A\N: So, I skipped most of the first recruitment missions because I found them boring to write.

Horizon.

Shepard walked up to where the Collectors had taken several of the colonists, and said, "Damn! We're too late to help them."

"Yeah, the Normandy wouldn't be able to last in a fight with that ship. Our cannons and armor might be better, but our kinetic barriers wouldn't be able to hold up against their attacks." Garrus said.

"Right, we'll have to move quickly to prevent them from getting any more colonists." Shepard said, and began sprinting through the area, firing on Collectors with her Mattock, pulling the trigger so fast that it was almost firing fully automatic.

Miranda fired her Carnifex into a Collector's head, and Garrus fired his vindicator at a scion. The sac on its back burst, and the massive husk stumbled right into Shepard's shotgun, which she fired and blew the thing's torso out. It fell dead, and Shepard then leaped at another Collector, who she stabbed in the head with her omniblade. It fell down, and she stabbed the Collector Captain near her in the torso with the gleaming blade. She then pulled out her pistol and put a single round in the head.

A Collector charged, and tried to stab her with its extending blades. She ducked below its attack, and kicked it into a wall. She fired a single round from her shotgun into a charging abomination, and then fired a round from her pistol into the Collector she had kicked. With all of the Collectors nearby dead, she went back to where the Collector Particle Beam was and picked it up. They then encountered the crazy mechanic, who Shepard just punched, knocking the poor guy out.

In the middle of the colony, they got to work on connecting EDI to the Gardian towers. When they had hooked the AI up to the towers, they set up on the patio of a nearby building. As Collectors husks and abominations charged, the team opened fire with all of their weapons, only Shepard didn't use the Particle Beam. After a while, a Praetorian arrived, and Shepard pulled out the alien weapon. She fired it on the praetorian until it brought up its barriers. Shepard waited for it to go down, but Miranda tried to get through it with her biotics, only to be grabbed by the praetorian. Shepard swore, and fired a few grenade launcher rounds into the praetorian.

The machine dropped Miranda, and turned to Shepard, who dropped the grenade launcher and fired the particle beam right into the enemy. After a few seconds it hit the mech's more vulnerable underside. The beam went clear through the mech, and it collapsed to the ground, right on top of Shepard.

Garrus ran over to Shepard and tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge. He kept pulling on it, and when Ashley walked up, she asked, "What are you doing?"

"Shepard's under this damn mech!" the turian replied, panic clear in his voice. Ashley started helping, until Miranda lifted the thing with her biotics. Shepard gasped and said, "Thanks, Miranda. Thought that thing was going to stay on top of me for a few more hours."

Miranda replied, "I was just doing my job, Commander."

Shepard shook her head, and turned to Ashley, she said, "Williams."

"Shepard, why the fuck are you working for Cerberus?" Ashley asked.

"I'm not working for them. I'm taking advantage of their resources until I have enough free time to destroy the organisation. When the Collectors are gone, I'm going to turn my attention to Cerberus."

"We can't trust you. You're just a puppet of Cerberus for all we know."

"You're being a damn idiot, Williams! If I was a puppet of Cerberus I'd be trying to recruit you to Cerberus, and I probably wouldn't even look normal. Implanted with reaper tech, so I look like a fucking husk."

"The Illusive Man wouldn't do that." Miranda said.

"You'd be surprised at what he'd be willing to do to maintain control over his people. Miranda, did you ever hear about Praggia?"

"No, what are you talking about?"

"On the planet Praggia there was a project to try to maximize the biotic potential in humans. They tortured the kids, made them fight each other, and whenever they attacked had them doped up. They were willing to do anything, and left false reports about what happened in there. The Illusive Man had them lie on those reports so that he would appear to not have been aware of what was really going on."

"What data do you have that would prove this?" Miranda asked.

Shepard closed her eyes, and was about to reply when the mechanic shot her in the gut, saying, "You betrayed us, Shepard."

She winced, and said, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You promised that if we assisted you, the reapers would not see the end of the year. Yet, they still live. Your device failed to destroy them!"

"Leviathan." Shepard growled, "What the fuck are you doing. Go back to your precious darkness, and leave us alone. You were completely useless on earth. When Harbinger attacked Hammer on our way to the Conduit, and your left him alone. You didn't try to take him down with your spheres like you did the one on your planet. You let us get decimated, so we couldn't fight back. You didn't help us when we needed it most. Your actions left me injured, broken, bleeding out, while I tried to get to the Conduit. You didn't help. You didn't take down a single reaper on earth. No wonder you got your cuttlefish asses handed to you by your own creations. I bet it didn't even take the reapers a decade to harvest every one of you."

The Leviathan roared, and charged Shepard. She grabbed the possessed mechanic and pinned him to the ground. It said, "We are the first, the apex race. The reapers took over a thousand years to destroy us!"

"Right. And they took a thousand years to conquer earth."

"You lost your world in a single day, it took them a century to take ours!"

"And they built the Citadel? Don't fucking lie to me. The Intelligence, who should be called the Idiocy, is on the Citadel. It hadn't been moved."

Leviathan said, "So be it. Your cycle will end in death for all that you know and love. Including the dark haired operative." before releasing the mechanic.

Shepard's eyes were glowing dark red, and she said, "Just you wait, I'll fucking drop the Citadel on you! The reapers are less annoying than you! All they're trying to do is control or harvest us. But the Leviathans, they try to make you think they're the most powerful race in the galaxy, but all they had going for them was that they didn't have the reapers to come and harvest them before they got more advanced."

Miranda asked, "What the hell was the mechanic babbling about? Humans aren't the first race, and most would say we aren't an apex race"

"It wasn't the mechanic." Shepard replied.

Ashley jogged over to the mechanic, and after a moment said, "What the hell happened to him? He's comatose."

"That's what happens when the Leviathans control someone for hours. When they release them, it can have negative side effects such as comatose. Especially if they're trying to prevent you from talking."

"Who are the Leviathans?" Miranda asked.

"They're the one who's mistakes have affected every civilization since them. They created the reapers, to find a solution to a problem that is something that is more theoretical than factual. Based on an assumption they made after a few events in their time. Then, I give their 'intelligence' valid proof that their problem doesn't exist in our time, and it fucking ignores me!" Shepard said.

"What are you talking about? And what did it mean when it said you love a dark haired operative?" Ashley asked.

"Yes, that was a bit strange."

Shepard said, "I'll explain everything, but not here." before heading into the shuttle, followed by Ashley, Miranda, and Garrus. There, she said, "In about eight months time, the reapers will arrive. They'll take the earth, and I'll have to go and gather alliances. First, I'll go to mars, where T'soni will have found the plans for a device that she thinks will be capable of destroying the reapers. Then, we'll go show it to the council, who will just flat out say they can't help. Then, we'll have to go to Palaven to get help from the Primarch, who we find out is dead. We'll go to the moon Menae, and find out the Primarch is dead. Then, after a while, we'll find out who the next primarch is, and pick him up. Then, we'll have to find a cure for the genophage. Following that, well, we then go to the Citadel which has been attacked by Cerberus. Then, I'll end up helping the quarians and geth resolve their problems. Then, I'll go back to the Citadel, and hear from Tevos, that on Thessia there are a few things which could help us, but things don't go well there. Then, we go to Horizon, where we have to kill Henry. Then, I have to go and attack TIM's base, where he isn't and we find out what the last piece of the puzzle we need to activate the device is. Then, we'll go to earth, and fight the reapers. After a while, we'll go for an energy elevator to the final piece of the device, to prepare it for applying it. Through the elevator, and some corridors, there will be TIM. He'll somehow control both Anderson and myself. And, force me to shoot Anderson before I talk him into putting a round into his head. Then, after a few minutes, I'll be lifted to where some stupid star child says that I have to take one of three idiotic choices. Then, the massive amount of dark energy the device releases somehow sends me back in time to before the reapers arrive."

Ashley said, "That's a load of bullshit!"

Miranda disagreed, saying, "With a sufficient amount of dark energy it would be possible. But, that amount of dark energy would be nearly impossible to produce. But, I would like to ask what the hell the Leviathan meant when it said about loving a dark haired operative."

Shepard shook her head and said, "Figures that the one thing I hoped would be ignored would be asked. Sorry, Miranda, but that isn't going to be one I'm willing to talk about. It's a bit too personal."

"Okay, what about talking about killing my father?"

"After a few events, including your death, your father started working for Cerberus and kidnapped Orianna. When we went to the facility where he was working, we had to kill him to protect Orianna."

"Wait, I died?" Miranda asked.

"Yeah, that did happen." Shepard said, "Sorry about that. Might be a bit... strange to hear that you were dead."

"Yeah," Garrus said, "What about the other stuff. Like, you know, curing the genophage."

"That didn't go as well as I had hoped, we lost a lot of good people. Wrex was grateful, but a lot of other people died who shouldn't have. I made a lot of mistakes before, and I hope that I can fix it this time."

"And resolving the quarians and geth?"

"That took a bit of political maneuvering. I had to make someone make a sacrifice for the good of his people. Then, I had to fight a reaper on foot, just to get the geth to where they would be able to be communicated with. That was the most difficult fight of my life."

"You fought a reaper on foot?"

"Yes, I was using a device to focus the attacks of the entire Migrant Fleet on it."

"That makes a lot more sense than firing regular firearms at a reaper." Garrus said.

Shepard nodded, and headed out of the shuttle since they were back on the Normandy, she also said, "Miranda, don't tell the Illusive Man what I talked about, please. It would be better for everyone if he didn't know."

"Don't worry, Sarah. What you mentioned has me a bit concerned about what direction Cerberus is going."

A\N: So, the truth about Shepard has come out. And it may seem a bit early, but it was planned to be on Horizon. I found the mechanic to be a bit weird, so I decided to have him be a victim of the Leviathans, who were affected by the Crucible for a reason that not even they know. It'll just be a mystery. Thanks for reading and please review.