Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or its characters, the characters of my own creation are based on models from Multiplayer

Now that we've got that out of the way, loyal followers I'm back with another Mass Effect N7 one shot, this is a sequel of sorts to my N7: Endurance fic featuring the same N7/multiplayer team from that, to understand it I would recommend reading Endurance (which I admit involves my strong suit, action so is much longer than this). It makes alterations to the famous (or infamous) destroy ending portraying it from the view of the N7 teams fighting on Earth. I've had this one lying around in my files for a while now but I never set out to publish it. It doesn't have any action which is something I put into most of my fics.

N7: Brightest in the Dark

The Reaper war, a war that raged across the cosmos is finally over. But the victory has come at great cost. Hundreds of thousands of species are now cut off from the Mass relay network, a network that is now in ruins. With Earth's natural resources depleted, many wonder what will happen to the galaxy now. Many wonder whether Kyle Shepard, the butcher of Torfan and centrepiece of the conflict had simply sealed the fate of all those that were alive in the galaxy. The Geth are now deactivated and the Citadel, what was once the centre of galactic civilisation is now a ruin scattered across London.

It was a difficult sight for all of the N7 teams. Or at least the N7 teams now on Earth. Many had dead to bury, while others contemplated a future. The Slayer of team 014 swung his blade at the air, frustrated from the sudden end of the battle. His anger was reflected in his green eyes, months of fighting on Earth had left his hair long, with barely shaved stubble on his chin.

"Damn it, Damn it," he muttered continuously.

"Did you think there would be a happy ending?"

He stopped and turned to his commander; of all the people in the world it was a Batarian giving him a lecture.

"Look around you, did you think we'd have some grand celebration, that all the species would be united and using the Citadel as the galactic centre again? You humans and your naivete," the Batarian grunted.

"You don't get it do you, for a single moment we were all united, now what happens? The Reapers are gone, the Geth are gone, every bit of technology we had that could have helped us rebuild is gone, what kind of future are we supposed to forge from this?" The Slayer asked as he kicked at the ash.

"We'll never get back what we once had, my people will never be the same again, your people will never be the same again, the only thing we can do is try to forge something new," the Batarian explained.

The young man looked at his sword and then yelled as he threw it aside. For so long men like him had been fighting, now they had to rebuild. Much like how a young Quarian worked to rebuild what he had lost.

"Keelah, come on bosh'tet, move, why won't you work?" he asked the lifeless Geth in front of him.

His omni-tool wasn't enough so he worked with his bare hands.

"Hey, I need some help here, I think someone's stuck under here," an alliance soldier strained to move pieces of rubble aside.

"Move out of the way," he turned and saw several Asari.

They raised their hands, lifting up the rubble with their biotics. The human soldier opened the door to the apartment and rushed inside. He scanned the room and heard crying coming from one of the ventilation shafts. Prying the thing open, he looked inside and saw a child with a cut on his forehead. The poor boy was shaking with a fever. Reaching inside, the soldier pulled the boy out and carried him in his arms. He noticed the two bodies buried under the rock, probably the boy's parents. They had put him in the vents to keep him hidden from the Husks, someone had buried them but hadn't noticed the child.

"MEDIC!" he yelled.

"Come on, we need someone to patch this suit up now!"

A balding soldier carried a Quarian girl into one of the medical tents set up. He put her down on the table and waited for the doctors to see them. As they worked on her suit, he remained by her side, returning the squeeze she had on his hand.

"Her suit's been pierced, I need antibiotics here," the doctor said.

"We never expected to treat a Quarian, our antibiotic stores aren't up to stock," a nurse said.

"But you can still help her right?" the soldier asked.

"She has a fever and the wound is infected, her immune system wont last without antibiotics," the doctor explained.

"WAIT STOP!" a commotion caught the doctor's attention.

A Batarian man with three of his eyes bandaged grappled with one of the doctors. At first the doctor thought the Batarian was wrestling treatment off the man, but then he realised the Batarian was rejecting antibiotics.

"Give her my antibiotics, and take off my fucking leg if you have to," he said, falling onto the bed.

The doctor treating him moved the needle to his leg, but the Batarian persisted, shaking his head. With a nod, the doctor gave the needle to his colleague and nodded for the nurses to hold the patient down.

"You're the bravest man I've ever met," the soldier called to the Batarian.

The doctors injected the Quarian girl with meds and her condition began to stable, though only slightly. She looked at the soldier that had carried her in, her eyes shining with tears.

"Thank you, thank you so very much for caring for one of the last Quarians," she said.

"Hey come on, stay with us, don't let the guy lose his leg for nothing," the soldier said.

"Keep fighting damn you," the Batarian growled, yelling as the nurses began sawing his leg.

"KEEP FIGHTING!" they both screamed.

The Quarian girl squeezed the soldier's hand and kept on breathing.

"Is it true, are all the mass relays gone?" an engineer asked his commander.

Team 083 had survived, but each one was of a different species. The engineer Karl was of course from Earth, but Seele was an Asari Justicar, Marq a Krogan and Kratos a Turian. Kratos looked up at the Turian ship passing the city and sighed.

"Yes, the relay is gone, the scientists theorise that whatever energy wave the Citadel gave off bounced off of the relays, destroying each one," he explained.

"But at least the Reapers are gone," Marq huffed.

"But what about Thessia and Palaven, what about Tuchanka and Rannoch, cant any of you go home?" Karl asked.

"Not now and probably not for a while," Kratos sighed.

"It doesn't matter, we won the fight, the futures up to the children and because of a certain someone my species is still able to have children," Marq explained.

"But at what price?"

"No sacrifice, no victory," Seele whispered just loud enough for her teammates to hear.

Karl sat on the floor and Seele rubbed his shoulders. He looked at his surroundings, his ruined hometown.

"This is never going to be what it once was," he said.

"It will, in Seele's lifetime maybe," Marq said.

"Actually, I have a confession, I'm 950," the Asari said.

"W-wow, you must get a lot of work done," Karl gasped.

"And what makes you think I haven't just aged well?" she asked, crossing her arms.

Karl fumbled with his words and Marq and Kratos laughed. Eventually Seele and Karl laughed too.

"We are still alive, that counts for something," Kratos sighed.

The members of team 083 nodded and continued watching the Turian ship fly over the city.

More and more ships landed across the globe, offering support wherever it was needed. Turians gave shelter, Krogan gave muscle to clear out debris, the Salarians offered what tech they had to provide warmth and supplies to the wounded and homeless. Volunteers from across Earth finally did their part and helped clear away debris, carry in wounded and spread the word to any location that couldn't be reached with a radio, the Reapers were dead, the galaxy needed to be salvaged. Though they had lost much, many felt empowered by the fact that they had achieved what months ago they thought was impossible. The Reapers were gone and it wasn't the victory of a single army, fleet or species but every species in the galaxy. Many would need to be remembered, for not every team was as successful as 083.

Asari Maiden Drayna, of the famed team 078 put the helmet of her commander on the small pile of rocks she and Laurie had set up. Magnus had died protecting them from Husks. Drayna couldn't get the memory out of her mind. Armed with only his Omni-blades, he faced off against the gigantic Brutes and stood his ground for as long as it took for them to get to safety. What haunted Drayna was whether the man had lived long enough to see the Citadel relay activate?

"He believed more than any of us," Laurie said.

"Not in Shepard, but in everyone, he believed that no matter how this ended a future would be had, a future where we could rebuild and make something new, something better," Drayna explained.

Laurie suddenly buried her face in her hands.

"What's wrong my love?" the Asari asked.

"We're here alive…he was the smart one, the fucking bad ass and he died, we ran away and we left him to fucking die!" Laurie cried.

"He died for us Laurie, and our baby," Drayna said as she softly caressed Laurie's cheek.

Laurie gasped as she looked at her lover.

"I only found out a day before the mission, Magnus told me to keep it quiet, he said…if this ends badly you'll need to know something good came out of all this," she explained.

"Oh Drayna…I love you, I love you so much, I'm sorry I didn't say it enough," Laurie wrapped her arms around Drayna's waist and the Asari girl gently rubbed her head.

"Its okay my love, we'll be all right, we'll be all right," she whispered it again and again, knowing that it was true.

He had gotten his hands on primitive materials and tools. Most called him mad, but the young Quarian didn't care. The Geth were sentient and this one particular Geth had even come to call him friend.

"Come on move," he repeated again and again.

Welding wires together and placing in back ups was hard work, especially when he had to convert those backups to microchip form. People called him mad, but he was simply desperate to salvage at least one Geth from extinction. He had survived despite the loss of the fleet, so why couldn't any of the Geth?

"Live you bosh'tet, LIVE!" he yelled, fusing the wires to the chip.

With the panel on its head open, the eye of the Geth began to blink and flicker like a bulb. Finally it remained lit at the eye moved, examining its surroundings.

"Hello Tora, how went the battle?" the digitised (yet grammatically inaccurate) voice of the Geth was enough to let Tora know that he had succeeded.

He had ensured the survival of the Geth, they didn't have the intellect of their earlier counterparts but Tora knew without shred of doubt that what was left of his people, and the galaxy as a whole had learnt from past mistakes and would accept the Geth. For some hope was the only thing keeping them going.

He pushed the debris off his back and stretched. The young man looked at his hands in shock, they were clear and undamaged. In fact he was physically fine. A fucking Reaper had fallen right on top of top of his squad's position and he was fine. He threw off his helmet and let out a scream. The Reapers were dead and he had lived to see it, that was something to celebrate. But he slowly fell to his knees and smacked his fists against the ground. Everyone else was dead and he had lived, he who had nothing. He was a Paladin, he was supposed to shield his teammates but they were all buried.

"Is there anyone out there?" he asked over his radio.

"Who is this?"

"Admiral Hackett, this is team 006 of the N7 regiment, I've just dug myself out of rubble sir, what's the situation?"

"Are you the only one left?" Hackett asked.

"I…hold on," the young man stood up and looked at his surroundings.

He couldn't see anyone in the distance, only the support ships flying in the distance. They would make it for him, but any other survivors would need to be found now. Switching off his omni-tool, he began looking for survivors. Eventually his search bought him to a pod of some kind. Running his hand across the surface, he stopped as he felt movement inside it.

"Hello, is anyone in there?" he asked.

"Thank the gods, the locks broken on this side, can you open it?" he recognised the speaker as a Drell.

"Hold on," he pressed his omni-tool against the lock and began hacking it. "Damn it, if there's anyone who can do heavy lifting in there, grab the edge of the hatch and pull to your right, I'll pull to my left," he explained, wedging his Omnishield between the door and began pulling it open.

The Paladin and the Drell on the other side forced the door open.

"Where did you people come from?" the Paladin asked.

"The Citadel, we were there when it was suddenly occupied by Reapers, Bailey forced a few of us into these pods," the Drell explained.

"Excuse me, we need some immediate medical attention, this man here was hit by a bullet, we patched the wound but without medigel and proper surgery he wont last," a blonde haired woman explained.

"What's your name?" he asked the woman.

"Felicia Hannigan," she said.

"Right, take these flares and once you see the support shuttles light the flares and tell the doctors what care these people need, you two go with this Drell and help him find the other pods, or survivors buried here," he explained.

The Paladin ran away from the pod and continued his search. He didn't just search for pods but across the ground for any buried soldiers. If there was just one chance that someone could be alive amongst the rubble then he was willing to take that chance. He stopped at several pieces of the Citadel wreckage, all grouped together like a shelter. Moving into the pile, he widened his eyes slightly at what he saw.

"Admiral Hackett, I've found a survivor, looks like he's N7, old school N7 I mean," he said as he checked the man's condition.

He was still breathing, which was a relief. But he was bleeding heavily from a gut wound. The Paladin checked his Omni-tool, finding one shot of medi-gel, no one on the pod needed desperately so he saved it. Spraying the gel across the wound, he checked the man's tags and froze.

"Sir, I've found Shepard," he said.

"Say that again soldier, who have you found?" Hackett asked.

"Commander Kyle Shepard, I repeat I have found Shepard and he's in critical condition," he explained.

"All units within the vicinity of team 006's beacon, converge on that location, Shepard has been found, I repeat Shepard has been found!"

"Shepard, stay with me, look at me Shepard," he said.

Kyle Shepard weakly opened his eyes and the Paladin smiled.

"You did it Shepard, you killed the Reapers, you did it!"

Shepard rested his head back and the whole world moved as a blur to him. Medics of the alliance and survivors of all races carried him onto a shuttle. Once the doors had shut, the Paladin turned to a few of the emergency workers.

"Did you find anyone else out there?" one of them asked.

"We haven't finished looking, now come on, the future isn't going to make itself!" the Paladin said.

Laurie watched the people working from the hilltop and smiled. Magnus had been right, from the ashes of tragedy came mutual understanding between the species. They worked together, not to rebuild what they had lost but to build a something better, something newer, a future.

"We must accept finite disappointments, but never lose infinite hopes"- Martin Luther King JR: "Only in the darkness can you see the stars!"

What did you all think? I don't usually do short fics, especially fics that don't have action in so I'd like to know what you all think. Might do more N7 fics so please tell me what you think of these ideas, they wont all be set within the same world or Shepard (or play through) :

N7: Defection: A Cerberus Phoenix trooper, unmodified by Reaper tech must keep civilians on Palaven safe from his former compatriots and Reaper forces. His only allies? Quarian Marine Kal'Reegar and a squad of recruits with a justified grudge against Cerberus.

N7: The return: Milque, former team mate of James Vega has settled with his new squad on Dallas Prime, which may just become a repeat of Fehl Prime as enemies long thought dead return. Fortunately Zaeed Massani is something of an expert when it comes to killing 'goddamned' Collectors.

N7:Nightmare: A joint mission involving operatives from all the council races drop on a planet, only to find their simple mission isn't so simple. Its a game of survival as the Turians, Asari, Humans and Solarians hold off a devastating attack from Reaper forces, joined by Geth Heretics and Collectors.