Chapter 1 - Reaching Out
Eternity's Struggle

Eternity's Struggle, the sequel to A Glimpse of Eternity, is a complication of short stories, letters and life-snapshots that are sprinkled throughout the events of Mass Effect 2 following both Commander Kiara Shepard and Kaidan Alenko.

While they're in chronological order, its not the complete storyline of the whole of Shepard's missions as she prepares, then faces, the Collectors. There will be SPOILERS. Please read the Eternity Series - Disclaimer for more general information.

A lot of this writing expands the story that Bioware created for Shepard and Alenko's romance, adding in their personal thoughts, feelings and even altering or supplementing interactions to give a more rounded out and whole story. A lot of time, effort and tears have gone into these stories. I love Kaidan Alenko and his romance with Commander Shepard. I hope I have done the character's justice.

Disclaimer: I own only the parts of the individual personality of Commander Kiara Shepard I have developed inspired by the Commander Shepard in the gameplay. I do not own, nor hold any rights, to any of the characters, dialogue, storylines or any part in or of the "Mass Effect" game series. I want to thank Drew Karpyshyn and his staff of amazing writers, animators and voice actors. These are for fan enjoyment only and no money had been made on these stories.

Shepard's head swam with everything that had happened since she'd woken up in the Cerberus lab. It was hard to wrap her head around it all. The last thing she remembered before waking was drifting into space, her lungs burning as she suffocated. She remembered thinking about Kaidan as the void took her.

Kaidan.

Did he know she was alive? Had Cerberus let anyone know? By the information she'd managed to get between Jacob, Miranda and the Illusive Man, she doubted it. She doubted anyone knew she was alive.

The new Normandy was on its way to the Omega station and though she wanted to take her time to walk to ship and meet the new Cerberus crew of hers, there was something far more important she needed to do. Making her way up to her new cabin, she stopped and was taken aback at the sheer size of it. It was three times the size of her quarters on the old Normandy. She shouldn't have been surprised. From everything she'd seen, there were a lot of features this new ship had that the old hadn't. Cerberus clearly spared no expense when rebuilding the Normandy…or her.

Cerberus.

Her stomach twisted and grew sick at the thought of working with them. They were terrorists and monsters. All she wanted to do was dump this Cerberus crew and take off with the Normandy back to the Alliance. But she knew she couldn't. Even if the Alliance didn't think she was dead, by all the reports she'd seen, they were doing nothing to help the missing colonies. No one was except for Cerberus. The Collectors were ravaging tens of thousands humans and she had no doubt in her mind it was somehow connected to the Reapers.

The same Reapers the Alliance and the Council refused to acknowledge.

No, if there was any hope for stopping the Collectors and the Reapers from taking any more colonies, she had to stay where she was. At least she went into the arrangement with eyes open. They were a resource for her, nothing more, and she would use them without guilt. The enemy of your enemy is your friend and her greatest enemy was the Reapers. Cerberus had made it their purpose to become the enemy of the Reapers as well, so by default, she was forced to become their friend.

Walking over to her desk, she sat down at her terminal, her reason for retreating to her cabin still as important. She opened a new message and stared at the screen as she tried to find the words to say. Finally her fingers began moving as the words poured from her:

Subject: Alive
From: Kiara Shepard

To: Kaidan Alenko, Alliance Military

Kaidan,

I can't begin to fathom what its been like for you for the past two years. I don't have much time, and I'm not even sure if you'll get this, but I wanted you to know I'm alive. I don't entirely know how yet, but I'm alive. I guess I was dead, or in some kind of coma, for the last two years. All I know is I woke up recently and everything is…not how I remember leaving it.

I miss you Kaidan.

I have to go. Please respond back if you get this. I don't know what's happened for you over the last two years but I had to make sure you knew I was alive. I'm here, Kaidan, and the second I get the chance, I'm coming for you.

I still love you.

Signed,
Kiara Shepard

She looked at the words on the screen and they felt weak and pale compared to everything she wanted to say but she couldn't say more. Much of it was not something to be said in a message and the rest, she didn't want Cerberus spying on it. With a deep breath, she hit send and then sat back.

Something caught her attention next to the terminal and she looked over. It was a picture frame but it was empty of image. Reaching over, she picked it up and began to swipe through the commands to set one up. It didn't take long to find Kaidan's service picture as she uploaded it into the digital frame.

Shepard smiled when his face filled the screen, his amber eyes vibrant as ever. Her heart ached at the sight of him, everything inside her longing to see him again. His picture would help remind her who she was and what she was fighting for. She hoped it would bring some measure of strength to her that the man within the picture had always brought her, at least until she found him again.

"Soon, Kaidan…" she said softly, her fingers moving over the surface, "I'll find you soon."