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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
- 15
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- 17
“So, wait. You mean you were having threesomes when you were eighteen?” The question asked by Kaidan was enough to make Shepard stammer and stop mid-sentence just before getting into the second half of his story.
“And…what?” The red and black eyes got wide for a moment as they blinked in confusion. They then narrowed as an eyebrow arched. “Is that all you got from this story?” Shepard sounded offended, if not borderline angry. Here he was pouring his heart out retelling his life story that he never told a single other soul before, but all Kaidan seemed to be focused on was his teenage promiscuity.
“No,” responded the defensive Major as he closed his tired eyes with a sigh. “I get it. You were the son of some gang leader who got killed and taken in by a Cerberus Agent who, by the way, looks entirely too good for his age considering, but is that really what you were doing you were eighteen?” The response only caused Shepard’s eyes only further narrow.
“Well, technically I was still seventeen, but I don’t see how tha--”
“Do you have any idea what I was doing at seventeen?”
“Obviously not getting laid…,” smirked the Commander as he looked away with a smug expression upon his face. It was now Kaidan’s turn to shoot a nasty glare of annoyance.
“I was trying to survive Jump Zero. I didn’t have time to engage in…in…underage, premarital sex,” he huffed while leaning in the uncomfortable chair as his arms folded over his chest. Suddenly, Shepard started to laugh. It came out in a quick sputter followed by hearty, rib-hurting bellowing.
“Premarital? Really, Kaidan?” he chuckled, wiping a tear from his left eye as he looked in the Major’s direction once again. “I never heard you complain about all the premarital sex we were having.”
“Well, that’s different!” Kaidan started to laugh as well, happy to break some of the tension in the room. He also realized how ridiculous he was sounding, even though a part of him was completely serious about it. It wasn’t a surprise to him that Shepard grew up a normal, promiscuous teenage boy, but he would have never guessed that he had also participated small orgies. It was needless to say that Kaidan was feeling sexually threatened right about it.
“Oh? How?” Shepard asked in an attempt to be both clever and quip. “I don’t see a ring on this finger, Major.” Hold up his left hand, Shepard then pointed to his ring finger with the index from his right. It wiggled as well, just in case Kaidan didn’t catch the meaning.
“Well, it was hard to find the right moment to propose when we had a Reaper invasion!” Shepard only rolled his eyes playfully as he also chuckled about it. Still, after looking away, he thought back to that time in nostalgia. Joking aside, Kaidan did make a point.
“Yeah, you may have been right about that. There wasn’t really enough time to be normal, huh?”
“We have time now, Shepard.” The Commander looked down as his left hand was taken by the Major’s. One clasped over the other, covering Shepard’s fingers entirely and gave them a small squeeze. Still, Shepard’s smile began to slowly fade as he once again pulled away from Kaidan’s touch.
“I hope so,” he said softly before using the hand he pulled away to rub across his mouth as his throat cleared. “So, should I keep going or..?”
“Oh, right.” Kaidan then straightened his posture back to cross his arms again in an attempt to keep his hands to himself. “Yeah, sorry. Got a little sidetracked there. Please continue.” Shepard nodded, trying to think.
“Where was I? Oh right…”
"Steps have been taken, Agent."
John placed his fingers against his right ear, keeping his voice hushed as he spoke harshly to the Operator. “What have you done with my son?”
“The trainee has been taken to the Outpost for extraction. I suggest you come. Soon.”
Outpost 44 was a secluded water dock on the edge of the city that was sounded by the rusted war and oil ships from decades before. It was sort of a seafaring ship graveyard which housed the most desperate of criminal element from addicts to prostitution. It also was a quiet hideout for a few others who made their living in nefarious ways. A few miles underground, Solaris sat tied to a chair as he slowly regained consciousness underneath a dim and flickering overhead light. He could feel the blood from his head dripping into his eye as he was shaken awake.
“Sol. Sol! Wake up!’ The yelling caused his head to pound as his eyes started to open slowly. Everything was blurry and his ears were ringing, making the voice both unnaturally loud and heavily distorted. When it finally started to clear up, he noticed that his father standing in front of him.
“Dad?” His throat was dry as he attempted to speak as he felt his hands being untied. Once freed, he moved to touch the cut on his forehead where he remembered just enough to know that he was cornered and struck by some unknown masked man. Touching the open wound made the teenage boy flinch, but the pain shocked him enough into being a bit more aware. John helped Sol stand, but could barely move himself. As soon as the younger Shepard got to his feet, John wavered and slid to the floor. Surprised, Sol then looked down, as he was now feeling less disoriented, to finally notice the blood. John had multiple wounds all over his body and was bleeding profusely. Looking around, the boy then noticed all of the other bodies of what he presumed to be his attackers. They were full of bullet holes, biotic burn marks, and some had even been stabbed and sliced open in various places. There were also pieces of attack mechs scattered about, as well as an exploded heavy mech that was still smoking from being on fire in the center of the concrete room.
Frightened, Sol’s voice shook as he spoke while trying to help his dad up, but moving John’s body just made it worse. “What…What happened? Dad? Dad!” John had closed his eyes for a moment, but reopened them after being called.
“Listen…I’m not going to make it out of here. Damn bastards tried to get you with a heavy mech since they couldn’t catch me.” John held his bleeding side with a sigh and a smile. “Listen, I cleared the way. Take this.” With a bloody, shaking hand, he carefully tapped at his omni-tool to being an upload to Sol’s arm. “These are…directions,” John then coughed out. “And your birthday present.” The son then looked to see that the Phoenix upgrade was also being installed to his tool. It was just enough to bring the newly eighteen year old to tears. He also noticed that wasn’t just directions being uploaded. There were several megs of encrypted files as well as access to several bank accounts. “Sol, you have to leave town alright?”
“But dad, I can’t just…” Sol’s head hung in despair as the tears came out uncontrollably.
“Yes, you can. You need to leave now before the police get here. They’ll lock you up without any question and…I…” John had to stop, coughing up blood once again and curled up in pain on the floor.
“Go!” The dying man yelled. “Now!” Gathering his strength, Sol gave his father a final hug as tightly as he could while still cradling the broken body.
“I love you…,” he whispered before he stood up to run away. It was a desperate run that took everything in the boy’s power not to stop and turn back. John watched as his only child had mustered up the courage to do what was necessary before his eyes grew dark. Smiling, the head of white hair hit the floor as the overhead light finally flickered out. While running, Solaris had activated the map which he had acquired, but was otherwise running nearly blind out of the facility. He noticed several bodies and biotic scorch marks on the wall. He had seen the dead before, but even this was a bit much. He had to continuously run up rusted metal stairs and through abandoned hallways before finally making it outside into the sunlight now completely out of breath. He only had a few seconds before he then had to duck behind a wall as the local authorities arrived.
Turning to his left, Sol saw a chance to escape by scaling a metal fence to the other side after deactivating its electric defenses. Once again, the young man finally tasted freedom, but at what cost? He had no idea as to why he was kidnapped in the first place nor did he have a clue as to how his father managed to take down all those people and droids on his own. It didn’t matter really, because losing his family for a second time left Solaris heartbroken and empty. He was also still covered in blood, his father’s blood, a fact that he had to take care of before anyone else could find him. After wandering the coastline for a few hours, he managed to find a rundown hotel that didn’t bother asking any questions. He had the credits to pay for at least a few days under a false name, but all he really wanted was a shower. He knew that he couldn’t even go back to his own apartment, figuring that whoever was after him would be there. For the next several months, Solaris continued to leave the city behind while taking up work where he could under the name ‘John Shepard’ instead of Solaris.
A part of him wanted someone who was associated with his adoptive father to come and find him, but no one seemed to take the bait. It was December of the same year when Solaris, now John, stood in front of a recruitment center for the Alliance Military reading a sign and drinking a hot coffee while wrapped up in several layers of old clothes to keep warm. It was a call for the ‘best and brightest’ of future Engineers, which was meant to attract the students from a local university nearby. Curious, he walked in. Inside the clean office was a man at the front desk, dressed sharply in a blue and gold uniform. His job was simple: to filter out the prospective cadets from the schools nearby from the local bums in the area. Today, it looked like it was another bum looking for a place that would give three squares a day. “Ah, welcome. Let’s me just get the paperwork for the new grunts...,” the older black man spoke as he adjusted his glasses. As he reached for the typical sign-up sheets, the young man’s hand came on top of his.
“I’m here to be an Engineer.”
The Recruitment Officer paused, smiling to the point of nearly laughing. “And what sort of education do you have?” It was a question with an obvious answer.
“Formally?” There was a hesitation before answering. “I’ve never been to a regular school.”
“That’s what I thought…so let me just…”
“Wait, is there some kind of test? I was trained by one of the best and I promise you that I can pass anything you throw at me.” This bravado intrigued the Officer.
“Is that so? Alright then, young man. What’s your name?”
“It’s…John. John Shepard.”
“Alright, Shepard,” said the Officer, which was the first time someone simply referred to the boy by his last name. “You can take a seat over there and let’s see how you can on this placement exam. If you can pass the preliminaries, I will personally sign off that you start Engineer training. Deal?” Shepard smiled and nodded, eagerly taking the datapad.
“Yes sir. Deal.” Again, the older man laughed and sat back down. “You have two hours. Good luck, son.”
Shepard gave a firm nod before moving to take a seat down the hallway. As he walked, he had already begun tapping away at the pad. Near the end of the hall was a small blue chair in which he took a seat in, but only for about twenty minutes before coming back up to the desk. “Sir?”
“I’m sorry, lad. I can’t answer any questions, but you can give up and try again…”
“I’m finished. Here you go.” Shepard then slipped the pad onto the desk quietly and waited for it to be taken. Adjusting his glasses, the Officer looked at the pad and inserted a code to check the grade. Then he did it a second time to be sure.
“Who…did you say trained you?”
“My father, sir. He passed away recently. He wanted to make sure I didn’t end up in a gang so…”
“I see…Well, a deal is a deal. Welcome to the Alliance, Shepard. Let’s get you into a room to get your paperwork ready.” As the man placed the pad down, Shepard’s score still blinked on the screen; one hundred percent correct.
“So after that, I joined up with the Alliance and you know the rest,” Shepard said and gave an exhausted sigh as he leaned back against the pillow on the now raised back of the adjusted bed in the medical lab. Kaidan only laughed and shook his head.
“I can’t believe you got a perfect score on the Engineer entrance exam. I’ve seen that thing. Brutal.” Shepard just shrugged.
“It wasn’t that hard. I use to do security tweaks to for Volus merchants trying to hide their fabricated projections. Now that is a tough code to crack. A few routine questions on legal software was nothing.”
“But that doesn’t explain how Shiro…I mean, how John got out of there. You think Cerberus did a sweep after you got out?” Shepard turned to Kaidan before nodding.
“For all I know, the cops I dodged could have been on their payroll. Nothing surprises me about them anymore.” As Kaidan opened his lips to speak, the locked door of the med bay suddenly unlocked and opened itself, revealing Shiro on the other side. He stepped in without asking, letting the door close behind himself. Kaidan immediately stood to defend Shepard, but then felt like a jackass. Instead he walked up to the other Biotic while scratching the back of his head. Shiro looked surprised at a humbled Major, especially when the Spectre stumbled around an apology.
“Um, I’m sorry…about everything from before. If I would have known that you were…” It was awkward, at best, and forced Shiro to just nod.
“It’s fine, Kaidan. I…suppose I owe you an apology as well, on my son’s behalf at least.” A playfully angry glare was then shot at the Commander, who smiled back in return. “Major, I’d like a moment with him alone, if you don’t mind.”
“Ah, right. Right…,” Kaidan nodded, looking back to Shepard. The Commander gave a nod to him as well.
“Gather up the crew for a meeting in the debriefing room, Kaidan. I have a lot of explaining to do.” Again, Alenko nodded as he turned to leave. There was a relief in his chest that he hadn’t felt in months, along with butterflies in his stomach. He had to force himself to take this one step at a time. Yes, Shepard was back, but he had yet to explain both how and why. Outside in the mess hall, Liara and Kyo remained in various areas. Kyo had taken a leaning position against the wall near the kitchen as Liara paced back and forth near the tables. Once she noticed Kaidan, she hurried over to him in a panic.
“How is he? Is he going to be alright?” She took a hold of Kaidan’s hands in desperate need of an answer.
“He’s…going to be fine, Liara.” He then took a step away from her to put his fingers against an ear. “Joker, call Vega and Cortez for a meeting in the debriefing room. You too.”
“Oh, great. This is when he tells us about another world ending secret message he found and how we need to kiss our asses goodbye.”
“Not funny, Joker. Move your crippled ass.” Joker then sighed over the communications line.
“Be right there.”
In the debriefing room, the remaining crew of the Normandy stood around in an awkward stance as they mumbled amongst themselves. After waiting nearly fifteen minutes, the Commander walked in wearing his favoring hoodie that Kaidan returned while in the med lab, a white t-shirt, and a pair of black military-styled cargo pants. His longer hair was brushed to the side of his forehead as the room went silent upon his arrival. His adopted father walked in close behind, standing next to him as Shepard began to speak. The circle from left to right was Kaidan, Liara, Kyo, Miranda, Joker, Vega, Cortez, and finally Shiro standing to Shepard’s right.
Clearing his throat, the returned Commander finally addressed his crew. “I know you all have a lot of questions, so let me just clear some up now. Yes, I am Commander Shepard. No, I am not a clone. Yes, all of my memories are intact, which you can test me on later if you prefer, and no Vega, I will not have another pull-up contest with you,” he smiled to the Lieutenant. “I embarrassed you once already.” There was a low amount of laughter as Cortez playfully elbowed his friend.
“Ah, kick me while I’m down eh, Loco?” Vega said over the table, causing some more chuckles from the room. Shepard gave a nod before returning to his speech.
“There are a lot of things I wish to address to you all first before speaking with you individually. First, I would like to apologize for my deception. I’m sorry that I did that to all of you.” He stopped then to turn to Kaidan. “Especially you.” The Major turned his eyes to Shepard’s face and gave a nod with an approving smile. Shepard smiled back before continuing. “But I had good reasons, I assure you…So, I may as well start from the beginning. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re being hunted.”
“I KNEW IT!” Joker suddenly exclaimed. “There is NEVER any good news that comes from this room!”
“Calm down, Joker…,” Liara tried to coo as she came to the Pilot’s side. Joker had placed his face to his hand and sighed heavily.
“So what is it this time? A giant marshmallow man or something?” Shepard paused a moment before reaching over to tap at the digital keyboard display on the table in front of him. The holograph in the center of the table then projected an all too familiar image. Kyo, who had his arms crossed up until then, peered closer at what was being shown.
“That can’t be right, can it? That’s…That’s a God damn Reaper.”
The mumbles started again as Shepard stood there in silence for a second. “No,” he then stated. “It isn’t.” Kaidan looked surprised before it something dawned on him.
“No, that’s not a Reaper. That’s a Leviathan.”
“But that…,” Shiro began to stammer as he turned to look angrily at his son. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?!” He seemed unreasonably angry for the given situation and Shepard only raised an eyebrow.
“I was busy trying to break you out of that Cerberus lab. Sorry I skimped on the details a bit…” At that, Kyo then raised his own voice.
“What do you mean by that? I was sent there by Admiral Hackett because he got a SOS from Shiro.” Shepard sighed in frustration, moving a hand to his forehead.
“Okay, I leaked the information once I found out at Cerberus had my father in lock up. I sent that SOS so that Hackett would send a team down.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Miranda chimed in. “How did you even find out about that? Even I didn’t know he was locked up down there. If I would have known I…” It didn’t take long for the entire crew to start breaking out with their own questions, all speaking over one another. Shepard continued to rub his head before slamming both of his fists down onto the table.
“ENOUGH!” The room instantly became silent. “Okay, I’m trying to explain so…let me just start over.”
“What happened to you at the Catalyst, Shepard?” Kaidan asked softly as he took a step closer to the ticked off Commander. It was a question that was on everyone’s mind, to which they all nodded in agreement that they wanted an answer. Shepard looked to his lover for a moment and stared deep into those hazel eyes that he had missed so much. It calmed him enough to speak again.
“Alright, I’ll start from there.” Standing up straight, Shepard was quiet for a moment before he began to answer. “I didn’t make it to the beam. I got shot down by Harbinger, but something happened. I was hurt, badly, but alive. I shot through the remaining waves of Reaper forces before making it to the beam. Not sure how much time passed, but I woke up to Anderson’s voice.”
“How did you manage to survive a direct hit from a Reaper laser?” Liara asked as everyone else remained silent. Shepard just shrugged.
“To be honest, I have no idea. When I got to Anderson, the Illusive Man was there. He was covered in Reaper tech, talking about how he could control the damn things. Completely crazy, but he did have some indoctrination powers. He took over my body and pulled my trigger to...to shoot Anderson.” The crew then looked away sadly, especially Kaidan and Liara who remembered him fondly.
“But, he was still alive and I managed to break the hold of the Illusive Man, killing him. We sat there, Anderson and I, looking at Earth and planned on bleeding out together. He…went first and I was soon to follow.”
“But then Admiral Hackett managed to contact you. The Crucible wasn’t firing. I heard it on the coms as I was in the med bay,” added the Major. Shepard turned to him and nodded.
“Right. I was fading fast and didn’t understand what to do. I blacked out trying to access some kind of control panel and I woke up to …” Shepard paused as he looked down trying to remember with his hands upon his hips. “To be honest, I don’t know what it was really. It looked like a little kid but it was definitely the AI of the Citadel. It was the same AI that controlled the Reapers.”
“A little kid? That’s…creepy, yo,” Vega spoke to himself while trying to wrap his head around it. “I was on the ground with you and Kaidan when we were taking back Earth in that final push. I don’t remember seeing any Reaper little kids around there, thank God.” But Shepard then shook his head.
“It wasn’t a Reaper kid. It was like a holograph made to look like a little boy.”
“It was probably trying to make you feel sympathetic,” Shiro then said while looking away in thought. “AI’s can predict your thought patterns. If it showed you a vulnerable child, it was trying not to be destroyed.” Shepard was surprised at the answer, taking a moment to consider it.
“Yeah, that does make more sense than what I was thinking. At any rate, it gave me three answers to the Reaper invasion, two of which that sounded like complete bullshit. If EDI taught me anything, it was that an unshackled AI can lie.”
“Way to remember EDI, asshole.” Joker was obviously offended, but Shepard shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Joker. I didn’t mean it like that. EDI always was cracking jokes. They weren’t truthful and she had a free will of her own. Any option outside of killing the damn thing just sounded bogus…so I blew up its power source. There was an explosion and…”
“And?” Kaidan asked.
“And that’s it,” Shepard said, not really sure what else to say. “I don’t really know what happened after that.”
“Then the Crucible activated and destroyed the Reapers,” Liara continued.
“And the Mass Effect Relays,’ said Cortez.
“And all Artificial Intelligence…,” concluded a depressed sounding Pilot.
“But what happened to you, Shepard?” Kaidan asked again, trying to push the story.
Shepard turned to look at Kaidan again. “I don’t know. One minute my life was flashing before my eyes and the next…” There was a paused as the Commander’s palms rested on the table. “The next I’m being woken up while floating in some sort of medical tank.”
“Tank? I found Shiro in a medical tank too,” perked up Kyo.
“Woken up by who?” Liara pushed. Shepard then smiled and began tapping at his omni-tool.
“By some old friends. You two can come out now.” From his wrist emerged two round, glowing VI droids.
“I thought you’d never get around to us, Shepard,” said the teasing female voice of one of the droids
“Thank you, Shepard-Commander,” said the rougher male-like voice of the other.
The one with the softer voice then floated over the Joker, who stared at it blankly.
“Hello, Jeff.”
“…EDI?”
The second droid then moved in front of the very confused Major. “It’s good to see you again, Kaidan.”
“…Legion?”
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Mass Effect 3: Aftermath