Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or anything in it.

They are the property of Electronic Arts and Bioware.

If I did, Miranda would've been a squadmate in ME3.

This is just something that I've been trying to put into words for a while.

Spoiler and dark themes ahead. No reveals for the ending, though, since I haven't beaten the game yet.

He was cold.

That was the first thing that sprang to Commander Brandon Shepard's mind. Despite the fact that he was fully armored, omni-tool and drone at the ready, he couldn't help but shiver.

But maybe it wasn't from cold. Maybe it was the oppressive, low-hanging skeleton trees that opened a path before him. Maybe it was the black, ash-filled sky. Maybe it was the bleak gray soil upon which he walked.

Maybe it was the voices.

One of the trees leaned forward and blocked his path. He turned to run, but the path had collapsed behind him, too.

An all-too familiar voice reach his ears.

"Skipper."

Shepard really shouldn't be the one making this choice. He should just pass it up the chain of command.

But he's the one who's here now. And he's the one who's going to regret this.

"I'm sorry, Ashley."

Shepard staggered, but remained upright.

"Shepard, what do you think I will say?"

Samara clenches her fist, tears flowing freely down her freckled cheeks as her daughter's blood stains her hands.

"What can I say?I just killed the bravest and strongest of my daughters."

Her voice cracks.

"There are no words. I will try another time."

She composes herself, but her voice is still hollow.

"Show mercy on a broken old warrior and let us leave."

Shepard falls onto his knees, the pads crunching in the ash.

"Have killed many, Shepard. Many methods."

Mordin Solus shakes with ecstatic fury, hand still punching frantically into the console. The room smells of sterilization and rotting flesh.

"Gunfire, knives, drugs, tech attacks, once with farming equipment. But not with medicine!"

He collapses onto all fours, head hanging low as the voices continue to bombard him.

"Had to be me."

Another chunk of rubble from the tower strikes the ground near Mordin. He ignores it, tapping the last digit into the console before entering the elevator of the Shroud. He turns to Shepard and smiles.. His eyes lack the fierce, determined spark he's come to know. Instead, they sag with accepted resignation.

The door closes.

"Someone else might have gotten it wrong."

Shepard stops reacting to the whispers, allowing them to crawl over his skin like husks tearing him limb from limb.

"Kalahira, this one's heart is pure, but beset by wickedness and contention."

Kolyat reads from the prayer book, his voice unfaltering, but clearly strained.

Shepard looks over his shoulder, and glances at Thane, lying in his cot. The drell has another violent coughing fit.

Shepard continues the prayer, hands trembling.

"Guide him to where the traveler never tires, the lover never leaves, the hungry never starve."

Thane looks away from Shepard and his son. He looks over the Presidium he helped preserve. The station he saved.

He is at peace with his fate. He has been for a great deal of time.

"Guide him, Kalahira, and he will be a companion to you as he was to me."

Thane relaxes. Shepard bows his head, voice cracking.

"Goodbye, Thane."

"Error."

Legion closes the coding VI. Its-his-lights flicker with indiscernible computation.

"Copying code is insufficient. Direct personality dissemination required."

Legion turns to Shepard, hunched slightly. His voice holds an inflection of sorrow-of regret.

"Shepard-Commander. I must go to them. It's the only way. Thank you."

Legion turns toward the Rannoch horizon.

He sees the ocean. He sees the rock formations that the creators have written endless poetry about.

He sees the home Shepard has given his people.

For the first time in geth history, Legion's thoughts are his own. His own opinions-emotions.

He is...content.

His optics fade. He falls onto his knees.

His dead eyes overlook the greatest gift the geth have ever been given.

He collapses.

"This is captain Kar'Danna vas Rayya. We have multiple hull breaches!"

Streaks of crimson rain down from the orange sky, spinning and erupting as they continue to plummet.

Tali stares blankly upwards, tiny sobs echoing from underneath her mask.

"Rayya's drive core is offline. All ships in range, please assist! Please assist!"

Tali takes a step forward. The ocean churns beneath her, the deep turquoise reflecting the devastation above.

"Escape pods not responding. All hands, prepare for impact."

Tali is no longer crying. Her hand is raised towards her mask, and with a tiny click, the only thing protecting her from death by infection is gone.

She turns to Shepard. The man she trusted.

The man she looked up to.

The man she might have loved.

She wants to curse him for his foolishness, for his betrayal. Everything she liked about Legion vanishes from her mind as she tries to damn Shepard for choosing a synthetic over an organic.

The words never come out. All her quivering voice can do is apologize.

"I'm sorry."

He turns and runs towards her, arm extended.

She falls back.

She feels the wind flutter beneath her.

The abyss welcomes her with open, churning waves.

The trees are gone. Shepard looks up from his crouched position and sees a shadow that might pass as Mordin looking down at him. Shepard reaches out a hand to the Salarian, but the doctor steps away and replies with a sad echo.

"Reapers left unchallenged."

A shadow drags itself out of the ground, churning and bubbling like a tar pit. It rises, collapsing on itself, to become a horribly burnt Ashley. The skin over her flesh is burnt, exposing the charred muscle and white tendons all across her body. The occasional gleam of bone can be seen alongside her ribcage.

She hunches over, looking for all the world like a half-finished husk. Her left eyeball catches fire, swelling and popping into a mass of wax-like liquid. Her optic nerve hangs out in the open, a bright pink cord amidst the red and black of her muscle.

Her lower jaw moves, slightly, and she manages to rasp out.

"I trusted you. And now you're with Cerberus?"

Her lower jaw slides off with a meaty squelching sound, the tendons hanging freely on her neck.

Another shadowy figures crawls out of nowhere. Molding over itself, it forms Thane-but his skin is yellow and diseased, with ugly, festering scars crisscrossing his neck and chest. A gaping hole exposes his green lungs. They're still breathing, but beginning to slow down their pattern. He coughs, and the lungs spew blood onto the soil, which hisses and steams in response.

"It's difficult. All things worth keeping are."

Legion materializes out of nowhere. His dark, flickering head flaps twitch in warning.

"They do not share your pity, remorse, or fear."

Shepard covers his head, trying to hide. Someone kicks him over onto his stomach. He looks up.

Tali's mask looks down at him, her tone cracking with sobs. Her suit is soaking wet, with small, red leechlike creatures struggling to find open skin to attach onto. Dozens cover her body.

"Dammit, Shepard! I trusted you!"

Shepard can only stare at her white eyes, shining beneath her mask. Even with the purple glass separating them, he can see her brow furrowed in anger.

She moves her hand up in an all too familiar motion, securing two fingers under the clasp of her mask. Shepard watches in horror as he hears the soft hiss of escaping air. The mask falls from her grip.

Time slows down. The purple material flickers in the light, spinning once before shattering into the ground, the shards vanishing as they scatter into the wind.

He looks up, and his breath catches in his throat. Tali's face is not where her mask was moments ago.

Atop Tali's spindly form, a gray turian with a hole in the side of his head is where her face should be.

Saren stares back at him.

Shepard lets out a cry of horror and tries to crawl away, his only thought being to put as much distance between him and it. But his dead allies form a circle around him, preventing his escape.

Saren, still masquerading on Tali's body, lowers himself to the ground beside Shepard, sparks dancing on his jagged jawline. His mandibles twitch as he whispers into Shepard's ear.

"Join us."

And then Saren is gone. In his place was only the cold, yellow eyes of the Reaper, Harbinger.

We are limitless. You are bacteria.

The voices begin to bombard Shepard with increasing intensity, drowning out his own thoughts.

"Father!"

"Square root of 906.01 equals 30.1. It all seemed harmless."

"Shepard! Aha, Shepard! My friend..."

"I settle for nothing but the best."

"Can it wait for a minute? I'm in the middle of some calibrations."

"Anybody...got something to...eat?"

"I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees."

"Look over the ashes of a trillion dead souls, and ask the ghosts if honor matters."

"They're not 'hair tentacles'!"

"Shit, you sound like a pussy."

"Oh Captain, my Captain."

"We shall hold the line!"

"Ah yes, 'Reapers'."

"Embrace eternity!"

"You have unread messages at your private terminal."

"I'm Garrus Vakarian, and this is my favorite spot on the citadel."

"Release us!"

The screaming overtakes him, filling his head with empty noise. He falls to the ground and curls into a fetal position, surrounded by his dead friends, trying to do something, anything, to blot the whispers out. Their cold, clawing hands reach for him, grasping him, tearing at him.

"Wake up!"

Shepard sprang up into an upright sitting position, lungs heaving as he gasped heavily and breathed. His right hand was clutching the covers so tightly that his knuckles were white. His left hand was clutching his pounding, tan chest as his shoulders rose and fell. Cold sweat ran down from the brown layer of fuzz he called hair and into every crevice of his naked body.

The blue light from the fish tank that spanned the entire opposite wall cast turquoise streaks along his face and bed, occasionally fluttering with another neon color as a fish passed into his line of sight.

Next to the fish tank, a few steps led up to the exit and the restroom, as well as his desk and collection of model ships.

Above him, the galaxy streaked past, stars fluttering wildly by. Shepard could make out the blue streaks that indicated that they were in FTL mode. Joker and EDI were clearly having a ball at the controls.

A soft, feminine voice with a heavy Australian accent broke his reverie.

"Are you okay, Shepard?"

Shepard turned to his left.

There she was, laying her elbow on the pillow and holding her tousled, drowsy, ebony hair with her hand.

Miranda Lawson.

Her left hand rested on Shepard's shoulder-a small, comforting gesture.

He said nothing, instead pulling the covers off of him, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, allowing his feet to meet the cool metal of the floor.

He hunched over, rubbing his eyes with his palms and leaving them to rest on his chin. He sighs deeply.

Miranda noiselessly made her way over to Brandon, running a bare finger up the curve of his shoulder. He takes a quiet breath in, but otherwise doesn't react.

"It was them again, wasn't it?"

The sound of her voice, heavy with genuine concern, was too much for Shepard. He shivered, body wracking with silent sobs.

Miranda didn't pry into his sudden outburst. Pulling herself up to his side, she slid next to him and leaned him into her bare shoulder. He continued to pour out his sorrows into her luscious, welcoming skin. She cradled his gaunt head and neck in her naked arms, rocking him back and forth as he held back tears.

"I'm here, Shepard."

And, for the first time, Shepard cried as he sank into her embrace.

That was...different from what I usually write. I'll probably write a lemony one-shot with these two in the future.

In case it wasn't obvious enough, in this version, Miranda goes with Shepard, and this is before Cronos station. I haven't decided if it's after they meet on the Presidium Commons or after Sanctuary.

Props to Waddlebuff for pushing me to do this.

Please point out any errors you find and give me your opinions. Your feedback helps me improve.