On the Path to Repentance
"You know, what if Shepard isn't dead?" Kaidan turned around, lowering the memorial plaque which held Shepard's name. The Normandy crew exchanged glances with each other, some looked hopeful while others looked skeptical. A few just glanced sympathy towards the man who lost the heroine he loved.
"I mean, I know it's a long shot and with the Citadel being damaged and everything, but what if?"
"Do you really think that's even possible?" Garrus chimed in. "I'm not sure exactly where we're at and are we even able to return to Sol?"
"Maybe," Kaidan replied. "The Normandy might be damaged, but it looks like it's salvageable. If we make a few tweaks, then maybe we can crawl our way to Sol using the ship's FTL system." The crew just stared. The final push to stop the Reapers, as well as EDI's sudden death took it's last toll on everyone and the exhaustion just hit them like a tidal wave.
"We have to try! I'm not going to give up. She wouldn't!" The crowd stood silent, not sure if they were willing to give their hopes up again. They all hoped severely that Shepard would come out victorious and alive. While the former was half true–since she didn't actually walk out–the latter was at least unclear. Everyone had assumed that their Commander was killed due to the explosion that took place at the Citadel, especially the center. Any logical person would conclude that she couldn't have survived. But love is a powerful thing. Love makes it harder to give up hope that a person whom they cared the most deeply would still be alive.
While the crew of the Normandy were exhausted, they realized that they hadn't completely given up hope either. Maybe it was Kaidan's desperation, which could be mistakenly read as enthusiasm, but they were ready to fix the ship and find the person who commanded it.
"Alright, let's move." Joker paused for a moment, still trying to wrap his head around the death of EDI. "For Shepard."
It seemed unreal. The war was over and the Reapers were gone. Earth was going to take a very long time to heal, both the planet itself and its residents. As the Reapers collapsed and the husks dissolved, the people of the galaxy wasn't sure what was going to be their next move. People knew of course, but how exactly would they carry it out? Admiral Hackett of the Alliance Military was the first to give instructions on what to do.
As the orders were handed out to the Alliance, Earth had its first task on the road to recovery: setting up a shelter, gathering supplies and looking for survivors. An Alliance Marine company were ordered to scout the Citadel and recover any survivors, including Shepard.
The Citadel had almost been completely obliterated. As squads were searching, many of the people were skeptical if they were ever going to find anything or anyone. Within a few hours of the search, some were already able to find survivors. More dead bodies were found, but that was expected considering the circumstances.
A specific platoon were ordered to investigate the Citadel's center, where the Crucible was docked. Most members couldn't really tell exactly what had happened prior to the Crucible's launch. The remnants of the docking area was destroyed due to the explosion and there was no oxygen to contain any survivors.
About a week past since the start of the search, people had begun to lose hope that they would find Shepard alive, if not at all. It wasn't until one squadron had detected a living organism in the vicinity of the Citadel's center that people's hope had started to resurface.
The damage to the Normandy was less than what most of its crew had expected. While some of the damage was physical, most of it was due to a lack of energy to power the ship. Thankfully, the ship still had enough alternative fuel to travel for a couple of weeks. Hopefully, enough to get to the Solar System. As they headed to Earth, the crew started hearing reports of a possible survivor about 60 kilometers near where Shepard was last heard through a distorted radio frequency. A wave of hope spread through out the Normandy, thinking of the possibility of Shepard being the survivor.
Hopefully, they were right.
Author's Note: Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this! I'll be completely honest. I don't really have any experience in writing fiction, save for a creative writing class and some fabled personal attempts. I'm not a writer and don't really plan on being one. I decided to write this because even though the Extended Cut was an improvement, it still didn't meet my expectations and it ended up opening old wounds. I guess I'm one of the few who wanted to see a more in depth conclusion about Shepard's fate in "High EMS Destroy Ending" and a reunion. This is how I'm coping with it.
The first few chapters will be short due to may lack of experience, but also it's the first chapter, which is mostly an introduction.
I said "hope" a little too much in this chapter, but the entire trilogy is basically about hope, so it should even out. ;)
My writing tends to be a little choppy, so hopefully I'll be able to work on that and improve in future chapters.
Just a bit of warning, this story is going to contain a lot of angst since the story is about guilt. But I promise, it will NOT always stay angsty!
Anyway, this is my first attempt at writing so place a little bit of sympathy on the noob! But, constructive criticism is encouraged too. :)
Thanks again!