Why hello there! Sorry I haven't posted anything for awhile but I have been real busy with my new job and still trying to settle in after moving to a new state. But enough out of me because your all here for a story! Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter One

The crew had all gathered in front of the memorial wall. The entire team stood at the front with their heads bowed down. Everyone was paying their respects to their commander. Everybody was still in a degree of shock after landing on the unknown planet. As with any good crew their morale was struck a fatal blow with the loss of their commanding officer.

Slowly but surely the crew excused themselves to begin with the repairs on the ship. Only the team remained. Tali had been standing ahead of everyone, holding on to Shepard's nameplate. She had refused to add it to the others on the wall. They had already placed Anderson's name because they had heard from Hackett that Shepard was the only one still near the crucible before they lost all contact with the remainder of the fleets. Garrus had noticed this and tried to comfort her but she had merely shoved his hand away.

"Tali? Look I know that it hurts but Shepard wouldn't want you to feel like this." Garrus tried to console his friend.

"No," Tali replied with a trembling voice. "We shouldn't have left him Garrus. I'm not ready to give up on him. Not when there might still be a chance of him alive somewhere." Tali turned away from the memorial still clutching the nameplate.

"But-" Garrus started before Tali interrupted him.

"I thought I lost him once, but I'm not going to lose him again. He's alive. Don't tell me that he's gone because I know he wouldn't do that to all of us." Tali stared the turian in the eye causing him to turn away.

Nobody said anything against her as she pushed passed everyone to enter the elevator. Everyone looked back to one another and could only shake their heads.

"Is she going to be alright?" Liara asked with concern as she turned back to Garrus.

"Spirits I hope so. I still cant believe it myself. EDI, where is Tali going?"

"She has just arrived at the captains cabin. Should I do something?" EDI inquired as she turned her attention back to the turian.

"No. She needs time. Could you keep an eye on her though? We can't risk her doing anything that could be harmful.

"Of course. I will inform you if anything requires your attention." EDI nodded.

"I can't believe it. Shepard's gone again and its all my fault! I could have done something! We could have sent a shuttle or I could have even tried to pick him up." Joker looked away angrily, his voice full of guilt.

"Joker, there was nothing you could have done. We all saw it ourselves. Shepard was right in the middle of that energy wave when he set off the crucible." Ashley said as she bit her lip.

"It does not matter right now. What matters is that we cannot fight amongst ourselves and wallow in despair. The commander would not have wanted this for any of us. So we will honor him by doing what needs to be done. We will honor all the sacrifices by rebuilding now that the Reapers have been destroyed." Javik spoke up. Everyone turned to look at him and then back at each other once more.

"Javik is right. We can't just sit here." Liara nodded towards the prothean.

"Agreed," Garrus joined in. Without the commander here to keep everybody together he decided that for the time being he would see them through. Garrus felt somewhat uneasy with taking Shepard's place but it had to be done.

"Ashley, take a couple of the marines and scout out the area. Javik go with them you've got the best senses among all of us. We have no idea what could be lurking out there."

"Got it." Ashley responded while Javik merely nodded.

"James, I want a complete inventory of all the weapons and supplies we got. We might be here for awhile."

"No problem Scars. Come on Esteban let's get to work." James replied as the two of them entered the elevator with Ashley and Javik. The four of them made their way down to the shuttle bay.

"Liara, can you see if you can find any information about where we are or maybe even try to find a way to contact Hackett?"

"I will try." Liara promised before heading to her cabin.

With everyone gone to take care of their assignments only Joker, EDI and himself were still standing in front of the memorial.

"Garrus, I have encountered a problem that will hinder our efforts to repairing the Normandy. The QEC has taken some damage and will need time before it is operational again. Multiple power sources overloaded during the less than ideal landing. We will need to replace them. It is our only means of communication if Liara cannot reach anyone."

"Noted EDI. Make sure the QEC has top priorities on repairs. Anything else?"

"No, all other damage can be repaired in a relatively short time."

"Alright then. The two of you go ahead then, I'll be checking in on everyone in a bit. And Joker? I know it's hard but you did all you could, now we'll have to see how everything played out."

"Yeah. I know. I'll be on the bridge if you need me." Joker muttered as he entered the elevator where EDI was waiting.

Garrus sighed. He wished Shepard were here. The man had made everything look so easy and he could not imagine how he did it on a day to day basis. Shaking his head, he realized that it wouldn't help anyone if kept dwelling on the issue and that there was work to be done.

Delta team clambered over the rubble that had blocked most of the entrance as they continue to explore the keeper tunnels that honeycombed the Citadel. They and several other teams had been charged with finding survivors. Everyone had been skeptical after analyzing the damage that was done to the Citadel and believed they would find few if any survivors. Luckily their assumptions had proven false as there were still pockets of functionality on the Citadel where survivors had taken refuge. Despite the damage from overloading power systems and explosions the keepers were still moving about repairing various systems making it easier for the search and rescue teams.

"Figures the one time I get to visit the Citadel its in ruins." One of the marines grumbled as he ducked under a fallen support beam.

"Come on man we're not here as tourists, we got a job to do." another marine said.

The squad continued to explore the tunnels until they hit a dead end. Several beams had blocked the door.

"Jenson, upfront double time!" The lieutenant barked. The squad engineer responded immediately and began to cut away at the beams so that they can continue their search of their assigned sector.

As the team waited for Jenson to finish his task, they looked around idly. Most of the marines jumped at the noise of their radios crackled.

"Delta team, status report, Over."

"Hit a dead end sir. We're cutting through it. Over." the lieutenant replied.

"Copy that. Be advised the council has been found. Continue your sweep and check back in. Out."

"Found the council huh? Think they will help us out more this time considering its like the third time we've saved their asses?" one of the soldiers commented.

"Their politicians man. They wouldn't care if we pulled them out of a damn volcano." another soldier replied.

"Lock it down, both of you! We have our orders, and we won't second guess our superiors." The lieutenant snapped as he returned his attention back to the door.

After a few more uneventful minutes the last beam clattered to the floor as their engineer finished his work. The squad pulled the doors open until there was enough room to squeeze through in a single file line.

"Everybody switch to thermal, keep and eye out for survivors." The lieutenant ordered as they began to search the corridor.

"Wait. What the hell is that?" Jenson whispered. Everyone stopped and looked towards where Jenson pointed to.

"Jesus christ..." one of the marines murmured.

The corridor was filled with piles of bodies. Some corpses were hanging from the tubes that covered the ceiling. Several keepers were digging through the bodies as if they were organizing them. A few of them were dragging bodies into a smaller tunnel which were sealed behind them.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Jenson muttered.

"Come on. Let's keep moving." the lieutenant said as he forged ahead with the rest of the squad following after him. The squad eventually reached a large central chamber.

"Where the hell are we anyway?" one of the marines asked as he looked over the edge of the large chasm.

"According to these schematics, we're near the central Citadel control room," Jenson replied as he consulted his omni-tool, "Should be right up that ramp."

The squad walked up the ramp into the circular control room. From there they could see how extensive the damage really was. There was only the one control terminal at the end of the room along with the body of Anderson and the Illusive Man.

"No life signs sir. He's gone." Jenson shook his head as he scanned Anderson.

The lieutenant only shook his head and bent down to retrieve Anderson's dog tags. He strolled over to the Illusive Man and looked down at him in disgust.

"Look at you. Your nothing but a monster. Oh you'll be remembered alright, as the biggest war criminal humanity has ever had the misfortune of encountering."

"LT! I got something over here!" one of the marines called out.

The lieutenant rushed over and looked up to where the others were gesturing towards. There was a hole in the ceiling that had the same shape as a section in the floor that was missing.

"What the hell? Alright let's check it out. Jenson see if you can get that console working."

"It's locked down sir. I can't override the system."

"Alright then we'll do it the old fashioned way. Break out your gear boys."

The squad retrieved their grappling gear and once they had their gear in order they all fired their grappling lines in unison. The grapples once powered on would adhere to any surface. One by one they all climbed to the top. The Lieutenant reached the top first and raised his gun as he secured the perimeter before helping the rest of the team up. There was even more rubble here as including entire sections of the crucible that had collapsed after it's activation.

"What we looking for LT?" one of the men asked as he flicked his light on.

"We're looking for the commander. Hackett had said that Shepard was up here with Anderson and we didn't find him down there so he might have gotten up here to set off the crucible or something."

"There's no way we'll be able to find him in all this rubble without support. Lets head back to HQ and call in a demo team." the marine argued.

"Stow that marine. We don't leave a man behind."

"Must have been one hell of a light show up here when that thing went off. You really think the commander could survive that?"

"We all thought he died before and we were wrong." The lieutenant shouted as he clambered across the rubble covering the platform. Two of the platform bridges had collapsed to the left and ahead of him leaving only one bridge partially intact.

The squad made their way to a juncture that had various tubes leading to it. As they got closer to the rubble they heard a noise.

"Quiet! Did you hear that?" The Lieutenant signaled for the squad to keep quiet.

Jenson quickly scanned the rubble and his eyes widened as he looked at the readings on his omni-tool.

"Holy shit!" Jenson exclaimed.

"What?" The other marines asked.

"It's Commander Shepard!" Jenson pointed at the rubble excitedly.

"Well don't just stand there gawking you idiot! Call in the med-evac! Now!"

"Yes, sir!" Jenson switched the frequency on his radio. "This is Private Jenson of Delta team. We need an immediate med-evac, sending coordinates now. We found Commander Shepard. I repeat. We found Commander Shepard."

"Med-evac is on the way. ETA, five minutes. Good job Delta team." The dispatcher announced.

Well that's all for now. Also just to clear up any confusion that might occur, I am using a modified extended cut destroy ending to help set up for future stories. But I will explain it with future chapters for this story. Until next time!