Mass Effect 2: Moments

By: Shadow Chaser

Author's Notes:

I hope this to be the beginning of a series of one-shots and vignettes dealing with Shepard and the crew of the Normandy SR2. For reference, my Shepard is a female Paragon with hints of Renegade. I've played this Shepard twice through, one with a romance one while staying true to my ME1 love interest Kaidan so these stories will have on occasion the different romances or non-romances.

Story:

Title: Farewell

Timeframe: 20 minutes before arriving at the Omega 4 Relay

Shepard stared at the blinking cursor on her screen, wracking her brain to come up with something, anything, to at least write something before it was too late. She had been wondering if she should even send a letter to him, but a part of her knew that it would not be fair to Kaidan if she didn't. This would be her final missive to him, one way or another.

Kaidan deserved that much from her and so much more…

He deserved the chance to finally move on with his life instead of just partially moving on. He deserved to find another person who would cherish and care for him, who wouldn't jump headfirst into hell and die in the process. He deserved someone stable, not someone who really died two years ago and was reborn through a sickening process of cybernetics and synthetics.

Someone who was wholly human and most definitely someone who wasn't perceived as the enemy by former allies. She had realized it after the rush of emotions she felt seeing him on Horizon, protecting the colony. Though she had been initially hurt by his harsh words thrown at her on the colony, she had come to realize that in a way, he was right. She had changed a lot, not physically, but also mentally. The freedom Cerberus offered, not confined to red tape like being a Spectre or Alliance personnel was, gave her the opportunity to pursue whatever goals she deemed necessary to find a way to defeat the Collectors.

She had jumped at that freedom and went crisscrossing the galaxy, finding the best and the brightest. Even the Illusive Man gave her discretion whenever it was due and told her if she did not want to recruit whomever she did not want on the dossiers, it was up to her and no one else. The Alliance and even the Council would have ordered or strongly recommended to her that she recruit people of repute, not convicts or mercenaries or even an assassin.

Cerberus gave her a second chance at life and she knew what she needed to do…to say one last goodbye to Kaidan. To let him go when she should have done two years ago.

Shepard sighed and ran a hand through her short black hair before starting to type:

Kaidan,

This is not how I wanted things to end, but by now you probably know most of the details of my mission for Cerberus and humanity. If not, Anderson has all of the details. You should be able to choose your own life, don't get attached to mine.

I am glad I got the second chance to say goodbye. You were right on Horizon…I have changed a lot. I don't know what lies beyond the Omega 4 Relay, but I do know that whatever lies in your future, you will be strong.

Farewell,

Rinaran

She skimmed over the short letter once more before hitting the send button. Just then EDI's soothing voice came over the intercom.

"Commander, twenty minutes until we approach the Relay," the A.I. said quietly.

"On my way," she replied before getting up from her station, taking one last look at Kaidan's picture before heading to her locker and pulling out her armor. She had made her peace.

All that was left was the mission.

Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko stood at helm of the frigate Kyoto, staring at the galaxy map in front of him. Anderson and Admiral Hackett had forwarded him the latest details on attacks by the Collectors in the Terminus Systems. Ever since the Horizon mission had ended in a fiasco, he and his crew along with other patrols had been combing the Terminus System, following each lead they got, hoping that they could stop a Collector ship from attacking human colonies.

However, it had been fruitless so far and Horizon was pretty much the only colony with half of its population saved. His thoughts wandered briefly to Shepard and her ship, the rebuilt Normandy SR2, now completely independent of Alliance and Council control. They had not heard any news about the ship or her crew since Horizon, though Kaidan had received a short message from Liara T'Soni who said that Shepard had made a brief stop on Illium looking for the famed assassin Thane Krios and Asari Justicar Samara.

He had to admit, the team that Shepard was building was pretty impressive and he was slightly jealous of the freedom she had in pursuing the Collectors. Sometimes they had to cut through the red tape to get to a potential lead only to find that lead either dead or non existent.

He knew that she was capable of taking care of herself, but was still glad to see that at least Garrus had joined up with her once more. He had been too filled with anger at seeing her with Cerberus that he hadn't even gotten the chance to say hello to Garrus while they were on Horizon. Now, he regretted the chance to tell the turian to watch over Shepard.

His datapad suddenly beeped, telling him that there was an incoming text message and he glanced at it, hitting a few keys to bring up the message. The message was short and brief, but then again, he had long known of Shepard's brevity and succinct approach to any situation.

A frown formed on his lips as he read over the message one more time before closing it. Councilor Anderson had told him to wait for a signal from Shepard and he had wondered why. His former CO did not say anything except to just smile a little, making him wonder if Anderson had learned a little too much about politics from Udina. But it looked like Anderson was right; this was most definitely the signal that they had been waiting for.

"Communications, get me Councilor Anderson on the line along with Admiral Hackett," he barked over to the communications officer who nodded and immediately set about his request.

"Helm, bring us to the nearest relay and prepare to jump to the Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System," he turned to the helmsman, a young woman cut from the same cloth as Joker's class who nodded and started the Kyoto towards the nearest mass relay.

"Sir?" his second-in-command asked, walking up to him.

"Shepard's going into the Collector Base from the Omega 4 Relay. I plan to back them up," Kaidan replied, a grim smile on his face.

~END~