1 - 20 of 476 Works in Sole Survivor (Mass Effect)
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These Scars Run Deep by CellPhish
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
06 Sep 2025
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Summary
When the fate of existence falls, unwillingly, on your shoulders, you either bear the weight or get crushed underneath it.
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An Unwritten Galaxy by AsterHowl
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
06 Sep 2025
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Summary
Liara never becomes an information broker. Tali never returns to the Flotilla. Garrus never leaves C-Sec. Wrex never returns to Tuchanka. Joker never leaves the Alliance. Ashley never recovers from survivor's guilt.
Jack never escapes Cerberus. Miranda never escapes her father. Jacob never leaves the Corsairs. Mordin never works on the modified genophage. Samara never settles down. Thane never abandons his son. Zaeed never stands up to Vido Santiago. Kasumi never crosses Donovan Hock. Grunt never receives the mental imprint. Legion is never assigned to find Shepard.
Commander Shepard wakes up in a genetics facility on Noveria. At every turn it becomes clear the galaxy is a much darker place than she ever knew.
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Commander Shepard has a secret, one that haunts her day in and day out. She has fought these battles countless times. She has knowledge she shouldn't have. She will fight for the best outcome to come to pass, but can she save herself? She knows what she has to do to break the loop, it's the only option left. Will she be strong enough to do so? Who gave her the right to play god?
A ME2 into ME3 time loop story
Updates Tuesdays and Fridays
Series
- Part 1 of Fated for Control
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Vendetta by SomethingProfound
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
05 Sep 2025
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Total war demands victory at any cost.
After the destruction of the Bahak System, Emilia Shepard returns home just in time for the Reaper invasion. The galaxy finds itself in a race against time: win the war before there's no one left to fight.
ME3, canon-divergent with a focus on milscifi and off-screen moments, multiple POVs, paragade Shepard.
Series
- Part 9 of A Sea of Stars
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When an N7 reconnaissance mission goes wrong, its operators captured by a notorious batarian warlord, the Alliance calls in Commander Shepard. As an augmented human (not "transhuman," thank you very much!), a phenomenal hacker, and the best damn infiltrator this side of the galaxy, she's clearly the best choice.
It'll be in and out. Kill all the slavers, retrieve the N-team, leave. Easy.
What could possibly go wrong?
AKA: The last N7 mission Shepard gets to do before she's reassigned as Staff Commander of the SSV Normandy SR-1, goes to Eden Prime, and finds out the galaxy is a lot more fucked-up than she'd even imagined. Featuring batarians, more batarians, a fellow N7, and yet another batarian but this one's...different.
Prequel to Mass Effect 1.
Series
- Part 1 of Phasma Ex Machina
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Commander Alison Jane (AJ) Shepard has lived through more than most: the batarian raid on Mindoir, the slaughter on Akuze, and the ruthless campaign at Torfan. Now, as the galaxy teeters on the edge of annihilation, she faces not only the Reapers but the weight of her past and the choices that threaten to unmake her. This story is a novelization of Mass Effect, following Shepard’s journey through familiar missions, dialogue, and relationships as seen in the game.
As the weight of her decisions threatens to crush her, Shepard is forced to confront the pieces of herself she thought she’d buried. When she finds a shy, innocent, asari maiden trapped in a stasis bubble surrounded by prothean ruins, she finds herself opening up to someone. Balancing the tension of galactic war with fleeting moments of tenderness, Shepard must navigate the fine line between duty and desire, her past and her future. Along the way, old wounds resurface, friendships deepen, and love grows in the unlikeliest of places. But even in the darkest moments, there’s room for humor, hope, and the stubborn defiance that makes Shepard who she is. It is a story of survival, healing, and the relationships that keep us fighting—against all odds.
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Mass Effect: Galactic Turmoil by EndriRigs
Fandoms: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Mass Effect Trilogy
02 Sep 2025
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The Bells I Hear by Bobthemagiccow
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
02 Sep 2025
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The Reapers have been destroyed. Why does the victory taste like ashes? The Normandy wrecks on an uncharted planet, and a grieving crew must pull together to find a way home. At Sol, the shattered remains of the victorious allied forces struggle to survive, coexist, and reconnect to the rest of the galaxy. The greatest threat to peace comes not from without, but within. A heavy story of grief, perseverance, leadership, love, and hope in the face of devastation.
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Fresh off the shocking loss of her whole unit on Akuze, Alliance Marine Lieutenant Jane Shepard stays with her turian best friend on the Citadel, electing for a galactic treatment program instead of one on Earth. Garrus Vakarian, newly employed as a C-Sec patrol officer, is willing to do just about anything to give her a safe space to heal.
He just wasn’t expecting her to fit so comfortably into his life.
Ongoing AU in which Shepard and Garrus meet long before the events of ME1.
Series
- Part 2 of The Road Less Traveled
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Fall Again For Us by sewerpigeon
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
31 Aug 2025
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They had something once. Something real. But a lot changes about your life when you come back from death, and a lot changes about love when you’re not sure just who it is that’s standing in front of you. Wren Shepard and Kaidan Alenko went through hell together facing Saren and Sovereign, but then they turned around and put each other through hell on Horizon. But now that the Reaper threat has made its way to Earth, they’re back in each other’s orbit, and they realize some things don’t change at all. His heart still stutters when she walks into the room. Her eyes never stray from him for long. Will this war allow them to remember who they really are, to remember what they are together, or will one of them end up being lost before either of them is found?
Part One of This War is Our Dawning takes place during the events of Mass Effect 3 with occasional references to ME1 and ME2.
Series
- Part 1 of This War is Our Dawning
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Igniting Destiny by SpaceVixen
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
30 Aug 2025
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Summary
Over ten years have passed since the Reaper War, and life is very different for Faith Shepard-Alenko and her husband, Kaidan.
A trip to the Phoenix System throws their perfect life into upheaval, and Kaidan is sent on a journey he is ill-prepared for.
Set ten years after the events of
SPOILERS FROM THESE STORIES WITHIN!
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I'm Right Beside You by speshulduck
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
30 Aug 2025
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Every Alliance Naval Academy cadet has to apply for summer postings between academic years. The short tours give cadets valuable experience and the chance to see what the Alliance does around the galaxy. Cadet Jane Shepard thought the turian officer training exchange program sounded like a good opportunity for something different, but she had no idea what she was signing up for.
AU in which Shepard and Garrus meet long before the events of ME1.
Series
- Part 1 of The Road Less Traveled
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Flesh and Bone (and what are you made of?) by Sandetiger
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
26 Aug 2025
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Still an ongoing WIP. This was supposed to be a very self-indulgent oneshot smut fic, and then it became 3 chapters and 20k words, and then I added more worldbuilding and leadup, and now I'm- idk. Here? This is my first fanfic work in probably 15 years, and Mass Effect has me by the metaphorical balls as a diehard krogan simp. Basic premise is Shepard's life post-destroy ending is one of endless political posturing. Everyone wants a piece of her and it's shredding her already tattered soul. So she ends up seeking advice from an unlikely source, and decides to make a major life change. Spoiler alert: I don't see Wrex and Shepard as star-crossed lovers or anything like that (no love-at-first-sight stuff from me) and their friendship is very important to me; I think you should be friends with the people you love, personally. There will be nsfw stuff but them being friends is The Good Shit. Tuchanka stuff starts at Ch. 6. For those that came for the smut, I'll do you a solid and denote the specific chapters when I get them posted. Don't be afraid to leave comments letting me know what you think. Engagement validates me [insert discord pleading eyes emoji].
Series
- Part 1 of time is raging; may it rage in vain
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Kingmaker by IndefeasibleZed
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
23 Aug 2025
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The biggest trial in the history of the Alliance looms ahead and one man moves the pieces into position.
Series
- Part 8 of A Sea of Stars
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Zero Parallax by Sky1anders
Fandoms: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Destiny (Video Games)
20 Aug 2025
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Summary
The Covenant War, Citadel Galactic Museum of War
In 2169, the Citadel Council turned its attention to the galaxy’s Frontiers—and found a world on fire. Harvest, a small human colony, was gone. Its cities were ash. Its people were dead. The attackers called themselves the Covenant. Their message was simple: humanity was a sin to be purged.At first, the Council regarded the war as distant, a frontier dispute of little consequence. Yet reports of new species, shattered colonies, and desperate resistance could not be ignored. The Frontiers were not just human. They were home to Maians, Nulls and others—diverse peoples who now fought and died together.
It is said the Council acted. Turian warships deployed. Asari commandos landed. Salarian operatives struck Covenant supply lines. Even the Elcor and Volus are remembered as standing beside Earth’s defenders.
The war did not end there. But something greater began—a united stand across species, governments, and ideals. From fire and ruin, the Citadel embraced the future.
The galaxy, we are told, changed forever.
Series
- Part 1 of Zero Parallax
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Summary
Written logs of Theo Shepard's heart when it's flayed open, stitched closed, and fully healed.
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Where the Stars Come Home by Shepard2186
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect (Comics)
12 Aug 2025
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Set 3 years after the events of Mass Effect 3, follows Commander Shepard (now retired) and Ashley Williams as they settle down and try to start a family. I was really going for a romantic drama here about 2 people whose lives have been put on hold so much by war and conflict finally getting the chance to be together and have a shot at a future.
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Commander/Cadaver/Constellation by ssv_normandy (liminally_challenged)
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
08 Aug 2025
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Summary
Grace Shepard has been promoted to Commander of the SSV Normandy, serving under Captain David Anderson. While on the ship’s Shakedown mission, she and her squad (comprised of Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams) uncover a plot by a turian Spectre, Saren, to destroy free will and enslave the entirety of organic life to a race of Artificial Intelligence known as the Reapers. In light of this discovery, Shepard must build a crew and race against time to stop Saren from achieving his goal. Standing in her way are armies of geth, an AI collective working for Saren. Can Shepard and her crew stop the machine overlords? Or will she die on the precipice of humanity’s fall?
(More to be added as I get to ME2 and 3 plot) -
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Little moments spanning over the course of Mass Effect 1 between Joker and his Commander, Jenna Shepard.
Series
- Part 2 of Commander Jenna Shepard
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When Shepard wakes after the Crucible's blast, she’s a shadow of the Commander who saved the galaxy. Her body is broken. Her past is blurred. The people who love her most are strangers to her heart.
But Garrus and Kaidan have never been the type to give up, and neither have the Normandy crew that once followed her through hell and back. As the galaxy rebuilds, so too does something softer: trust, belonging, and the quiet possibility of love reborn.
“Lazarus ReRising” is about more than Shepard’s survival; it’s about what she chooses to do with the life she never expected to have.