Chapter 2 – Mass Effect 2

Horizon

"Colony defenses established. Heading to extraction point."

"Rendevous ETA 12 minutes," reported Joker.

Jacob and Garrus reloaded and stepped out to clear the hall while Shepard secured her helmet. Shepard jogged out into the hallway as a static-ridden transmission came in over the communications console.

"...lpha tea...ta...sitions above the landing z..." Shepard heard the last of the transmission and stopped almost instantly. Turning she ran back to the console, heart pounding, waiting for another clear word to come across the channel. Garrus and Jacob had fallen back with her when they realized she had turned around. There was only static.

"The hell are you doing, Shepard?" Jacob demanded.

"The Alliance is waiting for us at the rendevous point."

"We'll get to the roof. Joker can pick us up there." Jacob stated. Shepard hesitated.

"I'm going to the landing zone."

"I'm coming with you," said Garrus. Shepard nodded. Picking up her rifle and reloading, she headed out into the hall heading directly to the landing zone.

"Stop!" Shepard didn't falter in the slightest and shouted back, "To stop me you'll have to kill me." Jacob uttered a curse, lowered his gun and ran after Commander Shepard and Garrus.

v

They emerged from the building out onto a deck with waist high concrete rails, one floor up from the landing zone. Taking cover behind the rails, Shepard wasn't sure what to do. A voice sounded over a loud speaker.

"Under Systems Alliance authority you are ordered to surrender your selves."

"Whatever brilliant plan you came up with, you better get on it, Shepard," spat Jacob.

"No plan, just a goal."

"You're not serious." Shepard cleared her rifle and put each end of it between her thumb and forefingers, raising it over her head. She stood.

"This is insane!" Jacob shouted angrily.

"Mmmn hmmn." Shepard replied, not so far out of agreement as she would've liked to be.

Shepard moved out from behind the rail moving down the stairs as quickly as her legs would carry her. She hit the landing pad and threw the rifle aside, unsnapping the buckles that made her helmet airtight.

v

"What is he doing, sir?"

"No idea, Chief," the unit Commander replied, not taking his eye away from his sniper scope.

v

The helmet was slower to come off than Shepard would have liked. She leaned forward pulling it off as hard as she could, having to adjust to the brightness of the sun as she stood straight again and looked up.

"Kaidan!" She looked from position to position desperately, hoping to be seen before she was shot.

v

Commander Alenko put up his visor and took a clear look through his scope again. It wasn't possible.

"Who is that, sir?"

"A ghost."

"Sir?"

"Hold fire." Alenko ordered, descending the nearest set of stairs as quickly as his feet would get him down. Holstering the rifle as he crossed the landing pad, he drew his pistol.

"Who the hell are you?" he shouted.

"Kaidan, cool down. It's me."

"I saw Jenna Shepard suffocate and die. Who are you? Answer, or your Cerberus friends will have to scrape you off concrete." Shepard took a calming breath. He was taking this pretty well, considering.

"Kaidan, forget who I'm with. The uniforms we're wearing...don't matter. You and I...we are important right now. I remember us." Kaidan's eyes went wide. He'd said almost exactly the same thing when...he let go of his pistol, dropped his helmet and moved to embrace her. It was her face, her voice, and, misgivings be damned, it was her kiss as well.

"Shepard...how...?"

"Two years and 4 billion credits. They say I'm still the person I used to be, but…who really knows?" Kaidan drew away from her a bit more at every word she said.

"Two years. And you act like nothing's changed. I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real. I loved you…"

"'Loved'…?" There was a flush on his cheeks and anger in his voice. She could feel her temper rising.

"Yes. Thinking you were dead tore me apart. How could you put me through that? Why didn't you try to contact me? Try to let me know you were alive?"

"I'm sorry, Kaidan. For two years I was dead. I've been looking everywhere I could for a way to get to you. But…I…couldn't. Until now. I'm sorry. I didn't consider the fact that this might be painful for you. Especially if you had moved on."

"I did move on. At least, I thought I did. But now we're getting reports about you, and Cerberus."

"Reports? So much for security." Jacob chimed in.

"Alliance intel thought Cerberus might be behind the missing colonies. I got a tip this colony might be the next one to be hit. Anderson stoned-walled me. But, there were rumors that you weren't dead…and you were working for the enemy."

"You wanted to know, so you came to Horizon. Kaidan, the Alliance isn't taking these attacks seriously. With Cerberus I have the ability to act. If it saves even a handful of lives, isn't that worth a deal with the devil?"

"You can't really believe that! We both saw what Cerberus is like! What they're capable of. I wanted to believe the rumors that you were alive but I never expected anything like this! You've turned your back on everything we believed in. You betrayed the Alliance. You betrayed me."

"Kaidan, you know me. You know I would only do this for the right reason! You saw it yourself. The Collectors are targeting human colonies and they're working with the Reapers. If you want proof I'm still with the Alliance, ask Anderson if the intel I forwarded on Cerberus at Lorek has yielded anything!"

"I want to believe you, Shepard. But I don't trust Cerberus. They could be using the threat of a Reaper to manipulate you. What if they're behind it? And they're working with the Collectors?"

"Typical Alliance attitude. You're so focused on Cerberus you're missing the real threat." Jacob admonished.

"You're angry, Kaidan. You're letting how you feel about their history get in the way of the facts." Shepard said.

"Maybe. Or maybe you feel like you owe Cerberus because they saved you. Maybe you're the one who's not thinking straight. You've changed, but I still know where my loyalties lie. I'm an Alliance soldier. Always will be. I've got to report back to the Citadel. They can decide if they believe your story or not." Shepard's breath caught in her throat. Loyalties?

"Hold on. 'My loyalties'? All right…" Kaidan turned to face her again as Shepard stepped in close, keeping her voice low and controlled.

"I gave my life to save a man I know we both care for a great deal. You would have done nothing differently in my place. Understand something, I have been trying to find you. Anderson stone-walled me, too. After the words, 'Hello, Ambassador', what do you think the next thing I said was?...'How is Lieutenant Alenko, and where can I find him?' I know exactly where my loyalties lie. Take a guess as to who comes first, no matter where we end up today."

"Shepard…"

"I'm not saying you don't have every reason to be angry. You can take all the time and space you need. All of it. But, come with me. Back to the Normandy. It'll be just like old times."

"No. It won't. I'll never work for Cerberus."

"You won't be working for Cerberus. You'll be working with me. We'll figure this mess out, together."

"Shepard, I will never take any action I know will benefit Cerberus. You left me behind and now you want me to follow you? Not this time."

"This is different. I was gone, Kaidan. You're alive and you're making a choice. Having to let you walk away is the last thing I expected if I ever managed to see you again."

"I'm not sorry for it."

She couldn't let what she wanted to say next past hers lips. Every fibre of her body was screaming it, but she refused to say it. Kaidan continued walking away.

"Joker. Send the shuttle. Get me the hell off this rock."

v

Nothing else could be said. Shepard realized that some time later. Another sentence and things might have been broken beyond repair. Whether he'd realized that or not…time was the only thing able to tell her that now.

The shuttle was approaching from the south-east.

"You skewered Cerberus, giving the Lorek data to the Alliance." Jacob said. Shepard turned to him, her gaze intent.

"Yes. Like Kaidan said, I have seen what Cerberus is capable of. I'm not his. Your 'Illusive Man' knows it. And…what was it you said the first time we spoke? My boat. My rules."

"All right, Shepard. I hear you. But…Miranda won't be so easy to convince."

"That's my concern. In the meantime keep quiet about what happened here."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Love and hate are not emotions on the opposite ends of a spectrum. As your capacity to love increases, so does your capacity to hate."

- Unknown

v

Coach or Express

"How about 'geronimo'?" Shepard put a hand to her ear, listening for a moment as the mercenary plummeted to his death.

"No? I guess 'ahhhhhhhh!' will just have to do," she said mockingly, waving her arms in the air as she walked back toward Garrus and Liara. She ejected her near-spent cartridge and reloaded.