Epilogue.

The fires burned for a long time as there was no-one to put them out. The flames lit the clouds like an infernal storm was descending. The surface had become an apocalyptic wasteland and there seemed to be little to celebrate. People were still dying, still fighting. The Citadel lay in pieces, a shattered remnant of twisted past. The debris strewn for miles in every direction. The re-entry had been messy and it was still raining parts, as it had for days now. It was as if hell had come to reclaim Earth.

A small team of people, Humans and Turians, stood on the roof of the tallest buildings. They looked out into the sea of fires and dispersed wreckage in despair.

'You cannot be serious?'

'I am.'

'There's miles and miles of this.'

'I know.'

'Do you have any idea how long this will take?'

'I'm betting at least twice as long as my best guess.'

'Then, why the fuck…'

The older man glared.

'Sorry Sir.'

'I understand why you don't want to do this, your tired, I'm tired… we are all fucking tired. But somewhere in there is the heart of the Citadel and we need to find it before anyone else does.'

'But how can we start digging around without telling people what we are looking for?'

'We tell them we are looking for the next best thing, in fact the only thing we know was in the heart before the station was destroyed. Commander Shepard. And if we find him, we'll find the heart too.'

'The phrase needle in a haystack comes to mind, Sir.'

'Yes. Which is why we put people who are motivated to find him. Use the legend a little longer to extract what we need.'

'Yes Sir.'

'Use figureheads to run it for you, like Shepard's old crew. People need something to focus on for the immediate future, and we absolutely need to make sure that tech doesn't fall into the wrong hands.'

The older man took a bottle from the bag at his feet, he unscrews the cap and swigs. The gulp is slow and deliberate, like he is savouring the pain of the burn. He swigs again and held it for a moment before swallowing again.

'Well, John, I guess we will see what you are really made from this time.' He tips the contents of the bottle over the roof and let's go of the bottle to smash on the ground below.

'Sir? Did you know Commander Shepard?'

'You could say I know him. I know everything about him.' He kicked the bag closed hiding the Cerberus issued gun. 'He and I have a great deal to discuss, if he survived.'

'Very well Sir.'

The bright blue eyes glowed and the older man took out a cigarette and lit it, again seeming to savour every moment of it.

To be continued in 'Never Let Fear Decide Your Fate'.