Mass Effect 3 alternate ending Awakening FINAL

"Are you sure you're not overdoing it?"
"Just one more lap, then I'll stop."

Shepard wiped some sweat from her forehead and proceeded to walk across the room once again. Her steps were shaky, and her pace agonizingly slow, but at least she was finally walking.

She walked forward carefully, leaning onto the crutches and moving them forward a bit by bit. There could be no rush. Even though Shepard was wearing leg braces, her steps were still heavy and her balance feeble at best. If she would go too fast she'd surely fall on her onto the floor, not a preferable position for her.

She sat onto the bed, panting heavily. That was the twentysixth exercise routine she had done today. It would've been nice to be able to recover in peace, but unfortunately Shepard didn't have that luxury. The memorial service was in just under two weeks, and she sure as hell wouldn't walk in front of the galaxy with crutches under her arms. She would walk with her own feet, even with the braces on if she'd have to.  

"How's the speech doing?" Liara asked while handing Shepard a glass of water.
"Could be better", Shepard replied and gulped down the water, "I honestly don't know what to say. Billions of people are waiting some kind of enlightenment from me, but I have no idea what they want from me. The entire galaxy will be listening; nothing I could say feels big enough…"
"You've held speeches before, haven't you? As I recall, they were rather inspiring."
"Yes, for soldiers, but this is different; now there are billions of civilians listening to me. This is a change to inspire them, to make sure we don't repeat our past mistakes anymore. If I could just find the right words…"
"You will. I'm sure of it."

A loud beeping interrupted the conversation. Shepard practically jumped forward, pushing Liara aside, and grabbed her omni-tool from the night desk next to the bed.

"Shepard here", she answered to the call, "Who is this?"
"So how are those braces working for you Commander? Hey, if you don't need them soon, mind if I keep them? I lost a pair recently and have been looking for an extra."
"Joker?"
"Pffh, of course it's me, or have you already become too important to recognize your pilot? Hey, you might the savior of the galaxy now, but without me your ass would've been toasted a long time ago, so this just makes us even."
"I'm just surprised to hear from you! How are you holding up?"
"As well as one can after being turned from a pilot into a freaking truck driver. I've been flying cargo around the Earth for almost two months now! They don't even let us use half of the engine power, saying it'd be ´too dangerous´. If they'd just stand back and let me do my job, I would've carried the shipments in two weeks."

"It's for helping the people in need", Liara interrupted, "Keep that in mind Joker."

"Yeah, I know", Joker replied with a hint of frustration in his voice, "It still sucks though."
"So did you call me just to complain?" Shepard asked, "Or did you actually have something to talk about?"
"Well actually I did. They want to have Normandy on site during the memorial service, so that means I'll be heading your way soon. She needs to get some repairs done, so we'll be stuck on ground for at least couple of weeks. So if those hospital beds aren't too comfy to resist, she'll be soon waiting for you. I Figured you might use some friendly surroundings."

That was just the news Shepard needed to make her day better, "Just call me when you arrive, okay? Worst day on Normandy is hell of a better than the best day in here."

"Oh, and Shepard", Joker suddenly said just as Shepard was about to end the call, "I'm sorry about Anderson."
That froze Shepard in place, "Yeah, so am I. Thanks."

----

"Do you have everything now?"

Shepard looked around the room, it was bare. Everything that had been brought in for Shepard was now gone. She had her old uniform on, as well as her Omni-tool, and the other few personal belonging were in the bag she was carrying. That seemed to be all then.

"I think so", Shepard replied and turned around to leave the room. She had been waiting the entire day to get back to Normandy, she wouldn't wait any longer.
"Wait, you forgot these."

Shepard looked back and saw Liara picking something from the desk drawer next to the bed, something small that glimmered in the sun.

"Don't lose them again, okay", Liara said as she dropped the object into Shepard's hand. Shepard looked at it, it was her tags.
"I always seem to leave them behind", she spoke and dropped the tags in her pocket.
"So it seems. Just don't make it a habit, I can't always be there looking after you."

Shepard smiled at Liara, and she smiled back. Taking playful jabs at each other had become a sort of a hobby for them during these weeks, which was something Shepard still had a hard time to comprehend. Now she time for these kinds of things, for the first time in her life. The thought was both soothing and scary at the same time. She had no idea what would happen between them during these following months, and even years, though that was probably the reason why she felt passionate about it.  

"Do you need help?" Liara asked as Shepard staggered forward, leaning onto the wall for support. She had gotten rid of the crutches, but would still have to fear the leg braces for a long time. Her legs were constantly shaking, and she was afraid that she'd loose her balance any second now, but at least she walked now.
"No, I have to learn to do this on my own", Shepard said and stepped out of the room, "Now come on, I want to see the Normandy again."

----

The two them could barely restrain themselves. Just there, in front of them was the Normandy, as nothing more than a shadow of its former self.  The hull was covered with cuts and dent, clumsily covered with metal plates. The original colors of the ship had practically disappeared behind the melted metal and black ash.

"Oh wow", Shepard gasped.
"I'm surprised they let Joker fly her in that state", Liara commented with a shaken voice.
"Yeah, well at least she's still in one piece. We should be thankful for that."

Not sooner than when had entered the ship did they run into Joker and EDI.  The two were looking silently at the cockpit being tearn a part by Alliance engineers.

"Hey."

The two of them turned around.
"Oh hi Shepard, Liara, good to see you", Joker said with an unusual monotone.
"Shepard, I'm happy to see you're doing well", EDI spoke, turning her gloom expression into a wide smile, "Your recovery is… astonishing. When I heard about your injuries I… I didn't' believe there would be much hope."
"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to make it back at all. So thank you for that."
"We… Thank you Shepard."

Shepard looked at the cockpit. Almost have the equipment was missing, and the engineers were quite busy pulling apart the rest of them.
"So what's happening here?"
"Well, most of the control modules were fried during the fight. We've been flying with what we got, but now the Alliance wants Normandy back to Space, so they'll have to renew the equipment", Joker explained
"You don't seem too happy about it", Liara pointed out.
"Well, they're tearing the place apart, how could I be happy about that? Besides, there's still some stuff working that we could've used, now we have to recalibrate absolutely everything!"

Joker sighed, "Anyway, your cabin should still be intact, so don't worry about that."
Shepard really felt bad for Joker, without he's ship it was if he had lost a limb, "I'll just throw my stuff at there, and be right back down. I'd like to look around the ship, see how bad the damage is."
"Oh its terrible Commander, believe me."

----

Joker had been right; the cabin was practically untouched, although everything that had been lying on the tables was now spread across the floor. The fishes and the models were still in their rightful places though.

"Well, here we are again", Liara said cheerfully, trying to cheer Shepard up.
Shepard wobbled silently forward. Her legs were already aching, she hadn't realized before how big the Normandy was, "It's a mess."

She crouched down, tediously, to pick up her personal monitor from the floor. Surprisingly the thing looked relatively unharmed.
Liara sat down on Shepard's bed, "Well, it could be worse."
"Oh no", Shepard sighed as she turned on the monitor.
"What is it?"
"I have new messages."
"What about it?"
"There are 237 546 of them!"
"Oh… Well that must just be the fan mail."

Shepard put down the monitor, she'd read through the messages later on, much later if possible. She staggered to the bed and sat down next to Liara. She grabbed her hand, "So… You want to lie down for a while?"

Liara kissed Shepard's cheek but then stood up, "I'm sorry, I have to go and check out my own room first. Without my equipment I've had to neglect many of my contacts lately. But I'll call you as soon as I am ready, okay?"

So Liara left Shepard alone in her room. She sat there for a while, breathing in the essence of the place. She was home.

After a moment however she decided to stand up and started cleaning up the room. The work was slow and tedious, the things were all over the place, it was hard for Shepard to crouch and even harder to stand up, but she managed herself, just barely. And honestly she didn't care; just being abroad the Normandy made her feel better than in ages. Now if she could just remember where she had kept these books…

"Hey Commander!" Joker's voice yelled through the com system, "Can you trop by the lounge, I think you should see this!"
Shepard dropped the books on her desk, screw this, she'd find the place for them later, "I'm on my way Joker."

---

"Damn Joker", Shepard cursed as she limped from the elevator. She had hit her knee while on her way down. She struggled her way to the lounge doors.

The doors opened.

"And then she head-butted Uvenk right at the middle of the plate! Eheheheh, I've never seen a Krogan more humiliated than that!"
The room burst into laughter. Shepard stood at the doorway, silent, as if she had been hit with a bat.

"Everyone…"

Grunt cut his speech short turned to Shepard. As did everyone else in the room, meaning Liara, Joker, EDI, Tali, Garrus, Miranda, Jack, Ashley, Jacob, Wrex, James and Samara.

"Shepard!" Grunt yelled and charged towards her. She jumped immediately backwards and raised her hands on the air, "Grunt, I really can't take one of you Krogan welcomes right now!"
Grunt slowed down, stopping right before Shepard and ended staring her eye to eye. His expression was… Disappointed to say the least, "Ah, should've figured, giving what you went through and all that. Well, there's no shame in wounds earned from battle!"

Grunt turned around, "Hey Garrus pour Shepard a drink, will you? And none of the cheap stuff, I know you've been hiding that bottle of brandy under the table for a while now!"

"What are you all during here?" Shepard asked, completely blown away by all this.
"We're celebrating!" Said Tali, holding a glass of wine with one of her 'emergency induction ports' in it.
"What exactly?"
"You", Garrus explained while pouring brandy into a large glass behind the counter, "And your recovery."

  "But… I thought you were on missions", Shepard mumbled, "And you guys, Wrex, Grunt, Garrus and Tali, You were supposed to have left Earth weeks ago!"
"We did", Wrex spoke while holding an entire bottle of ryncol in his hand, "But we came back. "
"But what about the rebuilding? I mean Tali; you're an Admiral and Wrex…"

"Shit Shepard, just calm down!" Jack yelled.
"They can handle things without us tonight", Miranda spoke with a smile, "You saved the galaxy Commander. I'd say the least we can give you is an evening with some old friends."

Still surprised, Shepard took the glass of brandy from Garrus. Then she sat down next to Liara, every single pair of eyes staring at her as she did. The room felt hot.
"Wow… There's so much I'd like to say", she muttered.
"Well, we have time", Samara said. She was sitting at the next side of the room, as elegantly as always, "So, Commander Shepard, hero of the galaxy, tell us your story."

The next they Shepard woke up in her cabin, her head on the bed and legs on the floor, chest covered with something she hoped was her own vomit. Liara laid on the floor next to her, head under the bed. Shepard's head was filled with the best memories and the worst headache.

----

"…And now Commander Shepard, Alliance soldier, would like to say a few words."

The crowd exploded into applause. Hackett walked away from the booth to Shepard, who was waiting at the side of the stage. She was holding a pack of papers, reading through the lines one last time. The audience was still clapping their hands.

"Are you ready Shepard?" Hackett asked. He did indeed look more relaxed than he used to be, which was definitely a good thing.
"Not quite, but I'll manage it."
"I'm sure you will. Give them your best Commander."

Shepard nodded and stepped to the stage, slowly and clumsily. The people went nuts. She had never heard such a noise made by a group of people, all that clapping, and whistling and yelling was just unbelievable. But Shepard didn't pay attention to it; she kept her eyes strictly at the booth at the center of the stage. She went through the speech one last time in her head. She had honed it was well as she could, everything that she wanted to say was not in it. That would have to be enough. It would be enough, she was sure of it.

Shepard reached the booth and turned to the crowd. They cheered again. In front of her, as far as she could see, she saw a sea of soldiers; Turians, Asari, Krogans, Quarians, Human, Volus, everyone. Never had she seen more people in one place. They were all looking at her, waiting for her words. Not only that, but the speech also broadcasted through cameras to every single corner of the galaxy, to countless of viewers.

"Anderson…"

And as she watched those people, all those races standing side to side, mixed, not in groups, she knew there was hope. She knew they had a future, a new, brighter one. What they had lost, they would find again. Whatever would happen, whatever terrible catastrophe would fall on them, they would endure. They were now one. At first they had faced the Reapers as divided, but won them as united. If they could just remember and the pain of this in their hearts, they would never fall again.

So Shepard spoke and her words echoed to the far reaches of the galaxy, words about loss, hope, peace and unity. And those words carried a message with them, one that would be the foundation of a new galaxy:

"We are now one."