Ok Dear Readers. Third chapter is here. As always, if you liked it or not, please leave feedback if you can. :) It really helps. Next chapt will come in 3-4 days or less. And yes, this is a Shakarian / Shenko drama too. :) For you who like it steamy, be patient. It'll come.

*hugs*

Have fun!

Chapter 3: Stranded

Day Five, location: unknown planet near the Sol system. The Normandy has been stranded on a lush garden world apparently completely unexplored. The ship sustained moderate damage but the physical damage of roughly landing on an uneven terrain has left the hull with ruptures and fragile spots. The kinetic barriers held on up until the last moment when the mass effect core and all systems went offline, including EDI.

Major Alenko looked over the last report brought to him at the conference room. Garrus, Comm Specialist Samantha Traynor, Joker, Tali and the main engineers were discussing how to fix the Normandy in the most efficient way.

'Reactivate Edi!' points Joker. The AI had shut down the moment the red blast reached the Normandy, leaving them stranded and without the main systems until, after a couple of days drifting, they found this planet where they are now stranded.

'Joker, EDI is gone', said Tali, in the most delicate way. 'Whatever it was what the Crucible did, it erased EDI from the systems and all we have now is the hardware's stock VI.'

'NO! She is in there somewhere. Once we manage to boot her up... wake her up, she'll be able to run a full systems diagnostics, and the repairs will be over in no time!'

Traynor and Tali exchanged a mournful glance. Garrus could be seen lowering his head, and the rest of the team just gave Joker a look which could only be interpreted as pity.

'Jeff...' Kaidan tried to appease.

'No! She is not "DEAD". How can you give up on a crew member like this? I'm sorry, I just can't deal with this right now.' Joker walked away with a fast limp step. Head held high, he headed to the helm and resumed his attempts to work with the limited VI.

'The main weapons are intact and online. The VI has been helpful, and I've been able to patch the gaps left by Edi's... ahm, absence. At least with the essential systems, this ship is nowhere near ready for any kind of combat.' Said Garrus.

'Same with the basic systems. Avionics, power, propulsion and life support are also online and ready'. Reported Adams, supported by nods from Ken and Gabi.

'Yes, and the hull repairs are almost done. We should be able to test for pressure drops and stress once the core is active.' Says Traynor, with a sad voice.

'So, how long until we can reach anywhere with our comms? We need to update the Alliance that we are still alive, tell Shepard...' Kaidan trailed away.

Garrus looked at him like the human was a bull's eye, and he wished he had a weapon on him to nail the dutiful Major between the eyes. The whole crew present went into an uneasy silence. They knew Shepard was dead. There was no way she could have survived the energy blast, especially being at the epicentre of it. He hoped. The hope ate at him every second of every hour they wasted stranded on this useless piece of rock. It choked him to a point where he couldn't disguise the sub-harmonics of his voice as any self respecting turian, so he kept quiet. His private matters were his own.

Tali joined in with Kaidan. 'I know Kaidan, and I'm working on it. I've been sending a signal burst every 10 minutes with basic information regarding our probable location and status ever since our power came back online 9h ago.' She approached him, placed a hand on the Major's worried back, and with a low pained voice said 'Don't worry Kaidan, we'll find out.'

Resolving to now concentrate all their efforts in isolating and fixing the frame and hull, the team disbanded and went to their posts.

Tali, on the other hand, left her plans unspoken as the whole crew knew what she had been struggling with ever since they crashed- Finding/bringing Edi back.

oO0~0Oo

At the Anghaile Memorial Hospital, Shepard couldn't stand lying still on that dreadful bed another second. It had been one measly day, and her mind couldn't let go of those last moments; that evil child- red, green and blue.

The Illusive Man was right. A tear tried to escape her eye.

With a heavy sigh, she brought up her omni-tool screen and started going through the news reports. An estimate of 3 billion souls lost and counting, a third of the planet's population. Reports say that all main urban centres with a population count of 10 million and up were completely devastated. Major cities like NY, São Paulo, Shanghai, Mexico City, Moscow, and Beijing were completely levelled. Whole countries, the ones with the largest populations like China and India, were completely torn out. The assaults there were the heaviest. There were still small pockets of resistance troopers and unaffected cities as the reaper forces focused their main power on the heavily populated ones, leaving the smaller and more remote ones intact and painfully low on refugees. It is suspected that the Citadel is now the graveyard for 90% of those bodies.

Skipping through the headlines, she found that Palaven was completely levelled. The planet was now considered a biohazard level two with a great portion of its surface up in blazes and the resulting pollution making the planet uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

Apparently, the Reapers focused their main power on the races' original home worlds. Khar'shan took the first full assault and was decimated, the few remaining Batarians were now homeless. Thessia was still standing but with a 70% loss of its population. Irune and Dekuna fared better with only 40% losses.

Sur'Kesh was almost completely charred. The salarians refused to join the war effort and were left to fend for themselves. They even managed to push back for a while, but the Reapers responded in kind and overwhelmed the planet, leaving it practically uninhabitable. The vestigial forces which unofficially joined the Human war effort were mostly intact, but the news writer foresees a difficult struggle to rebuild the race.

The council had managed to survive and reconvene in Virmire, due to the minimal reaper presence in the area. Yes, go! for the nuke I blew there... The planet had been mostly deserted after that.

On a smaller, not too high up frame with the headlines, she read: "The Evil Vanquished: All AI in the Galaxy Disabled. The Reaper Invasion Stopped, the Geth Threat is No More. The Galaxy Rejoices."

Shepard's heart tightened. She did that.

I committed genocide.

She started drowning in her grief. With shallow breaths, she closed her eyes and gave herself time to calm down. Waving the tool off, she surrendered to the feelings inside her. She murdered, she killed them all. She was an ocean of sorrow and unrepentant regret. How would she be able to face the others? What if Garrus is alive? What will he think of her? What will he think...?

After a while, she turned the thing back on and opened up the messaging interface. There she wrote an eight word text: I'm alive. I love you. Please come back. But she decided not to send it.

oO0~0Oo

Back in London, Liara was finishing packing for her and Shepard. 4 days had passed since she saw her friend. During that time, she couldn't reach her. She pinged her, but was never answered and there were no messages. It struck her as odd since Shepard had always confided in her, even when the situation was most dire.

Give her time, she'll come around.

The Alliance Navy was coming home with part of the Krogan army to finish the pest control. Earth's remaining government leaders were already reconvening and organizing plans for reconstruction.

She managed to salvage some things from abandoned stores in the vicinity, and had gathered some articles of clothing, essential and non-essential, personal hygiene products and even some adornments for herself and Shepard. She didn't give a second thought to it when the probability of actually getting supplies was near zero and the local shelters were already raiding what was left of major commercial centres.

With everything ready, Liara took the next shuttle en route to the hospital with the heartbreaking news that there weren't any new survivors other than Major Coats and a handful of soldiers.

oO0~0Oo

At the Normandy, Traynor could see that the third test she ran indicated the core was back online, hull repairs were as good as they will ever be, and not after charting what may be an excellent planet for future colonization by carbon based species, the Normandy could begin its long journey home. There were no indications Earth received any of their broadcasts, which may indicate that indeed all the comm-buoys were destroyed during the attack and they would only be able to verify the state of the galaxy once they reached an Alliance base.

Meanwhile, at the min battery, Garrus was apprehensive. He had been compulsively checking and re-checking every detail of the cannons for the past 4 days just in case there was a stray Reaper somewhere. The tightness in his chest could only be soothed by the knowledge that he was doing everything in his power to arrive safely at his love's home world.

The level of anxiety in the Normandy was palpable. They knew there was a chance they would come back to where Earth was supposed to be and find nothing. The report of what happened when Shepard destroyed the Alpha relay at the Bahak system was fresh in their memories. Nothing survived. Not even its sun.

There was a sizable probability that the relays might have been affected in some way or another, and a small but considerable chance they could overload and explode. If that was the case, all systems with relays will have been completely obliterated and they had nowhere to go.

oO0~0Oo

Kaidan was sitting in the lounge with Cortez and James. No one had anything to say. They were simply expecting the moment when the telling vibration of the ship would finally confirm they were lifting from the ground and taking flight back home.

'So. Cards?'

'Hahaha, only you can think about something like that at a moment like this, Mr. Vega.' Cortez couldn't stop a small laugh.

'I'm up for it. Anything to distract me from the fact that I have absolutely nothing to do for the next who knows how many hours.' Kaidan vented.

'Poker it is, amigos.' James produced his most cared for deck of cards while they moved to the cards table.

'Oh, this must be a first! You are using THE deck?' Cortez noted.

'Is that the one Edi and... gave you?" Kaidan's heart sank.

'Yeah, I thought it was about time. Feels like a little piece of them are here with us.' James shuffled the cards with delicate care, so disparate from his exterior image of "pile-of-muscles-tough-soldier".

'Ahrm... yeah... it's a nice thought.' Kaidan was willing to do anything to distract him from the thought that in fifty hours he would know if the love of his life was dead or alive.

'Well, what are you waiting for? Deal!' Ordered Cortez

The Normandy took flight off of the unknown planet, leaving the embrace of the lush alien world and venturing into the unknown.

oO0~0Oo