The part of Hungary they're stationed in is a huge shithole, he thinks.

The Alliance tries to stay out of the affairs of single countries, but they've got a base not far from here. They want a unit there to monitor the riots. Make sure they don't damage Alliance property.

The thing that Anderson notices most is that there's no middle ground between the slums and the rich parts of the city. It's like there's an income threshold. Anyone who doesn't make quite enough money doesn't have the resources to protect their properties. He and his unit make rounds throughout the city centers. Schools. Residential neighborhoods. Factories. They arrest someone they find with an Alliance-issue uniform, clearly stolen. Their presence prevents the majority of trouble, though.

They spend most of their time patrolling hospitals.

He hates it. It smells like infection. Like piss and blood. The hospitals in the ghettos are the worst, crammed to the brim with patients. They have to step around them in the hallways. He's come to recognize some of them.

There's a particular little girl that he sees frequently in one of the worst hospitals. She's got black hair and blue eyes and she's always dirty. He notices her because she's always huddled protectively over a little boy with the same splash of freckles. She glows with static when Anderson tries to talk to her. He asks an orderly about them, instead. Eezo exposure, he's told. She gets biotics, he gets seizures. Apparently the government is too poor to get her into a special program. Or maybe it's just that they don't know. Maybe they don't care. They don't want to waste resources helping a freak and her twin brother. He's told they're Shepherds.

He's heard the phrase before. There's an orphanage a street over called The Shepherd's something-or-other. Orphans are referred to by their orphanage, because there are so many around.

Anderson's never figured out if there're so many orphanages, or so many orphans. Either one seems pretty bleak to him.

The next time Anderson's unit is patrolling the hospital, a nurse comes up to him. She recognizes him as the soldier asking after the two little children, she explains in a heavy accent. The boy died, she says. The little girl simply left, and no one can find her. The city's on the country's edge, so there's no way to know if she's still even in the country. Or alive. Enough people knew them to be worried, but it's a small worry, one that's easily pushed aside for more pressing issues. They weren't important children.

Anderson feels…disappointed…at the news. Earth is in its second golden age. Not golden enough to protect its children, evidently.

His unit isn't likely to be stationed here again. The Hungarian government is sending out troops from other cities to police this one. Anderson's got about another year before the construction on the Hastings is done. His superiors tell him he's serving on it, XO, once it's done. A little kid like that, alone on the streets isn't going to last long. Even if she does, she's a beautiful child. He knows Earth's not golden enough to not have sick men with an eye for children. Besides. He's only a Lieutenant. He doesn't have a lot of pull.

Still, he tells the nurse that he'll look out for her if he ever sees her again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

So yeah. Turns out it's REALLY HARD to write a story backwards. Foreshadowing gets a little…complicated. But it was still really fun! Was it worth it? Let me know what you guys think! Feel free to give me another challenge or to suggest a prompt.

Thanks so much for reading!

EDIT:
Tweaked Chapter 8 (ie, Chapter 3) a bit to fit into the new canon introduced in the Citadel DLC.