Chapter 11: Comrades Taking Charge


David Anderson opened his eyes to find himself dangling in a mass of metal. Part of him was concerned that he may have some embedded into his body, but his mind pushed that aside as he tried to find some wiggle room. He was amazed that he'd survived. When he'd seen the Illusive Man he was certain he'd seen the last of life, but Shepard had come through once more. The woman always did. He couldn't be prouder and he knew her mother would be as well, if she was even alive. The last he'd seen of her was when she'd been pulled up into the elevator. He had no idea what happened to her afterwards, all he knew was the Reaper ships began to disengage and he was enjoying that show when the Citadel began to shake. Moments later an explosion occurred that sent him flying. He last heard from the Normandy's pilot before something hit his head which knocked him out. Now awake he begun to go back to his survival training and began to tear at the metal contraptions that had him trapped. It didn't take him long to find out that his left leg was broken or that he had a piece of metal that was sticking out of the palm of his right hand, the rod coming out at his elbow. He still could move and he'd be damned if he was going to sit there and wait for help.


After several hours of crawling through small holes in between the metal and wires he finally found an area he could stand fully up in. He didn't recognized the place but he knew he needed to get out and soon. He could smell a gas-like scent and that alone had him worried. Throughout the entire even he had also been looking for Shepard, but had yet to see anything that would point to her being alive. He pushed on, even with the injuries he had, he pushed on.


Left, right, left right. Anderson felt like a robot. His feet were slowly moving. The feeling of pain shooting through his body had long become numb. Bodies littered everywhere. Blood stained the once pristine floors of the citadel. Nothing was recognizable. He had no way to tell time or how long it'd been since he'd woken up. All he knew was that he needed to get out of this mess.

"Hello!" a voice echoed throughout the metal chambers causing Anderson to startle slightly. Looking around he began to see if he could locate the voice. "Hello!" It sounded again causing him to pause as he looked down through a hole.

"Commander Alenko?" His voice sounded rough as he hadn't spoken in hours.

Alenko looked upwards through the hole in the metal walkway above him. "Admiral Anderson, sir!" He yelled out as his body lit up with his biotics. Pushing off the ground he began to climb up through the hole, using his biotics to create a shield around himself and stop any metal from touching his body. Once on the same level as his superior he found himself looking at the Admiral with awe. The man was alive, though injured quite badly. "Sir, are you alright?" He questioned him.

David never thought he'd want to laugh so hard in his life but withheld it because he knew if he did that he'd only end up caughing up a lung or two. "I am...alive and that's..what counts." He said with a wince as the pain in his leg came back full force. His arm was numb still. "Do you know of a way out son?"

"Yes sir." Kaiden nodded. "I used a hole created by Grunt and his team. They're looking for Shepard and found her in what's left of c-sec." He shook his head at the image he'd seen of her. "She's badly injured. She got burned up badly and that's not counting what the scaffolding did to her or what the pieces of Harbinger are going to do to her if we don't get that properly removed or held up so that it doesn't fall and kill her."

So Shepard is alive. He thought. Though it sounds to me she's worse off than I am. He hobbled after the young man. I'm getting too damn old for this life. He thought mournfully. Perhaps I'll retire after this. His bemused thought put a bitter smile on his lips.

When he saw the hammerhead tank sitting outside under the darkened sky he wondered how long he'd been in the ruins that were once the beautiful Citadel.

"Three days." Alenko's voice pierced the silence. Causing him to look at the young man. "You asked how long it's been. Three days." He repeated. "We'd almost given up hope, but then; Shepard never gave up on hope for us." He nodded to the people behind them causing the Admiral to look. "She united us together." Above in the sky were frigates of almost every species. Dropships were being released to aid the people on the ground. "We're still removing the pieces of the citadel, the larger ones are being removed by the geth, who had shut down moments after the Crusible had gone off. A day later they rebooted and began looking for survivors, pulling pieces of the fallen Citadel away from earth's orbit and even found a way to remove them off of earth without causing too much damage."

"They're a good ally to have." the older man stated. "Keep me informed on Shepard's status." He said as he found himself laid out on a medic bed in the hammerhead tank where a second one was placed as well.


Kaiden watched the admiral lay down and knew he had to be in a lot of pain with his wounds but knew better than to call the man on it, after all this was the man willing to do anything to help Shepard when Sovereign had shown up three years earlier. Looking over his shoulder he saw Miss Lawson heading towards him, with her on a stretcher was Shepard.

"We were lucky." She said as she watched the pair of engineers and medics carefully placed the hero of the galaxy in next to another patient. She looked at the other person in the vehicle and raised and eyebrow when she recognized Admiral David Anderson. "Where'd you find him?" She questioned the marine commander.

"Near what use to be the upper wards." He stated not really caring who she was at the moment. "Now we just have to find the Normandy."

"No word yet?" She inquired knowing that most people wanted the frigate found and it's crew. "Is Commander Vakarian's father causing you grief?" She inquired having met the man only in passing herself.

He groaned. "I don't know who is more annoying, him or his daughter." He shook his head. "Solana is too much like Garrus and he's so much like his old man."

"If you want my opinion just knock a few heads to get answers for them." Both turned to find the cloaked woman known as Kasumi Goto standing there watching them with a smile on her face. "Before you ask I finished my stint with the alliance just before the weapon went off. I came here to help Shepard. She always knows how to party." Her smile could be seen from under the large hood of her cloak. "But I see she's in dire need of help herself." She typed something on her omni-tool. "There's an asari medical clinic nearby that's taking in both human and asari patients. If you hurry, you could get her a private bed. I'll see to finding us a reparable doctor who won't share information on her whereabouts."

"Good call." Jack said from the tank causing all to look at her. "We're ready to go."

"I'll get to the building and start getting everything into motion." Kasumi said as she vanished from their sight.

"I'll drive." Miranda said in a commanding tone.

Kaiden shook his head. Here I thought I was in charge. He thought this as he climbed into the vehicle.


M-Angel: Okay, so I said earlier this was my last chapter, I lied. There's one more, it's the epilogue. ^_^