Wow. Just. Wow. Reading this really did feel like an alternate ME3. Really good job on the characters and their development. By the time I got to these last 10 chapters I just couldn't stop reading, was actually voicing concerns and tension aloud ESPECIALLY on Chapter 65. I'm already speculating on how it will end and am extremely looking forward to seeing how it actually does. All in all outstanding work.

Can’t wait for the next chapter!

Such a good story. Shame that its probably wrapping up soon.

Having read through this fanfic, I have to say, it's a pretty damn good one. The pacing, slight changes, and variations on the canon storyline that manages to make more sense than canon ever did, to the characters, all of it was really well done. God, the characters, especially the interactions between Shepard and Briggs, really shone through in this story. While I knew something like Chapter 64 would happen, mainly because of the main character death warning, as well as the title, to some extent, it still hits hard, knowing that they are both probably gone. Following their struggles and their relationship for 280K words really leaves you attached, leaving an extra layer of emotional connection to the two. All I'm trying to say is, amazing work, and am looking forward to the conclusion.

Dang my heart hurts. I just finished all this in two days! I have yet to beat ME3 so I do not know how the story goes, but too many deaths man. You did not hesitate. All the other stories I’ve read were happier. Haha but great story and can’t wait for the ending. Keep up the great work!

I love the opening paragraphs of this chapter. Nice play with imagery and mental state. And I like how Shepard's competence is kind of her undoing with the tragedy-nice moment also when she's thinking Jack and Garrus know about Nathan... and he's talking about Wrex. Ookk. but it's non-sequitors like this that keep everyone human, I think. I like, Shepard, for all her competence, having blind spots. Focusing on the wrong things-and being self-aware enough to know it.

love the way the team's personalities are coming. through in this chapter. Also love, although I feel bad for loving it, that Shepard made a mistake.

I really love the close of this chapter. It captures the immediacy of a sacrifice very very well.

Yay, a trap! I mean that sincerely. Everything was going according to plan and I was waiting for the shoe to drop. You write video game action very, very well, and the tension was built quite effectively.

only bit of CC is my fault with the lore: I need to google the enemies again. It's all pretty hazy.

Awww, love the detail about volus wars 5.

this chapter actually seems to address a lot of what I didn't like in the previous, lol. There's some suspense, some sensation, and some information Cerebrus and Shepherd, yay!

still reading!

Everything is very well-written up to this point, and I think my CC is a matter of taste, not something that requires an edit... but in all of this action I am not seeing very much suspense. Some people like the play-by-play-I don't. I'm much more curious to know more about Shepherd's opinions of the Illusive Man, if anyone in her squad has any doubts, if something is going to ever go wrong due to error or mischance, than I am about hearing how she reloaded her gun.

It's not easy at all to do what you've done and write this much action with so many moving parts... I'm just not finding it suspenseful, or character-building. Again, this might be a matter of taste. I remember, there's a Kotor fict that I really like where the characters keep bantering through the action scenes in a way that's almost jarring and seems really out of place... but it does hold my attention, I have to say, more than some of this.

Maybe it's that it's all so detached. No one is hearing or smelling or feeling. There's no visual imagery. It reads fine-don't get me wrong-but that's one thing I think would help invest the reader more.

I've always loved Garrus. One of the things I do remember from ME was how much of a trainwreck the GarrusShep romance is. Still, I had that in the back of my mind when I was reading him watching the interaction between Nathan and Shep. Not jealous, just amused.

I like the way you set up the first kiss and then the next, although there's a hesitation between them that I'm not sure I like, in my own concept of Shepherd. Does she really want to be "normal?" She can, of course, just haven't seen enough of her to see that.

looking forward to reading more!

Love the way you captured Nathan's conflicted feelings about shepherd in this chapter, and fantastic action scenes as well as the descriptions of the video game elements like the armor.

That line about being good at drinking slayed me. Hilarious.

piqued - not peaked.

I do really like this Shepherd. I've never found her easy to get an angle on, but she's working for me here.