Commander Valerie Shepard
She grew up on the streets of Earth, never knowing her parents or her biological family. All she knew was that her name was Valerie Shepard, her hair was silver, and that she had biotic talents that she couldn’t control. At the age of 12, the Tenth Street Reds recruited her for her unstable biotics, making her dangerous to anyone opposed to her. When she was 16, she willingly chose to become outfitted with an L3 implant to have more control over her biotics and make her a force to not be reckoned with. But every time she used her biotics, she would have a feeling like her head was being split open and her nose would trickle blood.
In her time with the gang, she was ruthless as she didn’t know any other way of life. Near the end of her time with the gang, she would butt heads with other members of the gang and she was the fall guy on their last robbery. Valerie would be apprehended by Alliance police offers with her head hung low.
Instead of throwing her into an Alliance prison, she was given a chance to join the Alliance military since she was of age, and her biotics would give them an edge.
She accepted the Alliance’s offer and was given a chance at a new life. Eventually reevaluated her whole stance on life. During her time in the Alliance military, she was given an offer to undergo ‘N-School’ training. At the end of the torturous training, she was given the N7 designation. One she would wear proudly for years to come.
When she was 22, she was assigned to Elysium to help protect against pirates and slavers. Shepard rallied some colonists against the enemy and single-handedly held them off when the defenses were down. After the breach was sealed, she collapsed on the battlefield from her injuries and was immediately treated.
Despite her injuries being grave and the doctors saying she would not make it, she lived to be awarded the Star of Terra, an award she didn't think she deserved to be presented with.
At age 29, she became the woman who would be humanity's first Spectre and she would hunt down Saren to the edge of the Galaxy. During her hunt for Saren, she would discover a bigger issue, the Reaper threat that threatened all life. With all the stress that now rested on her shoulders, she ended up confiding all her worries and troubles with Kaidan Alenko. After every one of their conversations, Shepard felt better each conversation they would have.
Even though fraternizing was not allowed in Alliance, she didn’t seem to care about the rules; she was on a suicide mission and she forgot how it felt to care for another.
On Virmire, she was left in situations that she never wanted to be in. She and Wrex held guns at each other while she talked him down. Crisis averted. But then the hardest choice came to her, Ashley at the bomb or Kaidan with the Salarians. She only had time to save one of them but she wishes she could save both. Of course, she chose Kaidan and she would do it again and again.
She confided in him after Ashley’s death and the night before Ilos… Was a night she would never forget.
After Saren and Sovereign, she had one month of bliss; sharing drinks with the crew on the Normandy the first week. The rest of the time was on the Normandy, taking on the Geth by request of the Alliance.
Unfortunately, the new routine would be cut short by the Collectors. After Shepard got Joker into an escape pod, a blast flung Shepard away from the escape pod that ended up damaging her hardsuit pressure seals. In the suit, tears ran down her face as she tried covering the broken seals.
Her last thought was worrying if Kaidan was safe and then… Nothing.
Then she woke up briefly in a white room and a woman’s voice before closing her eyes.
In her forced slumber, she had dreams of things that would not happen… Drinking competition with Garrus and one “I love you” to Kaidan. When she awoke, every part of her body was in pain but the worst of it was her head. There was no time to process, where she was being held at was under attack. Fighting her way through the building, she learned that she was /dead/ and had been rebuilt, replacing her L3 implant with an L5x.
Once she was introduced to Normandy SR-2 and some former crewmates, she made her way to her quarters and sat down on her bed. That’s when the weight of everything finally hit her; she was dead for two years, her old squad was gone, she was with /Cerberus/ of all fucking people and Kaidan… She turned to the empty aquarium and saw her reflection in the tank. The facial reconstruction scars had no time to heal, revealing the orange cybernetics they used on her.
Deep inside, she was angry. She didn’t trust Miranda or Jacob, at first, and she would go about her missions, trying to fuck over Cerberus every chance she got. Despite Miranda’s protests about Cerberus not being as bad as Shepard would initially believe. But she would be more inclined to lean towards Jack’s feelings towards Cerberus.
Finding Garrus was a sigh of relief in this mess that she was thrust into. Maybe Garrus’ re-appearance was a sign of good things to come. She would travel to different places, trying to figure out who was abducting the colonists and antagonizing The Illusive Man every call she had with him.
Then Horizon happened. She tried protecting Colonists from the Collectors. She failed half of the colony then she saw him. He held her for a moment before pulling away and then realizing she was allied with Cerberus. He was disappointed and angry at the same time.
Kaidan and Shepard left on bad terms.
After the mission, she scrolled through her messages to see what the Alliance or Cerberus wanted her to do. They always wanted something. But then she saw a message from Kaidan and it shattered her heart.
The next thing she knew, she woke up on the floor of the cabin, Garrus sleeping on the sofa with a few liquor bottles on the table.
She had to pick herself off the floor at some point and Garrus was there to help her. After she got up onto her feet, she turned off her terminal and walked away.
From there on out, the Collectors were her main priority and everything came secondary. Some would say that she was reverting back to being cold to everyone.
Throughout the whole mission, she pushed her personal life to the side and pressed on, even knowing that Kaidan and her’s moment on Horizon could be their last.
Days would pass and the dreaded day would arrive, they would cross the Omega 4 Relay with no hope of survival. Shepard had cheated death multiple times but she knew she could only cheat the Grim Reaper so many times before he would come to collect. She gave one final look at the portrait of her love on her desk before walking out of her cabin.
She choked back tears as she turned and pressed the button on the elevator, ready to join her squadmates on what could be the final mission.
Fortunately for Shepard and her squad, they would barely survive in the Collector Base. The Illusive Man wanted the base for the “greater good of humanity” but Shepard ignored his request to keep the base intact and set to destroy it, as a final “fuck you” to him. She wanted The Illusive Man to suffer the way that Cerberus had made her personal life a living Hell.
She and her crew would make it out of Omega 4 with another victory in their belt.
Shepard ordered Joker to take the Normandy to the Alliance Vancouver base where she would turn herself in for working with Cerberus.
For the next six months, she would be grounded and sitting in an Alliance cell, waiting to be tried for her crimes of working with a terrorist organization. Whatever punishment she would receive, she felt she deserved it.
But the Reapers had other plans for Shepard; they had found another way into the galaxy and they struck Earth. Captain Anderson recommissioned her and tasked her with finding as much help as she could against the Reaper threat.
During the Mars mission, she would finally be fighting side-by-side with Kaidan but he did not trust her. After all, she had worked with Cerberus so why would he? She tried her damnedest to convince him that she was no longer working with them and she did not trust them.
When she finally felt she was getting someplace in rekindling what they had, Dr. Eva Core took away that moment of reconciliation. After defeating her, she ran and picked up Kaidan’s unconscious body, screaming for the shuttle.
While he was recovering in the hospital, she would constantly visit him, bringing flowers with her every single time. Valerie didn’t care about what happened on Horizon, she just wanted to rekindle what they had. When he told her he was a candidate for the Spectres, she smiled and convinced him to take it. She left him with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
Missions later, she had to stop a Cerberus coup in the Citadel. There she came face-to-face with the one she loved, holding guns at each other. She was the first to lower her gun and she convinced him to stand by her side.
After she shot Udina, she would just walk away without any remorse. Udina was a pain in her ass and she was relieved.
Missions passed and her nightmares would be getting worse. It had gotten to the point where she would purposely try to keep herself up from having them but the night Kaidan came into her room… The nightmares were bearable when his arms were wrapped around her small frame.
“I love you.” She would mutter before falling back asleep.
Going through the Cerberus facility and learning about her own resurrection gave her whiplash and with Kaidan with her… He finally learned that she wasn’t just in a coma, she was only bits and pieces.
Killing Kai Leng and getting the VI felt like small victories but the Citadel being by Earth… They rushed to Earth and she fought alongside every race to defeat the Reapers. But when it came down to it, Liara and Kaidan were in harm's way after a vehicle almost hit them. She forced the Normandy to come and pick them up, Kaidan begged her to leave him behind but she knew what had to be done. She cradled his cheek with her armored hand, letting him know that she would always love him, planting one last kiss onto his lips before backing away and sending them away.
Her heart hurt and she felt bad for leaving him for one last time but she couldn’t stand him being hurt or dying beside her.
She made her way to the beam to the Citadel, getting hit by a laser and losing almost all her armor.
Bleeding, broken, and still alive, she limped to the beam and throughout the Citadel, meeting Anderson and The Illusive Man. After he forced her to shoot a painful shot at her mentor, she broke out of his mind control and shot him.
Anderson died and she felt she was on the brink of death. She crawled towards the control panel on the Citadel and she collapsed.
She was awoken by an AI who then gave her an ultimatum of three different choices; she ignored the other choices and walked towards exposed wires with her gun in hand.
“Time to end this.” She thought to herself as she began to shoot, an explosion sent her back and everything went black.
She regained consciousness and her body felt like it was on fire. Valerie gasped for air, being pinned down by the rubble from the explosion. Lights scanned the area and some people from the recovery team found her broken body.
With the amount of pain she was in and the blood loss, she would just pass out again.
For months, she was stuck in a hospital on Earth, her body recovering from the damage that had been done.
Now, the Alliance has put her on indefinite shore leave as she recovers from the physical and mental trauma from the war.