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Mass Effect 3: Aftermath	By : Royality Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 3529 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Kaidan pushed himself to stand, scrambling over to the rubble as fast as he could. The rocks were heavy enough for him to have to use the last of his biotic abilities in order to just move off even just the top layer. “I’m coming buddy, just hang on!” In the distance, Kyo, Liara, and Shiro had been running towards the screeching noise that the giant sandworm had made just before retreating back into its hole. They too had felt the worm then dig underneath them when it retreated.
“Over here!” called out Kyo, who had been leading the pack up the rocky hill to the smoother terrain where Kaidan was hunched over and digging the best he could through the landslide pile with his black and white armored hands. As the team came around, Kaidan called to them as he continued to panic.
“The guy! The guy that saved me! He got buried!” he stammered as he picked up another larger one of the stones after several attempts in trying to do so. Grunting, he then gave it a light toss behind himself. It was afterwards did he manage to spot a bit of red armor peeking out from underneath the mound. Looking down, Kyo had also managed to see it as well.
“Sol…?”mumbled Shiro as he jogged his way up to the pair in front of him. “SOL!” He then yelled, getting in between the Major and the Sergeant. His slim body lit up blue at first, then turned into a shade of bright green as he used an untold amount of biotic energy to lift all of the remained boulders at once. While Kaidan wanted to question how the hell Shiro managed to do that, he instead pulled the battered body out from underneath. Shiro then tossed the rocks to their left, causing them to roll a good distance away after they hit the ground. Liara watched from a few feet behind as she too had never exactly seen that color emerge from a biotic before. The display was impressive, even by Asari standards. Once it was safe, Kaidan moved to roll the body onto its back and cradled the head as he continued to kneel down.
“Hey? Hey, buddy. Come on. Speak to me.” There was no response. Shiro, who seemed about as worried as Kaidan was himself, then pushed the Major aside to take the cradled armored head into his own arms.
“Sol? Can you hear me? Sol? Sol!”
“Sol? Wait, you know this guy?” At that moment, what Shiro was doing not only didn’t make any damn sense, but also raise several red flags with the entire group. Everyone stared at the ex-Agent and waited for an answer.
“What? Of course I do...,” the white-haired man said as he continued to try to shake the Sniper awake. It finally dawned on him that no one else seemed to understand why. “Wait? He didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what? I just found out he even had a name not two seconds ago!” Even though he was pissed off, Kaidan was busy scanning the red suit’s vitals. There were multiple fractures in the chest and one rather nasty head wound. He was still alive though, surprisingly, but not for long if they didn’t hurry. “We need to get that helmet off to stop the bleeding there. Move out of the way.” But as he attempted to reach for the helmet, Shiro jerked away from Kaidan on reflex with his arms protectively holding the cradled head out of reach.
“Damnit, Shiro! I said move!” Kaidan yelled, not understanding the situation. The Sniper’s protector then sighed, looking sadly down at the helmet before his arms unwound slowly. Carefully, Shiro began to remove the helmet on his own and slipped it off carefully. What Kaidan saw then made the Major himself stop breathing. Underneath the red and black armor was a pile of messy black hair stuck to a familiar face with a forming puddle of blood running down from the forehead. Reaching down, Kaidan brushed the hair aside only to feel a knot form in his stomach and his heart grow heavy.
“…Shepard?”
Kaidan feel to his knees as hot tears started to pour uncontrollably out of his eyes. “Shepard. Shepard!” he started to yell, shaking the body in another attempt to try to wake it up. It could have been all the movement that finally awoke the unconscious man just as easily as it could have been hearing his lover call out his name or the tears that had fallen upon his face. Whatever the reason, Shepard’s eyes finally opened up only to squint in the light. As he attempted to sit up, Shiro quickly applied a dose of medi-gel to the head wound. After his red gloved hand came to cup his own face, Shepard then noticed that his helmet had been taken off. There was a moment of panic as he looked around for it before noticing Kaidan at first, but then shot a nasty glare to Shiro. In reply, Shiro then looked away sadly as if he had done something wrong.
“I’m sorry, Sol…He had the right to know.” Shepard grunted, his voice no longer muffled by the modified audio from the helmet anymore.
“Damnit…I asked you to do one thing…” Pushing himself up, he actually managed to stand, although he did start wobble a bit. Kaidan jumped up quickly to help, but was still shaken by the turn of events. Liara was also surprised, her face streaked with tears as she covered her mouth. In fact, the only one not visibly unhinged in some way was Kyo, who thought it best to just stay out of it.
“Shepard…is it…really you?” Kaidan asked, sticking as close as possible. The hazel eyes once again met with the black orbs and their decorative red swirls after so long; however the Major’s question went unanswered. Instead, Shepard turned away to continue glaring at Shiro.
“You should have told them. I never wanted you to do this, Sol!” Shiro yelled, breaking the heartfelt reunion. Shepard pulled away from Kaidan, trying his best to ignore the other Spectre as he fired back at the ex-Cerberus Agent.
“You know why I’m doing this, John!” he yelled while pointing off in the distance. “You know what’s out there! What’s chasing me! Why would you risk that?!”
“Don’t make the same mistakes I did, Sol. Leaving your family behind isn’t any kind of way to save them. Besides, it’s too late now.” Shiro seemed finite in his answer as he pointed in Kaidan’s direction. “They know you’re here now, Sol. Tell them the truth.” Shepard glared once again and growled, which something he usually did after losing an argument. Instead of yelling more, he instead leaned over with an arm cupped around his ribs while hacking up a few splatters of blood.
“Shepard!” both Liara and Kaidan said in unison as they rushed over to help him up. Kaidan a hold of Shepard by the arm as Liara did another scan.
“He needs medical attention right away. We need to get him back to the Normandy. I’ll call Cortez for a pick-up,” she said, turning to press two fingers against the side of her head to make the call. Kaidan continued to hold onto Shepard the avoided eye contact continued. The Major also pressed his lips together, despite wanting to say a million things. He knew that this wasn’t the time or place for them just yet. Distraught, Shiro moved to stand next to Kyo, who did his best to comfort the saddened friend. He too also had many questions, but he also knew that his questions weren’t that impressive or really that important. It didn’t take long for the dust to kick up around them as the shuttle landed. Cortez had been quickly briefed, but still gave a smile and a nod to Shepard as he was being helped into the Kodiak.
“Welcome back, sir,” the Pilot said before taking off. Shepard continued to hold his chest as Kaidan sat protectively next to him in silence. No one spoke during the entire flight back to the Normandy until they rushed the battered Leader into the med bay. Dr. Chakwas promptly locked everyone out of the room to stabilize Shepard’s condition, leaving the remaining three in an awkward stance in the Commons area. Naturally, all eyes were on Shiro, who seemed lost in thought while staring off into the distance.
“Shiro? Shiro!” Kaidan snapped, gaining the man’s attention. The ex-Agent had no idea how long he had been thinking when he finally noticed Kaidan speaking. “Answer the damn question.”
“What? What did you ask?”
Sighing, Kaidan rubbed his sore eyes and forehead. They were still red from the tears and stress over today’s events. “I said…what’s your relationship with Shepard? And ‘Sol’? He even called you, ‘John’.” The hand that Shiro had over his mouth moved out of the way as he stood up straight.
“That…,” he started to answer, but sighed before he could finish. He too then stopped to rub his forehead before his hand gestured giving up. “It’s complicated and it’s not my place to talk about. Ask Sol when he…” but Shiro’s answer was interrupted as the Doctor came out of the room. She walked calmly over them with a small smile.
“That man never ceases to amaze me. Listen, the truth is that he doesn’t want to speak to you.” While she looked at Kaidan at first, she then looked to the other two. “Any of you, but I told him to stop being a baby. Kaidan, you can go in.” A hand then went to the Major’s shoulder. “Take all the time you need. Then rest of you, go…clean guns or whatever it is you do.”
Kaidan relaxed a bit and nodded. “Thanks Doc.” He then moved to walk into the medical lab, leaving everyone else behind. On the bed and covered with a white blanket was a stripped down Commander in just his black underwear. Surprisingly enough, he was actually sitting up with his ribs taped in place with some sort of elastic metal wrap. There was also an IV in his right forearm. Miranda had been moved into Liara’s old room to continue her rest. The first thing Kaidan noticed was that Shepard’s shiny, black hair had grown longer. It also looked a bit thicker. The tips of his bangs, that use to stop just before his eyebrows, were now brushed to the side and nearly covering one of his eyes. The rest sort of hung where it wanted to, covering the tips of his ears and the back of his neck. The usual beard stubble was also thinner than normal, which allowed for Kaidan to see that Shepard’s face wasn’t exactly as he remembered.
Well, to be more accurate, it was closer to what he remembered when they had first meet those few years ago, but it was now even smoother than that. It finally dawned on Kaidan that Shepard had somehow gotten younger. The deep creases around the dark eyes were all but gone entirely, even the smile lines around his lips had faded. It was even more obvious from before as Kaidan pulled up a chair to sit down next to him. The Major had managed to change out of his armor while waiting, but was carrying the N7 hoodie instead of wearing it. This left Kaidan in a tight black t-shirt, which technically still belonged to his lover. While Shepard didn’t exactly look at Kaidan as he came in, he did look down at the hoodie when it was presented to him on his lap.
“I…thought you’d want this back,” Kaidan said, breaking the silence.
“…Thanks.” In a sad attempt to make things less awkward, Kaidan elevated his voice to sound less sad.
“So, this is weird, right? Last time we were in a room like this, I was the one in the bed and you were sitting here scolding me.”
“I wasn’t scolding you…”
“Sure you were! About Horizon and…everything.”
“That wasn’t scolding, I was just seeing if we were okay.”
“So…are we?”
“Are we what?” Shepard finally looked to Kaidan then. He noticed how close the Major was and the weeping expression upon his face. The tears had come back as Kaidan reached out to put his hands on top of the Commander’s.
“Are we going to be okay?” The question combined with Kaidan’s choked up tone of voice made Shepard look away again. “Why do this, Shepard? Why hide from me? And what’s with you and Shiro? What’s the relationship between you two because if it is what I think it is, just tell it to me straight.”
The Commander made a face at the accusation. “What? No! It’s nothing like that!”
“So what is it then, huh? He’s calling you some weird name and you’re calling him your first name. I just…” Kaidan paused as he lowered his head. More tears started to come from his eyes as he held Shepard’s bare hand against his own face. This time however, instead of pulling away, it caressed the skin of Kaidan’s check. The Major turned unconsciously to nuzzle into the palm, feeling ashamed that he couldn’t control himself. Shepard’s lips parted to speak, but he bit down on them the first time. Finally with a sigh, he decided to be honest for the first time since their unplanned reunion.
“My…name wasn’t always John Shepard, Kaidan. That was the name I used when I joined the Alliance. My birth name was Solaris Redford. Um, Sol, for short… and the one you call Shiro’s real name is actually John Shepard.” With widened eyes, Kaidan looked up surprised.
“You changed your name? Why would you take the name of someone else?”
“Because,” Shepard paused as he pulled his hand away slowly. “He’s my dad.”
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Mass Effect 3: Aftermath