OneShots/Short Stories

Shepard || ME:A

Title: Shepard

Fandom: Mass Effect

Pairings: Shakarian

Rating: -

Summary: Taliyah enters the Culture center on the Nexus and discovers a new edition to the VIs.

Warnings: Mentions of death, a touch of sadness

Notes: -

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It was almost a year after the fight for Meridian and everything was going smoothly. There are several colonies popping up on the viable planets and several of the Milky Way species were settling in nice, some even having a few kids.

Taliyah and her fellow Pathfinders still made sure that there were no dangerous threats to any and all of the colonies. The other three Pathfinders also got their own ship and crew. Any political matters were immediately ignored by the Pathfinders, unless it dealt with their current mission.

Taliyah was strict on that one. She absolutely refused to talk politics with Tann and Addison and if they even attempted to sneak in a sentence or two about politics, Taliyah would turn around and walk off. It never failed to anger tan and Addison. But did Taliyah care? No, not even a tad bit.

But one of the main things that was troubling her was the thought that the Milky Way was destroyed by these Reapers. She saw all of her father's memories and made sure her mother was safe in Cryo before she even put any thought or research into the Milky Way's survival.

This was a private matter, no one knew, not even her crew did. She was following her father's advice to keep this quiet until the time is right. The thing is, Taliyah didn't know when that time is. Definitely not now, not when everyone is still celebrating the death of the Archon and the victory on Meridian. Telling the Milky Way species that their home galaxy could be gone would only cause them to worry and any hope for the future would be lost in their need for information on their home's survival.

Now she is heading towards the Cultural Exchange center, where she hopes to find any shred of information from one of the VIs. She knew it was doubtful she would find any, but it was worth checking out, right? She walks through the doors and sees the room teeming with people of all species. Angara walk around, learning about the new species in Andromeda, while the Milky Way species learn about certain outposts and learn more about fellow species.

Taliyah has already listened to the human and Citadel VI and found nothing from those two, surprising seeing that Commander Shepard played a huge part fighting these Reapers and the Citadel was attacked by one a few years before the Initiative left for Andromeda. Taliyah heads down to the turian VI when she notices something new at the end of the room. A set of spiral stairs lead to another floor that Taliyah didn't know was there. Without a thought, she walks down the ramp to the stairs. With a look behind her, she starts climbing the stairs, curious as to what is on the floor above.

The stairs lead to an empty balcony, showing the docking bay below and a tree providing some shade. A few benches line the wall and railing. This must be a new addition, perhaps when people want to take a break from their life or enjoy the view. But it definitely wasn't the vew that caught Taliyah's eyes. It was the single VI up there, sitting in the middle against railing. It was different than the other VIs. It wasn't blue at all, there was color. Not to mention, this VI was Commander Athena Shepard.

Taliyah walk forward until she was in front of the VI, looking up at the woman. Every detail was perfect. You could easily tell that Shepard was Caucasian with long, wavy black hair, and dark blue eyes. She wore her red and black N7 armor and a sniper rifle in her arms. Taliyah can't help but smile. Athena was Taliyah's hero growing up, she always looked up to Shepard and aspired to be like her. She reaches out and presses the button on the tablet on a pedestal in front of her.