Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with BioWare, Dark Horse, or with anyone associated with them. This writing is not for profit.

A few of you may be wondering "What about Glass Coffin? Aren't you still working on that? It's been a while." Yes, it has, and I am, but there is a standstill from a very particular reason: I was working on it on a .doc that resides on a flash drive that has been physically ripped apart due to idiocy on my part. I am hoping to recover it (along with another fic I've been working on), but until then, I cannot bring myself to work on those projects (especially a second as-of-yet unknown fic, for it was to be a long one-shot and I was already several pages of labor into it; it was full of feels and angst by design). So, in the meantime, here's a Fruit Loops fic (that's what I call the fanfic trope where the game loops to the beginning that because there are 3 fruity flavors of ending to the loops).

Garrus did not know what to make of it the second time the encrypted datapad dropped down onto his desk. He felt an overpowering sensation of deja vu, and couldn't help but to look about in confusion at his old office, his old desk, and his old coworker looking at him like he expected him to say something.

Ah, right. The Saren investigation was his problem, now. He powered on the pad and keyed through to access the material. The date of the files, the number of times they were accessed... all that meta-data was there in plain text. He frowned, however, at the size of the file. Far too small, considering everything else. "Damn. Where's the rest of it?"

"He's a Spectre." The other officer shrugged. "We can hardly get more on him than what's public record."

"Yes. Of course. Why would I think it would be any different this time?" He paused a moment at his own words, then continued. "I guess I'll go about gathering what I can find. Let me clean up here and go out to the Presidium."

"Not even going to glance at it? That file still took me a lot of paperwork, you know."

Garrus made a short laugh. "I'll look over it while on the elevator. I could use some light-reading."

"Well, maybe you should look out for that Commander Shepard. Apparently, the human is thinking of making an accusal against him. Might have something for you."

A warm swipe of pleasure came over him. Shepard. She would be here later with the Normandy. So it's the beginning all over again. "Has to be better than a pamphlet. Maybe I'll supplement this with some Extranet forum trolling."

The other officer gave a good-natured huff, mentioned something about going out for drinks later, and departed. Garrus did as he said, stacking up reports and filing in more requests for intelligence to help on his case, most of which will likely be ignored. It didn't matter, he knew; the information he needed wasn't going to be available until...

Hmm...

It didn't make sense that he should know where his lead would come from, as he knew for a fact that he hadn't met the people involved yet. And, yet, somehow, they felt closer to him today than any of his coworkers did yesterday. It was as if he had a dream last night that lasted four years.

As the day continued and he found himself in queerly familiar footsteps, he had to admit that maybe that's what happened. The farther he went, the clearer the dream was instead of farther away. He remembered friends, shots made, shots taken, ascending, falling, being caught and brought up again...

He remembered love.

Nothing was hazy, save the ending. He had a distinct feeling of everything being... greener, and walking out onto a garden world. Then he remembered being in space as the Normandy split open before him and seeing the Earth—a red-spotted blue sphere—yawning naked before him. And then... he could see himself about to morn the death of his love, and stopping himself.

He didn't know what to make of that, but as he entered the Presidium, ready to argue with Pallin and feeling the excitement of knowing the person that pulled him into the large stage of the world would come (whether this was a repeat or the subject of a prophecy, he didn't care) and pull her along until he tumbled into her arms again.

Somehow, the argument with Pallin still managed to rile him up, so he did not sense the approach of the soon-to-be first human Spectre. But when he laid eyes on them, he was stunned, dumbfounded such that this felt to be the first time his life went off script.

Ashley and Kaiden were at either flank. That much was correct.

In front could not be Commander Shepard. Instead, it was a rough-looking human male he never laid eyes on before. Where was she? He was even told earlier that she was coming.

He pulled up some reference files for his assignment on his visor, to see where Shepard might be notated. A quick-doc on Commander Shepard pulled up. The picture matched what he saw, instead: a human man in N7 armor. Garrus was so dumbfounded that he almost let this new Shepard pass him without a word. Within a second, he regained his footing, introduced himself and put forth his offer, and then ran away.

He almost dreaded seeing him again, and he ended up seeing him sooner than he expected; he popped up on him while helping Dr. Michel, whereas his Shepard didn't really interact with him again until he presented himself to join before she left the Citadel (she had apparently been looking for him but kept just missing him, as he recalled from a later conversation). The surprise almost threw off his shot, but not quite.

Other than that, things played out about the same. The "new" Commander Shepard was just as efficient as his Shepard, but was perhaps a great deal nicer as a person. The Shepard he knew wouldn't bat an eye to kill someone if it meant finishing a mission; this one would put the life first, but it didn't make him incapable of doing his duty.

This Shepard didn't know his tech as well, but he was a powerful biotic who would run face-first into a battle, wielding force like a blunt instrument. Much different than the flank-crazy infiltrator from before, who loved using the layout of a battlefield to her advantage.

All this said, when he got past the fact that this was not his Shepard, and that maybe even if he did remember a different life with her it didn't mean she exists now, he was able to get along with this new Shepard. Hell, this Shepard turned out to be a great friend.

Things did go... differently in some big ways he didn't expect, as well. Kaiden died, but Ashley lived. Several human ships were destroyed, but the council was saved. Liara didn't run sobbing from the Captain's quarters before the final drop. Dr. Saleon still died, but Shepard tried to bring him into custody first.

Garrus decided to try his hand at going back into C-Sec this time, instead of Spectre training. That didn't seem to help anything; Shepard still died, and he still ended up finding himself at Omega.

Everything played out from there like a nightmare, right up to and including this new Shepard coming back from the dead just in time for Garrus to lose half of his skull. He hardly felt he could do anything different during those times; they went speedily by him, more like a rehash in a dream than anything real.

That blur brought him to the other side of Omega and into an SR-2 that felt significantly lonelier than the first one; his Commander was a fine friend, but long nights in the battery reminded him of when his human woman would stomp in, pick up his attention and set it down directly on her. The male Shepard had no such troubles; he quickly started something up with Tali and was (thankfully) too engrossed into that to notice Garrus's strange behavior; for instance, how he would stand in the elevator, staring at the button that would bring him to the Loft, trying to will it to bring him to the correct one.

When Shepard stepped into his shot that was meant for Sidonis, he became so angry that he almost shot anyway. You fucking fake! he wanted to cry, The real Shepard wouldn't have stopped me.

He didn't shoot, but he refused to speak to Shepard for days afterward, "already dead" be damned. Of course he's already dead... I killed him last time!

When he became the Hierarchy's Reaper Adviser, it became a very good outlet. Great busy-work, and this time he had more information to work from for these tough questions.

This kinder, more diplomatic Shepard had perhaps not as many resources as the last one, but it didn't seem to matter. The big points played the same. He still won on Rannoch. He still lost on Thessia. They still did the final push towards Earth, even though he wished he could have convinced them to start that way earlier instead of getting distracted by Cerberus.

The Citadel harvested like it did before.

And the encrypted data pad landed on Garrus's desk a third time.

From then on, Garrus lived his life an uncounted number of times. He became friends with almost every Shepard he met; when a female Shepard came (they turned out to be uncommon), there was a chance she'd show interest in him, and though it was never exactly the same, he accepted them. In a way, he still loved them, because even if they had a different face or fighting style or method of doing business, there was still something quintessentially... Shepard about them. He stopped feeling bad about it.

He eventually found that even if the Shepard of the timeline wasn't interested in him, it didn't mean he'd be alone; Tali came onto him fairly regularly if Shepard didn't go for her, and even if Tali was otherwise occupied, he'd find himself speaking with a turian woman during one of the few shore-leaves.

Garrus eventually gave up on this. He always felt like he was being unfair to Tali if he tried being with her (if not just plain weird), and the shore-leave encounters never had a chance to go anywhere. At least the female Shepards, rare though they may be, had something that felt close to right.

Sometimes he didn't live out all the years over in a row. Sometimes he'd only relive sections, and with different Shepards. He even died a couple of times, so he now had that in common with them. There was one point he kept reliving a particularly hard mission... and Shepard died each time until finally Garrus took matters into his own hands and started throwing explosives into areas where unseen enemies would appear.

Male Shepards were the most common. Many of them looked alike, they tended to be generally nice people, and they tended to like Tali over anyone. Unless they were both xenophobic and inefficient, they would always be good friends.

It was after a string of male Shepards (with the last female being more interested in women) that Garrus found himself particularly frustrated. He'd long given up on Tali and the one-night flings with the same turian woman by that point, but it did nothing for his loneliness. The Shepard he was on now was a good man, a very good friend, though a bit rough around the edges and enjoying being an occasional asshole. On the SR-1, he didn't bite on either Liara or Ashley, but he did seem interested in Kaiden.

Male Shepards into men weren't common, and they never seemed to actually do anything about their interest until after Earth had been invaded. When it came about on this SR-2 that he found himself telling the same old story (he had other stories now, but he can't tell them, because they were all about other Shepards), he tried throwing out the suggestion himself.

Shepard seemed confused, almost as if he wasn't expecting it, but he jumped on the chance immediately. In fact, over the coming weeks, he came onto Garrus pretty heavily after that, constantly visiting the Battery and making... suggestions. When the night came, Garrus tried coming up as he always did, and was struck in the face not only how awkward this whole thing was, but how stupid it all seemed to him. All of Garrus's moves were stupid, everything he said was stupid, and this whole thing of wedging himself into relationships with Shepards over and over again, regardless of how unique each of these Shepards were, as if one was as good as another, was just an asshole move.

As he had this crisis in the middle of the Loft with a bottle of cheap wine in his hand, Shepard sighed and said, "You changed your mind, didn't you."

Garrus blinked, felt sheepish, and looked away in embarrassment. "Yeah, I guess I did."

"Don't worry, I get it; can't force someone into wanting you when they don't."

The turian almost pulled back, looking at his friend again.

And suddenly, he was telling him everything, from day one, sequence one to now.

Detail after detail, Shepard after Shepard, long night after long night, he left bare everything he was afraid of saying aloud. For fear he'd be seen as insane, for fear he was insane, for fear that he could change something or keep something from changing. He let loose his frustration with the Reapers, how shackled he felt, and how disconnected he was getting.

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I keep jumping from one retelling to another, hoping that... I don't know... something happens. Maybe that it doesn't loop again? I'm so sick of starting all over." Garrus sagged. They now sat at the couch. Shepard was watching, listening with interest. "We're going to fight the Collectors, kill them, fight the Reapers, maybe kill them, and then that useless datapad on Saren will land on my desk again. Even if I see her again, what if we live the time, and it just loops in the end and she's gone? I'd shoot myself if I didn't know it'd just take me to the beginning, again."

He dropped his head in his hands, and there it was. Everything was bare, and his friend probably thought he was acting like a fucking lunatic to find an excuse to escape the situation. So, he was a bit surprised when he felt Shepard's hand on his shoulder. He was even more surprised when he said, "Jesus, Garrus, I had no idea anyone other than a Shepard was going through this."

Garrus's eyes flew up. "What?" He paused and the words came around in his head a second time. "What?"

"Um, how do I start... Shit, this will take longer than two hours to explain." He rubbed his forehead. "Do you want to save it until after the suicide mission?"

"No. I've memorized the layout. I've even counted the wasps that hit the biotic shield a few times. If I'm distracted, it's because of boredom."

"Alright, I get it."

And so, this Commander Shepard filled Garrus in on what dozens before him had not.

The theory of an infinite number of multiple universes was a well-known one, and one explanation of the theory illustrated these parallel universes as metaphorical "bubbles". The Reapers, which had somehow reduced these infinite universes to (at least, as far as this galaxy's history is concerned) four specific universes, which is exactly the opposite of what parallel universes are supposed to do. This "collapse of bubbles" was so drastic that it caused every universe's Shepard (who had been central to this last choice between these four universes) to meet in the same four points in time. "Points" was almost as literal as you can describe them if you considered Time to be a line, for the Shepards have all met in one of four points that have no "space" within time, no substance—and cannot move past that point.

This idea came about from the more scientifically savvy Shepards who have been able to meet and debate the cause. However, even the smartest Shepards weren't theoretical physicists, so this idea might be as likely as the belief (that admittedly much fewer Shepards held) that these four points are forms of "Heaven" and "Hell".

But even though the Shepards cannot move forward, they have found that they can move semi-freely within the space of the last four years, starting from the first fateful encounter with the Geth on Eden Prime. They could go to several specific events in their past, the easiest being Eden Prime, their deaths, and when the Reapers attacked Earth, but they can only meet other Shepards in the four spots at the other side of The Choice.

"I'm half-tempted to say you're pulling my leg," Garrus responded with a strain on the acerbic side in his sub-vocals after a long pause.

"It's sounds crazy, I know, but you've already stood beside me—err, us—through some crazy shit. Is this really so strange considering you've already been living it?"

Garrus huffed enough for his mandibles to clatter against his face. "I guess there's nothing for me to lose in believing you."

"Of course there isn't. Goddamn, I wonder how you got pulled into the loops, too, and why you can't control yours at all. We've always assumed everyone else went through the bottleneck without any trouble, and you blow that theory out of the water. I know the smarter Shepards would love to meet you."

"Not that I wouldn't want to hang out with a near infinite number of you, but there's really only one Shepard I'm interested in finding."

"The way you described her, she's at least one of the more unique ones, so you at least have that going for you. I'd talk about how much you wouldn't believe how similar Shepards can be, but you've probably already seen them." He blinked. "What if one John did some things slightly differently than another and you got dropped between them in their loops? It'd be like, I dunno, talking to a guy with multiple personalities but they're the same personality. God, that hurts my head thinking about it."

"What good does it for me to know she's 'unique'? I can't get to those four points like you can. Once you go into the beam, I'll be on the Citadel, just like every time before."

Shepard scrunched his eyebrows in thought. "Lemme think about that and get back to you."

After getting pulled up into the Normandy with the exploding Collector base behind them, Shepard came up to Garrus, beaming.

"I thought of something!"

Garrus looked at him in open confusion, and other crew members did as well. Shepard made an abashed "oh" and beckoned Garrus to speak with him somewhere a little more private and continued, "Okay, you know the four points I told you about? Well, I think I might be able to get you to the green one."

"...The green one?"

"Er, yeah. Long story. Anyway, three of the choices I really don't know if I can get you into, because of how the Catalyst phrases it..."

"The Catalyst phrases... does the Catalyst talk?"

"Damnit, I told you I gave you the Reader's Digest version. I'll get to all that later. One of the choices—just know we call it the 'green' choice, it'll be pretty clear why that is later—is achieved by Shepards throwing themselves into a beam of energy that... okay, let's not get into what it does, but just know that it's a lot more accessible to two people than the other options." He beamed again. "See where I'm getting at?"

"You think I can get to one of these 'points' along with you? …Do you think she would be there?"

"Maybe, and even if she isn't, I'm sure some of the other Shepards wouldn't mind going back out into the loop to the other points and spreading the word. If she's at any of the points, we'll find her."

Garrus frowned. "I see a problem in this plan."

"Getting you to the beam. I know. I'm still working on that one. Not to mention some of the shit after that. We're going to have to pour over the mission parameters to figure this out. Luckily, I have a long incarceration coming up to think this over."