Control the Reapers.

After the Crucible had fired, The Reapers and their minions across the galaxy had stopped fighting. The various abominations, such as husks and marauders either dropped dead on the spot or remained still, allowing resistance fighters to kill them with little effort.

The Reapers themselves swooped away from the planets and stations they menaced, retreating into unknown space. The war was over as quickly as it began. Nobody knew for sure, but many suspected it was due to the actions of Commander Shepard.

-

"We found her." A C-Sec operative told Commander Bailey over his comm.

"What's her status?" The officer asked.

"Not good." Despite the state the body was in, the C-Sec grunt still checked for a pulse. Like many, he couldn't believe the savior of the galaxy was gone. "There's nothing. She's dead."

Judging by the state of Shepard's body, she'd suffered borderline mortal wounds before even arriving on the Citadel. Whatever happened to her afterwards had only finished her off. Her skin was burned to a crisp all over, one of her arms still fused to some sort of wire. It looked like she had died of some sort of massive electric shock, like she'd hooked herself up to some sort of system.

"Bring her body in." Bailey said evenly. "She deserves a hero's burial."

-

It was true, her mortal body had been destroyed, but that didn't mean Commander Shepard didn't live on in some form. her consciousness, or at least a digital replication of it, had been sent out across the galaxy as the Crucible fired, gaining control over every Reaper, abomination and synthetic in the galaxy.

With the most powerful fleet in galatic history under her sole control, Shepard was now capable of protecting the entire galaxy.

Or of reshaping it in her image.