Mass Effect 3 Ending Reimagined

At first everything was fuzzy. And very, very painful.
"Shepard. Shepard!"
They're calling my name. Something is still wrong. Must do something. Must get up. Must help.
"No, no, lay still. Don't move. Shepard! Don't move!"
Arms grasped her, held her down. "Shepard! Look at me!"
It was Karin Chakwas. Grasping her shoulders, staring into her eyes, looking concerned. "Shepard. I need you to lay still. You're going to hurt yourself."
There was a third hand on her arm. A hand with tree fingers. And a voice with the familiar flanging. "It's okay, Shepard. Everything is fine. It's over."
It took a lot of effort to turn her head. "Garrus."
"I'm right here."
"The... the child. I jumped. The Reapers... The synthesis..."
"Shh. You didn't jump. The beam took you and Anderson to Citadel. To the Catalyst. You activated the Crucible. The Reapers have been destroyed."
"Anderson?"
"They found him laying next to you. I'm sorry, Shepard. He didn't make it."
She closed her eyes, trying to force the fog out of her brain. The dream and reality tangled together, refusing to split.
"How..." Her throat was parched. It was difficult to talk. "How did you... The laser didn't..."
The three-finger grasp on her arm tightened. "Missed. I'll be fine." She realized now that the turian's left arm was in a heavy cast. He also looked extremely ill and tired.
"Liara?"
"She was operated. She looked bad when they brought her in, but they say she's going to make it."
"Others?"
"Ash, Tali and EDI have reported in. James and Jacob are MIA. Grunt, Jack and Wrex are apparently fine. Haven't heard from Miranda or Cortez. Normandy has crash-landed near someplace called Reading. Some casualties, but I spoke with Joker. Admiral Hackett, I hear, is being operated on some field hospital. They said they will contact."
"Kasumi and Zaeed?
"No news. Sorry."
"And... The Reapers are gone?"
"Yeah. Joker tells me the Crucible emitted some kind of light, and it seemed to weaken the Reapers' structure. Whatever it was that made them what they were. They were easy to shoot to pieces afterwards. Although I'm not sure I agree with Joker's definition of 'easy'. We still lost a lot of ships."
"Are the relays still working?"
The tired turian looked slightly confused. "Yeah, they're normal. We're expecting people from Sur'kesh and Rannoch to come help with the wounded. There's lots of them."
She managed to drag one hand over her eyes.
"I had a dream... like a vision."
"Wan't to share it?"
"Later... I'm very tired. And so are you, by the looks of you."
"Hmm. I might try some sleep. Don't worry, I won't be far."
"I know. You never are."

The next day she told him the dream.
"Shepard." His voice was gentle. "You're not telling me that after everything we've seen and done, after every indoctrinated we've fought, you would have thrown yourself down from the Citadel because a dead child's ghost tells you to?"
She smiled weakly. "I suppose I wouldn't."
"And you know that destroying the mass relays would destroy the galactic civilisation.  Especially if all the fleets were stuck here, in the Sol system?"
"Yeah. I know. I guess the quarians would be pissed."
He chuckled. "That's putting it mildly. Not to mention the krogan."
"Right. Didn't even think about them."
"Also, you know I was with you. How could I have been on the Normandy?"
"Okay, okay. I get it. It makes no sense."
He stroked her hair with his good hand. "I admit the reality is perhaps more boring than your dream. Or at least it's more conventional. But we're together, and no more civilisations get destroyed. At least, not immediately."
She gave him a wry smile. "You mean before the geth and the quarians turn on each other, and the krogan decide to conquer the galaxy again?"
"Yeah, something like that."

* * *

It takes time for a galaxy to get back on its feet. Cities and factories destroyed, ships shot down, countless people dead and wounded. Yet, for a little longer, the galaxy worked together. Those who had been spared from the worst brought supplies and people to help in the hospitals and with rebuilding. The Citadel still circulated Earth, waiting to be purged from Reaper leftovers and to be transported back to the Serpent Nebula. In a veteran hospital near London, a human female and a turian male were often seen together on the balcony, looking at the stars. Every now and then people came to ask for them, both military and press, but the personnel, even other patients, fiercely protected their privacy. Only the selected few were allowed to visit.

"So," he started one night, when they were watching the Citadel cause a partial lunar eclipse. "Have you decided what you're going to do with the Ambassador offer?"
She sighed. "I'm going to decline. Politics were never my thing. I've done too much running for the galaxy to sit down and argue for it for the rest of my life."
"Hmm. I'm not sure you'd have to argue that much. I think people would be ready to listen to Commander Shepard now."
"Well then that's another reason. Politics shouldn't work that way."
"So it should be arguing?"
She chuckled. "I guess. As long as I don't have to do it." She closed her eyes and sighed again. "I can advise them. Help to keep Wrex in line, and the quarians and the geth... But I'm done with deciding who lives and who dies."
"Yeah, I'm there with you. So what's next for us, then?"
"I don't know. I was thinking Rannoch, but they've probably enough people there at the moment."
"Horizon?"
"No. Too many bad memories."
"Thought you'd say that."
She turned to smile at him. "So, how do you feel about a krogan orphan?"
He blinked, surprised. "A krogan? And here you almost made me believe you wanted an easy retirement."
"Come on, Garrus. We'd both go insane without any challenge in our lives."
"Um. Yeah, but that much challenge?"
"Garrus. We've defeated the Reapers."
"Yeah, but... Remember Grunt? With his puberty and everything?"
"We survived him. He became a good soldier." She laughed and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "Come on, Garrus. We'll ask Wrex to be the godfather. We'll show the kid Earth, and Palaven, and Thessia, and Rannoch. We'll visit Tuchanka regularly, and when he's grown up, he can move there and add to the growth of his glorious species. Knowing that he is part of the galactic civilization, and has a role to play in its future."
"Or, he can move to the Citadel and marry a nice asari."
"Exactly!"
He buried his face in her hair. "Fine. We'll do that. We'll have seven of them, a whole clan. Anything you want, Shepard. Anything you want."