Best Short Mass Effect Fanfics
Mass Effect novellas — 10k to 50k words, polished and contained. Curated from AO3 and ranked by kudos.
Top 25 Short Mass Effect Fanfics
Ranked by AO3 kudos. Mid-length Mass Effect fics — 10,000–50,000 words.
Four Years Later
by orphan_account
Four years after the events of Mass Effect 3, Kaidan finds Shepard at the Citadel, brushing dust off of his sleeves and carefully stacking a box of fish food on the shelves above him.
30 Day Pairing Porn Challenge
by DashRenders (Cydney)
A challenge taken on Tumblr; a 30 Day OTP NSFW challenge. Only, because I'm cruel to myself, I decided to make it 30 different pairings instead. Updated as they're produced.
Aftermath
by Scutter
The galaxy tries to find the way forward, in the wake of the destruction of the reapers.Post-ME3, destroy ending, but completely ignores the whole ‘destroy all synthetics’ thing. Basically, the reapers are destroyed and everyone else lives. Also assumes that Kaidan and Male Shepard had a romantic re
A Land Not Mine
by theprosefool
After being dead for two years, there’s only one person Shepard wants to see. So he writes a letter.
forged in blue fire
by Lunarflare14
You would think having your soul mate's name appear on your body on your eighteenth birthday would make it simple and clear cut.Nothing in John's life has ever been that simple.
A Mess You'd Wear With Pride
by wook77
Desperate times call for desperate measures and there isn't much more desperate than a Reaper Invasion. Anderson does what he has to and so does Kaidan.
Down The Line
by TinderWulf
A fill for the Kink Meme: Drell have a custom similar to levirate marriage. After Thane's passing, Kolyat steps in as Shepard's husband.
Mini Fills
by TinderWulf
A collection of drabbles and mini fills for prompts made on the Mass Effect Kink Meme, or ficlets I need to get out of my head.
The Two Commanders: Remastered
by Katieee
Fresh off destroying the Reapers, Commander Shepard falls into a strange, medieval world where people mistake her biotics for magic. No-one knows who she is anymore; beyond her title, neither does she. Knight-Captain Cullen has been a good templar for too long; being a good man feels far beyond reac
An Inconvenient Meeting
by EratoHayden
A chance encounter on the Citadel following the events of the Skyllian Blitz in 2180, leads Kara Shepard and Garrus Vakarian to meet earlier than the canon Mass Effect timeline. Kara is freshly promoted, completed her N7 training, and ready to take the next step in her five year plan. C-Sec Officer
A Brief Detour
by bjrit92
Shepard and her Suicide Squad are gearing up for their trip though the Omega-4 Relay when they're attacked by a collector ship and take an unexpected trip that changes, well, everything. And some things? Some things have changed more than others.
The Diary of Katherine Shepard
by Hawkster94
4 years and a half had passed since the galaxy emerged victorious against the Reapers. Recovery process is still ongoing, with the trauma of the war still lingering on, physical, mental, and emotional. Inspired by the unfinished diaries that her former mentor, Admiral David Anderson, left in his for
Test Subject 47-R / Codename: Rose
by Hunttijuntti
She was only nine years old when she was taken. Over 160 years later, she wakes up on an operating table—terrified, mutated, and more powerful than anyone imagined. Her instincts unleash a storm of biotics and Force lightning that levels an entire research facility. Commander Shepard and the crew of
The ABCs Of Lust
by PJTheAwesome354
Kink profiles for various fictional females.
Through Hell on Living Feet (For You)
by Volchonika
Grieving Commander Shepard turned Garrus into someone else, and now he's haunted by a ghost wearing her face. This Shepard, he's convinced, is a spirit, or a figment of his dying brain--because he's sure he's dying, lying in a pool of his own blood on Omega, and she's here to help him live through a
Collector
by Belyst
Two years. Two years since the Normandy was attacked, and Tali had to watch it explode while traversing the vacuum of space silently in an escape pod. Two years since Shepard died and her world felt like it was imploding. Two years since her heart shattered, and she had spent an eternity crying on a
Margin of Error
by USSExplorer
Marcus Sinclair carries memories of a future no one else can see: humanity's first contact, its wars, its extinction. Reborn in 2130, he has decades to prepare Earth for threats lurking beyond the Mass Relays. Scientist, strategist, prophet unheeded. He builds from the shadows, knowing the price of
First Light
by acupoftea
The Normandy SR-2 has landed on Earth. The universe is in shambles. So is her crew. Shepard isn't doing much better. But everyone is looking to her - to the Great Commander Shepard, twice dead, twice resurrected, Destroyer of the Reapers and almost the entire universe - to save them, one last time.T
Retrocausality Effect
by Wanderer_D
The Crucible was completed, and the final cycle had taken place. The Reapers won. However, for a single time-traveler, that didn't mean it was the end. Tali'Zorah nas Rayya knows nothing of that future where her people were destroyed alongside everyone she ever loved. She has no idea what's coming f
The Lives of Commander Shepard
by RexManning
Good news everyone!I have concocted a story which you all can take part in helping shape. In essence, this is a choose your own adventure style Shakarian fic, with a twist. Here's how it'll go: I will set up the first act so that everyone has a grounding of the base story at play. At the end of each
Digging Up Stones
by mostmagical
A long-term ground mission on Hackett’s orders in the wake of the war. Traveling across forgotten wastelands and destroyed communities with just a ground car and Garrus, Shepard can’t help but let exhaustion and frustration get to her. Even on the open road, she’s never felt more trapped. And with t
Paradigms
by The_Writerz_Bloque
A story about what happened after the war. Kolyat Krios survives the Reapers’ final annihilation, the blast that broke apart the Citadel and damaged the mass relays, along with most technology…but the rebuild begins. Left behind by his father’s death, he has returned to his former skills of survival
Back To You
by toothfayerie
Two people brought together by duty and circumstance.Two people separated by uncontrollable instance.Two people brought together by rumors of conspiracy.Two people drifted apart by principle and anarchy.Two people brought together by war.Do they still know who they are?Now, the galaxy may be at its
Are we more than our memories?
by NoPunnyNamesLeft
How does spending two years dead affect your brain?Will your neurons survive? Will your memories remain intact? Will you remain intact? This is a fanfic of Colonist Sole survivor + Ruthless Shepard thrust back into a galaxy he barely remembers, that seems to barely remember him (that last part is pr
proof of life.
by thychesters
You are: Commander Shepard (in name).You are: human (mostly).You are: real (enough). Commander Shepard storms back into the galaxy; Cerberus just keeps a closer eye on her than she thought. She finds herself a little more hyperaware of the moving pieces, the ones of her left to string back together.
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About This List
This list of 25short Mass Effect fanfics spans 652,393 total words. Kudos range from 12 on the newest entries to 1,925 on the most established. 40% are marked complete — check the status flag before committing to a longfic. The most common rating is Mature (12 of 25 fics).
Recurring tags across this list: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence · Angst · Mass Effect 2 · Fluff · Mass Effect 1.
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