193Liara stood behind the curtain, looking out into the audience. She absent-mindedly toyed with the ring, still on her third finger on her left hand, thinking back to the man who had given it to her. He had been gone a very long time now, like most of her close friends, but his place in her heart had never been replaced. Sure, there had been other lovers. There always were in the life of an asari, but that first love... To Liara, no-one else would ever come close. She smiled to herself, as she listened in, the host of the program starting her introduction.
"Good evening, ladies and gentleman, I'm Alison Reid. Tonight we have a very special program. We are here to commemorate the 500th birthday of the man known to many as simply 'Shepard'. In the history books, the man himself has passed into legend. What is there to say? Thrice he saved the galaxy from possible annihilation. His victory against the Reapers, an undefeated foe, millions of years old, saved humanity, and the entire galaxy, from extinction. You will find countless books written about his exploits. Statues of Shepard stand on nearly every world that he visited, and on many occasions, saved. To humanity, he is simply regarded as the greatest man to have lived. A shining example of what a human can achieve. To the rest of the galaxy, he is simply known as 'The Saviour'.
With the passing of time, nearly all those who knew who Shepard, who he really was as a man, have passed on. Yet, two companions who accompanied him on many of his travels remains alive today, and one will be joining us tonight. She is an asari. She is the current asari Councillor to the Citadel. She was once known as the Shadow Broker. Her memoirs, regarding her travels with Shepard, from the Battle of the Citadel to the Reaper War, is still the highest selling piece of literature in galactic history. It is with great pleasure to welcome to tonight's program, Councillor, and Doctor, Liara Alenko."
Liara walked through the curtain onto the studio floor to greet the host, a soft handshake and brief nod of the head. She took her seat on the couch across from the host. She quickly looked into the audience and gave a quick smile, before turning her attention back to the host.
"Councillor Alenko, thank you for joining us this evening."
"The pleasure is mine, Alison. And, please, call me Liara."
"Thank you, Liara. Alright, let's get started. You are the only person still alive, apart from Grunt, the krogan leader on Tuchanka, who unfortunately could not join us this evening, who knew Admiral John William Shepard. What can you tell us about this man?"
Liara thought for a moment. "I really don't know what I can say, Alison. I could talk for hours upon hours about him. Put simply, John Shepard was a great man. A great human being. Whatever is written about him does not do him justice. It only scratches the surface of the man he was. It's not just the fact that, three times, he saved the galaxy from annihilation. It was the way he achieved these feats. He was a paragon. A shining example of how anyone, not just a human, can live their lives, for the benefit of the greater good. John Shepard never asked for anything, from anyone. Yet he sacrificed his life once to protect the galaxy. It took all the medical science available at the time to bring him back.
We knew we needed John Shepard. To lead us. To protect us. To save us. When it was thought he was lost again at the end of the Reaper War, it was heart-breaking. To think that he had sacrificed so much to not enjoy the results of all his endeavours. But by a miracle, he survived. I still remember that day we, meaning his team, arrived in hospital to see him. Only on one other day can I remember being happier. And, with the galaxy saved, he finally had his reward. A quiet, peaceful life. And, thanks to everything he had achieved, the ideals that he lived by, which others strove to match, the galaxy did, and has, remained at peace. He lived the rest of his life with what he cherished most - his wife and children."
"How well did you know his family?"
"Tali and I were very close friends. We knew each other for most of her life. We were bridesmaids at each other's weddings. The Shepards and Alenkos spent all their time together, whenever possible. It was difficult, at times, living on different worlds. But all of Shepard's friends made the effort - the Vakarian's, the Urdnot's, the Traynor's, the Taylor's, the Goto's and the Vega's. All are names people would recognise. Some wrote their own accounts about their adventures with Shepard. Others have been mentioned in numerous other accounts. As for John and Tali, the love that they shared was... Well, I'm afraid I simply don't have the words to do it justice. Nothing written in any literature comes close to actually seeing how they were around each other. They completed each other. It really was that simple. As for their children, those three girls loved and adored their father and mother. And both of them would do anything for their children. To this day, the Shepard name on Rannoch is now worn by any quarian with pride. Generally, the wife would take the name of the husband, even in quarian society. The Shepard daughters didn't. And that tradition continues until this very day. He is rightly regarded as the Father of Rannoch, even as a non-quarian, due to his resolving of the 300 year old conflict between the quarians and geth, and giving the quarians back their homeworld."
"You mention his passing?"
Liara thought for a moment. "Tali was the first to pass. Quarians started living far longer once they returned to their homeworld and Tali lived to an advanced age, even in quarian terms. I like to think it was her love for Shepard that kept her alive for all those years. But, once Tali was gone, you could see the fire in Shepard's eyes disappear. The reason he had to live was gone. Sure, he loved and adored his daughters and extended family. But the reason he had gone through hell three times, the woman he had died for, the woman he came back from death for twice, was gone. The cybernetics he had in his body should have kept him alive for far longer. But he must have passed... no more than six months after Tali." Liara gave a slight smile. "I think he died of a broken heart. His love was gone. He had kept his promise."
"And what of his funeral?"
"I still remember his funeral, to this very day. The fact he chose to be buried on Rannoch, his adopted homeworld, it is something the quarians have never forgotten. The number of people who attended it from Rannoch alone was staggering. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of quarians attended. Not just politicians and Councillors. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people, from all over the galaxy, particularly those worlds Shepard had personally saved, made the journey. Friends and family that remained were all there, front and centre. Billions more watched the event of the vids. Rannoch had never seen anything like it, and hasn't seen anything like it since. The outpouring of emotion from that event speaks volumes of the high esteem he was held by all. And is still held today. His gravestone, where he is buried next to Tali, and now surrounded by those of his children and extended family, is a place for the millions who make the pilgrimage of thanks. It is a place I still make sure to visit now. Once a year, on his birthday, to give thanks of my own."
Liara wiped away tears when she stopped speaking.
"I'm sorry, even after all this time, just to have known the man for as long as I did... You really appreciate it. The impact he made on all our lives, even to this very day... Nothing we can say or do will ever do the man, who he really was, justice."
"Well, previous shows have already dealt with his early life on Earth and his first years in the Alliance. Why don't we start from where you first met him?"
"Well, if we must start at the beginning of our adventures together, it all began on Eden Prime..."
A/N - And that's it! The perfect lead in to my first of three prequels - 'Search for Saren' - covering the events of Mass Effect. The prologue for that will cover my ideas going forward.
My thanks to absolutely everyone who has read this story, followed or favourited, and in particular to those people who have left reviews or sent me PMs. If you would like to read 'Search for Saren', I will start uploading that story within the next few days, though I must admit that progress uploading that will be a lot slower than this, as I'm finding it difficult to write a completely original story when the game itself was a fantastic story in itself. I also have some ideas for my Shepard character, which I've touched on now and then through this story, that I would like attempt, but I have to make it believable at the same time.
As I said above, I'm going to take some of the ideas mentioned and will start some storyboards for various one-shots or smaller stories. If I do, I'll make sure whoever gave the idea is credited in the story.
For anyone who may be interested, I am also attempting to write a story based on 'The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.' I haven't uploaded anything for that yet, as it's currently a work in progress. I have a few chapters written that I'm currently refining, as it's a completely different sort of story to Mass Effect. Titled under 'What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?' It will be another character driven story, an epic tragedy is what I'm calling it.