Chapter Text
This is the end.
I'm on the Citadel. I can hardly believe I made it. Everywhere hurts. I should be dead. And yet I still live, for the moment, practically crawling my way forward.
It hardly seems worth it, to save the galaxy after losing so much. The faces of friends gone forever. The images of worlds burning.
So many dead. So many worlds lost. Entire races wiped out or already on the verge of extinction.
A boy appears before me, like a ghost. The boy whose death has haunted my dreams ever since I left Earth on this desperate mission.
"You've done it," he tells me. "You've completed the Crucible. You've accomplished what no other cycle has previously managed to do."
"Great," I mutter. I don't care if this is some sort of VI or just a hallucination. "It doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment. So is that it? Will the Reapers be destroyed now?"
The boy raises a translucent arm, gesturing toward a blurry red area. "The power of the Crucible will destroy all machine life in the galaxy."
"All?" I repeat. "Not just the Reapers? The geth, too? Even EDI?"
"All," the boy says. "There might be collateral damage as well. Other technology may also be affected." He cocks his head at me. "I'm sure it will be rebuilt in time, however. Such is the way of organic life."
"If I do this, then what did Legion die for?" I utter. "What did Tali die for?" I slump down to the floor, and whisper, "What did any of them die for?"
"I'm afraid that's the only option available to you," the boy says, not seeming apologetic in the least. "Perhaps if things had gone better, if you had made other choices along the way, there might be a better solution for you, if you are dissatisfied with that."
"I can't accept that," I say, shaking my head weakly. I'm going to die up here, and everyone's sacrifices were for nothing. Maybe all the organic races in the galaxy will be wiped out, but the geth will survive?
I'd feel better if we had a tighter plan, Joker had said. Like time travel, or teaching the Reapers to love.
"Give me another option," I choke out. "Give me another chance."
"What are you asking for?"
"Send me back in time," I rasp, coughing up blood. "Send me back far enough to make a difference. To save them... to save them all..."
The boy cocks his head at me thoughtfully.
"Can it be done?" I ask. "Can it? Tell me... If you can destroy all machine life in the galaxy, what else can you do?"
"It can be done, perhaps," the boy says. "I cannot send your physical body back, of course. The Crucible was not designed for that. But your memories? Yes. I could send them back to the first time you were on the Citadel. No further."
"Do it," I say, eyes widening with the first surge of hope I'd felt in a long time. "That's three years. That's enough time... it'll have to be..."
"Do you think you can do what you mean to do in three years?" the boy asks. "You never even asked why any of this was happening. Why the cycles began in the first place."
"If you're going to tell me, then tell me, but I'm not going to change my mind," I say.
"The Reapers were meant to preserve organic life, to prevent it from being completely obliterated by machine life," the boy says.
"Stop," I say. "I've heard enough."
"I've only just started."
"Yeah, and I'm going to finish this," I say with a ragged sigh. "This whole thing was obviously something gone horribly wrong somewhere along the way. I will find a better solution. Send me back."
"Very well," the boy says. "It is your choices that will shape the future."
It will be all up to me, like it always has been. But it's a chance. A chance I had never before seriously considered possible, until all else was lost.
Another path appears before me, this one lit with hazy purple light. Slowly, painfully, I climb to my feet again, feeling like the weight of the galaxy is bearing down upon me. I don't know if I would have been able to move another inch for the sake of destroying everything I'd fought for. But for this hope? I will crawl forward by my fingernails if need be.
Around me, beyond the Crucible, Earth is burning. The allied fleet is being torn apart by the Reapers to give me this chance. I can't see them any longer. My vision is failing, and I can hardly see what's in front of me, never mind spot tiny ships at astronomical distances.
I will save you, I think wearily. I will save you all.
I stumble into the machinery, surrounded by purple light, and grab a hold of the switches before me. It takes all of my remaining strength to pull them.
Violet lightning surges through my body. I did not think that the pain could get any worse than it already was. I'm dying, but that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter anymore. It will be over soon, I tell myself as darkness envelops me.