Prelude

Commander John Shepard stood at the base of the ramp leading up to the three different panels. One would enable him to ascend to become the intelligence that would control the Reapers. One would bring synthesis of organics and synthetics. And one would destroy the AI and the Reapers, and potentially other synthetics and even Shepard himself.

Synthesis. It seemed so logical. And it was clearly the choice the AI was hoping Shepard would pick. He stood at the base of the ramp. How convenient, he thought, that this should come up, pre-made and ready, almost like…. almost like a video game. That's when he realized that the AI had lost. He closed his eyes and blocked out all senses. As he did so, he could feel coldness against his forearms, the floor against his knees. He concentrated on his hands and knees, feeling the floor as he crawled slowly backward. After a few moments, he reached over with his right hand to feel a leg. Admiral Anderson lay dying, or possibly already dead. Shepard knew that if it could help it, the AI would never allow him to destroy the Reapers. He had lost a lot of blood and his armor was empty of medi-gel after Harbinger's blast. He found Anderson's pistol and opened his eyes.

Now, he was on his hands and knees just a few feet from the control panel, Anderson's motionless body beside him. There was no child. It was the Leviathan created AI using his own memories to communicate. It had been unable to take control of him as it had Doctor Ann Bryson, but it was able to project illusions into his mind. But now, he had broken that power. The three ramps had been a part of an old N-7 VR combat simulator. The child had been killed at the beginning of the war. He had to give it credit. The AI was nothing, if not crafty. But its options had run out.

"Commander Shepard," came Admiral Hackett's voice emphatically. "The Crucible is still not firing. It must be something at your end."

"I'm on it, sir," he replied weakly. Drawing on his last reserves, Shepard stood and forced himself to walk to the control panel. The AI was still trying to influence him, but he forced its voice from his mind. Now, he could see the previously obscured handle. He grasped it and turned it a quarter of a turn to left, loosening it and allowing it to come up from the panel.

"There is no ending to this war that involves the Reapers living," he said to the AI.

He then turned it left again and plunged it back into the panel. The entire station shook violently as the connection was made. The Crucible was armed.

The Crucible fired, rocking the station and everything in it. Shepard rolled to dodge a piece of debris that fell towards him. He took hold of Admiral Anderson and rolled him out of the way at the same time. The floor suddenly erupted in twisted steel and shattered tiles. The control panel was heaved into the air and was now coming down on Shepard. He dodged it, but was caught in more debris from the ceiling. He wasn't dead, but his legs were pinned. He didn't think anything was broken, but he knew he wasn't leaving. He smiled, knowing that the Reapers had finally been stopped. The cycle had been broken. Blackness engulfed him.

The energy was released from the Citadel with astounding power, bathing Earth in its red glow and being transmitted through the mass relays. The Reapers fell, as did their troops. The fleets escaped to the rendezvous point and in that moment, millions of years of a repeating cycle of harvest, extinction, and rebuilding came to an end. As the last of the energy was released, the great station sat still once more. The force of the Crucible had caused the station to turn on its axis. Now, sunlight came in through the window that had previously shown the Reapers' devastation of the united fleets. As the warmth touched Shepard's cheek, he awoke and inhaled sharply. He was alive.

Admiral Hackett's monologue:

The war is over. The Reapers have been defeated.

Against all odds, and in the face of the greatest threat the galaxy has ever known, we survived.

We suffered many losses. The relays are severely damaged, but we won.

This victory belongs to each of us… every man, woman, and child. Every civilization… on every world.

Now, as we take our first steps toward restoring what we lost, we must remember what it took to win.

This wasn't a victory by a single fleet, a single army, or even a single species.

If this war has taught us anything, it is that we are at our strongest when we work together.

And if we can put down our grievances long enough to stop something as powerful as the Reapers, imagine what we can achieve now that they are defeated.

It will take time, but we can rebuild everything that was destroyed.

Our homes, our worlds, our fleets and defenses. All of this and more.

Together, we can build a future greater than any one of us could imagine.

A future paid for by the sacrifices of those who fought and died alongside us.

A future that many will never see.

And while we still have many challenges ahead of us, we can face them together.

And we will honor those who died to give us that future.