Author's Note: Greetings, everyone! I recently had the joy of playing the new ME3 demo, and was totally captivated, in every sense of the word. Needless to say, this got my creative juices flowing, and I decided to pop this little one-shot out of my brain before it drove me crazy.
I admit, it still may need some work. I've edited a bit, but haven't had time for re-writes. Like I said, I just had to get this out. Re-writes will come later.
If you've played the demo, you'll probably understand the situation. If you haven't played the demo (You Need To!) you will most likely still be able to see what's going on, though it might not make much sense.
Lastly, I chose an OC to be the main character for this little drabble because, frankly, I'm tired of seeing things from the view of our favorite characters. I wanted to explore how outsiders within the Mass Effect universe see and interact with our beloved heroes. So, without further ado, I give you the fic.
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Streaks of red. Bursts of orange. Explosions catapult her from the chair and fling her across the room like a puppet. Malevolent blackness clouds her vision. A wretched, piercing scream penetrates her ears like a knife. The icy floor shakes, threatening to crumble beneath her.
She tries to stand, knees quivering and stomach about to burst, and topples to the ground once again. Her face meets the floor before her hands do, a sharp pain coursing through her head like lightening. A hot, metallic taste meets her tongue.
Mouth throbbing, she spits.
Blood.
"Gray!"
She widens her eyes, searching for voice's owner. Cloud and dust and blurry figures distort her field of vision. Another explosion sounds, louder and closer this time. The building quakes, and she grips a shattered support beam to stop herself from sliding along the floor.
"Chief Gray!" This time, a brawny hand wraps around her arm. She recognizes that hand – that touch, that warmth – instantly. "Come, Gray! On your feet!"
That's right. Gray. She shakes her head fiercely, hoping that the action will clear the away the fuzzy specks of confusion. Operations Chief Serah Gray, of the 1st Spec Ops Biotic Company. That was her.
Finally finding her voice, Gray coughs. "Major-" she starts, but stops herself to halt the steady flow of blood dribbling from her mouth. With assistance, she manages to fumble to her knees. "-Alenko..what's happening?"
Kaidan Alenko pulls his face closer to hers, and through the thick smoke she can make out his familiar features. "Reaper attack," he says solemnly, and though it sounds like a sick joke, she knows it isn't by the way his lips are tightened into a grim frown. "Come on, soldier, quick." He loops an arm under her shoulder and hauls her up. "On your feet! Let's move before this place falls down on our heads!"
His body disappears into the haze and she jogs after him, trying desperately to recover from nausea and dizziness while still keeping up with her superior. By the time her senses return, she forces her legs into a sprint, the information of "This is a Reaper attack," being barely digested properly.
They emerge into a hallway that should have had a ceiling but no longer does. Gray juts her chin upward, mouthing "That's a...Reaper," with chapped lips cracking and jaw dropped.
Alenko slows his pace a bit and slaps a pistol in her shaky hand. "Come on, Chief," he urges, giving her belt a rough tug of encouragement. "We gotta move!"
Sweaty hands fumble with the weapon. "A pistol?" They hurdle over a collapsed pillar and quicken their sprint. She spares a second, squinty-eyed glance upwards, the sun blackened out by the looming, insect-like monstrosity-of-a-ship, and the sky infected like a plague with thousands more. "Those are Reapers, Major!" she shouts, as if he doesn't know. Alenko ignores her and just keeps running, past the scattered bodies of the dead and those still clinging to life. He doesn't stop to help them, so neither does she. "We're being attacked by Reapers and you hand me a pistol?"
"If you want to fight that thing, be my guest," Alenko replies coolly. The building is collapsing around them now, and she tries unsuccessfully to dodge the falling pieces of ceiling and wall and...bodies? A severed arm smacks the ground beside her as the barracks continues to crumble. She wants to tell her Major that they need to get out right now, but her burning lungs allow to her to do little more than breathe. She doesn't know where he's going – she doesn't know if he knows where he's going – but she trusts him, and that's enough.
At long last they emerge into the outside world, finding the scene infinitely grimmer than it was inside the barracks. Gray curses and thinks she'd rather be back indoors. "I bet it's safer back in there," she mumbles. In the distance, one of the skyscraping communication towers topples, and she swears she can feel the waves of reverberations as it meets the Earth.
"It's not our job to be safe."
She sees it now, the only thing that could possibly be their destination. A glimmering beacon of hope, the Normandy SR-2 rises into view as the pointed bow of the famed vessel makes a beeline for their position. Alenko fumbles with his comm set and mumbles something she can't make out.
It's not much, but it's definitely better than being stranded ground-side with a damned pistol and a tight-lipped Major. The Normandy swoops down to their rescue, and they clamber hastily up the landing, hoping to each and every god, deity, and higher-power that the swarm of Reapers doesn't notice the action.
She breathes a sigh of relief that comes too soon – because at last, she thinks she's safe. The knight and white horse have come to rescue, and they'll live to fight another day. Although, with Alenko around, things never go as planned. He soon has the ship set on a course to retrieve Admiral Anderson and that traitorous, should-be-dead terrorist Jane Shepard.
She must have a horrified look in her eye, because Alenko grips her shoulder and points out the viewport. "We're going to get through this, Gray," he assures. "We've just got one more stop to make, just right there."
A terrible urge to be snide grips her, but she forces it back with considerable effort. Oh, right there? Just right there, beneath that hulking monster from a children's tale? The one that just destroyed half a city? That's all? She wishes that he would have left her there in the barracks to begin with, instead of forcing her along on this expedition fit for an insane adrenaline junkie.
The Normandy descends once again. Buildings topple dangerously close-by, and unidentifiable shrapnel rains from the sky in a fiery storm. Nevertheless, the ship sits, hovering like a sitting duck, while far too many words are exchanged for Serah's taste. In the end, a reinstated Commander Shepard joins the party while Anderson chooses to stay behind and lead the fight on Earth.
She would rather have it the other way around. She would rather have a gruff Alliance hero than a glorified fraud. But in this sick twist of fate, it is Shepard who leaps for the ramp instead of an honest, trusted man of honor.
And amidst all the chaos, amidst the destruction of her home and the screams of the martyrs and the spiral dance of countless ships plummeting to their doom, Serah notices only one thing: the way he looks at her.
When Commander Jane Shepard is helped aboard her vessel, surrounded by old friends and new comrades, her eyes pull to his and only his, and the brief glance they share lasts only a moment but feels like a lifetime.
So that's why Alenko risked coming to her rescue.
In that short moment, Serah knows: there's something there. There's something between them, something more than a lifetime of shared memories and trials and missions and hardships. There's something that allows the famed war hero and the biotic to forget the catastrophe swirling around them; there's something that offers comfort and relief during the disaster that's threatening to swallow everything they know.
In one look.
There is passion, there is understanding. In one look, there is love.
The landing ramp ascends, and Gray watches as some sort of particle beam emerges from the Reaper's underbelly and eradicates a pair of transport shuttles in less time that it takes her to blink. Glancing over her shoulder, her eyes follow Alenko's figure as he steadies a staggering Shepard.
In that one moment, the only thing Serah Gray feels is jealous.
*Author's (Final) Note: Well, there it is. I'd love to hear what you guys think, especially those of you who have played the demo! I haven't written anything in quite some time, so this was rather refreshing. Depending on my inspiration and imagination, I may turn this into a series of one-shots. Let me know what you think, please – especially if I should continue, or leave it as is. Thanks for reading!