Death of a Hero

Ch. 3

Unknown Soldier

The Normandy was a marvel of engineering, the best in its class. This, however, did not mean it could travel any faster to get to Earth. A 3 weeks ago the Normandy had received a signal from its former commanders Omni-tool, a beacon of hope for her friends still aboard. When the destruction of the Citadel was progressing, Joker had managed to get past the Charon relay. The blast emitting from the core had propelled them into an uncharted world several relays away. It had taken those 3 weeks to get the Normandy back in the air and Garrus was losing his mind. Every second they floated out in space the chances he'd ever see the commander again were growing slimmer. There were a number of things that could go wrong and he needed to get to Shepard as soon as possible.

"Garrus we cannot travel any faster. The relays are damaged and it will take at least 5 months to get them working again. I understand how you must be feeling. I want to find the Commander as well, but we must be patient. It would take decades to reach Earth without the relays."

What did that asari know? She had no idea how he felt right now. Even with all her resources she hadn't managed to locate Shepard. Some Shadow Broker she was. She had, however, managed to locate Kaiden. Whilst the Normandy had to make frequent stops for repairs and refuels, Kaiden had used his Spectre status to transfer to another ship during their first refuel. Garrus was starting to regret resigning as a Spectre when Shepard had been detained. He was a good 2 weeks ahead of them.

Won't make a damn difference. He's still months away from Earth.

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Kaiden was lying in his bunk when a beep from his Omni-tool startled him. He'd been traveling aboard several cruisers for 2 months.

"Kaiden? Are you there?" The face of an asari appeared a top his Omni-tool.

"Hey Liara, any news?" The biotic rubbed at his temples trying to relieve the migraine that had been forming for the past 30 minutes.

"I have information that several relays have been repaired. We're still 2 weeks away from the nearest relay but I believe you should be able to reach a secondary relay in a few days. I've transmitted the coordinates where the beacon was activated. I pray to the Goddess she's still alive."

"The commander is alive. I can feel it. By now all the survivors have been retrieved and placed in care centers. As soon as I reach Earth I'll use everything I have to locate her." The biotic smiled and the asari's hologram disappeared.

God please let her be alive. I can't lose her again.

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Earth was still in crumbles. As much as they had been repairing, the area he was in seemed fresh from the war. He was at "ground zero." The area that had been affected the greatest by the blast and the landing zone for the remains of the Citadel. It had been removed not a few days earlier. Kaiden looked around and his heart started to pound. Somewhere in this rubble the commander had been lying in pain. He bent down and picked up a rock.

Hard to believe this is London.

"There isn't anything left." Kaiden jumped up and on instinct pulled out his pistol.

"Hey man! Calm down!" A boy of about 15 stood in front of the Spectre with his hands up.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that. It's a good way of getting killed." The boy lowered his hands as the biotic holstered his pistol.

"What were you saying?" Kaiden turned and tossed the rock he had been holding.

"I meant that there isn't anything left around. Scavengers picked the area clean, even before they took the bodies. I told them not to, that they should respect the soldiers that just gave their lives to save them, but I'm just a kid so they didn't listen." Kaiden flinched as the boy continued to tell him how they would strip the bodies of armor and equipment. It disgusted him how there could be people without any morals. How could they think about making profit from the deaths of those who served to save them? Sometimes he thought the reapers had the right idea.

"Isn't it a little too dangerous for you to be out here alone? This is still a disaster area. Where are your parents?" The kid frowned at the question.

"They died. One of those husk things dragged my mom away and my dad died trying to keep one off of me and my sister. We ran and hid under a turned over truck." The kid seemed relatively calm about the whole thing.

Kaiden's omni tool beeped and he realized that it had started getting late. He still needed to contact all the hospitals and care centers. Liara had given him a good start but he still needed to do all the foot work.

"It was nice talking to you kid, but I gotta go. I'm looking for someone. You should go home."

"I don't have one. Hey can I come with you?"

"Sorry kid. I'm here on important business." Kaiden turned and started walking towards his skycar. As he opened his door a rock flung past his shoulder and hit his window. Kaiden turned around and saw the boy running towards him.

"Sorry! I meant for that to go the other direction." As the boy neared him he picked up the rock next to the older man's feet using biotics and flung it in the opposite direction.

"I still can't get the hang of this. Sorry."

"You're a biotic?" Kaiden got closer to the boy. The boy seemed to have become frightened and he started walking back.

"Are you going to take me away like my sister?" The boys eyes were wide with fear.

"What? No. Why would I? Who took your sister?" Kaiden stepped closer to the boy as he took another step back.

"Some men came to the care center we were in and took several children. They took my sister. I think they were looking for kids with biotics." Kaiden began to wonder if this was the beginning of another war or if it was simple coincidence.

"Why don't you come with me? I could use some company while I look for my friend. I bet you're hungry. My name is Kaiden by the way." Kaiden extended his hand and the boy took it.

"Steven. And yes, I am very hungry."

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Kaiden walked in to the third facility that day. The previous two had been filled with nothing but civilians. There was some semblance of hope there. Many alliance soldiers, even some turians, had been transferred to that facility and he was hoping one of their wounded was the commander. As he walked through the halls the medical director explained to him that they still had many Jane and John Doe's. Many had been badly injured and had not made it. Some were waiting for relatives to come for them and many were still comatose. The director took Kaiden to the ward where all the unidentified soldiers where. No dog tags and their injuries were too severe to perform a face recognition scan. Many were badly burned and a few were missing limbs.

"Have you performed any bio-identity scans?" Kaiden walked between the beds of the injured hoping he would recognize a face.

"We have. Unfortunately our systems haven't fully recovered and with the mass amount of casualties the systems are overloaded with identification information and requests by family members looking for their loved ones."

"May I look through them, please?" The doctor led Kaiden to his office and handed him a data pad containing the few names they had managed to recover. He looked through the list of casualties. Every name contained some summary of injuries and identification. As the doctor had said, many where unknown soldiers. It was saddening to think that a lot of these people who gave their lives in the war would never get the recognition they deserved. Looking through the list of the living Jane Doe's, one of the files caught his attention.

Jane Doe

Sex: F

Age: 30-36

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 136 lbs

Notes: Patient brought in with extensive head injuries. 3rd degree burns on body. Loss of left limb. Heavy internal bleeding. Recovered from underneath rubble. AED used on site. No armor, omni tool or identification on self. Possible victim of scavangers. Upon examination patient shows signs of extensive synthetic reconstruction. Left limb lost was 100% synthetic. Recovered at scene. Biotic Amp indicates patient is biotic. Biotic amp burned. Unable to retrieve serial number for identification. Unable to compile face scan identification due to 3rd degree burns on face. Patient must be under sedatives. Prone to violent outbursts when conscious. Psychological evaluation needed to determine degree of PTSD. Transfer to London University Medical pending. Update: Patient stable for bio-scan. Proceed as necessary.

Kaiden's heart skipped a beat. This had to be her. The extensive synthetic reconstruction, the biotics, her height and weight.

"This woman, I think this is the person I am looking for. Can I see her?" Kaiden was shaking. The doctor took the data pad from his hand and asked the biotic to follow him. They entered an isolated room towards the middle of the hallway. As Kaiden laid eyes on the woman strapped in the bed his stomach felt sick. She looked half dead. There were bloody bandages on her face and there were extensive tubes going in and out of her body. Was this what she looked like the first time Cerberus brought her back? Kaiden urged the doctor to perform the bio scan as quickly as he could. He wanted to make sure this was really Shepard so that he could get her out of there and get her into a proper hospital.

Several minutes passed by and the doctor came in. The expression on his face worried him.

"You say you're looking for Jane Shepard? As in THE Jane Shepard?" Kaiden nodded.

"Well I'm sorry. This isn't who you're looking for. If this were THE Jane Shepard I'm sure we would've known. It's not every day we get to treat a hero." Kaiden's heart sunk to the bottom of his stomach. He was sure this was her. What are the odds that someone else fit into her profile like that. Kaiden stood and took one last look at the woman in the bed before he left.

Kaiden sat in the bed of his hotel room looking over all the files he had gathered from the places he had visited. It had been a week of searching and every place he visited had been a dead end. The casualties were beginning to take up more and more space in his data pad. He started to wonder if he would find her in one of those lists instead. At least he would get some peace of mind.

"So have you found your friend?" The boy on his couch broke his thoughts. Kaiden tossed the data pad and turned to look at the boy in silence.

"No." He placed his elbows on his knees and rested his head on his hands. "Hey I should probably get you somewhere where they can find you a home. You can't hang out here all the time. I really don't have time to babysit you." Kaiden sounded a little harsher than he had intended.

"I'm not a kid! You don't need to babysit me! Besides, I only hang out here 'cause you said you could teach me how to use my biotics, which you haven't by the way." Kaiden laughed at his outburst.

"Yeah, sorry. I haven't had much time. I just really need to find her. It's driving me crazy not to know where she is or if she's even alive." Kaiden leaned back and placed his arms behind his head.

"She your girlfriend or somethin'?" Kaiden smiled. He wished. She had her and lost her and here he was looking for her again. He remembered how he wasn't there for her when she had fallen and how angry he had gotten to know that Garrus had been the one to bring her back. It should've been him. He should've been the one that she trusted and he should've never rejected her on Horizon. But if the world was made out of what-ifs then nothing would have ever gotten done and humans would still be walking around in loin cloths.

"So this woman you thought was your friend turned out to be some woman named Miranda Halsey?"

Kaiden's thoughts were interrupted with a sudden realization from the boys' question. A couple years ago Garrus had changed her bio identity to keep her safe in the citadel. Kaiden mentally kicked himself as he grabbed his coat and rushed out the door.

A/N: I introduced the boy for a purpose. Be patient. Every story needs a conflict and this will have several. If you are beginning to get confused you need to read "Not Alone" by ItookAlistairsCherry. The story and profile are under my favorite list. It's a story that I wrote along with my friend. That style of writing is different because my friend wrote it. I just threw the ideas at her. Like literally I wrote them on paper and tossed them at her. I did some research on the relays and there isn't much to go on as far as how badly they were damaged and how long it would take to fix them. I did a lot of reading on FTL speeds and from all the fancy words I took that it would take years to travel to Earth. I am doing research for this story because I want to get the emotional portions of the story right. I have a bunch of scraps of paper with notes for my story and I'm trying to piece them together. Thanks for reading Here's an internet cookie

Disclaimer: Mass Effect and characters belong to Bioware.