Title: Renegade Interrupt
Fandom: Mass Effect Andromeda
Characters: Female Renegade Shepard
Rating: G
Length: 1196 words
Content Notes: warning for implied canon-typical violence; also very minor spoiler for the final quest of the game, Meridian: The Way Home
Author's Notes: AU in which Shepard survived the Reaper War and has joined the Andromeda Initiative; inspired by a recent conversation with a friend of mine about how Shepard would possibly deal with the final boss.
The title is borrowed from the Mass Effect 2 & 3 QTE mechanic (which serves to fill the prompt on a more meta level, I'd like to believe!)
Summary: Shepard should have died six hundred years ago. But she hadn't. And she would be damned to give in now.


Shepard should have died six hundred years ago. But she hadn't. And she would be damned to give in now. She had faced worse odds, with fewer people behind her.

Sure, it did look bleak; they had been on the run since they've arrived in the new galaxy. A continuous race against time, race against those kett, and the Scourge that followed them around. Or was it the other way around?

Shepard had thought she had done her part. This was supposed to be her retirement, because after all she had done, she thought she deserved that kind of thing. She should have known it wouldn't work out this way. It never had.

They had woken her from cryo mere hours ago, and she hadn't even heard half of the things that had gone wrong on their way to reclaim Meridian. Their Pathfinder dead, their home world inhabitable... Now one of Ryder's kids was in the centre of it, with the other one trying to rescue her.

And she was supposed to save the day. Again.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to make herself familiar with her new guns as the shuttle swooped down to bring them in. Not what she was used to, neither in quality nor style, but it would make do. The sniper rifle seemed even somewhat decent.

She shot a glance over her shoulder. A krogan and a turian. Just like old times... They weren't her squad, naturally; Wrex had been too busy with repopulating Tuchanka, and Garrus was still in cryo. Or so she hoped. While she'd have loved to know him cover her flank as he had used to, it was bad enough she was getting involved into saving a galaxy again. If she had wanted to be part of this mess, she'd have agreed to become Pathfinder in the first place!

Shepard jumped out of the shuttle, not waiting to see if the others would follow. She had to trust they were here because they were good for something. If they weren't, she would charge in alone. Wouldn't have been the first time.

But she heard their heavy footsteps behind her, as they ran through the weird alien structure that seemed to faze only her. Right. Because she had woken up for the first time in centuries a couple of hours ago!

At least it wasn't too difficult to follow the Pathfinder and his fireteam; they had been so kind and cleared the way, leaving a trail of kett corpses behind. The occasional straggler was dispatched quickly.

They had woken her up for this?

She was obviously not needed. Shepard picked up her pace, irritation spurring her on. Those damned bureaucrats had woken her up for nothing, and once she had finished up this Archon, she'd meet with the ones responsible on the Nexus.

Through another set of doors, across one of those weird bridges, and they had finally caught up with the other group.

"This attempt to rival me is no longer amusing, Pathfinder."

Great, just in time for his big speech! And she had thought Sovereign had been chatty. But when she thought back to the lengthy explanations that were nothing but empty words...

"I don't have time for this," she muttered to herself. She'd deal with him all the same.

Her gaze quickly darted across the room, only half-heartedly listening to the small family reunion taking place; they were nice kids. Way in over their heads, but more capable than she had expected after the way she had been ripped out of her sleep.

"So determined but so pointless. Your connection serves me."

He turned around, and that was all she needed. Stuffing explosive round into the barrel of her sniper rifle, she took aim. One shot was all she would get.

Her fingers were still a tad unsteady, one of the side effects of having been frozen for over six hundred years; but the day she would miss an opportunity like this would be her last.

Shepard inhaled, following the back of his head through her scope. There was that bit of unprotected skin, just at the nape of his neck... She blinked, and exhaled.

And pulled the trigger.

The others whirled around at the sudden noise, but her eyes stayed on the Archon until his body collapsed to the ground. He didn't move.

She swapped her rifle for her pistol, before she lobbed a grenade into a group of kett. "I could use some fire support, Pathfinder," she yelled, dodging to the side and diving behind cover. And not a moment too soon; she felt the impact of the hail of bullets even through the protrusion against her back.

Only then the others shook off their stasis. With the Pathfinder and his crew backing her up, the fight was over quickly; the loss of their leader seemed to make some of the remaining kett to hesitate. Their mistake; that for once seemed to be universal, at least.

Well, her work was done. She holstered her gun as she looked around. Time to get back; she couldn't wait to see Garrus' face when he realised he had missed it!

But when she turned to leave, a hand gripped her arm firmly, and held her back.

She forced herself to breathe deeply; there was still some adrenaline left within her, and if she hadn't been absolutely certain, that whoever it was that kept her, was friendly, they would end up with missing that very hand; and a broken nose, probably. With a sigh, she looked over her shoulder, and directly into Ryder's eyes.

"Listen, kid, I'm sorry I stole your spotlight like this, but I just woke up and I'm not a morning person. Also, believe me, there was nothing of interest he had to say."

She heard the krogan chuckle lowly, and couldn't help but smirk herself. That was why she would always get along with the krogan!

"My sister could've been hurt!"

It would have sounded more convincing if he hadn't loosened his grip. But the sudden bout of uncertainty that flickered in his eyes had her swallow the quip that already lay on her tongue. For a moment, she thought about comforting him; though judging from the look of the woman next to him, he would be taken care of. Good. Shepard straightened her shoulders.

"But she hadn't been. None of you have been more than grazed by a bullet, and that's more than many could've said during the Reaper War."

Ryder's eyes got big, as it dawned on him. "Wait. You're... you're Commander Shepard?"

She waved dismissively and turned around again before he could continue. There was certainly no time for this fawning right now; she had seen it happen too often to not know immediately how it started.

No, she wouldn't let anyone keep her from her well-deserved retirement. She would get Garrus out of cryo, and then they would find themselves a nice and quiet apartment on the Nexus.

And the next time someone came to ask for her help... Well. This galaxy didn't seem to have varren, but those adhi might be just enough to scare unwanted guests away.