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Worlds Not Seen

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Shepard had learned, post-Conrad, to stop talking to strangers. She hadn’t actually stopped, but she had prepared herself for the inevitable awkward conversations that would occur every time she stepped foot on the Citadel.

This time it had been a petite fiery haired doctor who had accosted her outside the C-Sec offices, pushing a stack of folders into her hands and pleading with her to please just agree to meet with her partner.

“He’s a good man, but misguided,” she explained, the fatigue in her voice highlighted by the dark circles under her eyes, “He’s convinced that the Citadel is still at risk from the Reapers and is preventing us from moving forward on all of our other cases.”

Shepard had taken the files and shook the woman’s hand, before turning directly into Bailey’s office.

“Bailey, who was that woman?” Shepard asked confused, “Does she work for you?”

“That was Officer Scully, she’s one of the best agents we have. But her partner Officer Mulder is, well,” he trailed off, giving Shepard a nervous look.

She raised an eyebrow, “He’s what?”

“Honestly, he is the greatest advocate at C-Sec for preparing the Citadel for another potential Reaper attack,” he shrugged, “But he is also the greatest advocate of the Presidium being haunted.”

She chuckled, shaking her head, “Figures, it is always the crackpots.”

Chapter Text

Castiel rubbed his temples, adopting an exhausted tone, “Since you seem incapable of not realizing your problems are not the worst of all time-”

And with a snap, Dean had found himself crouched behind a pile of rubble.

“Hell? No, too chilly,” he started to run through the list of his possible destinations.

He looked down at the ground next to him to see a weapon that looked like a cross between the Nerf gun that he had begged his father to buy him and something that Ripley would use in Aliens.

“I guess we can rule out the past,” he picked it up cautiously, before catching a glimpse of three uniformed figures walking towards him.

“Winchester!” the petite woman barked towards him, and his body immediately snapped at attention, “I thought I told you to report to Cortez for armor!”

“Lola, the kid might be a lost cause,” the muscular man who appeared to be covered in tattoos  gave him a smirk.

She shook her head at Dean, before breaking eye contact to stare down at what appeared to be the newest iPad.  “Vega, please help the Private not get murdered his first day with us,” she waved him off before turning to the slightly older man at her side.

“Lola, I’m not sure where I’m supposed to be right now-” Dean started to explain before realizing that this woman was obviously his commanding officer and the stunned look on the other men's’ faces told him to abandon all hope.

She lowered the tablet and took the moment to look Dean directly in the eyes. Her gaze made parts of him want to cry, propose marriage, or use the laser gun he had just found to put himself out of his misery.

“Commander,” she growled in a low tone and he felt himself grow so scared of her, that a deep dark place in him could admit that he was so in lust he could barely make eye contact.

In his head, Sam and Bobby were laughing at him

“Come on Private, we have an extra set of armor that might fit, the Major is also petite," he gave a slight grin at the equally muscular but obviously higher ranking man.

The Commander gave Vega an even more withering look which he met full-on, “Lieutenant? Did you misunderstand my order or is there an issue with the meaning of the word immediately?”

“You are cute when you are angry Lola,” he winked before turning back to Dean, “and you don't ever get to call her Lola.”

Dean nodded quickly, following the man to what appeared to be a large spaceship.

“Space. Ship. Spaceship,” he repeated the words in his head, suppressing a deep laugh in his throat.

Castiel was right, his sense of humor wasn’t appreciated enough.

Dean shrugged to himself, “Maybe at least I can have a green girlfriend like Kirk.”

Chapter Text

On the colonies, Shepard had never grown used to how crowded Earth was. Everyone lived stacked towards the sky, and Shepard couldn’t sleep well without vast expanses of quiet.

But as London streets lay ahead of her, empty and punctuated by rocket blasts, she would give anything for the claustrophobic sensation of never being alone.

When she catches a glint of two humans running out of the corner of her eye, she’s almost pleased for the mirage. But when Kaidan and Garrus turn their heads towards the voices and duck into cover, she realizes her imagination is not playing tricks on her.

“Buffy, we need to keep moving!” her companion yelled, dark-haired with what Shepard was pretty sure people used to call an ‘eye patch’. She couldn’t be sure though, everyone in their time would grow back the missing body part. He checked the peripherals and Shepard could see military training come through.

The blonde sighed, rubbing bloody hands down the front of her pants, “Xander, I need a minute, we need to figure out where we are.”

Kaidan was the first to slowly rise out of cover, deliberately avoiding Shepard grabbing at his waist. “You’re in London!” he yelled, starting to walk towards them as the man directed his weapon squarely at his chest.

“London?” the girl repeated back, “Giles never told me that it looked like this.”

The man’s hand went up triumphantly, “Buffy, I have seen this movie before, we need to ask a different question.”

Shepard rose next to Kaidan, “Then you should ask it because we haven’t seen a live human in about 20 city blocks.”

“What year is it?” he yelled as they both took defensive positions.

Kaidan turned back to look at Shepard with his eyebrows raised before responding,  “2186.”

The blonde gave a slightly tired look that Shepard recognized from any moment she caught her own face reflected against the glass of the Normandy. Insurmountable odds, everyone depending on you, and it only feels like another work day.

“I wish that one day we find the portal to the sunny beach dimension,” she said to her companion before starting a slow jog towards the group.

Shepard gave an involuntary nod, “You and I both.”

Chapter Text

“That’s the Shepard!” Marceline’s voice went high-pitched as Jake and Finn stared at the rotating holographic figure.

Jake scratched his head, “You mean that Sheepy the Wizard used to be woman? And a hologram? I thought he was always just a sheep.”

“No, not the False Shepherd, but the real Shepard from before the war,” she explained, her eyes wide and excited in a way that Finn hadn’t seen since he had adventured through her memories and saw her as a little girl.

Jake reached his paw through the hologram, “Why do we have a box that she lives in?”

Marceline reverted back to a grimace, “She doesn’t live in there, she hasn’t been alive for a long time.”

“Then why do we have a box that has a picture of her?” Finn asked, sitting cross-legged in front of it.

“The only other person I know who had one of these memory boxes was Dad,” Jake answered, “So this woman must be very important.”

“She is the Shepard!” Marceline exclaimed, “How do you really not know this story?”

“Aren’t you like super old, and we’re super young?” Jake answered her question, as Finn nodded in agreement next to him.

She bared her fangs and he leapt behind Finn in surprise, “And do you know how I stay so super old?”

“Marceline,” Finn dragged out the last syllable of her name in a pleading voice he knew always worked with her,  “Can you tell us the story?”

“I can only tell you the parts I know,” she kept her eyes on the hologram, “My father only told me bits and pieces.”

“Marceline,” Jake matched Finn’s tone and doubled-down with sad puppy eyes, “Please.”

Her voice took on the initial awe from when they activated the small box, “It all starts out on a spaceship.”

Chapter Text

Regina had ordered Emma to the hospital immediately, her voice angry and tired at the new arrival in Storybrooke.  

The woman had been found atop a snow bank in the forest, pink cheeked and wrapped tightly in an embroidered black and red blanket. Emma had deposited the blanket in an evidence bag, but the paramedics hadn’t been able to remove the dog tags clenched tight in her hand.

Scars were laced across her body and, if Emma looked close enough, she could swear they were glowing.

Henry had beaten her to the hospital, still clad in his pajamas, standing on tiptoes to see in the room.

“Henry, why aren’t you in bed?” Emma walked up next to him, “More importantly, how did you get here before me?”

“This is the first knight we’ve had!” he exclaimed, ignoring her question with wide eyes and an excited voice, “I had to come!”

Emma looked down at him and folded her arms, “So, how do we know this isn’t a princess?”

Henry reflected back a look that Emma knew and could deliver just as well, every bit of his posture stating that the answer was so obvious and Emma should already know it.

“Look at her hands,” he explained, “Those aren’t princess hands.”

“How do we know that she isn’t just a woman that was lost in the woods?” she continued to question, seeing his face scrunch with the machinations clicking the full story into place, “How do we know that she isn’t just a visitor to the town?”  

“Nobody comes here without a reason,” he looked back to the hospital bed, “I think she is lost, but this is where she was found for a reason.”

The doctor had confirmed some of Henry’s assumptions, “I have good reason to believe she was military, I’ve sent her records to DC in order to hopefully verify her identity.”

“Any idea on when she’ll regain consciousness?” Emma asked, trying to lean in to prevent Henry’s obvious attempt to eavesdrop.

He shook his head, “She has suffered some severe injuries in her life and I don’t even know where to start to explain how they were healed, but she’s still alive and still breathing so I’m hopeful.”

As she started to thank him, a man in military dress flew past her and into the room. He fell to a knee at the woman’s bedside, “I told you I would show up.”

“See, I told you she was a princess,” Emma gave him a small nudge in the side.

Henry just shook his head, “Who said two knights can’t fall  in love?”