~Author's Note~

So here's the other fanfic I've been working on, for the same reason as the first one- the normal ME3 endings suck. This one is obviously not yet complete, but I think if Bioware releases Ending DLC, this is the theory they will take.

Enjoy.

A group on the bioware forums is making a list of different fan rewrites to the endings. Here's the link to the main post if you want to check it out: http:/social. bioware. com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9796236 Again, without the spaces.

She was sure she hadn't heard it right.

Shepard stared at the Catalyst, aghast. "This is it? This is all I can do? Merge everyone like Saren wanted, control the Reapers like the Illusive Man wanted, or kill off both the Reapers and the Geth? I just spent the last three years ending the conflict between them and the quarians, and now you want me to just kill them off? They're an entire race of individuals, Legion just sacrificed himself so that they are fully self-aware beings! Killing off their race would be just as bad as killing off all the turians!"

The Catalyst stared at her, it's child-like features serene and calm. She felt like punching it. "You must choose, Shepard." Strike that, she felt like blowing it up.

There was something in its voice. Something familiar. She could hardly think through her injuries. Couldn't concentrate, but she had to think. There had be a way out of this.

"Just call off the Reapers. We'd rather take our chances with the AI overwhelming us. We can work through our differences- look at the geth and the quarians! They are fighting together now! There is nothing that says that you what you claim must come true!"

The Catalyst's expression didn't change. "No. You, and you alone, must choose. If you wish to call us off, then take control."

"I'm not going to disobey the one order Garrus ever gave me, damn you!"

"Then the galaxy will die, and the cycle will remain as it is."

"Screw that." She raised her omnitool threateningly. "Call off the damn Reapers, or I swear to whatever god is in control of this messed up universe that I will hack into your system and destroy you if its the last damn thing I do."

Still no reaction. Now she wanted to punch it just to see if anything could move this damn machine. "That is not possible, not even for you, Shepard."

Something wasn't adding up. Why would the Crucible destroy the Geth as well as the Reapers? They were two completely different types of beings. If it was just destroying all electronics... well. That option would be nearly as bad as letting the Reapers win. It would strand the fleets in space. And if this thing was lying to her, maybe something even worse. After all, why should she take its word for anything? It was responsible for this damn solution in the first place. It would be like finally making your way into enemy headquarters and then just lying down and taking a choice offered to her by their leader.

"You said the mass effect relays will be destroyed regardless of which choice I make." Aratoht flashed before her eyes. She blinked, hard, and it passed.

"Correct, Shepard."

"So... the homeworld that I fought so hard to save for Tali and the Quarians... they will never see it?"

"No. But their children will. They can return to their homesystem without the mass relays, it will simply take them awhile."

Shepard groaned. It didn't understand. How had it failed to factor this into its calculations? Or maybe it had and it was still lying to her. "No, Catalyst, you don't get it. They will never reach Rannoch. The quarians don't have enough supplies on board their ships for such a long journey. And there is no way Earth has enough dextro-based food to supply the entire fleet for as long as that journey would take. Hell, you can say the same thing about the Turians and the Krogans. All of their fleets are doomed never to see their homeworld again."

Still no damn expression on its superior face. "If that is the case, it is an acceptable loss in order to break the cycle."

She was furious. An acceptable loss? "No, it's not. Damn you, and damn your solutions. I'm not going to kill four races to save the rest."

"Then they will all die." It gestured at the stars. "Do you want everyone in the entire galaxy to die because you were unable to make the hard choice and sacrifice some to save the others?"

"Agh!" This thing was infuriating. It was almost smug in its beliefs. And they were beliefs, because the logic it was using was completely insane. Shepard looked up at the stars around her, hoping to catch some glimpse of the battle being waged overhead. A pair of Rachni ships tore into a Reaper, but it shrugged them off and blew them into pieces. She winced, wondering if any of them were going to survive this day. She could clearly see more stars in the sky than she had ever been able to. As a matter of fact, they were exceptionally clear. Almost... too clear.

And finally, it clicked. All the little things, all the little oddities came rushing back. The pistol with unlimited ammo. The Illusive Man forcing her to do something against her control. The inexplicable wound in her side, right where she had shot Anderson, that she knew hadn't been there before.

"Catalyst... why am I able to breathe up here?"

Finally an expression. It looked confused. "The same way anyone is able to breathe on the Citadel."

She considered that. For a moment. But no, she had seen stars from the Citadel before and they had never been this bright. "I don't think so. The stars... I can see them too clearly. There is nothing between me and them."

"You are mistaken, Shepard."

"I don't think so. Why did I find a gun that I never had to reload, right when I would be physically unable to reload it? How did Anderson beat me to that damn beam? Why did it transport him somewhere other than it transported me?"

"You are running out of time, Shepard. Does this have a point?"

"This," she gestured to everything around them, "is not real. It's all inside of my head. You are trying, one last time, to indoctrinate me."

"That is patently absurd. I am trying to get you to make a choice so that at least some of the galaxy might be saved."

Shepard ignored him, almost talking to herself. More oddities. "And where did the Illusive Man come from? Just out of nowhere. Why are the Keepers alive and everything else dead?"

"Your imminent death is causing your mind to wander, Shepard. You must choose."

"Hell, why would Hackett assume I was alive? He should have thought I was dead on the ground next to Hammer team."

The Catalyst's voice definitely had a tone now. It was panicked. That was a good thing, if she was right about all this. "Shepard, you are out of time! You must make your choice!"

Shepard looked up at the boy who had haunted her dreams for the last three months. The boy who had been killed back on earth. The boy who, in her dream three nights ago, before the attack on Cerberus' base, had gone up in flames along with her. She drew her pistol. "Tell me. Catalyst. Why exactly does destroying the Reapers also destroy the Geth?"

"Because it destroys all things synthetic. It would also destroy you. It might even destroy someone you loved. Someone who has some cybernetic implants after being wounded by a gunship."

She grinned. It wasn't a pretty sight. It was less like the grin of a human being, and more like the grin of a shark. "And how exactly would you know that?"

"I know everything about you."

She shook her head. Everything? Why did this AI keep trying to manipulate her? "Because Harbinger told you, right? Play to her weakness. Play to Garrus. I bet it told you to do that."

"I... you are incorrect, Shepard. I merely wish you to be aware of all the consequences of the options."

"So if I were to, say, shoot the pillar over there, you wouldn't try to stop me?"

"That would be unwise, Shepard. Why would you destroy a race that you know is sentient when there are better options out there? That is not like you."

She laughed. "I think you know far too much about me."

She turned to the Catalyst and fired her pistol. The bullet merely went through the interface.

"That will accomplish nothing, Shepard. You are bleeding out. You have only moments to live. You must make your choice."

"I have a theory, Catalyst."

"Shepard... there is no time."

She ignored it. "I think, I'm actually still back on earth. "

"This is ridiculous, Shepard. You are wasting what little time you have left." The panicked tone was back in its voice. It was subtle, but it was definitely there.

She kept going. "You are trying to indoctrinate me here." She was wrong. Harbinger hadn't told this boy those things about her.

"I have already told you, that idea-"

"You couldn't only give me the control and synthesis options. You had to at least give me the option to destroy the Reapers. Otherwise, I would refuse to make a choice. You know me that well. So you try to make it the least attractive option possible. Because you see, none of this adds up. I find a pistol that I can shoot a hundred times without reloading. That's not possible. You say this option will destroy the Geth, but if it attacks the Geth, then it would also wipe out everything electronic. Including you. Including the fleet's systems, leaving them all dead in space."

"Shepard, you cannot possibly-"

"Anderson beats me here. How is that possible? It's not. I brought him here, subconsciously, since Anderson has been..." she took a deep breath, only just now realizing it, "has been a father to me. And the Illusive Man showing up? That guy has hounded me from one end of the galaxy to the other, but how the hell did he get here? It's not possible. Why was the console, the way up here, to you, completely unguarded? I didn't have to fight a single Reaper soldier on the way through the Citadel itself."

"This is foolishness, you cannot believe that-"

"This is all in my mind? But I do, Catalyst. None of it makes sense. And there is only one way I see to break this. I choose to finish the fight. You will not escape. And rest assured, when I wake up- and I will wake up- I will finish this. I will come for you, and I *will* kill you. You cannot hide behind your minions forever... Harbinger." She was certain of it now. The same infuriating calmness when talking about the death of organics was there. And synthetics, for that matter. If she was wrong, she was about to kill all the Geth in the galaxy, a mass genocide that she would never forgive herself for. But she wasn't wrong.

The Catalyst stood there, for a moment.

Shepard opened fire on the pillar with the red light gleaming all around it.

The Catalyst began to shimmer, breaking apart, and then it spoke, this time in the voice of Harbinger. "You will die slowly and painfully, Shepard. Come and face your doom then."

The pillar exploded into a shower of metal and sparks.

The Catalyst vanished.

And with a deep breath, Shepard woke up.