Chapter Text
Prologue: A New Beginning
Art by HeavenOnFire
“Where is Kaidan Alenko?” The words hung heavy in the air and silence was all that greeted Shepard’s question. Anderson folded his arms across his chest and sighed heavily. He couldn’t meet Shepard’s eyes and that was enough for panic to settle in, he could see it in the way John’s shoulders tensed up. He could hear it in the urgency of his next words. “Anderson. Tell me where he is.”
“Look, John. There is no easy way to say this.” He sighed again and placed a hand on Shepard’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze before dropping it. “He’s gone, son.” He looked up to finally meet steely blue eyes, wide with shock.
“Gone?” he asked.
There was a momentary pause before Anderson answered, “Dead.”
Panic settled to something more muted, far heavier and far more suffocating. “Tell me how he died, please?” His voice was shaky, desperate.
“All that matters is he’s gone now Shepard. Knowing how won’t change that.” John dropped his head, eyes unfocused, seeing far beyond his feet. He eventually nodded, and Anderson felt his gut twinge with guilt. His lie left a bitter taste on his tongue. Kaidan Alenko wasn’t dead, but he was so far out of John’s reach he might as well be.
Kaidan Alenko was on his way to another galaxy, one full of hope. The promise of a better life drew him away, an escape far from the grief of loss and pained memories.
To everyone left here in the Milky Way, Kaidan Alenko was KIA, and Anderson was going to make sure it stayed that way.
When he finally woke up, everyone here would be ghost’s long dead, memories to be put behind him. Councilor David Anderson turned his attention back to the grieving man in front of him. He reached out and pulled John into a gentle hug, formalities be damned. “You’re gonna be fine son. You can get through this. Focus on the mission. You got work to do.”
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Far away a man lays in a dreamless sleep, blissfully unaware, blissfully numb; he sleeps. He awaits the day when he can awake once more and put the past behind him, to build something beautiful and new.
Tucked safely away on the Ark Hyperion, Kaidan Alenko sleeps, for when he finally wakes, his life will begin anew. In Andromeda.