Disconnect
One
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As the reapers lay waste to the galaxy, Commander Shepard rushes to rescue his sister from war-torn Earth. But is there a place on the Normandy for a civilian, and does she even want one at all? AU Shepard/Garrus.
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Disclaimer: This author in no way profits from the writing of this story. All characters, dialogue, or other referenced material from the Mass Effect trilogy belong to Bioware.
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This is a story about love, family, and friendship, and about different types of strength. It's about accepting who you are and loving yourself. I hope you enjoy it. Please read and review!
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The day the reapers hit Earth was utterly unremarkable in every way. Jane Shepard rose with the sun and drank coffee at her kitchen table, as she always did. She checked the news vids for something on her brother, like each day for the past six months. She drove to school and prepared her lessons.
The bell rang at eight-thirty, the same as it always did. She taught seven classes, collected two hundred pages of homework, and broke up two fistfights. Nothing unusual, not for this school. She'd always liked a challenge.
Like every other day, students gathered in her room after the final bell, some to get help with their schoolwork, some because they had nowhere else to go. As long as the students behaved themselves, she never minded.
The vibrations came first, like the feel of a subway train running beneath their feet. Next came the sound, that deep, awful blast that filled each heart with fear. The classroom went deathly still for one solitary moment, and then there was a sudden rush to the window.
There were gasps and murmurs, a whispered argument about bad drugs. Jane, moving slowly, was the last to the window, already half-sure and dreading what she'd see.
She'd never seen one before, only a few captured frames from the battle of the Citadel. But the moment she saw their silhouettes against the skyline, a poisonous fear coiled deep in her belly. "Reapers," she whispered, and her fingers tightened into fists.
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Jane had three young teachers, nineteen terrified students, and no outside communications.
As her students would say, a clusterfuck.
She might opt for the more elegant 'pandemonium' or perhaps simply 'chaos', but the result was the same. She had over twenty people in her charge in the middle of a reaper invasion.
At her order they barricaded the doors and set up camp in the cafeteria to wait for aid, but Jane didn't hold much hope that the Alliance would come to the rescue of a single inner-city school. The other teachers were not of much help to her—one had already fallen victim to hysterics, only calmed by the ministrations of a student nearly ten years her junior. Every fall they would send over these young, bright-eyed teachers, but none of them understood what awaited them here. No one taught at this school long, no one but the eternally stubborn Jane Shepard.
The students were far more useful in a crisis than their teachers, though Jane wished it wasn't so. The children she taught had seen more hardship before they reached high school than many saw in a lifetime. It was part of the reason she was here, and why she fought so hard for them. And she would fight for them still, to keep them from having to go out there and do it on their own.
She was their last line of defense, and she would endure.
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John Shepard left Earth knowing that his sister was down there among the dying.
He'd lived on the streets, survived the Skyllian Blitz, flown into the galactic core, died in space, committed genocide—and somehow this was still the hardest thing he'd ever done. He gave the order with a heavy heart, ignoring the strange looks Vega and Alenko sent his way.
I'll come back for you, he whispered to the receding image of Earth. I won't abandon you, Jane.
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Five days.
Jane Shepard had spent five days holed up in a high school cafeteria with a group of rowdy, terrified students. Twice she'd ventured out for food and news, armed with a chef's knife and a small handgun thoughtfully provided by one of her students.
If they got out of this alive, she was going to have a long talk with her students about the definition of a 'no tolerance' policy.
But getting out alive seemed less and less likely as the days passed. The neighborhood was burning, and no one came for them.
Bombed-out homes and flaming ruins lined the streets, and anytime she saw people, reaper creatures wouldn't be far behind. Her first sighting of a husk was two blocks from the school, dragging away a grown man screaming. There were others she had no name for—the burning men, the gaping maws with a hundred heads, the tall and bulbous eating the dead from the streets.
Sneaking through the shadows, Jane found her own home mostly intact, and dug out a few prized possessions and a military radio her brother had given her. She couldn't remember whether it was legal for her to even own such a thing, but that seemed to matter little in the face of imminent destruction. All that mattered was getting her kids out of there.
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Days continued to pass with no change but for the rising panic of the people around her. Three times a day she would put out a distress call on the Alliance channels. Three times a day she received no response.
On the night of the ninth day, a voice came on the radio that she thought she might never hear again.
"Janie? Jane, please tell me you've still got the radio."
She clamored for it, hanging onto the device like a lifeline. "John?"
"Jane! It's me. Are you alright?"
For the first time since they were children, Jane Shepard broke down in tears.
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