Second Chances(A Mass Effect Fan fiction)

Leaving Earth

"They're massive! Come on, Shelby. Kaidan's headed to the Normandy. They'll pick us up if we can get to the spaceport. Let's move." Anderson said before he and Shelby took off at a sprint, trying to get to the spaceport as fast as possible.

About a fourth of the way there, Anderson patched Shelby through to his radio channel with Kaidan as she took out some husks crawling up a building, but she was promptly interrupted afterwards by a Reaper beam swooping by a few yards away, and effectively blocking the rest of her and Anderson's route.

"We've gotta find a way out of here." Anderson stated as Shelby looked around for a detour.

"Through this way." Shelby said as she pried a broken door open just enough to push one side away with her left shoulder, and the other side with her hands, giving Anderson enough space to duck through the door.

Shelby almost followed him through, when she heard a thudding noise in a vent to her right, leaving Anderson alone for the moment as she went over to investigate. She found a kid hiding in a vent from all the chaos outside. Refusing to just leave the kid there, she went over to the vent and crouched down so she could see the kid.

"Hey, it's okay." She calmly stated as the kid backed away from her.

"Everyone's dying." He said with a shake of his head.

"Come here. I need to get you someplace safe. Take my hand..." Shelby said and outstretched her hand for the the boy to take.

"You can't help me." He told her with a bit of sadness in his tone.

Shelby slowly dropped her hand back onto her knee. "Shepard. In here." Anderson called to her from the door.

Shelby looked to Anderson, then back to the vent, but the little boy was mysteriously gone without a trace. Shelby looked the vent over before getting up and going back to Anderson.

'Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought. I think I'm seeing things...' She thought to herself as Anderson pushed the door open enough for her to get through.

"This is a damned mess." Anderson started as he and Shelby crawled through debris. "Every minute these machines are here, thousands of innocent people die. I won't be responsible."

"It's hard enough fighting a war, but it's worse knowing that no matter how hard you try...you can't save them all." Shelby added.

"Exactly. They hit so fast... I thought we'd have more time."

"We knew they were coming."

"And they still just cut through our defenses." Anderson crouched down in front of some low denris, Shelby stopping with him. "We need to go to the Citadel. Talk to the council."

"The Citadel? The fight's here."

"It'll be everywhere soon enough. You said it yourself...the Reapers will destroy everything if we don't stop them." Anderson said before continuing on his way. "The council has to help us."

"You sure about that?" Shelby asked as they cleared the little debris field, and found themselves in front of a ledge small enough that Shelby's toes hung off of it.

They carefully started their way across the gap. "No, but you're a council Spectre. That has to count for something."

Before Shelby could reply, the building shook, sending her balance forward, and would have fallen off the ledge if Anderson hadn't caught her when he did. "Gotcha." He said as he pulled her back.

"Thanks. I owe you one." Shelby said as she moved forward.

"More than one." Anderson said as he followed. "Better find some ammo and keep moving." He said once they cleared the gap.