Mass Effect: The Full Cycle

"Tell me another story about the Shepard."

"Its getting late but, okay…one more story. You see, my sweet, Shepard's story did not end like that. For you see, Shepard did not just die that day, but he came back. Do you remember how the tale of the Shepard began? How he started his great quest to save us all?"

"You mean when he encountered Saren?"

"Yes, my child. Shepard's story only first started on Eden Prime, when he first received the knowledge of the Reapers. And back there, on Eden Prime, Shepard's story began again…"

Shepard opened his eyes, his mouth gasping for air as his body burned, disintegrating into ash. Around him, he heard shouting. As his body began to convulse, he felt hands grab his body, trying to hold him into place. Another set of hands grabbed him by the head, exposing his neck and allowing a sharp prick to enter his skin, injecting him with some kind of fluid. Almost immediately, his body began to relax and darkness threatened to overtake him again. The darkness slowly enveloped his sight, the last thing he saw was a familiar face that had died in his arms on the Citadel…

Ashley…

"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think he's waking up."

Shepard groaned as his eyes opened blurrily, images passing through his mind of the last few moments of his life before he had died.

"Where am I?" He rasped, his mouth feeling more dry than the last time he had taken some small time out with Garrus to head to the Normandy's bar.

"Shepard? Do you remember where you are?" A familiar voice began to say.

"Doctor Chakwas?" Shepard rasped. "How did I? What happened? Did we destroy the Reapers?"

"Stay still Shepard, you've been out for over a day. Do you remember what happened to you on Eden Prime?"

"Eden Prime…?" Shepard murmured. "Doctor Chakwas, what happened to the Reapers? Have we won?"

"The Reapers?" Shepard heard a voice mutter in a tone of confusion near to him.

"Shepard, do you remember what happened to you on Eden Prime? Do you remember activating the beacon?"

"I don't understand," Shepard murmured. "The beacon was years ago, what about Earth, Doctor?"

"Could he have had a hallucination, Doctor?" The voice from before asked.

"It's entirely possible, Captain. Certainly, this has never come up in any medical journals before. Anything could have happened to Shepard. I'm afraid this lies outside of my medical experience, if not all medical experience."

"Then our first task is to get him to the Citadel, get him to a hospital."

"No!" Shepard tried to yell, his voice failing him and causing him to start coughing violently.

"Stay still, Shepard, I'm going to inject you again and allow your body to rest. We'll going to get you help, Shepard."

Any protestations that Shepard may have had were overruled when he felt his neck exposed again. Darkness once again overtook him as he felt sleep overwhelm his body.

Shepard awoke again, breathing heavily. Looking around, he found himself in a sterile room, with only a bed as its total furniture. In front of him was a large dark window which allowed people to look at him, but did not allow him to look back. Shepard swung himself from the bed, only to stumble and fall onto his knees, causing him to flinch. He grabbed the bed as he pushed himself back onto his feet, this time taking slow steps towards the window.

"Hello?" He coughed, his mouth still completely dry. "Is anyone there?"

"Executive Officer Shepard? Please remain calm; we are isolating you for both yours and our own safety." A voice suddenly blurted out. "You are currently being held on Arcturus station. Please return to your bed and wait for a doctor to arrive. We will answer further questions shortly after an examination of you."

Shepard blinked in confusion, Arcturus station had been one of the first places to be hit in the war, due to its location protecting the Mass Relay that led to earth. More than 45,000 people had died when the Reapers first entered space in order to invade Earth. Seeing no other choice, however, Shepard slowly returned to the bed and sat down on it, waiting for the doctor to arrive.

It took less than a minute after Shepard had returned to his bed that a door hissed open and a human entered the room. "Executive Officer Shepard? My name is Doctor Renieri. Please remain still while I look over you." Shepard complied as the doctor began to examine him, checking his eyes and mouth, casually humming and ahhing to himself as he did a standard check of Shepard.

"Alright," Renieri finally said after several minutes of looking over Shepard. "There appears to be no physical problems with you, we've looked over the notes passed on to us by your ship's doctor. We'll be keeping you in for further observation while we do a full check of you, but in the meantime I can say with some confidence that you'll be alright."

"Doctor, please," Shepard began. "What's happening? Did we defeat the Reapers? Did the Catalyst work or not?"

Renieri frowned slightly, "Shepard, I'm afraid I can't answer those questions at the moment. All I can say at the moment is that an Alliance officer is coming to speak with you. Perhaps he can answer those questions."

Smiling at Shepard, Renieri stood up and left the room, the door hissing behind him as he left Shepard sat down, dumbfounded. A few minutes later, another man entered the room, dressed in full uniform.

"Shepard? I'm Doctor Brose with the Alliance. I will be conducting a full interview with you regarding the events of Eden Prime, and what you believe has happened. Would you like a drink before we begin?" Brose offered him a cup, which Shepard immediately took and drank in a few gulps, gasping afterwards as he felt the precious liquid wash through his body.

"Now then," Brose sat down on a chair brought into the room by a silent guard and pulled out a datapad. "For the record, can you please inform me of your title and name?"

"I'm Commander Shepard, and would you please tell me what is going on?"

Brose frowned as he began to type into his datapad. "I see…" He muttered. "Alright then, Shepard, from the very beginning, would you please inform me of the events on Eden Prime?"

"Eden Prime…?" Shepard felt his head spin, "what the hell are you on about? What's going on here? Did we or did we not defeat the Reapers?" Shepard began to feel agitated, standing up. Almost immediately, the guard reacted, moving towards Shepard in an attempt to restrain him. Shepard reacted almost instinctively, grabbing onto the guard's arms and throwing him against the wall, before turning towards Brose only to find himself being pinned by two more men who had rushed in.

"Shepard!" Brose yelled, "calm down or we will be forced to take measures!"

Almost against his will, Shepard stopped moving, allowing the two men to push him down against the bed. Brose nodded almost imperceptibly, signalling for the two men to let him go, although neither left Shepard's side, watching him cautiously.

"Alright then, Shepard." Brose said slowly. "Could you please explain what you mean by the Reapers?"

Shepard stared at Brose as though he was an idiot. "The Reapers? Are you joking? Who do you think the Reapers are?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, Shepard. And nor, I wager, does anyone else in this room."

Shepard shook his head slowly as he regarded Brose with horror and disgust. "You mean to tell me you don't know who the creatures attacking Earth and the rest of the damned Galaxy? The monsters who've already killed billions? You don't know who they are?"

Brose's forehead creased in confusion as he looked at Shepard. "The galaxy? Earth? Shepard, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Brose suddenly cocked his head to one side for a few seconds before nodding. "Very well sir." He looked up at Shepard. "Alright Shepard, here's my theory. I think the beacon's screwed up your mind, putting images into your head. I can assure you that there are no Reapers, no one has attacked anything in the Galaxy and you are perfectly safe." He exhaled loudly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Perhaps we got off on the wrong start." He looked at the men still surrounding Shepard. "Gentlemen, if you would? I believe both I and Shepard are perfectly capable of talking without any violence needing to take place."

As soon as the guards had left, Brose began to speak. "Alright then, Shepard, would you please indulge me and tell me what you saw?"

Shepard sighed heavily. "Alright then, I'll indulge you. I don't know what games you people are playing, and you'd better be damn sure that I won't stay here long, but fine. I'll tell you what happened after Eden Prime."

More than six hours later, in which Shepard's voice had grown raspy several times over, he finally finished with Shepard having activated the Crucible that was meant to destroy the Reapers at the cost of his own life. Brose had several hours in been quietly engrossed in his story, at times even appearing eager to find out what had happened next. Now, with it finally over Brose sat up and straightened his back.

"Well," he said quietly. "I'll be damned if that isn't the best story I've heard in a long time. Unfortunately, Shepard, none of it is true. There are no Reapers, the Quarians are still in their fleet, the Krogan still have the Genophage and Earth is most certainly still safe and not devastated. Shepard, I don't know what the beacon has done to you, but I promise you, none of it happened. This is what happened. "You, Staff Lieutenant Alenko and Gunnery Chief Williams successfully fought your way through dozens of Geth and successfully secured the Prothean beacon. Gunnery Chief Williams approached the beacon and was hit by a beam that dragged it towards her when you rushed in and pushed her out of the way at the cost of you being hit by the beacon instead. Whatever the beacon then did to you, it afterwards was destroyed and left you comatose for more than 18 hours. When you awoke, you had to be secured and put to sleep after which you were immediately taken by the Normandy to Arcturus Station where we immediately isolated you for your own and for our protection while we try and work out what happened. From my perspective, and that of my superiors, the beacon hit you and your mind created this story in order to protect itself from whatever it was that the beacon did to you."

Shepard's head began to spin, tears of frustration threatening to overwhelm him. "No, goddamnit!" He roared, visibly startling Brose and causing for the guards to rush in again, ready to jump on Shepard if necessary. "It wasn't a hallucination or a dream," he said more quietly. "I want to speak to Anderson."

Brose placed his datapad into his pocket and walked towards the door. Just before stopping, he halted and looked at Shepard, sympathy in his eyes. "I'm afraid that's impossible at the minute, Shepard. Captain Anderson is currently at the Citadel with the Council, giving an account of what happened at Eden Prime. I'm not sure when he'll even be back in this sector. As you well know, the Normandy is due to be sent to join one of the Fleets. I'll send word to him that you would like to speak with him, but if I'm going to be frank, I'm not sure how likely he'll be able to return, even if he wishes too. For now, Shepard, you will be looked after here at the hospital until the Alliance has an idea what to do with you. Until then, get some rest Shepard. I'll be back tomorrow to talk with you some more and discuss what we can do to treat you."

And so it followed for more than four days that Shepard remained at Arcturus station. Not long after Brose had visited Shepard, he was moved to more luxurious quarters. Twice a day, Shepard would be escorted to the stations' gardens for a half hour of exercise. Apart from that, however, neither Brose nor any other visitors went to Shepard. It wasn't until the fifth day that Shepard finally received his first visitor.

Shepard was lying on his bed, as he had been for the past few days when the door suddenly hissed upon. Sitting up, Shepard saw Anderson walk into his room followed by Brose, the two men arguing.

"I must insist that you go through the proper protocols, Captain Anderson! You cannot simply walk in here without having booked at least three days in advance! Executive Officer Shepard is still undergoing observation while we examine him in order to ensure that he hasn't suffered any damage from the Prothean beacon!"

"Shepard," Anderson smiled at the sight of him, ignoring Brose's complaints. "It's damned good to see you alright. You left the Normandy in quite a state last time I saw you."

"Captain Anderson!" Brose yelled once more before Anderson turned on him.

"Doctor Brose, I appreciate everything you are doing for Executive Officer Shepard at this time, however, so far as I am concerned he is still a member of my crew, and I will speak to him when I so choose. Please leave both me and him in peace, and make sure your colleagues turn off any recording instruments you may or may not have in the room."

Brose spluttered for a few seconds, before turning on his feet and storming out of the room. Anderson turned back to Shepard, a slight smirk on his face, and looked him up and down.

"Shepard," he said, holding his hand out in a shake. "How have you been?"

"Anderson…" Shepard breathed with an open mouth. "You're alive?"

Anderson frowned, "I should damn well hope so. I certainly feel alive. What happened to you Shepard? What did the Prothean beacon do to you?"

Shepard shook his head, a slight burst of hysterical laughter emerging from his mouth. "You as well, Anderson? Everyone keeps telling me that nothing happened, that I'm back before the whole mess started."

"Shepard?"

Shepard laughed again. "Perhaps I am crazy, who would have ever come up with this kind of story? Machines emerging from dark space to destroy the entire galaxy, the Geth and Quarians solving their differences, me almost single handedly solving the problems of nearly every damned race?"

"I don't think you're crazy Shepard," Anderson said, concern clearly plastered across his whole face. "I think that something did happen to you, something that we can't comprehend. Who knows what was in that Prothean device, anything could have happened to you. Hell, for all we know, you could have seen the future."

"Bah!" Shepard scoffed loudly. "Let me guess then, you and the Normandy went to the Citadel, tried to persuade the Council of Saren's traitorous behaviour, and the Council chose to ignore everything said, right?"

Anderson's mouth popped wide open as Shepard said those words. "How did you? Not even Alliance News Network got hold of this information yet. Who told you this?"

Shepard once again laughed. "I saw it all, Anderson. You were right, I must have seen the future. And damn me if it isn't the worse future I could have imagined."

Anderson pulled up a chair, regarding Shepard with the most seriousness expression that he had ever had. "I think you had better start from the beginning."

"Be ready for a long story then, Anderson."

Several hours later, when Shepard had concluded his story with the deaths of both Anderson and the Illusive Man, Anderson's face was extremely pale. "You mean to tell me that these AIs, the Reapers, are coming?"

"Yes. And they're using Saren to do their dirty work. And I'm trapped here with no one who believes me."

"Goddamn…" Anderson breathed out, wiping his face with a shaky hand. "If you're right, and I've no reason to disbelieve you, then we're in a lot of trouble. We need you out there Shepard, and if I could do it right now then I would be on the way back to the Citadel with you within the next few minutes."

"Then why don't you?"

"You've generated a lot of interest, Shepard. No one knows what the beacon did to you, there's a hell of a lot of theories going around at the moment, and some are even hoping that the entire knowledge of the Protheans was downloaded into your head, believe it or not!" Anderson shook his head again, this time in slight despair. "We need something to prove that you've had the vision, then we can get you out of here and try and do something to persuade the Council about what's coming."

Shepard regarded Anderson with a smile on his face. "Alright then, Anderson, you want something that'll prove I'm not insane?"

"What do you have?"

"How about the information about the location of the last living Prothean?"