Title: Eden Prime
Pairing: (implied) Kaidan x Shepard (gender unspecified)
Warnings: Recounting canon game violence, some angst.
Summary: Major Alenko tries to come to terms with the past on Eden Prime when Shepard asks him to join the party in search of a Prothean Relic during the Reaper War.
Word Count: 544
Eden Prime. He always found the colony name ironic, especially after his first mission there. So named for the Biblical paradise, the Garden of Eden where life was perfect until it wasn't. In retrospect, he supposed the name was actually quite fitting.
Alenko was grateful Shepard chose him to be part of the team to investigate the Prothean Relic that had been uncovered. He supposed he had more experience with the colony than the others, with Liara joining as the expert on Protheans. But as the shuttle lifted from the deck of the Normandy and slipped through the kinetic barrier, trepidation bubbled in his gut. Memories of his first mission to the garden world suddenly felt fresh again.
It was there that he met Shepard, for whom he'd come to love. It was there that Jenkins and Nihlus met their untimely demise. It was there that they encountered the Geth, dragon's teeth and husks for the first time and found Ashley, alive despite the odds. It was there that he stupidly ventured too close to that beacon and Shepard pushed him out of the way. It was there that it all started.
Would the key to the war be there too? Would it end where it began? He doubted it.
The shuttle landed and they fanned out. Much as it was then, the civilians in the colony were gone, though not at the hands of Saren and the Geth. Instead it was Cerberus, a name he couldn't help but say or think without a bite of contempt. The again, did the distinction matter much? Not when both had allied themselves with the Reapers in one way or another.
It still pained him that he owed Cerberus a twisted debt for bringing Shepard back to life. The relish and anguish he felt on Horizon after the Collector attack- No, that wasn't a conflict couldn't reconcile in the field. That would have wait for a other time.
He followed his Commander through the unsettlingly empty pre-fabs, searching for any sign of life. Ashley once said you never get used to seeing dead civilians. Although she spoke the truth, he realized equally as haunting were civilian spaces, filled with all signs of civilian life, except the people themselves. Places where people should be, but aren't. Gone without a trace. No blood, no bodies, as though they had been plucked from the sky never to be seen again.
Memories of Horizon pricked at his mind like pins again. No, it wasn't the the time for that. Later, later. Alone in the observation deck he'd feel those those things. Cycle through them and try yet again to let them go into the dark void of space. Not when lives were hanging in the balance. Not when Shepard was counting on him.
When they regrouped and waited for the pod to open, concerned eyes met his through transparent visors. Shepard always knew when the past was bothering him, though he never knew how. He both loved and hated it. That single look reassured him they would talk later. Alone in the safety of one another's arms, they could escape the war, the Reapers, and the past. Together, they could find a paradise of their own. Their own Eden Prime.