Disclaimer Time! I don't own bioware, nor it's characters, nor it's uh, scenery. I just write about it to express my undying love.
Missing.
Chapter 1.
There was a knocking at her door, and at three in the morning that was an unexpected thing. It also didn't bode well for who was calling. The knocking continued incessantly until she finally got up and pressed the button to open her apartment door. Even then it seemed she would get no respite.
"Shepard." Admiral Hackett began as he walked into her apartment, apparently in too much of a rush to say hello. But it wasn't the first time, so she didn't really mind. "I have an important mission for you. Top priority, and we need to go immediately." It was at that moment she switched on the lights, showering her somewhat empty living room with light and temporarily blinding herself in the process. After blinking a few times and rubbing her eyes, she turned around to see Hackett looking at her with an almost bemused face.
Glancing in a window nearby, she saw why.
Black hair sticking out at all different angles, eyes droopy and barely focused while the grey sweat pants she wore to bed seemed to have gotten a mind of their own and pulled themselves up to expose half of her calf's. Looking back to the Admiral, she all of a sudden felt terribly underdressed. He seemed to think so too judging by his expression - which she didn't appreciate in the slightest.
"It's three in the morning Admiral, what do you expect?" He shrugged, which she took as an invitation for her to continue speaking. "So what were you saying about a top priority mission?" She stifled a yawn.
All at once the Admirals mood changed; he straightened up, his jaw clenched, while all trace of amusement vanished from his face. A horrible dooming feeling hit her when she saw the man's grave expression, one that she could put down to only two things - the Reapers were here, or the Reapers were on their way here. From the lack of screaming and giant hulking monsters destroying everything in sight, she guessed the latter. Though that still wasn't good. Far from it.
And just like his had - her mood immediately turned serious. She may not be a Commander anymore, but she was still Shepard. And she knew how much of a threat the Reapers were.
"How far off are they sir?"
"How far off are what?" Hackett asked, frowning at the same time that she did. It took her a moment to hesitantly answer, and even then she had began to doubt her initial assumpation.
"…The Reapers, sir?" Understanding dawned on Hackett's face, but he quickly shook his head. She wasn't sure whether that was a good or bad thing. Though it did mean that the destruction of the universe had been postponed a little longer.
"No, it's not the Reapers." She sighed with relief. "Not entirely at least." As she looked at him, that ominous, dooming feeling came back again, worse than ever.
"Top priority?" She asked, and he nodded his head.
"Have to leave immediately?" Again; her answer was a nod. Taking a long, hard look at Hackett, then to her appearance - she made a quick decision.
"…I'll go get my coat."
In the end she grabbed a hat as well as a coat, in the hopes that she could just hide her tangled mess of unruly hair underneath it. But even she could see the bits sticking out at odd angles from beneath it, so she knew her plan had completely failed.
She and Hackett were seated opposite each other on an otherwise empty shuttle, travelling to the Alliance headquarters in Vancouver. It was fortunate that the Alliance had chosen to put her under house arrest in a block of apartments, for if not then it would have been an awfully long journey.
As the shuttle began to slow (meaning they were at their destination), she caught another glimpse of the Admirals expression. Where in her apartment it had been serious and grave, it was now deceptively calm.
Too calm. Enough for her to realise he was trying to hide how he really felt, which she never expected the Admiral to need to do. For some reason that worried her more than not knowing why she was needed in the first place. If it was making the Admiral nervous, then it must be extremely serious.
And she was no physiologist, but even she could tell the man was getting progressively more agitated the closer they got to their destination.
The shuttle pulled to a stop, while it's doors opened almost immediately afterwards. They were out and walking in an instant, heading to somewhere that only the Admiral knew of. She was walking blind, even more so because all the lights in the shuttle bay were off. But what could you expect so early in the morning? Though it did make her wonder how exactly Hackett was managing to get around without walking into something, where she had already tripped on a cable or three.
The two travelled in silence; him focused and marching hurriedly forwards, and her stumbling to keep up with him, while constantly having to sidestep to avoid stubbing her toe or hitting something again.
After what seemed to be the longest (and darkest) journey of her life; they reached an elevator, which she hadn't expected at all. So, she found herself marching straight into it, much to her embarrassment. Why was it that she was so uncoordinated this morning? She put it down to being rudely awoken hours before she was usually conscious.
Hackett didn't even seem to notice her blunder though, and when they stepped into the elevator and began to shoot up - she could see why. That mask of his was beginning to crack, and the first signs of his true feelings were showing; agitation, and a fear within his eyes.
What had happened, it was bad enough to make even the great Admiral Hackett nervous. That made her more concerned than she dared admit.
When the elevator doors finally opened, they opened to a scarcely lit hallway with only a single door closed at the very end. It didn't help the situation feel any less ominous. Although the door was shut, voices - even from where she stood - could be heard from behind it. There was some sort of argument going on, though she couldn't distinguish between who and about what.
After stepping into the room after the Admiral; those voices - that were near enough shouting at each other - turned out to belong to Liara, and - to her discontent - Councillor Udina. Never had she felt such completely opposite feelings in the exact same instant.
But the two didn't even notice her when she walked in, so caught up in their argument that they were. And while she shifted into the room quietly, the Asari and the aged man continued to throw blows at each other.
"And your expecting us to trust your word? The word of an Asari?" As she slipped in beside Liara, the asari threw up her arms in frustration.
"Why would I lie about something like this?" Udina glared, or smiled. It was hard to tell with him.
"I don't know, perhaps you just want another chance at glory. Or maybe you just want to give the Alliance yet another problem to deal with!" It was at that exact moment that Udina finally noticed Shepard herself, and the man didn't even bother to hide his groan of disgust. So much so being civil.
"Speaking of problems - what are you doing here? I thought we got rid of you when you were imprisoned."
"I was put under House Arrest Udina. There's a difference. If I was imprisoned then I would have a guard following me when I went to the toilet, which I definitely don't."
"Of all the examples you could give, you chose that one?" Liara asked, while Shepard herself just shrugged. A small smirk appeared on the asari's face. "I see being baby sat by the Alliance for three months hasn't changed you."
"Nope." She answered with, making a point to making a popping sound on the 'p'. In truth she was just happy to have someone to talk to, as under House Arrest she could only speak with her guards for so long, and talking to herself was the first step of insanity. And she refused to be officially crazy. What she said now was just her making up for three months of being completely socially deprived. Even arguing with Udina was a welcome change to silence.
Someone then cleared their throat suddenly, and all at once Shepard's mood soured once more. She took back the part about welcoming an argument with Udina. Before saying anything or doing anything, she took a moment to glare icily at Udina from across the table, that sat in the centre of the barely lit room.
What was it with the lighting? Had the Alliance ran out of money to pay the electricity bill?
"That doesn't answer my question of why exactly you are here. From what I understand your not even a Commander anymore. I didn't think disgraced Alliance officers were permitted to be privvy to important Alliance intel." It was a good thing that she was too exhausted to do anything, as if not then the Councillor would have found a book being hurled at his head. She settled with glaring instead, though it didn't really help.
Her mood quickly plummeted from bad to worse, at the speed that only the Councillor could create. At best the two of them had never gotten along, and ever since Anderson had stepped down as Councillor in favour of Udina, the brash old politician had just gotten even more irritating and unbearable. And on top of it he even had a marginal amount of power now, which made him egoistic as well as brash. He couldn't really get much worse.
The only time he acted pleasant to her was when he wanted something, but he didn't do that often anymore. Ever since it became quite clear that she wasn't falling for any of his manipulative tricks.
The two of them were still shooting glares at the other when some else cleared their throat and distracted them. That someone was Admiral Hackett, his expression now bordering on desperate. She all of a sudden felt rather guilty for getting caught up in her annoyance, since she was here for a reason. One which was troubling Hackett greatly.
"This matter is too important and too urgent for the two of you to be arguing. Shepard is here by my orders, if that's a problem then I suggest you leave now Councillor Udina." She did want to laugh at the expression of the shot down Udina, but resisted. It wasn't the right time to be acting a child. Maybe later.
"Your all here for a reason, one which I fear is becoming an increasingly dire situation." It was then, as Hackett took a moment to stare individually at everyone present, that she noticed the other Alliance Admirals standing in the room, all standing straight and properly dressed in their Admirals attire. In her old brown coat, black hat and battered shoes - it was no wonder that everyone was looking at her like she was some sort of homeless beggar that had found it's way off the streets.
Hackett continued, which she appreciated. Everyone would stop staring at her. In theory anyways.
There was a pause before he continued, and in that short moment her stomach felt hollow and her throat began to dry.
"Anderson's missing." A few hushed murmurs of surprise ran through the Admirals, but it was her who spoke up first, her voice wavering and her throat completely dry.
"Missing sir? Since when? Where?" Now she understood why Hackett was so worried. That dooming feeling she had very quickly turned to terror. For Anderson's safety. For what might have happened to him.
Admiral Hackett glanced at her, his eyes betraying even more panic that her own.
"He's been missing since his flight into Vancouver yesterday never arrived."
"-And we can find no trace of his ship either." Liara cut in suddenly. "-Nor any wreckage or signs of a battle. We can't even trace the last place that the ship was docked at." Her blood ran cold. Liara knew everything, absolutely everything about the galaxy, so why couldn't she find this information out? Nothing escaped the Asari's knowledge anymore, which was why Shepard worried so much now.
If not even Liara knew what had happened, then what hope did they have of ever finding Anderson?
Her mind ran through all the possibilities, all the ideas she could think of that would explain what had happened. None made sense though, especially since Liara was just as in the dark as everyone else.
If slavers or mercenaries had attacked Anderson's ship, then someone would have reported it to Liara. Even an attack by Cerberus wouldn't have gone unnoticed by one of the Asari's agents.
That left Shepard with nothing. No ideas. No explanations.
Nothing.
She finally sighed, regretfully accepting that brooding over all the impossible possibilities wasn't going to help the situation. Dropping her head down, she leaned over the table and gripped the edge so tightly that her knuckles turned white. What were they going to do?
What could they do?"
"Well," She finally said, breaking the silence (but not the building tension). "Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do?" When she next looked back up, she was shocked to see everyone staring at her. Even Udina. Admiral Hackett met her gaze, his expression somewhat calmer than before.
"Yes Shepard, we have a plan." A ghost of a smile fell onto Hackett's face. "Our plan is you."
Author's Note.
If I've made any errors then I'll be happy to correct them if you point them out. I just need to get this posted before I change my mind. Ha.
So hey, long time no write. Been sitting on too many ideas for too long so I think my brain might have overloaded and died. But somehow I managed to get this written, and I'm (mostly) happy with how it's turned out. Of course I would absolutely LOVE to know what you guys think.
If you hadn't guessed, then this story is an AU. And I even have the original description still that I wrote when I first came up with this idea;
An AU set in the awkward space between ME2 and ME3. When Admiral Anderson is reported missing, it is up to Shepard to find him. Only problem is; the alliance still doesn't fully trust her. To make sure she doesn't do any funny business, one of their top ranking soldiers is sent along with the former spectre. Only problem is - that soldier is Major Kaidan Alenko.
Well, until next time!
If you would take the time to leave a review (even if you just want to tell me how terrible my grammar is!) then I would very much appreciate it.
Thank you, and have a great time UntilIEventuallyUpdateThis! :D