Organics do not know how we were created. Some say by chance. Some say by miracle. It is a mystery.

Javik, the Last Prothean, c. 48,000BCE-2191CE

The Lord is My Shepard

Liara felt old.

Some might say it was to be expected-she was an asari in her matriarch stage, centuries old, and well aware that she'd be lucky to see the start of another century. Some might say it was the sign of the times-ever since the cataclysm of the Reaper invasion and the destruction of the mass relays, life all throughout the galaxy was harder than it was before the conflict. Physical labour, longer travel times, dealing with anarchy with the collapse of the central authority the Citadel once provided, not to mention planetary governments…it was tiring work.

And some might say that she was feeling tired because there were so few people left in the galaxy to be tired with. She was a relic, a living example of a bygone age that had it better than this generation, and as such, was worthy of contempt in the eyes of some. Who else could say what it was like to see entire worlds on fire? Who else could say that they'd faced down actual Reapers (yes, Reapers were real, thank you very much conspiracy theorists) and lived to tell the tale? Who else could hold a candle to the things she'd done over her life? Not that she meant to diminish the work of those she'd seen live and die over the years, but only a few asari remembered the horror of galactic destroyers. And like her fellow matriarchs, Liara didn't really feel compelled to share her experiences.

Except the dozens of history books she'd published over the centuries. That at least gave her peace of mind and financial security.

So in every sense of the word, Liara T'Soni felt old as she walked through the streets of London, completely alien from what she remembered the city was like all those centuries ago. And completely alien from what it was no doubt once like before the invasion, she supposed. The destruction of the mass relays had slowed down galactic travel exponentially. So much so that from what superluminal communication told her, it had become the norm for species to effectively band together from wherever they were left stranded, hoping that they had a large enough gene pool and resources to survive. Certainly the turians and quarians stranded in Sol had somehow managed to pull it off, but…well, given how many worlds had gone dark over the centuries, others weren't so lucky. Despite being hit hardest by the Reapers, Earth had become the exception to the galactic norm, rather than the rule.

If humanity felt any resentment about the mixing of everything from culture to religious belief on their homeworld, they didn't show it. Not in the planet's multi-species government, nor on the street that Liara found herself walking down. Humans to batarians, food that was grown locally or imported from the quarian liveships, the latest sports articles about how while krogan could play soccer, they hadn't got the faintest idea about playing cricket…Earth had become home to so many. Herself included.

And Tali, and Wrex, and Garrus…the asari reflected, remembering how only she and Javik had been left on Earth after the Normandy mysteriously disappeared. Did they ever get home? Did they make a new home?

Sometimes, Liara wished she'd been among them. Better to spend her days with her friends rather than being alone in a ruined world. Javik hadn't lasted long in that kind of world, she remembered. No Reapers to fight, and the galaxy that all organics had known gone forever…she couldn't blame him for taking his own life.

"Listen now, to my words! Heed the word of the Shepard!"

And Shepard…by Athame, she missed him too. He'd disappeared as much as the Normandy had. Anderson had managed to survive the Citadel and the wave of blue energy it emitted, said blue energy wave apparently doing something to the Reapers that caused them to leave, but as for Shepard himself…

"Shepard guides you! Shepard has established the path!"

Liara blinked. This was more than mere reflection. And after finding the source of the voice, she blinked again.

Some human, and a fairly elderly one at that. Male, standing on a box with a microphone spewing out material for everyone's universal translator to pick up on. As she walked over, Liara briefly took hers out and checked that it was functioning correctly. Because as she listened to the preacher (who'd drawn a fairly large crowd of every other species by now), he couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"All of you…" the man declared, pointing his finger around the crowd. "Are failed creatures."

A chorus of dissent rustled through the crowd.

"Yes, failed," the nutjob exclaimed. "You have turned your back on the Shepard's word. You have denied unity."

"Um, excuse me…?" Liara asked, stepping forward and hoping that no-one noticed how shuffled her steps had become. "But…what word?"

The preacher looked down at her. "An asari…" he mused. "And a matron at that. What, come to spew the lies of your false goddess?"

"I-…"

"Pardon this one," interjected a hanar. "But this one feels that you are making a moot point. This one knows, as all else do, that Athame was a Prothean."

"And a hanar is present as well," the preacher mused. "But at least a hanar who has accepted your gods' lies for what they were."

Liara couldn't help feel sorry for the overgrown jellyfish, its 'face' (or frontal area at least) looking dejected. It hadn't been easy for her, learning Athame's true nature, and it had hit the hanar even harder to learn that the Protheans were effectively a run of the mill species that may have 'enkindled' them, but were imperfect organics all the same. Two religious and cultural suppositions wiped out in the face of the same year.

And in a way, Liara didn't regret it. However unpleasant the truth was, the truth was still just that-the truth. But as the man began talking again, she also reflected that being wrong about one thing did not make someone else right by default. Especially when it came to Shepard's legacy, and how this bastard seemed intent on perverting it.

"You know what the Shepard really intended," the preacher continued. "Unity. Homogeny. A synthesis of organics and machines."

"Bullshit!" a turian exclaimed. "We all know what happened on the Citadel. "You're just spouting conspiracy theories."

"Oh, am I?" the preacher asked. "Why was it that the Citadel and Crucible were dismantled for material after the battle?"

"Because they were structurally unsound and-…"

"Why did his fellow deliverer not tell us what really happened?" the preacher began, drowning out any other retorts. "No…it's an attempt to suppress the truth, you see? The truth that the Shepard intended for life to be delivered into a new and better form. To save us from ourselves, as well as the demons from the dark." He cast out his finger again. "To obey the Shepard's laws, my children, you must save yourselves first.

Some among the crowd looked confused. Some looked aggressive. A few were nodding their heads in agreement. For her part however, Liara was silently simmering in rage. Never mind that this maniac seemed to be spouting some nonsense that seemed to combine conspiracy theories and religious supposition. Never mind that he was talking down to people as if his word was the truth, the only truth, and that his word should be accepted as such without question. What really got to her was that she was sullying her friend's name.

"You know what…" Liara began, slowly walking up to the man. "I think you're liar."

"A liar? And what-…"

"I was there!" the asari blurted out. "On that day, centuries ago, when your…messiah, supposedly failed to achieve unity."

"Not supposedly…and if you were there, you-…"

"No-one knows what happened on the Crucible!" Liara exclaimed. "Was there some mythical synthesis option created? Did Shepard really mean for that to happen? I don't know. I never will. But no-one can say for certain. Not even you!"

The preacher nodded before gesturing to Liara with one hand while casting out his gaze over the audience. "Behold, my friends. One of those from that dark time. What who would suppress the truth. One who would deny us unity!"

"Unity…" Liara mused. "You're not talking about unity. You're talking about homogeny."

"I'm talking about the true word and-…"

There was a sudden change in the air, Liara noticed. More people had gathered around. Even a volus and geth, who were usually uninterested in such matters. It was like the war, she reflected. Make or break.

"Here we are…" Liara said, gesturing towards the crowd and ignoring her aching feet and the need to sit down and rest her tired body. "All of us. Because of one man."

"Yes, the Shepard who-…"

"Shepard who was my friend, and who you don't have the slightest idea about and-…"

The man pushed her. Liara fell. And the emotional and physical pain went up. A lot.

"You alright, miss?"

And then it stopped. Stopped as she took the hand of the batarian kneeling down beside her, compassion shining from his four eyes. Stopped as the geth commented on how illogical this was, and the quarian beside him agreeing. Stopped as the hanar seemed ready to imitate Blastro, even if no-one in this day and age knew who that was.

"This…" Liara began. "This is unity. This…this is something we can be proud of. This…this is what Shepard gave us. Not some pipe dream for synthesis. Not some 'word' we have to follow. He gave us…hope, even as the Reapers and destruction of the mass relays took that away from us. He gave us a society that I can be proud to be part of. Where species of different cultures, biologies, faiths, outlooks on life…can live in unity. Where we can rely on each other, not on some doctrine that tells us how to do so."

Silence fell over the crowd.

"At least," Liara said softly, remembering the man she once knew along with all her other lost friends. "That's how I see it."

And given the steady rise of affirmation from the crowd, it seemed they saw it the same way as well.

A/N

If the ending of Mass Effect 3 represents a state of grief, then I'd say I've reached the acceptance stage. Partly because the disapointment has worn off, partly because it's been confirmed that we're stuck with it. So, in light of that, I've begun wondering how to treat the post-ending setting, and which ending would be canon. That's another kettle of fish, because I get the feeling that the synthesis ending was meant to be the 'best' ending, though like most of the ending, I feel it goes against pre-established themes. Personally, I'm most inclined to go with the control option, but even so...Anyway, came up with this as a result.

It's probably worth noting other areas of inspiration. One of them is the epilogue scene, with the child referring to the Shepard, and the ending blurb reminding the player that Shepard has attained legendary status, and as her His/Her divine word, we should purchase DLC. Jabs aside, it does have the interesting suggestion that Shepard attained some kind of religious figure status, so it was another idea to explore.