Shepard looked at her choices. She could end it, or not. She could die knowing that she did something, or nothing. She pondered on this and made her choice. She walked over to where two handles stood, an ominous electric pulse flowing out of them. She put her right hand first. She did not feel pain. Pain couldn't register in her brain anymore.
She was used to it.
She then went to put her left hand on the opposite handle. She hesitated, knowing that this was the last time she would be in existence. Then, she did it. As the process began she was thrown back. With her right hand still atatched, she then proceeded to put her left hand back on the handle. Her friends flashed before her eyes as she slowly disintegrated.
A bright blue sphere was formed in the center of the Crucible and expanded with every second, then a beam was formed out of that same ball. The blue energy hit from one Mass Relay to the next, covering most of the galaxy in a horrifyingly beautiful lightshow.
In a circle around the Crucible, flew the Normandy. Joker was swiping at the control panel, desperately trying to find anywhere to land in an attempt to rescue Shepard. Garrus tried to tell him that they needed to go. Joker shrugged him off, not paying attention to what he had to say. Samantha Traynor and Garrus looked at each other, Traynor nodded, telling him what he already knew.
"Joker..... we need to go", he said. Joker was hesitant to reply.
"...... Damnit" he said sadly, almost on the verge of tears. Shepard was one of his closest friends. He had been her friend since the beggining. And now leaving her... He swiped at the control panel in front of him, one last time, right before using the Mass Relay to jump through space.
Back on Earth, the battle wore on. Men dying, as well as Reaper troops. Time seemed to slow when a reaper landed to their right. The Reapers seemed to have won. Earth was so close to being lost. Just before the machine could fire, a blue wall engulfed it. The Reaper froze for a few seconds. Then it, and the other Reapers lifted. They retreated as fast as they came. On a subconscious note that they would never return. This was very much so with all of the other planets as well. All troops cheered, from Salarians to Krogan to Humans. They did it.
They won.
Back on the Normandy, the crew was working frantically, trying to outrun it. After jumping through using the Mass Relay, they still weren't that far away from the blue wall. Men and women running to perform their duties. Joker got on the com to initiate an emergency landing. "All personnel head to the pods, this is an emergency landing, I repeat, this is an emergency landing go to pods."
All crew members frantically ran to the pods, taking shelter from the impact that was sure to come. Bringing in any and all personal items they could grab on the way.The last thing Joker said before hitting the ground was;
"Oh shit".
Pain. Numb. Shepard felt both of these. She was unsure HOW exactly she could feel anything, but she could."Well, pain means life. Life is good", she thought before noticing that the ony things that were numb were her hands and feet. She tried to move, desperately trying to pull herself up, but she couldn't. "Did Samantha decide that she wanted to sleep on me again.",she thought as she was trying to move her head. After a couple of minutes, her head complied and moved to where she thought of as "up". She soon found out that she was, in fact, alive. This was proven correct when the sound of a steady heartbeat became present over the sound of rustling leaves and small animals calling to one another. She was trying to crane her neck up enough to see over whatever that brown lump was infront of her face, but to no avail. She eventually sighed and said "Well, shit", before deciding that it'll be a while before she can move. With that, she fell asleep.
Night had come for the Normandy and her crew. They had built a campfire and had put logs around it as seats. Though, they didn't have to, Garrus thought that it would be relaxing and help the others heads clear up. EDI had thought that it would have been better if they stayed in the ship because of wildlife, but Garrus made his point.
"Hey Joker".
He didn't reply.
"Joker"
Again nothing. Garrus sighed. He knew that Shepard wasn't the type that wanted to be grieved over. He was trying at least not to, right? Garrus then looked over to Traynor. She still had trails of tears coming down her face, as well as a blank expresion, but she didn't make a sound. Garrus was worried about her more than the rest of the crew. He didn't know how much Shepard affected her. As far as he knew, they barraly talked. What made him worried though, was that Samantha hadn't ate anything all day and refused food when it was offered. He was at least going to try to help her as much as possible.
"Look, Shepard knew what she had to do. She did it for us". Garrus was bad at consoling, but he tried his best. Finally, Joker said something. It was quiet, but noteable. Hadn't Garrus got his ass handed to him by a gunship on Omega, he wouldn't have gotten improved hearing.
"I remember when the Normandy SR-1 was destroyed. Shepard saved me. And after I found out that she was alive, I immediately joined up with Cerberus. Only to help her".
Garrus noticed that Samantha wasn't crying anymore and decided that it was her turn. He wanted to know exactly why she was upset. Not only that, but she had a look in her eye. Something that Garrus had seen before.
"Samantha, what about you. Do you have anything to say about... her?"
"...... She was the only person I cared about, and now she's gone.", she said while looking at the fire. It was deathly silent for awhile. Garrus then decided that now was as best a time as ever.
"Y-You were the one she was talking about"?
"What do you mean?"
Garrus took out some N7 dog tags and an Alliance flag. "She said that you would reveal yourself sooner or later. She said that if she didn't make it.......". He trailed off, knowing that she knew what he meant to say.
"Thanks Garrus...thanks."
"Hhnngg. Where am I? This headache sucks! Well, at least it's not as bad as the hangover I got from the party at the Citadel. Heh, Samantha got so drunk!" Shepard awoke with a splitting headache and sore muscles. She soon found out that, to her delight, she could move now. She tried to move her hand up to her face, but when she did, she was met with a brown stump for an arm."WHAT THE FUCK!!!", she yelled as she tried to regain her bearings. (excuse her)
As the crew put out the fire, they all thought about only one person. Only one woman. The only reason why they were still there. Still fighting to protect their home. And now it's over. The only person credible with destroying the Reapers, and now she's gone. The worst part of it all was that they would never see her again. They would never get to say goodbye.
Or so they thought.
When Shepard regained her sanity and tried to walk, she found it was easier than she thought. The weirdest part? Her armor had also been fitted to her. As though the techies had built it to fit the form she was in. She began checking her gear, making sure she had everything.What confused her the most was that she wasn't wearing the N7 armor before she died. She had her casual cloths on. Like the ones she would wear when she was on the Normandy. And she wasn't carrying all of her guns either. And where the hell did this knife come from. She only used the omni-blade, yet here's this foot long knife in a sheath attached to her armor. She decided not to question it and picked herself off the ground. Spying a lake nearbye, she slowly walked over toward it. She dragged her hoofs (hooves?) lazily. Upon reaching the water, she saw her reflection. From what she could see, she looked like a pony from Earth. Her mane was black with a red streak in it and she had a tan colored coat. She still had her blue eyes too. When she thought she had seen enough, she started to walk. Only to be stopped by an alarm...
The Normandy's crew had just awoken. Many of them were tired, but they still managed to get up and try to help with repairs on the ship. Samantha was in her room, reading through the messages Shephard had sent her. She didn't know why, but ever since the Crucible was destroyed and Shepard had died, she still had a feeling that she was alive. Still breathing. She could feel it. She held on to this as best she could. In the middle of reading another one of her messages, the alarm started blaring. She immediately knew that there was an unknown somewhere near the ship. She hates that alarm...
When Shepard had found a bush to hide behind, she carefully poked her head out of cover. She couldn't believe what she saw. There, in the middle of the clearing, sat the Normandy. Her ship. Her friends. She started to go towards it, but then faltered. How was she going to explain? How was she going to tell them what she was?
After deciding "fuck it" and walking through the clearing, all eyes and guns were immediately trained on her. Deciding to go for an old video game reference, she said;
"Didja miss me?"