Hero's Survival - Epilogue

Summary: The Reapers are here, the galaxy is being destroyed, and it's all my fault. Now I've gotta stop the Reapers, save the galaxy, and find a way home...oh and I'm pregnant. What's a girl to do?

Pairings: Female Shepard/Garrus, Joker/OC, and Male Shepard/?
Language Warning: Contains adult language
Rated: T or PG-13

Epilogue
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Date: June 14,2184 – 2 hours since the Citadel EMP
Location: Unknown

Serena was soaked in sweat from the delivery and birth of her and Jeff's daughter whom they'd decided to name Milagra Ann Moreau. Her hair stuck in odd places, her pants were gone, covering her lower half was Jeff's pilot's jacket and she was currently wearing his shirt, leaving him in his undershirt. She looked a mess, but she could care less as she looked into her daughter's blue eyes.

They were currently stuck in the cockpit still. Jeff had shaken himself out of his chair and had delivered his own child after getting instructions by Serena, who had been in so much pain. It had taken EDI fifteen minutes to come back online, after which she'd taken up a position behind Serena and helped her push. Now that the ordeal was over with Serena felt so tired, but because EDI had scanned her it had been found that she had a concussion and needed to stay awake for a long while.

The cockpit had survived impact, but the CIC was in shambles and the roof of the CIC had collapsed, which trapped them in the cockpit area since the airlock was stuck. Jeff was holding his left arm like it hurt so Serena decided to keep quiet about how hot it was beginning to feel in the room.

"Jeff," EDI spoke, causing the pilot to look up from the brown haired blue eyed baby that Serena was holding and back up to the AI. "If you would move, I believe I may be able to push the airlock's door open." Nodding he got out of the way and watched EDI tear out some panels before hotwiring them and then pushing her entire weight against the doors, and with a popping sound the doors opened and revealed a bright light.

Serena sighed as she smelt fresh air and a cool breeze begin to filter into the room. Looking up at Jeff, she smiled as he stood up to follow EDI and check to see where they were when he heard a noise. Turning towards the debris he began pulling large pieces away and suddenly came face to face with Admiral Anderson. "Sir!" he yelled as he unburied the Admiral and helped him to his feet.

Looking down at Serena, Anderson smiled as he spotted the little one in her arms. Bending down to her height Serena noticed the Admiral was bleeding on his head. "May I?" he asked as he held out his arms. Nodding, Serena handed the baby to the man and sighed tiredly. "Beautiful," he mumbled. Turning towards Jeff, he spoke. "You're a very lucky man Moreau."

Jeff looked between Serena and his daughter. "Yeah, I know," he said as Anderson handed the child over to him. Spotting the open airlock, Anderson headed outside.
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Location: Earth

Breathe in, restricted lungs filled with air. Breathe out. Same lungs release the air. Jumbled thoughts filtered through a foggy brain. Eyes opened to the world around the person trying to breathe. Red hair blew through the air that was surrounding the being. The being was none of than Ann Shepard-Vakarian, and she wished she was dead. Pain raced through her entire being. She took another breath, this was even more restricted than the last one and realized the problem. She had a broken rib that had punctured a lung. She was suffocating in her own liquids. Green eyes closed slowly and then she heard yelling not too far away. Focusing on those noises, she realized that it was Jack, her Jack; the one that was still alive and considered her a friend. Not the one she'd let down and got killed only days ago. Tears swelled up in her eyes. "Help." She barely could get the volume of her voice up enough to be heard. She lifted her hand to the metal above her and pushed with what little strength she had and gasped, tears falling down her cheek as she felt the broken rib shift and suddenly whimpered. Come on! She thought as she tried once more and gather as much air into her burning lungs. "I'M HERE!" she screamed and suddenly she heard the pounding of footsteps and the metal slate began shifting above her. She looked up and thought she'd die. Standing above her was Miranda Lawson.

"Calm down Shepard, I'm Oriana," she claimed, but her mind was yelling that she was lying.

"Toots, move!" Jack yelled as she jumped down into the hole and saw the twin beams on top of Ann's chest. "GRUNT! GET YOU ASS OVER HERE PRONTO!" she yelled for the krogan, who appeared with Wrex.

Both krogan jumped down into the pit. "On three pyjak," Wrex said to Grunt. "One."

"Two," Grunt said grabbing the beam.

"THREEEE!" they both bellowed as they lifted the two beams and threw them to the side.

Wrex grabbed Ann, who gasped in pain. "Careful!" Oriana yelled. "My scans are showing that she's got a pierced lung, four broken ribs, broken femur and several other broken and fractured bones." With that the young woman began to fret about the commander, while Jack snorted and muttered something under her breath.

"Wha-what was…that?" Ann gasped towards Jack.

"I said, DON'T YOU FUCKIN' DIE ON ME!" she yelled, causing Ann to smile.

"Nah," she said, gasping for breath as Wrex sped up on getting her to a medical tent. "Too…damn…stubborn." She sighed as she felt herself being deposited on something and suddenly she had doctors and nurses fretting over her instead of her friends; minus Oriana.
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Rodriguez dropped her weapon as soon as she saw the camp. She limped with the orphan children beside her. She was covered in blood and soot from fighting her way back to camp. She was the sole survivor of the Grissom Academy kids and she was hurting both physically and emotionally. She'd witnessed all four of her friends being killed and then finding her CO's mutilated body. She had completed the mission though. All twelve orphans were alive and she had made it back to camp in one piece.

As she entered the HQ tent, she saluted Admiral Hackett who looked up at the young girl with a look of shock and horror. She knew that she must look like shit if he was gaping at her. "I've….I've got a report," she stuttered tirelessly. He gave her a nod and she gave her report on what occurred and how everybody died leaving her the sole survivor to finish the mission. At the end of her report he looked behind her at the little children who looked tired, hungry and in need of some rest.

"You did well Rodriguez," he said. "I want you to report to med bay and take the kids with you. Ensure that they get food and rest."

"Yes sir!" she snapped a salute.

"And Rodriguez," he began as she was about to leave. "Report to one of the Mordin's and have him give you a something to keep the dreams away so that you can sleep. Tell him I sent you there."

"Yes sir."
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Ian looked at Melanis as she slept. The female turian had saved his life when the beam had come down. She'd pushed him out of the way and had taken a reaper beam to the leg, while he'd lost his arm at the elbow. He looked down at the wrapped stub of his arm and her missing leg. She was going to be so pissed when she woke up. He suddenly heard a noise and saw Tali and Kal walk into the tents, they were carrying another quarian on a stretcher and laid them on the ground with a turian as its new neighbor. As the two walked out, Garrus walked in and began looking through the people in beds and on the floor before spotting him.

"Looking for somebody?" Ian asked causing the turian to look towards him.

"Ann," he said and with that one word Ian stood up. "Let me help."

Garrus looked at his missing arm. "You should rest," he said as he was about to leave.

"Nope," he said as he followed Garrus. "I know that haunting look." He pointed at Garrus. "You may be an older version of my friend, but over the last few months I've found myself liking you. So don't go and be a bloody dick when you've been offered help. Okay?" Garrus chuckled as he nodded. "Besides man, I think she's on the levo side of the camp. This is the detro side." He nodded towards where there was smoke coming off the buildings and the two men split up and began to go through the tents.

It wasn't long before Ian found Jack, who told him where Ann was. So contacting Garrus he told him to meet him near the emergency tents. "Where is she?" Garrus demanded. Ian nodded into the emergency tent. Poking his head inside Garrus saw the medical team working on a person lying on the table. A shielding unit and geth prime were in the room. The geth prime was keeping a monitored eye on the person being operated on. The prime looked his way and suddenly his omni-tool pinged. Looking down he saw a message from the prime. "Shepard-commander is currently undergoing surgery. It'll take fourteen hours before she is able to be awake Vakarian-officer."Stepping out he gave a sigh and looked at Ian who was typing on his omni-tool.

"What are you doing?" he asked the young man.

Looking up Ian let him look over the message. "I'm trying to find the right words in telling Garrus' Dad that his son is dead and died on the Citadel months ago and…" he paused. "I only met Gravis once and he annoyed the hell out of me."

Garrus chuckled. "Yeah," he looked out into the crowds of people that had appeared over the last few hours before his smile vanished. "Don't tell him."

Ian looked up at him. "Why?" he asked confused. "I mean the guy is a bloody-"

"Because he's headed this way." Garrus nodded towards the turian practically running towards him. The blue facial markings were very easy to see even without the bright sun shining.

"My son." He heard Gravis sigh before giving off a low keening sound. "I have been worried…you…" he began stuttering something Garrus had never seen his own father do, even under stress.

Sighing, Garrus touched his other self's father's shoulder. "We need to talk," he said as he moved the older turian away to talk to him in private.
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6 hours after Citadel EMP
Location: Unknown

Jack Harper looked out from his hub in space and smirked. These organics this cycle had defeated him and his minions. The game had been fun to play, especially this time around. Taking a puff from his cigar, followed by a sip from his glass of scotch he walked away from the observation window that was overlooking the new system he and his minions were resting in, but were not staying in. They were rebuilding some relays in this system when they found primitive organics living on the still evolving planet below. These wouldn't be at a spaceflight era for another six or seventy thousand years. The organics of this current cycle wouldn't need them to destroy them this time; but the next cycle may. Next time the game was going to be harder and perhaps a bit more fun.

Turning down one corridor, he stopped at he looked through a glass door and into the room opposite of himself. Inside the room were over a million vats. Each vat had DNA samples from the thousand last cycles in them. He walked up to one vat and looked within and saw the embryonic cells of one species, and then looked at another vat. He was looking for a specific species. One that hadn't been dead for too long and smiled as he found what he was looking for. Lifting a petridish that had several dozen embryonic cells frozen within, he walked over to another device that would grow these cell into organic beings and watched as each took on a familiar insectoid look of four eyes, two on each side of its head and a triangular crest on its head.

He smiled as he continued this process several hundred times and then had the being sent to a nearby system on a habitable world, a world that had just gain an influx of species who had crashed on it. This species that he was going to let return would either see the more evolved ones as friends or enemies. This experiment was going to be fun for only a little while, but being a creature of curiosity he wanted to see what would happen. So smiling he turned and left the room and went down the hall where he could monitor everything. The future seemed bright and with organics thinking his kind gone, just because they no longer were going to kill the organics of this cycle didn't mean he couldn't have fun with a few not too smart ones, now did it?