Final Act:

Priority: Earth

Sword, Shield, and Hammer. Each team having their specific roles in the upcoming Final Battle. Despite the Power Blocs at odds: The Alliance, Clans, Hierarchy, Primacy, Courts, Omega and Flotilla/Geth. Cerberus and the Union, Protectorate, Vorcha Horde, Terminus Systems and Republics. Each pool their strengths now for this last event.

Sword consisting of the Geth, Flotilla, Turian, Alliance, Asari, Salarian, Cerberus, Batarian, Hanar, and Terminus ships which all convene on Earth, where a Reaper host knowingly waits for them. Shield (the callsign) consisting of an Alliance escort and the Leviathans take the Crucible from its secret location toward the Serpent Nebula, with the ancient aliens insta-killing the singular Reapers they encounter. And Hammer delivers every shock troop known to man (and alien) on Earth's surface to take back the Conduit, located in sure, why not, Britain.

Shepard using her unrelenting fury and biotic badassitude to single-handedly break through enemy lines, inspiring entire legions spinning their wheels in the mud to follow her into the fray. Shield using his l33t skills to lead entire infiltration teams behind enemy bulwarks, striking at the artillery taking down their Elcor and Krogan troop transports. Every companion seen leading their respective war asset, taking part in the fight with epic character moments personal to each. Volus bombers covering the landscape with explosions while Samara and her justicar friends protect everyone with their OP biotics, covering the entire area in bright blue. Jack protecting her students supporting the front lines, and blasting her way into a Reaper Destroyer as it lands atop of them. Hell yeah. Grunt leading Aralakh Company besides a Rachni host, working together to clear out a huge army of (krogan) brutes. That's thematic. Wrex leading a horde of krogan onto a Reaper Capital Ship blocking the way to nuke it. That's cinematic.

Miranda and her ex-Cerberus squad fighting alongside James and the Alliance's Delta Squad, taking key choke points for the movement. Anderson leading Alliance N7's coming to Shepard's rescue as Reaper forces start to drown the battlefield with their corpses. Rasa saving Shield's bacon with a legion of Cerberus troops as he's cut off after going in too deep. SIR and the 355 backing him up for a huge fanservice moment. Elcor. Tanks. Geth and quarian working together. Krogan and Turian. Salarian and Rachni. Asari and Batarian. Drell and Hanar. Volus and Elcor. Vorcha (most refugees from Heshtok hitching a ride on the Terminus Fleets), Raloi (a small legion of volunteers who have since joined since the Reapers came to Turvess), and even Virtual Alien Hosts (like a hundred AI constructs, but every bit helps). Alliance and Cerberus (who is joining in despite being assholes this entire war).

It's relayed through the odd message that comes through that the Citadel hasn't been lost yet either. Though they continue to be teleported onto the Presidium, the cadre of Spectres, C-Sec Forces, Cerberus legions, refugee militias, and of course, Udina, are all fighting valiantly to prevent the Reapers from taking over the Citadel Tower and the rest of the station. They know they cannot win, as the creatures keep flooding in, pushing them back and back, and are simply buying time for Hammer to reinforce their position. Cerberus has managed a significant amount of the defenses, which is alarming to several participants, as it's questioned why so many of them are on the station in the first place.

Back on Earth, Hammer has built up an ever-growing momentum, and make their way to the Prothean Conduit, at the center of London. The hordes of processing facilities in their way and Reapers now landing around them make the final dash, one might say...a Suicide Run. But Shepard and team have done a million of those. Everyone does their last goodbyes. Shepard and Kaidan kiss passionately. Shield and Liara meld one last time. And off to the races they go. As people are being overwhelmed, thrown off the trail, slowed by the infinite amount of Reaper cyber zombies, utterly hopeless of being able to win, Shepard with her unlimited willpower, and Shield with his amazing sneaks, are inevitably the first to make it despite the opposition. Cue the Finale.

Priority A: Shepard's Citadel

Once at the Crucible, right before she enters, she sees Shield out of the corner of her eye. But she only has a second to hear, "I'm sorry." He then shoots her, causing her to stagger and drop to the ground. Shepard gasps coming back to, immediately putting him in stasis just steps away from the Conduit, taking every fiber of her being to get back up. Hurt deeply by the betrayal, she asks a thousand questions, and why the hell he tried to off her. Despite her burning desire, she refuses to use her IDK, not wanting to know the truth of what happened to him. She walks past the Stasis and teleports up through the Conduit herself, knowing the others aren't far behind.

The Presidium is deserted, now that the Reaper forces are busy trying to stop Hammer. She contacts Shield (the callsign), telling them she's made it to the Citadel. She asks if the Reapers blockading the Citadel are defeated. She gets no signal. She continues up to the Council Tower herself, hoping to be ready when the comms come back online. There she's attacked by Cerberus troops, and it becomes evident of TIM's plot. He plans to use the Crucible himself once it docks, and plans to prevent a single member of Hammer from reaching it. His insane gambit would cost them everything. As Shepard fights her way through the Cerberus grunts guarding the tower, she eventually reaches the room she had beat Saren in. At the console's controls stands TIM (and behind him, the signal jammer) who then monologues his entire plan and motive.

Years after the First Contact War, Jack Harper had become the unnamed head of the AIS, with a shadow council of old Alliance officials backing him. He had all the intelligence of the Alliance at his fingertips, and huge galactic human corporations like Binary Helix, Exogeni, Sirta Foundation, and Kore in his pocket due to compromised financiers allowing him to become their major shareholders. The experiments with Thresher Maws such as the one on Akuze allowed Cerberus to derive medi-gel, which has saved countless lives (hinted at in AHM Ch 28). Cerberus brought her back to life after experimenting on countless before her, including Alexei Leonov (aka Shield). Cerberus has done countless things to save this galaxy whether anyone acknowledges it or not. And it now has the power to keep it from ever being endangered again. After decades, Cerberus would make the ultimate breakthrough. Controlling the Reapers. Shepard says when the hell has the option ever been to control?

He says it's always been about control. The experiments on Nepheron and Aite that experimented on the rachni, the thorian, the geth, the husks, were all done for that purpose. Project MIA developed the tools necessary to implant reaper tech safely into hosts to enhance their abilities. Combining the all studies done on how the rachni communicate over great distances, how the Thorian controlled it's thralls without question, how the husks are controlled by the Reapers' signals. All combined have allowed Cerberus to safely nix their signals. To allow their troops the benefit of reaper tech without any of the consequences. To prevent indoctrination, which TIM shows by scanning himself with an IDK.

Shepard calls him a mad man, lusting for power like anyone else. They debate a little more before Jane Shepard realizes there's no more time, making her move, causing TIM to snap his fingers. Vamshi jumps to his defense and blocks her biotics with his own. As TIM covers himself with a geth forcefield, the two have their last epic duel, with Vamshi monologuing himself, and why he decided to side with Cerberus after they freed him from Alliance captivity. If they survive, the aftermath of this war will be insurmountable. Piracy, racketeering, and degeneracy will persist throughout the entire galaxy because of the destruction done for centuries to come. Due to this, they lose either way. Unless the collapse of society can be prevented. Which can only happen through not destroying the Reapers, but controlling them. With them as their wardens, society won't devolve into anarchic terror. They'd save billions of lives, and trillions of future lives as they can prevent any further wars or conflicts from ever arising with the Reapers watching over them. He's a pragmatist through and through. Or so he considers himself.

Shepard doesn't have the words for the lunatic. Choosing Cerberus after the Broker, abandoning the Alliance and his various troops on multiple occasions, constantly trying to take the moral high ground and look down on her, has made Shepard absolutely detest him in every way, shape, and form. He's not a pragmatic hero. He's just a roach attempting to live comfily in whatever new world comes about. That's when she's nearly killed by Kai Leng. "Who the fuck are you?" she asks before subsequently being forced to fight both of the evil N7's off. In a battle unable to even be put in words, Shepard beats Kai Leng and Vamshi in an epic fashion single-handedly, flinging Kai Leng's own sword into the signal jammer. It's then that Hackett rings over the comms, telling them the Reapers are advancing on the Crucible's location, open the damn arms-

TIM attempts to stop her, telling her that this is the only chance for humanity to take center stage. She sidesteps the old man, cracking his arm and flinging him below after he came out of his shield, right where Saren had met his fate too. She then opens the Citadel arms, and the Crucible is immediately sent in to interface with it. The crucible smashes open the window, causing Shepard to almost relive the moment she died exactly where she's standing in 2183, and then a blinding light blinds Shepard, the blinding image of a child appearing before her when it returns. The one she had seen die on Earth and in her nightmares every night now. As she walks down the walkway leading out the Tower's window and to the Crucible's functions, the Catalyst goes yadda yadda yadda, choose an ending. She asks if what it said was true. It agrees that the Reapers prevent synthetics from spiraling out of control. As organics are tethered by limits synthetics are not bound to. If left alone, Synthetics would outpace organic life and strip the galaxy of resources before even the first star would burn out. What the Reapers did would preserve all life for all eternity, saving each organic race's culture and identity after they've had their allotted time to grow. No race's memory will ever be lost due to their actions. Then Shepard says no, is the AI of the Reapers being on the Citadel really true.

"Uh-"

She then asks why the hell the Catalyst even knew what the Crucible does. And becomes apparent she realized why the Crucible interfaced so perfectly with it. Why the Reapers allowed the plan to exist through so many cycles. Why it existed in the way it did. This was just another design of the Reapers. Another trap like the Citadel. One last ditch effort if the civilizations of the galaxy ever got an advantage over the Reapers as they had. And like the Geth, she decided the citizens of the galaxy wouldn't evolve down the path they set. Not anymore.

"Hackett, tell your ships to target the Citadel."

"What?"

"The Reapers are interfacing with an advanced AI present in the station. We have to destroy it!"

"What about you?"

"Don't worry about me. There isn't time. Just do it!"

"...Roger that. All Fleets...target the Citadel. Priority targets are the Crucible, and the Citadel Tower."

After hesitating a moment, the fleets that escorted the Crucible rain down a collective gigaton of destructive power on the targets, ignoring the Reapers bearing down on them. Blasts would throttle the station, sending Shepard sprawled onto the ground.

"What are you doing!?" the Catalyst would say.

"Refusing to play by your rules," replies Shepard with her shades on.

The Presidium ring cracks, bends, and breaks under the strain of the power descending upon it, and the Citadel Tower shatters below as a column of flame erupts through it. The Crucible is hit by a dreadnought cannon for the final time, exploding, and engulfing Shepard in a massive well of flames.

Cue Malukah - Reignite - Mass Effect/Shepard Tribute Song

And then...

Priority B: Shield's Citadel

Once at the Crucible, right before he enters, he realizes Shepard is coming up behind him. Realizing what's about to happen, he takes on his destiny as Marauder Shields. This is what it's all been building up to. He whispers "I'm sorry," before turning around and stunning her with an overload. As a brief moment of shock crosses her face before she collapses, he turns back around to face Shepard's destiny for her. He then teleports up through the Conduit himself, knowing the others aren't far behind. He's Marauder mother fucking goddamn Shield. If anyone's going to die in this finale, it'd be him.

His head explodes with pain as he shoots up through the device latent with dark energy. And as he wakes up from blacking out, he finds himself in a pitch black walkway. The only thing lighting the way being the giant pulsing blue relay at his back. One that extends across the entirety of the ebony structure he finds himself in. Still clutching his wounds, disoriented, and completely floored as to where he is, he gets up and starts dragging his feet through the inky corridor, architecture reminding him of every Reaper artifact he's ever seen in his travels. After walking through the foreboding structure for what seems like eons, he climbs a long ramp that leads to a oblong chamber. At the center of it is a massive glass cylinder, where sparkling white lights dance inside. No way. Yeah way. It's the beings of light Kumon Shol talked about. Harbinger speaks to him from the tube, harshing the mellow he's feeling looking at the thing. Shield guesses that's actually NOT the being of light he and Shol were imagining. He asks what this all is, and the Reaper clarifies that this is the station the Reapers rest during their long wait. The abode that once directly connected them to the Alpha Relay. It's a dark reflection of the Citadel. The Reaper Citadel, if you will.

That's retarded Shield responds. As Shield draws his gun, Harbinger gives him pause, explaining the fallout that would occur if he were to do so. And they reveal that they subscribe to the Dark Energy Theory. Galactic civilizations build up dark energy by using Mass Effect to travel. Dark energy is decay and continuously builds up in the universe, causing stars to die, as he's seen. A linear use will make stars die at an exponentially increasing rate. After each cycle, they harvest all energy they can collect from their stars and space and put it inside a new reservoir, a new Mass Relay. After giving every civilization 50,000 years, the Reapers prevent said societies from accelerating the death of the universe beyond their control, hoping eventually that one new cycle will bring about a solution to end the problem once and for all. Shield posits this is indoctrination. This isn't real. They're invading his mind. And then plays along, saying its their fault for introducing the concept to every society to begin with.

Harbinger would then go into detail about their origins with the Leviathans, and how the first several dozen cycles were complete chaos. After trial and error, civilizations becoming too big to cull, every one of them discovering mass effect, and dark energy becoming so widespread that its caused the death of several thousand systems, the Reapers came up with their current iteration. Though they try a new method every epoch or so, it always results in the same patterns they observed for eons. They believe however that humanity has the answer they seek. They created him after-all. Shield asks what the hell they're talking about. Harbinger has been probing his mind, as indoctrination happens just from proximity, and Harbinger can see what his graybox is. He knows what Shield's true origins are. Good thing he never interacted with him or Sovereign or any reaper before this.

Harbinger clarifies that whatever is stored inside his flesh is something beyond their comprehension. How it even got him here. Though it may take ages, they believe that this marvel of technology that transcends time and space, their very reality, is exactly what they seek in solving their eternal question. He doesn't like where this going. Shield raises Sweetness and attempts to pull the trigger but suddenly finds his vision clouded with inky tendrils. They already have him. He would become a part of the next gestalt this cycle. He would save their galaxy with his sacrifice. Be grateful. As Shield tries to fight it, his mind pounding, feeling his 'graybox' burning in his head, his other hand, his left hand, starts to move of its own volition. The prosthetic unholsters the M-11 Supressor he uses when he dual-wields like a bad ass, raising it to eye level. Oh shit he realizes as he's about to be done in. Harbinger suddenly voices its rage upon seeing him do it however. The arm that's constantly been cut off is not raising because of the Reapers. A voice then flashes in his head. One that has always communicated with him since he got here. Go ahead. Look at AHM. Tell me in every chapter Shield's been in that he doesn't have a conversation with himself. Oh shit. Alexei Leonov never actually died. That's what that weird ass monologue was at the beginning of AHM's last chapter. Though his personality had started bleeding in with Shield's in AHR (after Aite scrambled his mind), Shield was able to get a handle on it after Shepard snapped him back to reality. Kind of. Which allowed this exact set of circumstances happen in the end.

Anyway, with Shield's consciousness now in the backseat, taking a heavy dose of indoctrination for the team, Leonov makes his entrance, thanking Shield for making this all possible. Shield decides to just bite the bullet and pretend this is actually happening. And he asks Leonov what this all was, why he was here, what the point of anything in this whole story even is. And to answer him, Leonov pulls the trigger of the Supressor repeatedly, cracking the tank and causing energy to suddenly spill out. "Noooo," a thousand voices would faintly scream as the collective essence of every single Reaper located in that tube starts to die. The apparatus apparently being the perfected equivalent of the dyson sphere the geth wanted to make themselves. Why Reapers continue to 'dream' even after they die. Shield closes his eyes, and upon taking a deep breath, follows Leonov's example, regaining control of his other arm, firing Sweetness in unison. His last words..."Reap This." With the container's destruction, a blinding light erupts forth, bathing everything around them in a brilliant white radiance. As he fades away, Shield sees the vision he's had from the start one last time, the angelic being that's appeared in his nightmares almost every night. It thanks him for succeeding where countless trillions have failed. Shield feels a little proud of himself for that.

Cue NORMANDY - Mass Effect song by Miracle Of Sound.

And then...

Epilogue

Hackett looks on as the Ward break off the ring, and the Reapers, one by one, begin to cease engagement. No longer having the presence of their pervasive AI, their barriers drop, systems malfunction, troops collapse, and the fleets proceed to destroy every single one of them mercilessly. The Citadel, the interstellar hub and beating heart of galactic relations, is sacrificed to do so. Though pockets of survivors are clearly still present throughout its remains. The Citadel may be destroyed...but some believe it can be repaired. Boo-hoos all around from the crew, every character ever met, and galactic society in general. Everyone also honors the sacrifice given to save the galaxy. From Hackett, from Anderson, from Wrex, from Fedorian, from the Admiralty Board, from everyone, because it actually was worth a damn to them. And the Relay Network is still intact and functional, so it won't take Tali a god damn century to see the homeworld Shepard helped her retake. Wrex can actually be on Tuchanka within a decade to see the culture he longed for and helped foster take shape and thrive. Garrus can return to Palaven and help rebuild, along with seeing his mom who didn't die from turian cancer. Liara can return to doing what she does best, studying the Protheans to find ways their discoveries can be mimicked, maybe even building a Conduit of their own. Ash and Kaidan continue to be Alliance officers, rebuilding their own planet from the ashes. And every single one of the other squad-mates that accompanied the two, who will always keep their memories of Shepard and Shield in their minds and hearts, smile whenever they remember what he/she did.

Cue "Mass Effect" Soundtrack - M4 Part II by Faunts (As the ME3 original credit song, in my opinion, does not even approach ME1's upper echelon. A pale attempt at recapturing their original magic. Cannot even be touched. Though after seeing my various tastes in music, you might just say 'too each their own'.)

...

...

...

The End.

Afterword

...is that...is that really it? Am I free? This is not an April Fool's joke right? I did it? Oh god, somebody hold me. Wow. Amazing. Truly. One thing I would like to say is that I had a lot of trouble figuring out what Shield would do in ME3:TH. One was definitely his party members. The 355 from boot camp (all being expies of you dear reveiwers), Delta Squad (though kind of sad, James never would have joined Shepard's team due to their survival), and even Miranda's ex-cerberus team were all big candidates. Especially them. Due to all the characters relevant to Shield, the Ex-Cerberus team was a big conflict for me, and not having Shield join them in the end kind of hurt. After much thought however, I wanted to do some cheap fan-service and just give him his own team of aliens with relevant fanon instead. Ta'lako, Karg, Illynyder, Sygan, Barla Von, and Bray would have all been real cool characters to write for, as I would have mostly expanded their personalities on the go.

Though a lot of nuance and superior character building moments and amazingly entertaining interactions are missing, I hope this somewhat satisfies you young reader, finally knowing how Jane Shepard and Marauder Shield's story ends. In broad strokes anyway. What really happened you may ask? Who actually did what? What even were either of those fever dreams? How much of the indoctrination theory you even subscribe to bro? Well, those answers are mystery to be left forever unsolved. As I never wrote them down in my story outline. Oh well. Just consider that the thinly veiled titles of the series can perhaps refer to both characters. Perhaps...they're BOTH Heroes. Oh my god, I just blew your mind. You're welcome. Also, it's Marauder ShieldS. Dumbass. STACHE OUT!

CREDITS

Thanks to The Ultimate Azzhole, Revliledpembroke, Excisium, Rainsfere, TacticalFanatic, bigblue4101, Tom712, , maesde, Elvisfonz23, Phallus of Malice, windemon199, gerson, Pelinal-Whitestrake, dekuton, QuestingforBitches, rfpizzle, justsomerealguy, Ubermorph1000, Guest, SomeDudeThatReads, moosejuice5, Triggs, SpecterXCove, The Nameless King, Sorre, Kotor13e, nobodyewere, Tahkaullus01, BJ Hanssen, RIOSHO, Pteaset, gary2000, CubedDimensions, Arctech, Nihilist blues, and Kalikedeshi. Though I'm sure none of them still even frequent this site, I always appreciated reading all your thoughts and takes on my narcissistic, and at times, cringe writing. Preesh. Imagine. It only took 6 years to basically resummarize the events of an entire video game series.

Ah. Reliving every single thing Mass Effect I could.

It's been a damn good ride. The best.