Chapter Text
When Ryanne was only ten years old, her parents were killed in a factory explosion.
She had gone home at her usual time, walking with her younger brother, Todd, back home from the bus stop. It was a beautiful fall day; a crisp breeze, slightly overcast, and dead leaves swirled down the street as if they were dancing. The air was filled with the pungent scent of autumn, and the sound of the leaves crunching underneath their feet, mingled with other children's laughter was sweet music to her ears. People had started putting out jack-o-lanterns on their porches, and the middle class street they lived on was starting to get drawn into the Halloween spirit. They couldn't wait until they were able to dress up in costumes (Todd wanted to be a Reaper, but Ryanne was dead-set on dressing up as a krogan, much to her parents' horror). This year held promise, and Ryanne was determined to visit every house she possibly could when she went trick-or-treating.
When the siblings arrived at their apartment, no one was home. A bit unusual, sure, but not completely out of the ordinary. Sometimes their parents had to work an overtime shift at the nearby Dynamis Corporation plant, but...not today. Did their boss get their schedules mixed up? Todd turned the news cast on, and after a couple of commercials on several human and alien products, a news report came on. Ryanne poured herself a glass of grape juice in the kitchen, listening idly to the news report.
"Today at 14:00 hours, a tragedy struck a local Dynamis Corporation plant. The plant exploded during a test for a mass effect prototype intended for use on an ambitious endeavor to open refueling and manufacturing stations near Veltman, a planet known for its abundance of hydrogen and helium. The blast caused damage two blocks from the plant, and as of this moment, there have been no confirmed survivors. Dynamis Corp. executives have yet to comment." The words were cold, precise, matter-of-fact. It didn't change the impact of them, though.
The glass in Ryanne's hand fell to the kitchen floor, shattering into a giant mess. Todd, bored with the news, had already changed the channel and was watching cartoons. The young girl clasped her hand to her mouth as the tears came pouring out of her eyes. She was just a child, yes, but she knew which factory her parents worked at. Her shoulders began to shake, and before she knew it, she was sobbing. She wanted to choke back the tears, to not raise Todd's suspicions, but the tears just kept coming, and the pain - it felt like someone had just taken the breath out of her lungs and tore her heart out.
Through her tears she could see the bright red liquid on the floor, and she couldn't help but wonder if her parents' blood had stained the ground of their workplace. They had both worked for the Dynamic Corporation for years. They had even met each other at a Christmas work party. Unlike most couples, who needed "me" time, Ryanne and Todd's parents were inseparable. Getting to go to work together every day, then coming home to spend time with the family was all they ever wanted. What cruel irony that they should meet their end at the very place where they first met.
"Ryanne? What's wrong?" Todd peeked his head into the kitchen curiously. It was very rare to see his older sister cry.
Ryanne wiped her eyes quickly, struggling to gain control of herself. "N-nothing, I just got something in my eye, is all."
"...Okay." Todd eyed her warily, but he took her words at face value. He was only a child, after all.
"Don't step in the kitchen, ok? There's broken glass everywhere." Ryanne knelt down, and began to pick up the shards from the floor, her hands shaking.
"Do you know when Mom and Dad are coming home? I'm starting to get kind of hungry." Ryanne paused in her clean-up, glancing up at her younger brother. He was only six years old, and already his amber eyes showed intelligence. He was an innocent child, not having ever known the pain that death brings. His black hair was slightly messy from the wind on their walk home, and his dark skin glowed with health. How much would that change, now that their parents were gone? She couldn't lie to him. Sure, he was a kid, but she couldn't hide the truth from him forever.
As quickly as the grief came, it left, and Ryanne felt nothing. She was completely numb. She knew that they were going to have a tough time now. Her grandparents had died years ago, and both of her parents were an only child. They had no family or neighbors they could turn to, and hell, with the way the adoption system worked on Earth, there wasn't just concerns with whether or not kids were going to be going to human parents. It wasn't just the fact that she and Todd would probably be separated, or even get parents that weren't of the same species as them; batarian slavers made a lot of money by using third parties to "adopt" human children. Ryanne had heard the cautionary tales in school. Being an orphan...that was one of the worst things that could possibly happen to a kid.
They were orphans now. That means I have to take care of him, Ryanne thought in determination. Steeling herself, Ryanne sighed, abandoning the pile of glass shards on the floor, and leading her brother into their living room. She sat down on the couch and patted the cushion next to her. "Come here."
Todd did as he was told, still curious and confused as to what was going on. His sister was acting awfully strange. "...Were you paying attention to that news vid that just aired when you turned the tv on?" she asked him.
"No." His brows furrowed. Was he supposed to have?
"...Todd..." Ryanne swallowed. "Mom and Dad are dead."
Her brother blinked. This was impossible. There was no way! "How? They're at work, aren't they?"
Shaking her head, his sister continued, "The factory they work in blew up today. No one survived."
Todd's face flickered through multiple emotions: confusion, anger, sadness, then finally disbelief. "You're lying! They're at work and they'll be home soon!" He hopped off the couch and made to stomp off, but Ryanne grabbed his wrist, forcing him to look back at her.
"Let go of me!" He tried to yank his arm out of her grip, but she was older, stronger. "You're hurting me! You're going to get in trouble when Mom and Dad get home, and when they do, I'm going to tell them how you lied-" Ryanne slapped her brother across the cheek, her eyes stern. Tears welled up in his eyes and he began to cry. She let him.
"I'm not lying. I need you to believe me. We have nowhere to go, Todd. No one to take care of us. It's just us two now." Ryanne's expression was serious.
"I still don't believe you! Liar! You liar! Mom's going to ground you when she knows you hit me!" Todd yelled at her through his tears.
Ryanne exhaled, guilt welling up in the pit of her stomach for hitting her brother. "I'm sorry for hitting you," she apologized. "I only just found out, and..."
With a cry of frustration, Ryanne grabbed the remote, changing the tv channel back to the news. She rewound it a ways until she found the story, and let it play. "Watch."
As the news reporter recited his script off of the teleprompter, Todd's eyes began to widen in horror, especially after seeing the picture of the factory. They had driven past their parents' workplace a few times, and there was no mistaking that landscape. It was definitely where their mother and father worked.
The tears that poured out of her brother's eyes weren't childish; these were the tears of a child who had lost his parents. Trying to calm him, Ryanne reached out, and her brother was all too willing to accept her hug. The siblings sat on the couch together, hugging each other tightly. Ryanne let him sob, stroking his hair and trying to reassure him. "Shh, it'll be alright. We'll be okay."
"Why didn't they tell us in school?" He asked tearfully.
Ryanne thought about it for a moment, looking over her brother's shoulder at the birds' eye view of the destroyed factory. The school was some distance away; the children never even heard the explosion or the sirens of emergency vehicles rushing to the scene. By the looks of that image, though...
"Maybe they didn't want kids to get scared or start crying. I don't really know why they didn't tell us." The words from her lips felt hollow. She was certain there would probably be an assembly tomorrow for all the kids if school wasn't canceled, and letters to be sent out to each family with empty words of consolation for the bereaved.
"What will we do? Where will we go? I...I don't want to be adopted! I don't want to go to the orphanage!" The fear in Todd's voice was very real - even the kids as young as he was knew what happened to orphans.
"We'll figure it out. Don't worry, I'll take care of us. I won't let anything happen to you. I promise." Ryanne meant every word of it. She would keep her brother safe, and she would do what she had to in order for them to survive, no matter the cost.
It felt like the beginning of the end. It wouldn't be until Ryanne had grown much older that she would realize this wasn't an end at all. This was her beginning. This was Commander Shepard's beginning.