CHAPTER TEN – EPILOGUE.

It was strange to get used to the new Shepard. It had always been weird, but this time it was weirder than usually. At least this Shepard didn't care that people avoided him. He didn't know any better. To him they were all subordinates: nothing less, nothing more. He counted on their loyalty and their combat experience, but that was the extent of his knowledge. Kaidan found himself returning to the cryo tank to check in on JS_v.12.003, just to make sure he wasn't falling apart.

Kaidan found it hard to look at Shepard and be addressed with nothing but 'major'. Though sometimes he would smile, it never quite got close to how Shepard or JS_v.12.003 had smiled when they saw him. The crew all followed Shepard's lead, fought the best they knew how on earth, pushing on to the beam. Kaidan was injured badly and James had taken him off the battlefield. They would have alerted Shepard, but he was long gone in the front. There was no way of getting to him, so James helped Kaidan to the medbay.

Kaidan didn't really know how to react to the news that there had been radio silence from Shepard ever since he had been seen running to the beam. They had all watched the destruction around them. He knew from the battlefield reports that Reapers and Geth had both just dropped, and he knew that the Normandy was gone, the crew aboard included. If nothing else, then JS_v.12.015 had been successfull in his mission. He had stopped the Reapers, and Kaidan knew it was only a matter of time before he would see his face everywhere, when the survivors would start to celebrate the war hero, completely unaware that their hero had been dead for longer than the Reapers had been known.

Kaidan had stayed in London, helping his crewmates and the people rebuild to the point where he felt he could leave with a clear concience. He hadn't seen Liara or James in a while, a couple of weeks, but he figured they found somewhere else that needed them more, and it wasn't like they owed him anything. But it was sort of funny how peace could feel this empty. He had not expected it to feel like this. It was a long time ago that he had come to terms with his 'ever after' not including John, but still he had thought he'd feel more relieved, accomplished.

He walked down to the central command of south London, carrying a cup of coffee. He smiled as he saw James sitting on the hood of a jeep, drinking from a water bottle. "Hey James," Kaidan waved. "I thought you left."

"Ye of little faith," James grinned. "I didn't leave. I have been working on a secret project. You know, like super top secret." His grin widened.

"Oh?" Kaidan said. "I thought the Alliance was too busy rebuilding to play men in black."

"Yes and no," James said with a little knowing grin as he slid off the jeep. "I think we should find Liara."

"Liara is here?"

"Yep," James smiled. He took out an old cell phone and smiled to Kaidan, dialling Liara. "Hey, I got Major-boywonder here. Would you come down to the jeep? Yep, see you then." He turned to Kaidan. "She's on her way."

"So where have you been playing secret agent?" Kaidan said, leaning against the jeep waiting for Liara. "London?"

"Well, in Leeds to be precise." James' smile widened, and he nodded at Liara when she came walking down toward the jeep.

"Kaidan!" she cheered, and hugged him. "Good to see you're okay."

"I'm fine," Kaidan said. "And likewise." He let go of Liara and looked at her and James, who looked awfully smug. "So? Gonna let me in on whatever it is?"

Liara took a deep breath. "Okay, when the Normandy originally landed here on earth, we went to battle, but the cargo was left elsewhere."

"In Leeds, to be exact," James said.

"And so when James and I went there for something else, we saw that the cryo tank with JS_v.12.003 was there. Completely undamaged, because it didn't require any form of lifesupport," Liara said, studying Kaidan's rather surprised but guarded expression. "Long story short, we found a way to generate enough electricity to jolt his cybernetics back to life, and since his cybernetics were down when the crucible let out its blast, they weren't damaged."

"Are you saying what I think you are?" Kaidan said, his voice only a whisper.

"We couldn't do an awful lot about his memory, without the original chip or the Normandy, but he has not lost any memory, either." She smiled. "He's right in there." She nodded toward the central command center. "I believe he is downstairs looking over the provisions that were to be shipped out."

"You…" Kaidan looked from James to Liara… "What did the Alliance say?"

"The Alliance doesn't exist anymore, so they don't have a say," James said with a shrug. "Now go!"

Kaidan didn't have to hear that twice, he spun around on his heels and sprinted through the central command, causing more than one to drop what they had in their hands as he pushed through them, and he dropped his coffe somewhere around communications. He jumped down the stairs two steps at a time. Tearing around the corner, he saw him. His hair a little longer, but he recognized his back anywhere. "John!" he heard himself call.

Shepard turned around. "Kaidan." He smiled broadly. He would have said more, but he found his arms full of Kaidan. He just closed his eyes and held the other man close. He had not even dared to dream that this would be the outcome. And he remembered when James and Liara had briefed him on what had happened after he had been stored away like a can of peaches. He knew that if his cybernetics failed, there was nothing anyone could do, and that it was only a question of time, but then he just had to make the best out what he had. He had read the reports, knowing what the Shepard-machine that came after him had done, and he had inwardly been a little happy that the Alliance had gone fullblown crazy so he hadn't missed out on something important other than war. He felt sorry for the poor sod, but right now with his arms full of Kaidan he didn't care about any other Shepard, any other place or even about the list in his hand.

He could never be the original Shepard, but he could be the real one. Real enough for Kaidan, and that was all that mattered.

THE END