Control/Synthesis Ending
"The only hope of survival is to join with them. Sovereign is a machine. It thinks like a machine. If I can prove my value, I become a resource, worth maintaining. There is no other logical conclusion."
"Human, you've changed nothing."
"I warned you. Control is the means to survival. Control of the Reapers… and of you, if necessary."
Indoctrinated.
Defeated.
The squad leapt off the Normandy, armed to the teeth and ready to fight their way through to the Crucible. It was time to take the fight to the Reapers. Movement from a nearby pile of rubble caught the attention of the crew. It was Shepard! Living and breathing and standing... With electric blue eyes and a smile on her face. Her veins seemed to glow. Her cybernetics shone brightly, as if they were being controlled from a remote location.
Shepard pulled out her rifle.
And opened fire.
Bullets sprayed across the crew. Jacob and Miranda went down immediately as they were stood together, away from the rest of the group. Javik was also down before he could react. Jack put up a biotic barrier, Shepard's response was to walk through it, pull out a shotgun and destroy both Jack and Samara before they could put up another barrier. By that point, the others had caught onto what was happening and were aiming their weapons at Shepard. In quick succession, she shot down James, Grunt and Kasumi. Zaeed, Garrus and Wrex took cover. Shepard gunned for Tali who screamed as a hole was shredded through her suit. She continued to scream as more holes shredded through her body. Then Shepard pulled out her heavy pistol, the old Camifex, like it was an old friend. The accuracy that she got from the pistol allowed her to get a perfect headshot on Zaeed. Liara took cover with Garrus. Indoctrinated Shepard laughed.
"You prolong the inevitable." Shepard announced. That was when her old friends truly realised what had happened and how inevitable their fates truly were. The Reapers had control of Shepard. It was over.
"If I'm gonna be taken down in battle, at least I know I'll be taken down by someone strong." Wrex thought aloud, as though to encourage himself into charging. He died a Krogan's ideal death. Three pistol shots to the face as he charged an opponent.
Garrus and Liara were the only ones left. Indoctrinated Shepard walked out from behind cover.
"I don't want to kill you, but it's the only way. You can't have seen what I've seen. You couldn't know what I know. All this work was for nothing. Of course it was. We were screwed from minute one. I just couldn't see it."
"Shepard..." Garrus began. Liara would have spoken but she was too afraid of her voice giving out on her. "You've fought for so long. All to become indoctrinated?"
"I'm not indoctrinated Garrus, I'm just not blind. Look around you! Do you think this could've been stopped? We were stupid."
"If you're not indoctrinated then how could you try to kill everyone you care about?"
"It's a better death than anything left to come. They need living people to become slaves, I'm saving them." Shepard moved closer, pistol raised. Garrus exhaled deeply, praying to any and every deity that he'd heard of that he could pull this off. He readied his rifle, stood up and twisted around. Shepard beat him to the trigger.
There's no Shepard without Vakarian
It was true. Now that Garrus was gone, it could truly be said that anything that was left of Commander Shepard must have gone with him. What was once Shepard moved closer to find Liara curled in a ball mid-breakdown. Liara stared up into the face of her bondmate. But it wasn't. There was nothing left of Shepard there. That in itself was enough for Liara to be pushed over the edge into hysterics. Shepard hesitated putting the pistol to Liara's head. There was a pause. Hope. What if even an indoctrinated Shepard couldn't bring herself to do it? Nothing happened. Liara looked up and the gun was no longer pointed to her forehead. She stood up and looked Shepard in the eye, holding her partner's face between her hands.
"You can't do it?"
"I have to." Shepard's voice broke. Liara remembered hearing of what happened to Saren. Shepard was most likely still indoctrinated, but she could still end it well.
"But you can't."
"I'm sorry. They're the next step. We can't reach the end without the Reapers." Tears pooled in Shepard's eyes.
"There doesn't have to be an end, Shepard! We can carry on and fire the Crucible and it doesn't have to be over yet. Come back."
"They are the Harbingers of our ascendence." That would've been the last thing that Liara T'Soni heard, if she hadn't heard the gunshot directly afterwards.
The indoctrinated Commander Shepard stared at the blood of her friends all leaking slowly into a small hole in the ground that was made by Harbinger's laser. She looked down at the pistol that had served her so well and brought it to her temple. The cycle of life would continue, and perhaps that was for the best.
Commander Shepard fired the gun.
Shepard succumbed to Reaper indoctrination
Shepard gunned down her crew before they could activate the Crucible
Shepard died
The Cycle was ended, yet there was always hope for the next cycle
Player Loss.