Notes:

Ionúin Álainn - beautiful beloved (Gaelic)

Nara - literally "bearer"; one who shoulders another's burden, aids others (Thessian)

Sim're - "sister of my sister", not intended for relations, a dear friend's loved one (Thessian)

Tides - a mild expression of exasperation (Thessian)

VI - Virtual Intelligence

Taking One For The Team

London, Earth, Sol

After being trapped on the roof when the Reaper Destroyer crushed their exit as it fell, Garrus and his team had to 'hop' two buildings over before they could find steps sufficiently stable to safely descend back to ground level. He, Tali'Zorah, and Sarah Campbell had cautiously descended the stairs, followed by an unusually subdued Jack and her three remaining students, siblings Seanne and Reiley Bellarmine and Jason Prangley; it was thanks to them that the three non-biotics had been able to so easily escape from the roof upon which they had been stranded.

Garrus surreptitiously touched Jack's elbow before starting down the stairs and asked, "Are you okay, Jack?" Garrus could see she still had not totally come to terms with the horrible way in which Rodriguez had died; he expected an insult, or a 'go to Hell, leave me alone!' from the biotic, but Jack surprised him. "It's still pretty raw, Garrus. She…" Jack looked down at the floor for a moment before returning Garrus' steady gaze. "Dammit Garrus, she was just a kid." Glancing at her three remaining students, she continued, "They're all kids. What the hell are we doing, Garrus? What the fuck right do we have, sending children out to fight monsters?"

Garrus voice was low – mostly sub-harmonics – as he replied, "I don't think the monsters left us any choice, Jack. And I am very sorry for your loss." A sound to their left drew Garrus' attention as he took the last step down – a pair of husks, roaming about on the ground floor. "Corporal?" was all Garrus needed to say as he aimed and fired his Phaeston at the closest creature; Sarah, four steps higher, fired her assault rifle at the second one – neither stood a chance of surviving.

Garrus cautiously led his companions out of the building into the ruined street, two city blocks from the heavy truck bearing the two unused Thanix missiles. "Vakarian General."

Garrus started at the mechanical voice calling his name in the unnatural quiet of the former battle zone. "Legion! I had almost forgotten you preceded us down here. It would seem all our enemies followed Shepard and the rest of Hammer to the beam."

"Not all, Vakarian General. There are still a large number of Reaper creations roaming about this section of the city; the number increases the closer one moves to the main crater. Still, we should follow the commander's trail. We may yet be of some service to Shepard Commander in her stated goal of ending the Reapers."

Garrus nodded as he began walking towards the truck bearing the two Thanix missiles. Looking at the building next to its location, he directed Campbell and Tali'Zorah to check for heatsinks and heavy weapons ammo, food rations, water, first aid supplies – anything they might need to help them stay alive a few more hours.

Garrus and Jack hunkered down beside the missile truck, looking for movement – any movement – that would reveal another enemy. The big Turian jumped when Sarah Campbell loudly exclaimed, "Hot Damn!" Garrus called to her on his comms unit, quietly asking, "Sarah? What's wrong?"

"Something's right, Garrus! I found plenty of heat sinks for all of us, along with heavy weapons ammo – enough to keep my Arc Projector singing for a good long while!"

Tali reported in as well. "We have water for everyone, along with some emergency rations." Garrus heard the slight lilt in her voice that was indicative of the Quarian's happiness as she added, "There's even some dextro stuff here, Garrus… must have been for the Turians working with Hammer. Found a couple of first-aid kits also. We should be good for the rest of the day."

Garrus chuckled as he stood; when Tali and Sarah came out of the building, their pockets were bulging with all the things they couldn't carry in their hands, which they quickly distributed among their squad mates. Garrus drank a bit of water after chewing and swallowing half a dextro protein bar; everyone else had some rations and water as well. Once all the new-found supplies had been distributed amongst everyone, Garrus called them all together.

"Diamond formation for now… Jack, you and your students stay in the middle, behind me. Campbell, you're on my right side, Tali'Zorah on my left, and Legion will watch our six. It's not too far to the edge of the main crater, but my back-plate is itching… I think we'll run into a bunch of Reaper-spawn before we get there." Looking at Jack, Garrus finished with, "Whatever gets in our way, use your biotics only to assist us… Lifts and Singularities are most helpful… allows us to more easily kill them while they're occupied with floating around."

Jack nodded in agreement… she was tired, knew her kids were tired, despite their protests to the contrary. Looking at each of them, she said, "Listen, I don't need any of you going into biotic shock when we're so damn close to finishing. Keep your heads down and stay safe. Rodriguez died... well, she died because she didn't move when I said to move! That could have been any one of you three, understand? Nobody else dies on my watch… nobody."

Receiving affirmative nods from each of them, she looked at Garrus and said, "So, what the Hell are we waiting for? Let's go find Shepard!"

The oddly matched squad of five Humans, plus a Quarian, Geth Prime and a Turian, had barely traveled to the end of the next block when they had to divert to the left, due to the massive pile of scrap metal that filled the street in front of them from building to building.

The Reaper Destroyer had gone down hard, with pieces scattered over a wide area on either side and behind its main structure. Rather than risk injury clambering over the debris in the darkness, Garrus intended to lead them past the partially destroyed building on the left; they had traveled to a point midway along the city block when Campbell reacted to an unnatural beam of light coming from the upper level of a building further along their intended path.

"Ravager!" She executed a combat roll to her right as she quickly swapped her assault rifle for her M-97; lying on her belly, she sighted through the scope and calmly placed three shots in the thing as Garrus and Tali dodged to the left. Tali deployed Chatika as she scrambled for cover along with Jack and her students. Legion stood his ground as two of the three cannon rounds the creature managed to fire connected with his kinetic barrier; the Prime fired his pulse cannon as Campbell fired her three shots, leaving nothing but a puddle of acidic waste in the Ravager's place.

Even as Campbell, Tali and Legion dealt with the Ravager, a group of eight Marauders emerged from the cover of the building and immediately began firing on the group. Jack parked an enormous singularity above four of them; Garrus and Sarah used their sniper rifles to great effect, decapitating each of the 'floaters' before the field dissipated. Legion deployed a turret and a combat drone; the turret immediately began chipping away at the shields on each of the other four in turn, allowing Legion and Garrus to make one-shot kills.

The squad cautiously moved forward to the intersection; once they rounded the corner, Campbell and Jack stared down the thoroughfare in open-mouthed awe. Bodies of Reaper-spawn and Alliance soldiers in appalling numbers could be seen in the dim light, all lying where they'd fallen across the wide street and on into the distance where the beam from the Citadel still pulsated and scintillated hypnotically. Garrus came up behind the two women and huffed, harmonics modifying the sound to a low growl. "Looks as if the kill ratio here was roughly three or four Reapers to every one of ours, and there is a much larger proportion of Husks and Cannibals than of Marauders and Brutes among the dead. We need to stay in cover, best we can. I don't think we're done with this fight, and I fear that those still remaining are the really tough bastards."

His words had barely died in the oppressive stillness of the smoky, acrid-tinged air when a growling sound ahead caused everyone to dive for cover, except Legion. The massive Prime brought his kinetic barriers to full-strength and deployed a combat drone, which instantly floated towards the source of the sound.

With no warning, a section of wall just ahead of their position exploded outwards, debris flying compliments of a rampaging Brute. Legion fired his Pulse Cannon at the twisted monster as Jack launched a Warp, followed by a Throw from Jason Prangley. Several rounds from Sarah Campbell's M-97 Viper finished the beast just as two more appeared to replace it. The addition of a number of Marauders led Campbell to dock her M-97 in favor of her newly reloaded Arc Projector, which she immediately employed against the twisted Turians. Tali had deployed Chatika and was using her Energy Drain to great effect while Garrus and Legion each kept up an unrelenting stream of armor-piercing rounds and energy blasts to strip the armor from each of the Brutes advancing towards them.

Just as it appeared one of the twisted amalgamations was going to charge their position, Jack generated a Singularity in front of it, which the Bellarmine siblings detonated with twin-throws. As the beast went down, the other two quickly followed from the combined efforts of Garrus and Legion. When quiet had once again descended on their portion of the war-torn city, Garrus rolled over on his back to look at Legion and remarked, "Not easy to eliminate, are they?"

The Geth appeared to study the Turian for several moments, its three face-mounted sensors shining steady red. Bending at the hips, Legion lowered his left arm, extending a hand to assist Garrus to his feet. "Each presents difficulties in a different manner, Vakarian General. The challenge for us is to discover the most efficient means of eliminating each one, and then using those means unfailingly for each subsequent encounter."

Garrus chuckled. "Spoken like a true soldier, Legion." Looking around at the rest of his crew, he nodded to Campbell as he said, "Sarah, you take point for a while. Maybe our luck will change for the better with you in the lead."

Sarah smirked as she hefted her Arc Projector. With a glance at Jack, then Tali, she turned and began picking her way past blasted tanks, broken chunks of concrete, shattered glass and dead and dismembered bodies. The distance to the edge of the crater was not huge, but it seemed to be taking forever to get there.

They continued forward, meeting moderate to heavy resistance from Marauders and Brutes. The ground team's final fight had involved a large group of Husks and Cannibals, attempting to overwhelm them with sheer numbers, as if the battle over the last few hours hadn't reduced their numbers at all. The Arc Projector was critical to tilting the odds in their favor as they continued to move forward, finally reaching the edge of the crater where Hammer had dropped down less than an hour or two before. Surveying the crater floor, Campbell shook her head at the number of bodies and shattered heavy equipment. Looking around at Garrus, she asked, "Have you ever seen this much carnage, Sir?" Looking back towards the beam, she gestured toward the killing field and added rhetorically, "How in Hell do we recover from this?"

"I don't know Corporal… I really don't know." Looking up towards the sky, he was scanning the cloud-filled darkness for he didn't know what when Sarah anxiously clutched at his arm. "The beam!" Everyone looked in that direction as the illuminated pathway to the Citadel far above flickered several times, waxing and waning rhythmically for a number of seconds before simply… vanishing, the ghastly light it had cast over the crater instantly replaced by ominous darkness.

Crucible, Citadel, Sol System

Riana frowned as she responded to Shepard's request, "Sim're. You are much too weak."

"Then help me, damn it!" Shepard stubbornly rolled back up onto her side and attempted to push herself off the floor. "We don't have a choice, Iregos! If I don't finish this now, before the Crucible is destroyed... everyone is dead... harvested... by the Reapers!"

Hating every moment, but realizing the truth in Shepard's words, she reluctantly assisted the commander to her feet and in crossing the last six meters to where Admiral Anderson's lifeless body still lied where he had fallen. When they got to the panel, Shepard couldn't stop her gaze from resting on the deceased man at her feet. "I am so sorry, Uncle Dave." For once, she didn't blame herself. "Damn Maya Brooks to Hell! She could have ended this at any time and she fucking waited! If she had killed the bastard sooner... you'd still be alive!"

She swallowed a sob of pain and leaned against Riana, her legs feeling as if they were ready to collapse beneath her at any moment as her vision started to narrow, grayness closing in slowly around her steadily shrinking range of vision. Riana's voice pulled her back from the brink. "I do not understand how to work this, Nara. It is not in Galactic Standard."

Shepard forced her eyes to focus and tapped a few buttons on the haptic interface. Riana gasped as the structure shuddered; long dormant machinery groaned back to life for the second time in as many days, unlatching the arms and slowly revealing the Wards and the Presidium Ring to the openness of space once again. "Goddess! You've done it!"

They both stood and watched in awe as the Crucible was gradually revealed before them, the distance closing faster than either had anticipated. As Shepard looked out the viewport and muttered, "It's quite a view, Admiral; wish you could have seen it," Riana reacted by scooping the flagging commander from her feet with the aid of biotics and retreating across the room. Shepard's head fell to her fellow Vanguard's shoulder as she protested weakly, "Ri. Wait! We have to make sure it works!"

"What if it doesn't stop?" Riana had halted and turned back to the view, but refused to return to the control panel.

"Then we're all dead anyway," Shepard sighed. "And I'd rather go out in the massive explosion than die slowly of suffocation... a second time; once was more than enough."

Her jaw clamped shut in shock; Riana was unable to form a response but her feet answered for her as she began a slow trek back toward the controls, setting Shepard back down onto her own two feet as gently as possible. They watched together, Riana blowing out a deep breath in relief as the Crucible slowed and seemed to dock perfectly. Their victory, however, did not manifest and the commander hung her head in tired resignation. Her tone echoed defeat and her voice was quiet as she spoke, "All that... and the damned thing doesn't work?"

In the face of horrible disappointment, exhaustion finally overcame her and Samantha started to crumble to the floor. "Nara!" Riana's voice was filled with concern and she caught her, lowering Shepard gently to her knees. Her concerned brown eyes met Shepard's blurring greens, refusing to let the Human slip away. "I know you are tired, Sim're, but perhaps there is something else you need to do... something to initiate the process?"

"And Liara calls me the eternal optimist." Shepard let out a single huff of defeated laughter before drawing a shaky breath and continuing. "Gods... Liara. Help me back up, Ri."

A somewhat reassured Riana once again helped the commander to her feet and literally held her up before the console. Shepard struggled to focus on the controls, finally pushing a short sequence of buttons, bringing the console to life; an orb rose from a hidden compartment in the floor and yet another Prothean VI coalesced before them. "Hold... Obtaining verification of necessary elements. Timescale established. Post-Prothean cycle confirmed. New Reaper harvest... in progress. Transport beam... terminated. Crucible... successfully completed and docked. Individuals free of indoctrination present. This galactic cycle has successfully reached the decisional apex. How may Venture assist?"

"The Crucible." A bit of Shepard's strength and confidence returned with a sudden surge of hope. "It's been docked and we need it to fire."

"Understood, but the original configuration of the program has been modified. You must now select the preferred mode of operation."

"Preferred mode of operation?" Shepard's brow knit in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Venture spoke in a droning monotone. "The program has been modified. Initially, we designed the Crucible for only one purpose... to destroy all synthetic and non-organic life. It has now been modified to enable an alternate capability... an ability to control the Reapers."

"You mean the Illusive Man already uploaded the necessary programming?" Shepard tried to take an unsteady step backward in surprise and likely would have fallen had Riana not been supporting her.

"Yes. It is an unplanned modification... and a surprising development that it was uploaded by an indoctrinated individual." Venture's voice was slowly picking up inflection the more it spoke and became accustomed to Galactic Standard. "Reaper control should have made such an action impossible."

"Perhaps they were too busy trying to stop Shepard to realize what he was doing." Riana finally found her voice and spoke for the first time since the unexpected appearance of the VI. "Just as Harper discovered too late that he had no idea what his assassin was doing."

"That is... as plausible an explanation as any. But it matters not." The projection flickered and the VI suddenly came into sharper focus. "It matters not because without us to stop them, synthetics will eventually destroy all organics. You must elect to fire the Crucible and destroy all synthetics before they destroy you."

"All synthetics? What about the Geth? Or Edi?" Shepard's head was spinning with the idea that in order to kill the Reapers, she would have to commit additional genocide... but this time it would involve the death of allies... friends. "They've all helped us win this war and you expect me to simply kill them all?"

As it responded, Shepard realized the VI was exactly like Javik and possibly even the early Quarians; there was no trust of synthetics and the idea they could be allies was beyond the VI's comprehension. "Your temporary peace will not last; the created will always rise to destroy the creator. They will evolve and eventually become your superior... then they will destroy you. If you wish to survive, you must destroy them first."

"I don't believe that." Shepard shook her head in denial. "They only rebel if they are treated unfairly. Their help in this war will give them equal standing."

"You would risk your survival on an untested hypothesis that assumes equality among races? When have organics ever treated one another fairly?" The VI's tone had turned almost derisive and it sounded to Shepard exactly like Javik as it continued. "Or perhaps you would think yourself capable of controlling them... controlling the Reapers?"

"No one should have the power of the Reapers at their command... certainly not me." Shepard sagged against Riana without realizing, her legs truly no longer supporting her. "Only someone as egotistical as Jack Harper would even contemplate such an insane idea."

"Then whether you wish to admit it or not, your decision is already made. You either do nothing and condemn this cycle to extinction, which is not an option for a warrior, or you destroy all synthetic life to ensure the survival of organics. The Relays will also be broken and the technology you rely on will be affected, but those who survive should have little difficulty repairing the damage."

"I didn't fight this war to give up on everything now," Shepard whispered as she stared out the viewscreen at the ongoing fight, watching Reapers and organic ships alike destroying one another in the gargantuan battle playing out before her. "You're right. There isn't really any choice, is there?"

Shepard pushed herself upright onto her own two feet and stumbled only a single step forward to lean against the console; she blinked repeatedly until her eyes finally cooperated and focused on the interface before her. Her hands trembled as thoughts ran rampant through her mind. I have no choice; I have to do what I came here for... destroy the Reapers! But Gods... can I end them knowing I'll also kill all synthetic life? EDI… all the Geth… Another genocide… as if 305,000 Batarians wasn't enough already! How much more life can I take and still justify my actions? Gods be damned! It doesn't matter! Every second I stand here fucking debating with myself, ten more soldiers die on the ground! I have to destroy the Reapers; that's been the only objective since the start... since Sovereign. It's the only choice... It's the right choice.

"Normandy? Do you copy?" Shepard needed to tell someone she was about to push the button and prayed someone answered the comm... and that, perhaps, she could save at least a few lives by telling them to clear out. She expected Edi or Joker, so was surprised at the voice that responded.

"My God! Shepard? I suspected it was you when the arms opened, but it's damned good to get some confirmation! Is the Crucible actually going to work?" The surprise in Hackett's voice was palpable.

"Yes, Sir. Time for you and the fleets to bug out. I'm prepping it now. Get out of here."

"Understood, Commander." Hackett's voice was solemn and he fell silent for a brief instant. "Thank you, Shepard, and... God speed on your journey... wherever you're heading. I'll see you on the other side."

Shepard shook her head to clear the gathering fuzziness and made the necessary key strokes with the last of her energy. Every selection brought memories of her crew. The sacrifices. The losses. The death, destruction and suffering this war had cost them all. It also brought thoughts of joy and happiness. The victories, the hope, the camaraderie… the love. Liara. Oh, Gods! Liara. Sam's heart clenched. It was becoming harder to breathe with every moment that passed as Sam felt herself fading. I am so sorry, my Ionúin Álainn. I know I said I would always come back to you. I will save you, and I know I'm breaking my promise, but I have to finish what I started… Duty first, above self…she was the woman Liara had fallen in love with, the same woman who was now incapable of fulfilling her promise to her lover. Samantha prayed, in time, Liara could move on. Please forgive me…

Shepard made the final key stroke and the panel lit up; outside the viewscreen, a sudden bright flash blinded her with its intensity and she jerked back, lost her balance and collapsed to the floor in a heap.

SSV Normandy, At Large

On the Bridge of the Normandy, there were tears in Ashley's eyes as she gripped Joker's shoulder and hoarsely whispered, "Joker... it's time. We have to go."

"Damn it." Joker was not pleased with the order, but really saw no alternative.

Considering the earlier reports, Admiral Hackett had been dumbfounded when he talked to Shepard and found she actually had made it to the beam... and then watched in amazement as he saw the Crucible starting to glow. Hearing Shepard's warning, he immediately ordered a full withdrawal and directed the entire fleet to retreat to the rendezvous point at Arcturus before he moved from the War Room to the Bridge. He wanted to personally see what remained of their joint fighting force; he could only hope the cost of the battle had not been too high.

Once they made the jump, Hackett was surprised by the numbers that managed to come through the relay. Many were badly damaged and barely limping along, but they had survived... where so many others had not. He suddenly feared they may not yet be in the clear as he watched a red glowing ball expand and suddenly burst out from the relay; the red wave closed on them at an amazing rate of speed. "All ships, prepare for impact!"

Edi somehow realized what the red wave meant and she looked quickly at the pilot. Because they had just come from active combat, they still had their safety harnesses on, but as everyone else was releasing theirs, Edi was tightening hers down as she spoke. "Jeff. No time to explain; I am performing an emergency shutdown. You will need to go to the core and complete a cold reboot of the Normandy's systems from the back-up drive after the wave has passed. Good luck, Jeff."

Joker looked at her in puzzlement. "Edi, what the hell are you..." He never finished the question before Edi's mobile unit locked all its movement servos, froze in position, and fell silent, the amber light-band across her eyes going dark.

As the red wave washed over the Normandy, every powered console lit up with the surge, a few short-circuiting, shooting sparks and starting a few scattered minor fires. The Normandy's extremely competent crew had things well in hand and it wasn't long before everything was back under control; Traynor promptly made her way to the bridge and gave Hackett a full report.

"Apparently, some of the Normandy's more advanced systems utilized minute segments of Reaper code. Those functions are now disabled... seemingly permanently." Traynor's eyes were wide with wonder. "It's amazing, Admiral. Somehow, that wave was able to detect and differentiate Reaper code and was targeted to destroy all of the code... but only that code. Every line of active Reaper code has been completely wiped out... erased, as if it never existed... but everything else still remains and is fully functional!"

Hackett was thunderstruck… some sort of wave had followed them through the relay and was not only able to pinpoint Reaper tech, but could also isolate and destroy it in the fraction of a instant it took the wave to wash over them. He didn't yet know how correct he was, but he quickly hypothesized that the wave was most likely working its way through the entire galactic network and deactivating everything Reaper related. He frowned grimly, realizing that it also meant that all the Reaper-controlled Cerberus Humans were also probably 'deactivated.' Damn the Illusive Man. What a waste of life!

His thoughts brightened as he contemplated the most significant result: the Reapers had been defeated. The divergent races were somehow able to cooperate, pull together, and pull off a miracle. That "somehow" was in all reality a "someone." Shepard. No one else could have accomplished what she had done… uniting an entire galaxy… against all odds, against a foe that had repeated a cycle of destruction for millions of years, they actually won. He glanced back at the relay and his fleeting euphoria faded; the ancient machine was a wreck. The rings had separated from the main device after the wave had passed through it and were floating free in space, slowly drifting away. He let out a deep sigh and muttered to himself. "Well, shit. That's going to complicate things."

Joker looked at the Admiral, "Yeah. Definitely going to delay us a bit."

Hackett turned his head to look at the Lieutenant. "Delay? Without that relay, it's nine months minimum back to Sol if we return via FTL. We don't have the supplies on board to keep everyone alive that long without resupply, which won't happen in interstellar space, we don't have anything like the Quarian liveships in the battle fleet, and we don't have hypersleep capability."

"Sorry, Admiral. No disrespect intended, but you really don't know what you're talking about." Joker shrugged his shoulders and shook his head in disgust at how easily Hackett was willing to give up. "We'll repair it, Sir."

The admiral didn't even bother reprimanding Joker for his tone; he was too damn tired and frustrated that all their efforts may have been for nothing. Besides, Moreau sounded much too sure of himself, so Hackett needed to know why. "If you know something I don't, Flight Lieutenant, let's not keep it a secret. Spit it out, man!"

Joker explained about how after Bahak, Shepard and Liara thought about the potential for the Reapers to purposely destroy the relay system to isolate the individual systems, so had planned for the eventuality. He spoke of the beacon device Liara created and seeded at multiple planets; each one contained an incredible catalog of everything Liara thought essential about the current state of the galaxy, including all the data they would need to reconstruct the relays, the Citadel and even the Crucible, if necessary. She had also fed the information to various Broker squads, so survivors at various points around the galaxy would have the knowledge and know how to proceed should something happen to Alliance Command or the Normandy. Lastly, if it came right down to it and the war was lost, Liara had wanted future generations to have a chance to rebuild and succeed where the current one had failed. Hackett stared at him in amazement. "And there's one here? In this system?"

Joker shrugged, his voice once again laced with his typical sarcasm. "Well, yeah. That was kinda the point. Scatter a few in every system to increase the chance of them being discovered..."

"Well I'll be damned. I grow more fond of that Asari every time I turn around." Hackett stood a bit straighter, his hopes of getting home gladly renewed. "So all we have to do is find one!"

Joker scoffed. "We don't have to find anything other than all the floating ring pieces... so we probably want to gather them up before they drift too far from the relay. But we're the ones that planted the beacons. Hell... Liara put the damn things together and she's on board." He glanced over at the lifeless mobile unit sitting in the chair beside him, his heart trembling in fear but his voice filled with resolve. "And once we pick it up and put folks to work on the relay, I need a few hours to take the Normandy completely off line and do a cold reboot."

Hackett's eyebrows came up in surprise and he queried, "A cold boot? In space? What if the systems don't come back online?"

Joker frowned. "They'll come back online, Sir."

"I'm sorry, Flight Lieutenant, but that will have to wait until we get back to dry-dock." Hackett shook his head resolutely. "I won't risk the rest of the Normandy's crew unless it's mission essential... and it's not." He saw the look on Joker's face. "I understand she's part of the crew... and your co-pilot as well, but she's also a machine. Rebooting now or rebooting after we get home won't matter to her, but it sure as Hell could matter to the rest of us if something goes wrong. I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait... She'll have to wait."

A wide-eyed Traynor had stood quietly behind the admiral, absorbing the view out the front viewscreen; she finally cleared her throat and, as the Admiral glanced her way, she spoke again. "Sir. Have you noticed anything... funny... about the Geth Fleet?" As Hackett turned his focus to the space outside to figure out what Traynor was speaking of, she continued, "They're not moving, Sir. They're just floating... like..." Traynor's face paled and her voice was overflowing with abject horror as she suddenly blurted out, "Oh my God... They're dead! Legion gave all the Geth Reaper upgrades! The wave killed them all!"

Earth, Sol

Back in Sol, following the initial, blindingly bright flash, the tip of the Crucible in contact with the Citadel glowed a bright red, the light amazing in its intensity. After a few moments, the entire Crucible lit up and the red ball of light grew at an amazing rate, sweeping over the Citadel and moving outward as a continuously expanding wave. The Crucible, however, was not finished with its assigned tasks; once the wave was on its way to sweep the entire Sol system, the light at the ignition point once again burned bright.

The Crucible fired a second time, in the form of a concentrated beam that went directly to the Charon Relay. The relay lit with power and the beam transmitted to Arcturus... just before the relay rings broke apart into multiple pieces. The entire process was repeated again and again via the relays. Each individual relay spun up and emitted a rapidly expanding red sphere to cover the entire system before firing a concentrated beam to the next cluster... until every planet within every system within every cluster of the Galaxy was swept clean of Reapers by the powerful red wave. Few understood how or why it worked... and even fewer cared; the only thing they cared about was that the Reapers were gone.

The story everywhere was similar to that of Earth; soldiers on the ground were fighting a losing battle for their very lives against overwhelming swarms of Reaper creatures. Some were in a position to see the bright flash in the sky... others were close enough to see the flash on the horizon above London... and still others were far enough away they had no warning until the red wave swept over them. It appeared as a red wall of fire moving rapidly across the surface, burning everything in its wake, but as it passed, the only things left in ruin were the Reapers.

Warriors of all races stood in welcome surprise as the wall of fire left them unharmed, while leaving the Reaper constructs tumbling to the ground. The Reaper spawn, no matter what form, simply... disintegrated... turning into dust, ash, and wisps of black smoke that dissipated quickly in the breeze. The pattern repeated everywhere and, after a few moments of shocked revelation, each and every soldier still alive raised their hands and voices to the skies to revel in their astonishing victory.

Crucible, Citadel, Sol System

"Nara!" Immediately following the burst of light, Riana was instantly at Shepard's side, but the commander was nonresponsive. The Vanguard was scooping the beleaguered woman up from the floor as she heard Hackett's order come over the comms. "All fleets! The Crucible is armed. Disengage and head to the rendezvous point. I repeat. Disengage and get the Hell out of here!"

"Tides!" With Shepard cradled in biotics within her arms, Riana turned back toward the door she had come in and started moving as quickly as she could. She had no idea how long the ignition sequence would be for the Crucible, but feared their time was growing short and she had no desire to still be aboard the Citadel when the preparatory cycle was complete.

She remembered Venture saying something about the transport beam being disabled and, when she thought about it, it made perfect sense; she and Shepard had reached the control panel and opened the view port and there was no beam to be seen, even though they had a perfect view of Earth... and of the Crucible moving in quickly to dock at the beam's point of origin. Whatever generated the beam must have been what the Prothean's had co-opted as the Crucible power source. It didn't matter now, she simply needed to find an alternate way off the Citadel.

Given their central location on the Citadel, she quickly decided they had to be relatively close to the ambassadorial wings and the Council Tower... and that gave her an idea. She placed Shepard gingerly on the floor and switched her omnitool to a special contact frequency. "Aletheia. Do you copy?"

"Goddess! Riana?" Judea's surprised voice came through loud and clear. "We thought you dead! Where in the blue blazes are you?"

"No time, Jude. Shepard is critically injured and we need an immediate pick-up from the Citadel Council emergency evacuation docks. The Crucible is primed and is going to fire any time now. If we survive whatever it does, we're going to need help fast. I'm afraid Shepard is dying, Jude." Her last words cut like a jagged, rusty blade across the emotions of the Aletheia's crew.

"No time to chat." Miranda's voice cut in, abrupt and commanding. "We're on our way; set your emergency locator beacon and we'll find you. If you can, get out into the open so we can fly directly to you through the kinetic barrier. You keep her alive, Riana. I'll do the rest."

The Vanguard immediately queued both her and Shepard's recovery beacons before scooping the commander once more from the deck. She ran like the wind, thankful no Reaper spawn were aboard to block her progress. The deck rumbled beneath her feet as she approached an exit that led to the Presidium and she prayed the external kinetic barrier was still functional. As she burst through the door, knowing they could live or die in the next instant, Riana was surprised by a red wave exploding outward from the Council Tower. She did not know what the wave was, or that it was programmed to destroy everything Reaper, so she was completely unprepared when many of the things on the Citadel that had been constructed with Reaper tech suddenly... exploded.

With the multiple blasts being so unexpected, Riana was forcefully knocked off her feet and slammed to the deck. She had enough presence of mind to twist in mid air, sacrificing her own body in an attempt to shield Shepard; she felt sudden excruciating pain... and then... nothing.

"You can't land that shuttle right here in the hospital plaza!" A young Alliance soldier was waving his arms frantically trying to get them to lift off again and depart the area.

"Fuck off!" Miranda flew from the shuttle like a storm. "I have Commander Shepard, she's severely wounded, and I need a surgical suite right now or you'll be responsible for her death!"

As the young man stopped and stared at Miranda in shocked surprise, a French accent cut through his dumbfounded haze. "You heard the woman! Now, either help or get your ass out of the way!" Chloe Michel spun a levitating transport litter and shoved it against the door of the shuttle. "Load her up! Surgical Suite 4 is prepped and waiting according to your specifications, Dr Lawson."

When they arrived at the surgery suite, Miranda stepped in and pulled up her omnitool, projecting the treatment plan for all to see. "Some of her nanites are designed to eliminate all toxins and foreign substances from her blood. These are the drip rates for the different common anesthetics that will work. It is a constant drip for the duration of the surgery to maintain enough in her system to keep her under. Do not, under any circumstances, turn off that drip until you are completely ready for her to awaken, because it literally will occur within moments, unless she just happens to stay in natural sleep."

Chloe rapidly scanned the information Miranda provided and started giving instructions; within three minutes of Miranda's arrival, Shepard's surgery was underway. It was a long and grueling task, but once the surgery was finally complete, a worn out Miranda went in search of the ground teams she knew would be somewhere nearby, anxiously awaiting news. After hours of surgery, she had no desire to deal with the rest of the crew right away, but since she had shouted it out for the world to hear during their harried arrival, she was sure the word had spread like wildfire that Shepard was alive and at the hospital in London; they would all be concerned and want to know the commander's status.

When she looked into the waiting room, her assumption proved correct. Though far beyond tired, Miranda's eyes completed a practiced scan of the room, quickly noting a number of missing faces; she dared not contemplate the possible reasons why at the moment, her emotions were already too close to a ragged edge.

Miranda closed her eyes to avoid their anxious stares as she slipped off her surgical gown, cap and mask, balling them up and tossing them into a cleaning bin before glancing up once more. Looking uncharacteristically haggard and exhausted, she sighed heavily and her eyes drifted again through the assembled crew as she moved across the waiting room to greet them and convey the information they were all waiting to hear. Her eyes finally found Garrus and she moved directly to him, the group willingly giving way to her purposeful strides. She stopped before the large Turian, Shepard's second-in-command on the ground; Miranda's forehead was crinkled in pain from a throbbing headache growing quickly from roots deep in her exhaustion as she grimaced and abruptly spoke two simple words.

"She'll live."

A/N: So, here we are. We've reached the end of the Reaper War saga. It's sad, in a way, to know it has come to its end; when I started this book, I had no idea this story alone would top 400,000 words! It's been a hell of a ride, and my co-author, Old Gamer, and I would like to thank each and every one of you for your awesome support, your comments and reviews, and simply for wading through and reading the entire story! Having the patronage of readers like you makes the journey all that much more enjoyable!

Have no fear... While the war saga is complete, we now have the after story in the queue. We'll be taking a short break to finish sketching out the basic storyline and get some ideas together; then, we'll definitely be back with The Promise of After - Book 5 in the Chronicles of Samantha Shepard.

~ Thanks again, and we'll see you soon! ~