Chapter Three

The day had come and gone, Shepard had a few good days to spend with Thane and Arashu while she was only days old. Holding onto the infant she smiled looking upon her. "I love you Arashu." She nuzzled the baby with her cheek. She placed a gentle kiss onto the baby's forehead with a smile. "Siha Thank you for having a child with me. I love you both with all my heart."

She smiled leaning into him, placing a kiss onto his lips. Returning the kiss, he leaned into her, deepening the kiss. It was broken when Thane had to cough, his breathing was getting worse by the day. But he wanted to stay with Shepard until he knew he had to leave. "I love you too Thane. You don't seem to be doing so good."

"I will be-" He felt something in his body, he was reacting to the Kepral Syndrome. His body started to seize, he fell forward. Until Sherry caught him with her free hand, "Shit Kolyat. Something is wrong." The drell rushed in, he had no idea what he should do, he never saw his father like this. It started to worry him.

Kolyat grabbed his father, placing him flat on his back. "Father...shit." He cursed, using his omni-tool he called a medic. They brought him to the hospital, Sherry stayed outside with Kolyat. Both of them worried about their loved one. Hours started to pass with no luck, Thane was out cold.

This started to worry the both of them, until the doctor came out. "Thane is going to be fine. But I advise that he not leave the Citadel. His condition is getting worse. Soon he is going to need round the clock medical attention." It was the worst news, Shepard couldn't handle it. She wanted to see Arashu, keep her baby but she couldn't and now she had to give up Thane too soon as well.

Kolyat walked into his fathers room, talking to him. She waited outside with Arashu, she held her close. "I am going to miss you baby girl." She hugged her baby kissing her forehead. Kolyat exited the room, Shepard handed over the baby to her brother. "He wants to see you Shepard." She entered the room, a slight smile over her lips he looked upon her.

"Siha. Kolyat wants me to go back to the Citadel with him now. But I don't want to go. I just got back here to visit with you. I don't want to go back, I want to be here with you and you only." He coughed a little while he spoke. Shepard walked over to his bedside, placing her hand on his cheek. "I love you Thane. You should do what's best for Kolyat and Arashu."

He nodded slightly. "I understand. I love you too Siha." She leaned in for a kiss, sweetly he returned the kiss. Once it was broken she walked away, knowing this was going to be the last time she saw him and her daughter, exiting the room she walked past Kolyat.

"He is all yours." Sherry felt a few tears down her cheeks turning around, she watched both drell walking out of the room, with Arashu in their arms. With a heavy sigh Shepard started to walk out of the hospital and back to her apartment. Relaxing in her bed her omni-tool buzzed with a message from Anderson.

The defense committee wants to speak to you at 0800 hours tomorrow. Be prepared to talk to them about reapers. They want your expertise on preparing for the reaper invasion coming up. So please make haste. Anderson out.

Taking an even greater sigh Shepard crawled into bed, she didn't like it. She didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment. She just lost her daughter and now the same people who took her away wanted to talk to her. Rolling over, she placed her head on the pillow covering herself with the blanket.

In the morning Sherry climbed out of bed and looked out her window. A man walked in "Commander." He spoke promptly, solution her. "You're not supposed to call me that anymore James. " She took a data pad and started to read it. "I'm not supposed to salute you either. We gotta get going, the Defense Committee is ready for you."

Tossing the data pad onto her bed, Shepard spoke. "Sounds like they finally figured out that they need me." Sherry fallowed James, he had picked up speed with her on his heels. "What's going on?" She ran up to his side. "Can't say. They just told me to get you...now." Coming through the crowd was Anderson, it made Sherry worry more.

"Anderson." She spoke promptly as she extended her hand out to him. "Admiral."
James said saluting him, while Shepard quickly shook his hand. "Hope you got enough sleep last night." She looked at him, now worried for Thane. What the hell could have happened, she just saw him yesterday. "What's going on why is everyone in such a hurry?"

"Admiral Hacket is mobilizing the fleets." Anderson replies as they started to walk fast, with James not too far behind them. "I'm guessing word's made it to Alliance command...something big is coming our way." Anderson started to walk up the stairs, "The Reapers?" Shepard asked while he turned around. "We don't know. We can't be certain."

"What else could it be?" She scolded him with a bit of anger in her voice. "Did Thane?" Anderson nodded, "He made it out of here before we got the call Shepard." The two continued up the stairs and made their way into a rather large room. A woman waiting for them said, "They're expecting you two." They followed her into a bigger room with a table humans behind them.

It seemed that this was the Defense Committee, they where talking amongst themselves. "Admiral Anderson. Shepard." One of the men called to them, Shepard looked at Anderson with a worried expression on her face. Taking a few more steps towards the desk Sherry spoke "What's the situation?" Sitting down a council member spoke "We were hoping you would tell us."

An alliance soldier walked over handing her a data pad, "The reports are coming are unlike anything we've ever seen. Whole colonies have gone dark. We have lost contact with everything beyond the Sol Relay." Shepard looked over the data pad confirming everything they where saying. "Whatever it is, its incomprehensibly powerful."

"You brought me here to confirm what you already know...The reapers are here." The council members started to talk amongst themselves. Exchanging the worried looks on their faces. "Then how do we stop them?" They asked, all looking at Shepard. "Stop them? This isn't about strategist or tactics. This is about survival. The Reapers are more advanced than all of the races combined. More powerful. More intelligent. They don't fear us, They're here to annihilate us plain and simple." Shepard spoke.

"But...there must be some way." They pleaded with her, trying to see if Shepard knew more than she was letting on. "Each of us has to be willing to die to save humanity. Anything less...and they have already won." One of the council member was stunned by how Sherry was speaking. "That's it? That's our plan?"

Someone walked over "Admiral we've lost contact with our base on Luna." Anderson looked over at them, he was worried. "The moon? They couldn't be that close already.." His concern passed onto the council who spoke "How did they got past our defenses already?" They looked upon Shepard as she took a deep breath. "Sir UK headquarters has a visual."

An image appeared on the screen, at first it was fuzzy. All eyes in the room where locked onto it. Shepard had now started to fear the worst of all of it. A soldier came on the screen, he seemed like he was yelling. All they could see in the background was the soldier and then a beam of light. They lost signal everyone in the room burst into a panic.

Other things started to pop up on the screen what Shepard saw only made her worry more about Earth. It was Reapers and it looked like they where landing everywhere, but no. The whole world was going into chaos. "Why haven't we heard from Admiral Hacket?" Anderson spoke. The council looked at them "What do we do?"

Shepard took a few steps forward towards them, "The only thing that we can. We fight or we die." Shepard pointed to the screen urgently. The council members all looked down, like they where ashamed of themselves for thinking they could get away with just running. There was no more time to run, they now had to do something they didn't want to. Fight. Anderson came up behind her with a worry. "We should get to the Normandy." A noise came form the sky, it sounded so unearthly.

This made the council members look up towards the ceiling out the sky window. They turned around, with Sherry looking outside. Everyone just stood there in silence, she had feared the worst was yet to come. "Oh my god.." One of them spoke, seeing something coming from the clouds. It looked to be a Reaper. Its long arms reached out and grabbed for a building. A red beam came from its eye, it started towards them. The noise was ear shattering. "MOVE!" Shepard yelled.

"GO GO GO!" She yelled running, none of the council members made it in time. The table where they were sitting came flying towards her. Sherry hadn't made it too far from them it was too quick, the Reapers where trying to kill the leadership. The table came over top of her, at the last second she dogged it.

Taking a deep breath she looked back, seeing another beam coming towards her. Once it hit the building she was pushed by the force of the beam, she hit the wall with great momentum. Almost losing consciousness, she hit the ground on her back.

Anderson started to call her name "Shepard." Grabbing onto her head she tried to rise to her feet. "Shepard!" Anderson called to her again "Shepard!" He ran over to her, she tried to get to her feet, holding onto her gut. "Come on get up." Sherry was pulled to her feet by Anderson, she grabbed his hand. "Here take this. We've got to get going." He handed over a hand gun to her.

Looking around she saw the destruction, the fires burning. Sherry walked over to a person, she rolled them over seeing if he was dead or not. It was something she didn't like to see, more dead soldiers. Anderson was trying to raise the Normandy which was weird to her, maybe the Reapers where cutting the communications with their ships.

Looking outside it looked like more Reapers where landing on earth, this was going from bad to worse. "Shepard we have to get going. We'll meet up with the Normandy soon." She nodded, fallowing him outside onto the roof. They started off running, they needed to get to a place where the Normandy could land. Jumping form building to building she could see what was happening.

Earth was falling and for some reason she felt responsible for it. But it the long run it wasn't her fault, she had done what she could, she warned them. Warned them all it was coming and since no one wanted to believe her. They made it to a building which looked like they could go through, a few husks popped up coming at them. "Shepard Fire." Anderson yelled at her, once one was down the other two where after him. She used her omni-blade to kill one of them.

While in turn shooting to kill the other, a smile wrapped around her lips. It seemed that she hadn't lost the touch, even after having a child she still knew how to fight. "Not rusty at all Shepard." They walked inside the building, there was a door. It looked like it could be opened, so Sherry did. A husk popped out grabbing for her. She used her omni-blade to smash its head in.

Trying to open it with force Anderson walked over, "Through here." She held the door open for him to get through. Once through Anderson started to look around, while something caught Shepard's attention. The noise of someone rumbling around in the vents, who could. No it couldn't be, she left the door walking over to the noise. She saw a little boy he moved farther into the vent as she approached him.

"Hey." She called after him. "Its okay." She said leaning down to his level, he started to crawl only further into the vent. He looked scared and worried, the Reapers must have scared him off. But where were his parents? "Everyone's dying." He spoke, he sounded scared, afraid and alone. A loud bang came from a Reaper coming past the building, which scared the boy even more.

"Come on. I need to get you some place safe." She called out to him, a thought passed through her head. What would it have been like, what if this was to happen to her daughter. Would things have been any different? She now had the sinking feeling, what happened to Thane was he going to be okay? Was Arashu alright? She reached her hand out for the child "Here...take my hand."

"You can't help me." The child called to her, until she was called by Anderson. "Shepard." She turned around only for a second. "In here." He tried to coax her into following him. Turning back around to look for the boy who was gone. Anderson went back through the doors, with a great sigh. Shepard fallowed right behind him, worried for the little boy.

Making their way through the building they had a heart to heart talk. They made their way out of the rubble, and Shepard now had a new mission. Anderson wanted her to go to the council and seek help from them. That was going to be easier said than done. They came out to the top of the building she breathed a sigh of relief. Walking only a few more feet she and Anderson where hit by a Reaper beam well, it really wasn't a Reaper beam that hit them. It hit the building making more rubble crash into them.

Making their way down, they tried to call the Normandy. "Normandy we're routing. We'll." Anderson over saw a few soldiers which looked injured "Friendly's." Sherry looked, seeing a few cannibals in the background. They hissed anger as they recognized Shepard. She took cover as they started to fire on her. Taking one of them down in three shots, she ducked back down.

Trying to relax herself and at the same time not get shot. The last cannibal fired down on her, raising up her body before anymore shots. She took the cannibal down in three good shots to the head. "Shepard. Did you get them all?" Anderson asked her "Yes I got them." They talked to the survivors about their gunship which was down. "Well go there to contact the Normandy."

The structure behind them was about to fall. Anderson pushed both of the soldiers out of the way, once it fell into the sea and they were safe he called out, "Lets move." Anderson and Shepard both used the downed structure as a bridge crossing it, making it easier to get down to the gunship. A few more cannibals came into view, Shepard took cover as did Anderson. Taking out one of the cannibals while Anderson took out the other.

He ran over to the com, trying to signal the Normandy "Hopefully they will get the message." Turning around a large blast went off close to them. What came out of the dust was some more cannibals, more things for Shepard to kill. The cannibals started for the both of them, with no room for error. Shepard and Anderson both started to fire down upon their enemies. They just had to hold out long enough for the Normandy to arrive.

Sherry used a pull, pulling one of them into the air. Making it easier for Anderson and her to kill it. The was a sound in the sky it was a sweet hum of a ship. It hovered over them, it was her ship. The one thing she missed over the last year, but so much had happened in the last year. Stuff she didn't regret happen, slowly she looked back at Anderson "GO!" he yelled at her.

Shepard started into a full run jumping onto the Normandy. She turned around to see if Anderson was behind her. "You coming?" She asked him, he looked at her sternly "No the fight is here. This is where I belong, this is where I need to be. You're the one who can get the council on board with everything Shepard. You're the only hope any of us have." He gave her a reassuring smile as he turned to run off. Sherry took a deep breath as Ashley looked at her. "Everything will be alright commander."

"Of course it will. I'll make sure we come back." The Normandy's bay closed with Shepard walking up to her crew.