both expected it would end like this." He remarked before rubbing his chin, then frowning. "Where's...he didn't come back?" He inquired, and now Saren's voice sounded genuinely surprised. "I don't understand. Where is that dear fool?"

"He's GONE, Saren." Shepard growled angrily. "Because of what you've done, he's gone. He sacrificed himself to stop your monstrous, twisted facility. He refused to let anyone else detonate the nuke."

"Because he viewed himself as expendable…" Saren deeply sighed and covered his face with one hand. Shepard was surprised at the pain that momentarily dug its claws into Saren's voice. "He was one in a million. Worth more than a hundred humans. I had hoped he'd be here for this. Hoped he could understand why this is necessary. That I take no joy in this, but it must be done. I wanted him, as I want you, to realize that sometimes a lesser evil MUST be countenanced for a greater good."

He sighed again, looking off to the side. "And the sad things is, you know, deep down, you've lost. You know that I'm right. In a few minutes, Sovereign will have full control of the Citadel's systems, the relay shall open and the Reapers will return. If he was right, and I was wrong...then why is HE the one who's gone?" Saren inquired, his voice softly dipping a bit before returning to the slightly cold form of speech he was so used to. "It's over. You can't stop them."

"Oh, I don't know, I've gotten THIS far, and I think I can stop you pretty easily. We ALL can if we really put our minds to it." Shepard yelled back.

"Before, I was different. I have changed since then."

Shepard's eyes went wide. Wait. No. No, he wouldn't have. But he had to know. He peeked around the wall as Saren gave him a little smirk and gestured at his body, and Shepard saw...faintly glowing mechanical implants. Saren's eyes now had a purplish/blue light to them, an unnatural eerie glow like the parts on his body, like sick, devilish new veins running through his frame. "Sovereign has...upgraded me."

"You let SOVEREIGN implant you? Are you fucking INSANE?!" Shepard gasped out, standing up tall, mouth agape. Saren gestured at Shepard as the rest of the crew rose out of their own hiding places and stared at Saren. "No, no this isn't craziness. I thought you were crazy before. But now you're just stupid!" He exclaimed.

"I suppose I should thank you, Shepard." The Turian admitted with a soft nod. "After Virmire, I couldn't stop thinking of all that you had said. I kept thinking about Sovereign and Indoctrination. It sensed my doubts, and to strengthen my resolve, it gave me an even greater gift than what Matriarch Benezia bestowed to me." He said with a little smile.

"You mean Kierk. So you two DID have intercourse." Liara asked, shuddering a bit.

"EWWW, I never wanted to imagine Saren nude and thrusting!" Kaiden moaned, Ashley gagging a bit as Wrex stuck his tongue out in disgust and Garrus shook his head.

"Yecchhh. I don't know which I find more disgusting. The image of you having sex, or what's standing in front of me now."

"Now, now, no need to be uncivilized." Saren cooly intoned. "I can see clearly now. The Reapers need organics like myself. Join us." He offered, holding out a hand. "Sovereign shall find a place for you too. After all, you're all so highly, immensely skilled. Especially you, Shepard. Sovereign can't exactly be...impressed...with organics, but it has...spoken quite often of you. It's almost obsessed."

"...did you say...obsessed?" Tali inquired, looking confusedly from Saren to Shepard as Shepard began to wonder something. How could a normal machine be obsessed? How could it do things like...like laugh? And from how it had talked to them before, it…there had been a distinct tone of condescending arrogance, of pretentiousness in its unearthly voice back on Virmire.

Was Sovereign deluded? It had to be insane. It had to. It couldn't possibly think Shepard would join it and yet, the way Saren spoke of it, the way SOVEREIGN had spoken, and from what they'd all learned of the Reapers, Shepard could think of no other conclusion. The Reapers had to be insane. They were insane, deluded machines, out of their minds, with no real understanding of what they did, so lost in their own, twisted, genocidal delusion they actually thought everything they did was wonderful, and anyone who disagreed with them deserved to die. To the Reapers, it was wrong, selfish to resist. Only in being of use to them could organics be happy.

Shepard wanted to puke. He'd never felt such a mixture of pity for Saren and absolute revulsion.

"...Saren." Shepard murmured softly. "You're indoctrinated. He's controlling you, don't you understand?"

"Oh, Shepard." Saren mused, shaking his head back and forth, holding out his arms. "The relationship is more symbiotic than parasitic. Organic and machine intertwined, a union of flesh and steel. The strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither. I can feel Sovereign through my very body. I even know it's true name. Nazara." He whispered, almost speaking it like a lover. "Beautiful, isn't it? It trust me soo much to share the greatest of secrets and gifts with me." He intoned, putting a clawed hand on his chest. "I'm a vision of the future, Shepard. I am an exemplar of the evolution of all organic life. Join with us, experience a true rebirth! Or if you prefer, a...resurrection."

Shepard felt another chill sink into him as he remembered Themis's words back on Noveria. "See, now, psychotic is such a cruel term. Saren's not psychotic. He's just very passionate. Now, Nazara? NAZARA is psychotic...he's incredibly delusional."

"...Nazara. Saren's real boss…" Shepard murmured quietly. "Themis was telling the truth. That's Sovereign's true name. And Saren…" He frowned deeply. "Your boss isn't God. He's the Devil. You're his False Prophet."

"The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority…" Ashley whispered softly. "They worshiped the beast and asked "Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?"

"Sovereign hasn't won yet! Step aside and we can take control of the station and stop the invasion from ever happening!" Shepard insisted.

Saren shook his head back and forth. "You can't stop it! Not forever. The Protheans fought back and you know what horror befell their race, a race more advanced than any living!" He proclaimed, his tone sounding almost...like he was begging. "You'd rather die free than live a slave? Then you WILL die. Your WORLD will die. Everything and everyone you know and love! Do you honestly think I want that for even your own species?!" Saren asked, sounding disgusted, angry...and desperate. "I don't wish that on any species!"

"Some part of you KNOWS this is wrong. Some part of you knows that the Reapers can be beaten. That it's better to at least try to fight back than to not even try at all!" Shepard insisted.

Saren cringed, and his tone got softer as he held his head in one hand. "Shepard, I…" He murmured. "I don't…know if they can be stopped. They are so many...and so powerful."

"If they can't get in through the Citadel, they can be stopped." Shepard reasoned. "You can call it just stalling the inevitable, but even then it proves the inevitable can still be halted in its place! You know deep down they're wrong! And I know, deep down, there's still some trace of goodness in you!"

Saren looked up at Shepard, the others staring as he looked pleadingly at Saren. "Saren, Nick believed people could change, even if they'd done awful, monstrous things. He believed the best in people. I don't think it's too late for you."

The grey-silver-skinned Turian hesitated. "Maybe you're right, Shepard. Maybe it's not too late to-"

And then he fell off the hover platform, panting and heaving, rising up to his knees as he gripped his head. "AAARRRGGGHHH...the...c-console...g-go…" He grunted out, panting and heaving, a foul reddish hue swelling over his body from the implants. "Hurry, you fools! While there is still time!"

Shepard and the others raced to the console, Tali's gloved hands flying over it, working quickly. "I'll get the Citadel open in just a minute." She insisted, Shepard kneeling by Saren as he quivered and shook, panting and heaving, rusty, blood-like substance oozing out of his mouth as his eyes went wide.

"Hur...ry…" He murmured out. "His teeth are at my ear...his fingers at my spine…" Saren gasped out as Liara's hands flew to her mouth, realizing what Benezia had truly been saying back on Noveria. "Please, Shepard! I'd sooner die than have my body used as a puppet for that monster!" He begged as Tali began opening up the Citadel as a communication channel opened. The Destiny Ascension was under attack, the Council minutes away from being destroyed by Geth assault ships!

"What do we tell them?" Tali inquired as Shepard turned back.

"Save the Council first, then attack Sovereign." He said as Tali quietly nodded, and he gently stepped back. "You can still redeem yourself, Arterius." He added.

Saren held up his pistol and he walked over to the glassy floor over the small garden that laid below. He nodded firmly...and gave Shepard a salute, the others gasping as Saren held the gun to his chin.

"Thank you, Shepard. Keep the galaxy safe."

And with that, he shot, the life from his eyes vanishing in an instant as he slumped down, almost in a fetal position, hitting the glass floor hard as blood softly pooled around his head, and the others stared at each other for a few moments. The faint blaring of Citadel alarms continued to fill the air but other than that, there was naught but silence until Shepard turned to Tali.

"How's the Council?"

"Good news, commander, we're just blowing away the assault ships that were up here!" Joker's voice rang out over the control console, and they could faintly imagine a shit-eating grin on his face. "They're scrambling like mosquitoes, it's like they've got no plan!"

"Good. With the Destiny safe, tell Admiral Hackett to concentrate fire on Sovereign now." Shepard said as he turned to Wrex. "I think we better make sure Saren is dead. I mean...all those implants…"

"Ahh, I was gonna do this implants or not." Wrex remarked as he approached Saren with Garrus, the two leveling shotguns squarely at his chest and neck/jaw region. Kaiden flinched, Liara looking away as Ashley quietly murmured something soft under her breath and Shepard sighed, twin shotgun blasts echoing through the air. The floor beneath Saren cracked, Wrex and Garrus quickly stepping off as the glass finally shattered and his barely-intact body flopped beneath a tree, Shepard nodding firmly.

"So it's over…" Shepard murmured before IT happened. Red lightning sizzled across the walls, streaking across the air as everyone gaped in surprise and alarm, staring down as it sank deep into Saren's bruised, battered and ravaged body. "Oh fuck me." He murmured.

"You gotta be fuckin' kidding me!" Wrex roared out.

"Oh, Spirits Preserve Us…" Garrus muttered.

"JEEEESUS CHRIST!" Ashley screeched.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit!" Kaiden kept repeating.

"His body is...being possessed!" Liara realized aloud, Saren's form rising up, up, a foul and unnatural red light burrowing out from his eye sockets as the platforms they were standing on shook and shuddered and snapped, everyone falling into the garden with Saren as his form staggered about, shaking and shivering before…

KRAKKA-THROOOM! With a sound like thunder clapping, Saren's body now stood up, his claws stretched wider, his legs and arm muscles more machine now than man...twisted and evil. His implants were on full display, the horrific purple machinery glimmering on his spine, in his left arm and leg like muscles, his right arm a thin, spindly thing with unnaturally long claws as a gauntlet, the lower half of his head gone, and a sickening, evil, sparkling, crackly red light acting as a "core" in his chest. This was no longer Saren Arterius.

"I AM SOVEREIGN, AND THIS STATION IS MINE!" Sovereign screeched out. It would NOT be denied.

Shepard held up his assault rifle, gritting his teeth. "What you have done to Arterius's body has gone BEYOND sacrilegious!"

That horrific, monstrous laughter. Sovereign leapt up in the air, latching to the wall, crawling alongside it in a foul skitter like a giant spider. Shepard fired as best as he could, Kaiden and Ashley firing in its direction as well before it swiftly dropped down to the ground. He shot forth, gigantic claws held up, slashing at Shepard as he reeled back, Kaiden's biotic blast shooting forth. It slammed into Sovereign, a shimmering reddish shield surrounding it as it wheeled on him.

It tore towards HIM now but Wrex's gigantic frame slammed into him. It broke through the foul abomination's own biotic shield, sending him flying towards the wall. It landed expertly upon it, hissing without a mouth as its pulsing red eyes glared darkly at him. A foul, unnatural glow rose up from the thing's "mouth" as it shot forth a blast at Wrex, who barely managed to get a shield up. He was still sent flying, hitting a nearby tree.

A moment later, Sovereign's eyes glowed and Garrus barely dove out of the way, firing off a grenade in Sovereign's direction as it shot hot, fiery death from its eyes in the form of lasers that tore up the ground the Turian had been at moments before. The grenade almost struck Sovereign, but it wasn't close enough, Sovereign only being barraged slightly before firing ANOTHER blast that almost caught Garrus on the chest, his shields being obliterated as he was sent flying. Tali let out a furious yell and grabbed the shotgun that Garrus had dropped. "Yeah, SCREW YOU TOO!" She roared out, firing both her and Garrus's shotguns at the monstrous Sovereign.

This time the shielding it had up didn't completely protect it and it was knocked down from the wall. It hissed furiously at her and scuttled off, avoiding her shots but not before Liara's biotic power wrapped around it and she furiously howled. "This is for my mother!" She snarled, wrenching her arms to the side as the reddish glow of its body was enshrined now in blue, turning into a burning purple mixture. Sovereign's stolen form was slammed across the wall and she skidded it around and around, her eyes filled with pure, raw fury before she collapsed to the ground, completely worn out from the effort.

Unfortunately Sovereign, though damaged, wasn't finished. It crawled towards her, trying to claw at her, moving like a giant panther. But before it's clawed hands could outstretch and slash at her as she tried to struggle to her feet, Wrex's shotgun blasted it backwards as it snarled and growled. "Get away from her, you BITCH." He growled, the thing leaping backwards and clinging to the wall, its eyes glowing anew. Realizing it was firing off its lasers, Wrex jumped away just in time…

And then a grenade shot through the air. It slammed into Sovereign, launching it across the room as Ashley laughed in triumph and Garrus rose up, taking aim with his sniper rifle as Sovereign tried to fire a blast at her. Garrus's sniper rifle cracked, the thing's neck shuddering, barely holding the head up as it screeched and howled, and Shepard lifted up his assault rifle. He let out a furious roar, never, ever hating anything as much as he did this...this THING that had taken so much from him. So much from the galaxy.

He fired for the Protheans, who had been pitilessly exterminated and slaughtered and enslaved.

He fired for Matriarch Benezia, who would never get to wrap her arms around her child again, to tell her Little Wing she was so proud of her daughter, who had saved the galaxy.

He fired for Lucas, whom he had never gotten to truly thank for the many stories he'd so happily told a lonely little orphan boy living day-by-day on Earth.

He fired for Nick, for his dear medic and friend, his comrade in arms who had tried so hard to show Shepard and the Normandy Crew that one's better angels could lead you to a better way.

He even fired for Saren, who had been just as much a victim as Benezia, as Nick, even the Protheans, who had spent his final moments trying to save the galaxy and resist a monster.

And he fired because such a monstrous, sick, evil, TWISTED thing didn't deserve to exist in this world. And as he heard the cracking of bullets and the roar of allied fire, he took comfort in seeing Sovereign twisting and howling and screeching and screamed as he spasmed on the floor, struck from almost all angles. Nor were they the only ones. Everyone was assaulting Sovereign's "real" body above the Citadel, and at long last…

It happened in unison. Sovereign let out a screeching cry of denial that was more animal than sentient, living thing. It howled as the dinosaurs did when they realized their end had come, the meteor seconds from striking. It's "true" body shuddered with reddish electricity as the puppet form it had flopped to the ground, twitching uselessly before burning up in a small sea of red flames...leaving nothing behind. Meanwhile, the Normandy led the assault on Sovereign's "true" body as Joker smirked. "I feel like CRAB LEGS TONIGHT!" He roared out as Sovereign was positively pounded from all sides by harsh laser and missile fire, and blasted into pieces that sailed all about the Citadel…

…

…

…

… "And that was it." Shepard said as he leaned back in the chair, sighing softly as he sat down with everyone else in the main meeting room of the Normandy. They all sat close to him as he nodded firmly, grey eyes resolute and firm. "He'd never hurt anyone else again. Sovereign was gone, but we know the threat's not over."

He closed his eyes, quietly closing his hands together as he clasped them tightly. "I know the Reapers are still out there. Still a threat. If they should ever find another way out from Dark Space, we'll have to be ready. We're going to be searching for any remaining Geth, of course...and for the Machinist. We want answers, we think he can provide them. So there's a lot of work still to be done, but...it's good to just take some time to stop, and to tell everyone how THEY can help too."

"I have to say, Mr. Shepard, my viewers are...going to be kind of scared by what you've said here." Emily Wong confessed softly as she folded her arms in her lap, tilting her head a bit. The Normandy Crew looked from her to Shepard as he opened his eyes and looked squarely up at her.

"I'm only asking them to face the facts I've laid out. I think, after all I've done, I'm owed a bit of belief in my words and actions...but yes. I admit it. What I'm saying is terrifying. They're terrifying facts. The Reapers are real monsters, they ARE out there, and they have servants, here in the galaxy, who will do anything they can to bring them back. However…" He hesitated, then…

"I think I can quote C.S Lewis to explain. "Comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort, you will not get either comfort or truth; only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair." Shepard said firmly. "It's better to know the truth so you can be ready than be told a comforting lie. It's a hard path. But everything in life that's worth DOING is hard."

"Much of the galaxy has called you a hero, Commander Shepard. A savior, a messiah, the man who united races and saved the galaxy."

"Anyone can be what I am if they really try. Even folks like ol' Conrad Verner, one of my more...eclectic fans." Shepard said with a smile. "We may have miles to go before we sleep, but with the galaxy united, there's a LOT of people who can help. And it's what we do."

"That it is." Garrus chuckled. "And we're damn good at it."

"The BEST in the galaxy. And damn proud of it too!" Wrex remarked with a toothy grin.

"We're the touchstones of the galaxy." Liara intoned, tilting her head slightly. "Touchstone. Where DOES that word come from?

"Well, it, along with it's sister, the italian word "paragone", were a black stone used to the judge the purity of precious metals like gold, or silver." Kaiden admitted.

"Yeah, my dad told me about them. See, in the old days, the metal got rubbed on the stone and the color of the streak showed off its quality. That's how the term came to me a standard by which you should be judged." Ashley added.

"Well, you know what that makes us." Tali said with a little smile dancing behind her mask.

"That I do." Shepard grinned happily. "...that, my friend…

...That's a paragon."