Welcome welcome! Jazz here, thanks for joining me on this journey~ I find it very exciting since this is the first ever fanfic I ever uploaded. So I'm a bit wary and curious as to what people think, hopefully enough people will like it for me to keep writing! Anyways, to get this out of the way; I don't own any of the characters from Mass Effect, the only character in this fanfic that is actually mine is Kayla. Have fun reading and please let me know what you think! =]

Walking through the hallway that would eventually open up to the lobby Kayla was fuming with anger. She loved her brother, but being the younger sibling wasn't something that worked in her favour. As she was about to enter the lobby she had to steady herself as the whole building started to shake. Gasps of surprises were heard all around her.

What is going on?

Her thoughts were disrupted by a loud distortion sound that rang everybody remaining in the lobby half deaf, screams were heard as every glass window in the lobby shattered. Bending through her knees Kayla covered her ears.

Her instincts were telling her to run. But somehow her brain wasn't working to actually register those instincts in making her legs to move.

Oh, god no.

They were here.

Muffled sounds and screams in the distance

Kayla coughed as she regained consciousness, squinting her eyes as she adjusted to her surroundings she felt she couldn't move. She was pinned down by debris from the ceiling.

This wasn't happening.

Panic rushed through her body, ignoring the intense headache and the weird pain in her stomach she screamed, ''Hello! Someone, help me! Please!''

The sound of her own voice made her cringe, it was so raw and soar. ''Please…'' she whispered as tears were streaming from her eyes.

Michael…

It felt like her heart was going to burst from her chest. Searching her surroundings again for anyone that she could call out to for help she took a sharp breath by what she saw instead. Something she wished she would never have to see again.

The dead and their horror struck faces.

She quickly closed her eyes to shut out the images but instead memories of Mindoir came to haunt her.

Running through the underground tunnel her father had build just for his family.
Her feet bleeding from the cuts of sharp small stones in the dirt. The sweaty hand she was clamming onto with her own.

The screams and loud fireworks in the distance.

''Kayla!'' She gasped at the sudden calling of her name.

Oh my god.

''James!'' She cried.

''Kayla, where are you? Keep talking to me.'' She heard his footsteps getting closer. ''I am here!''

James' face suddenly appeared above her and she noticed the cut above his right eye, but god was she glad to see him. ''I'm so glad to see you…'' she cried in relief.

Placing his hand on her forehead as he examined her situation quickly he reassured her, ''I've got you. I'm gonna get you out okay?''

Moving out of her sight again she heard him struggle as he cleared the debris.

''Can you still wiggle your toes, Kay?'' He suddenly said as he cleared another piece of debris.

She hadn't thought of that.
But she tried to wiggle her toes and to her relief they did just as she wanted.

''Yes.''

''That's good Kay, that's good.'' Kayla had the feeling that James was trying to reassure himself. She felt all sort of things now- fear, pain, despair but most importantly the thing that calmed her down because James was by her side… Love.

James grunted as he pulled piece by piece of debris off her. That- now familiar distortion sound shook the building, ''The Reapers, they are attacking Earth.'' She wasn't asking James, it was more of a confirmation to herself. The Alliance was trying to win a losing battle. Earth would perish to the Reapers.

''Don't worry about it, I'm going to need you to help me push on this one, okay?''

''Okay.''

Counting to three, James told her to push. But as she tried to she yelled out in pain making James rush to her side, ''What is it?'' Kayla reached for her abdomen feeling something sharp and cold, she flinched ''I think it's an iron spike, it must have broken off somehow.''

James cursed under his breath, startled by a loud scream that did not sound like any of the distortion a reaper made, James motioned for Kayla to keep quiet. Her eyes grew wide at him as he signed for her to wait he sneaked towards the corner of the hallway, his eyes scanned the lobby feeling his stomach turn he glared at what he saw. Reaper forces were examining bodies and taking them with them. He had to get Kayla out of there and fast, rushing back as quiet as he could he whispered,

''Okay, this is going to hurt like hell. But I need to get you out of here.''

Kayla noticed the edge in his voice, something was scaring him. Whether that was fear if he wouldn't be able to get her out before they were going to be discovered, she did not know.

''I need you to push again, but this time don't stop.'' Her jaw tightened.

''Push!'' James grunted, Kayla screeched through her tightly closed teeth, she felt the iron spike scratching its way deeper into her abdomen. The pain was killing her, feeling her heart hammering against her chest she felt herself slip away.

James watched her slip as her body went limp and her eyes fluttered closed,

Pushing the debris off her James crouched down beside her, ''Kayla?'' His breathing stocked, even though he heard the Repear forces gaining up on their position he quickly pressed two fingers on Kayla's neck to check her pulse.

''Dios…'' She had only lost conciousness. With no time to tend to her wound he picked her up as gently as he could and ran the opposite direction of the lobby. He could not fight the reaper forces with his bare hands and even if he had a gun Kayla would not survive if he did not tend to her first.

With no idea if the reaper forces were anywhere else in the building he kept moving forward, he had to find a secure spot, and fast because when he looked down at Kayla he had noticed she had grown very pale.

''Just hold on, babe.'' Feeling her slip out of his arms he lifted her again.

The building was shaking uncontrollably, making his way towards one of the confirence rooms he saw a harvester take down an Alliance shuttle. Anger rose in his chest. The sky was polluted with reapers forces thousands of innocent people were dying.

James stopped as he heard gunfire around the corner, straightening his back against the wall he tried to sneak a peek.
''Lieutenant-Commander!'' He walked around the corner, relieved to finally see someone alive.

''Vega?'' As Ashley turned around she immediately noticed Kayla Shepard in his arms, ''Oh, god. Kayla!'' Her expression changed from surprise to fear in a split second, approaching him quickly she asked him warily, ''Is she-?''

He interrupted her quickly not wanting to hear 'Kayla' and the word 'dead' in one sentence, ''No, she just lost consciousness.''

Ashley closed her eyes for a second. Watching Ashley regain herself it became clear to him that Kayla meant a lot to her. ''Follow me, the conference room is clear.''

He placed Kayla on the long table in the middle of the room, ''You need to take care of that.''

James couldn't help the concern look at he had on his face as he laid his hand on top of Kayla's, he didn't care if Ashley saw it.

''We need a secure location.''

Ashley reloaded her rifle, ''This is as secure as it gets, Vega. Earth is burning and there is no hospital to take her to. Our best chance is the Normandy. Pull it out and apply medi-gel.''

''Are you crazy?'' James' voice went up an octave, how was a fatal wound like this going to be solved with medi-gel?
Ashley approached him, with the rifle in her hands and the death glare she shot him she was actually pretty intimidating for a woman.

''Vega, Kayla has lost too much blood if you pull it out now the medi-gel can stop the bleeding for the time being. I've been able to get a hold of Joker but he can't circle around forever.''

This was a big risk. James had gambled with many lives of men all for the mission, but this felt heavier on him than usual, his heart was in this now.

Damn it

He knew Ashley was studying his face, he knew he was giving himself away like this. He took a sharp breath, ''Okay. Cover us.''
Giving him a brief nod she walked towards the door leaving him alone with a heavy burden.

''It's a good thing you're still out.'' He whispered so soft not even Ashley could hear him. Readying himself he grabbed the spike by its end and in his mind counted till three.

One

Two

Three

He took a deep breath before he pulled the spike out.

The conference room was shaken up by the tormented scream of her pain as Kayla woke up, her eyes blinking from the tears James quickly grabbed her face, ''Kayla, look at- look at me.'' She scratched at his hands. Focussing on him she moaned as the pain tormented through her body, eventually reaching her eyes James felt his heart sank, ''I'm sorry, I had to pull it out.'' Pressing on his omni-tool for the medi-gel-giving her a double dose she seemed to relax because of its effects numbing out all the pain she felt. Their eyes met again and he gave her a wink, ''good girl…'' he whispered.

As she opened her mouth to say something she was startled by loud gunfire, ''LC?'' James called out to Ashley, ''We're good, but we need to hurry the hell out of here.''

''Ashley.'' The Lieutenant-commander didn't turn to look at Kayla as she was still checking to see if more forces would appear.

''Kayla? You okay, sweetie?'' James offered his hand to help Kayla up as she swung her legs to his side of the table. She flinched, even though the medi-gel was helping till some extant, it still hurt. ''I'm fine, Ashley. It's good to see you.''

After the coast was clear Ashley turned around to acknowledge Kayla, ''Good to see you too kid, luckily in one piece. Your brother would have killed me.'' Pulling out a M-3 Predator pistol she offered it to James, ''I know this isn't usually your style, Vega. But I ran a little short on time to pick up something bigger.'' James took the pistol from her, checking the clip he chuckled. ''This will have to do for now, no harm done.''

Ashley checked her rifle once more, ''Okay, let's go then. I'll take point.''
Walking out of the room and stepping over the dead reaper forces Ashley went out of ear shot, taking this as a sign James looked down to Kayla, ''I nearly lost you. So in order for that not to happen again on my watch, I want you to stay behind me, alright?'' It surprised him to hear the raw emotion in his voice. He hadn't felt like this for someone in a long time, but it took him a near death situation to figure it out.

Kayla blinked at him, the look on her face told him she was just as surprised as he was, ''I will...'' She whispered.

Feeling Kayla's hand resting against his lower back so she could steady herself they met up with Ashley and there it was.

The look that said, I know.

Another time LC, another time.