Such beautiful poetry throughout this amazing story :)

*huggles the Liara/Aethyta moment to pieces* I just heart any and all moments between these two :)

*blinks* They made out in the *public* observation deck? XDD

Very interesting read, a good take on the craptastic excuse for writing Bioware did

I like your ending so much better then Bioware's endings. Theirs were dumb, lazy and left it making the player feel hallow and unsatisfied. I would have chosen your ending if i could, because of how much more sense it makes then theirs.

Anyway, i guess what i'm trying to say is that this story was awesome and that i'm looking forward to see your next story "After".

I do however have two question i would like to ask.

1) If Shepard didn't kill the Illusive Man, then what happened to him? Is he still alive or did he shut down like the rest of the reapers and Husks since he was a bit under their control?
2) Did you forget about Javik or do you not like that character? Because i noticed you never had him in this story, and i was just curious if you meant to not include him, or you just forgot him.

Anyway once again great stories and can't wait to read your next one! Keep up the great work.

Great story, like it very much... Exact the same were my thoughts went I finish the game, the broke my heart as well and I felt they use Shepard, in the end they transform him/her in something she/he wasn't, a great story all along just to tell us at the end that no matter how much you fight for what you want and for everyone your reward is to sacrifice again for the rest, your happiness is not your own and that shepard was living a borrow time not for her/him But for save the rest...

PS: After... Your other story, are you going to finish it? A like it

I just want to say that I am a huge fan of this series! I love the added relationship between Shepard and Liara. If there was one thing that bothered me about Mass Effect, it was the lack of romantic interactions between love interests apart from an extra sentence here or there. Sometimes I wished that some conversations had a tad bit more in the game but your story totally makes up for it! I really loved the Shepard and Liara's dilemma about leaving the other to fight and such. Oh man, I just love everything about this. I keep re-reading it. I've read your other two that you are currently working on and am really looking forward to them both. If there is one thing that I think you need to be careful with is your POV. I'm not sure if it's what you're going for, but you start chapters from Shepard's or Liara's POV but you have one sentence or so where it jumps to someone else's perspective and it can be distracting for the reader. However, if you wanted to have multiple POVs in your story then cool. Just something to be mindful of if you wanted to be technical.

I'll probably end up re-reading everything again :D

*personal effects

Other than that, I did not notice anything else (I'm reading this at 2 AM :D) Nice story. I like the flow and how the characters are depicted. This is easily one of my favorite ME fanfics. Keep up the good work!

Wow, you managed to almost perfectly describe aspects of Shepard's apartment from the Citadel DLC, even though it wouldn't be released for months after you published this chapter.

I do love the fact that Aethyta is very open about sex and the way it can be used. And one thig you must never try and do it attempt to out-inappropriate her, she will just make you cry after defeating you.

Liara does have a propensity for choosing outfits that look impressive and are eloquently stylish on her.

But they would also be quite difficult to get off. At least all of Shepard's gear is fairly simple to get off when required.

Well, it's taken me a ridiculously long time to finally properly read and review this last chapter of this epic trilogy you have written. Mostly because I like living in denial that it's over (both the games and your trilogy). I don't necessarily share your disinterest in the universe and games now, which I think is in large part to your fix it ending. It's easy for me to want to replay the games and jump back into the universe and Commander Shepard's story when I consider your ending to be the canon ending. Which works for me! You brilliantly brought your story full circle, and weaved a convincing climax that incorporated enough aspects of the ending the game gave us to be considered simply an extension of the game, a better explanation. You made the game and the universe enjoyable again and I can't wait to start reading After from the beginning again and I hope you continue to update it as well.

This story was touching. I agree, the indoctrination theory would have been amazing to see come to reality... I mean those who did some serious digging for possible evidence of it had some compelling material to offer on Shepard's possible indoctrination. However, as.. mediocre at the ending was I don't think I could ever stop loving Mass Effect. I've also had a strange way in sorting the ending out and how it just made the most sense to me. Of course, it could have been better, it wasn't the grand finale any of us expected.. But I have things I have considered, put into place, and the ending isn't so bad for me for those reasons.

That is not to say I find others disliking it as invalid. Everyone took it differently, and I respect it all. But the one thing I tend to plea for is not to give up on Mass Effect because of how it ended. We cannot, just simply, cannot forget what it meant to us, and the good times we had, and the bad times we had with it. The laughs, the tears, the what ifs. The bonds we formed with the characters, the friendships, the romances, the sense of familiarity when wandering the Normandy or seeing old faces.

This story is a reflection of that. It was a great story, and I read a couple of your others, and have been reading After and I love how you write with such a passion for these characters, and the universe. I liked your take on the ending, and it was well written, and made sense. I also liked how much emotion you put into Sophia Shepard, how she handled everything, and what she feared and why. It was extremely compelling stuff, and an emotion jerker at times. Fantastic stuff.

If you feel the need to put it all aside when you're finished with After, I respect that. But I also think you shouldn't give up entirely if you truly enjoy writing these stories. In the end it is your decision, but I always enjoy seeing your work.

Kachie

thank you for the stories the where all fantastic and I can see myself reading all of them again in the future I'm glad that After will continue for some time.

as far as you authors not I can't agree more as far as the ending go the EC helped a bit for me at least but it was far from enough to fix the mess that Mr Husdon and MR whalters (I think that's how you spell there names) created in the name of art or whatever they felt they where doing. all I can recommend is using MEHEM I know it's a fan mod and it's far from perfect and still a work in progress but is far more fitting than the ending that we got from Biowre.

once again thank you and good luck in your future plans.

trekker1982.

Okay... first off, thank you. THANK YOU. A way for Shepard to enjoy the peace she faught tooth and nail for. You really stayed true to your Shepard through the whole series. I agree with you on the 'nasty breakup' bit. I'll play up to a point in the last game... but I can't get past it. The right choice doesn't make me happy one little bit.

Anyway, this chapter (and the one before it) were real stomach twisters for me. I felt so bad for Shepard and I loved that she gave up the Alliance. It was always a big thing for her. But now After can happen! Yay!

Amazing story and awesome ending!