A Chance To Live

She was floating in the darkness, no pain, no feeling, just silence and peace. She had done it, she had destroyed the Reapers, saved the Galaxy, ended the cycle, and now she could join her love in the next life. 'Liara', even thinking about what had happened caused immense misery. Watching her get hit by Harbingers beam had filled her with such hatred for the Reapers, for the illusive man and, when she met him, for the Catalyst. She had wanted, no, needed to avenge her fallen lover, and that need had fuelled her onto the Citadel.

Then the Illusive man showed up, made her shoot Anderson. Unfortunately the son of a bitch had become wracked with indecision and shot himself before she could get free and do it herself. When the Catalyst had given her a choice she had laughed. 'A choice' she had said 'there is no choice. You killed my bondmate, now I'm going to end you and your pets.'

Now she was floating in the darkness, waiting to be reunited with Liara. 'Liara'. It had never registered with her that Javik had been right beside Liara, she never even realised that he must have died too. All that had mattered to her was reaching Liara through the smoke and flames, but just as she had been about to reach her, she too had been hit by Harbingers beam. When she had finally arisen, she couldn't see Liara's body anywhere, and then, all she could see was a red haze, one that hadn't fully dissipated until she began firing her weapon at the red glass.

'I did it Liara' she thought 'I did it for you.'

She felt a comfort, an embrace, something was happening, but she didn't know what. She couldn't really explain it, or how she knew, but it was like she was being assessed, and whatever it was that was doing the assessing, it approved of her. It was pushing her forward, and she could see a light. She was being pushed towards the afterlife.

'I'm coming Liara' and then she felt something. A sharp pain through her chest and she jolted. Confusion swept through her as she felt it again. It was as she felt it the third time that it happened. She jolted forwards and then back and her back landed on something solid. She heard voices, blurred and rushed.

"We've … pulse … blood … dropping." She couldn't make sense of the voices and felt like she did when she first woke up on Lazarus Station, but it was different, no Miranda, no Wilson, just blurry figures of doctors rushing about. Her eyes closed, funny, she hadn't even realised she had opened them, and she drifted off into unconsciousness.

When she next opened her eyes she expected to see the golden gate, or something along those lines, instead she saw the ceiling of a medbay, she moved her head around and looked around. There was a doctor over by her desk, but it wasn't Chakwas, or Michel. She lifted her hand to her forehead and groaned, that got the doctors attention, who came running over, her Omni-tool powering up and scanning her within seconds.

"Well you certainly kept us on our toes Commander," she said, her voice was pleasant, "you flat lined twice you know. We were sure you weren't going to make it. Your recovery has been nothing but a miracle," no, she was still alive, she was sure she was going to cry, "you know Admiral Anderson came into see you to request you personally on the Normandy, I guess N7s do get the best assignments," wait, Anderson's alive as well, maybe Liara survived too, "but you have three months to get back in shape before you can hop on board that ship. So how do you feel Commander Hanson?" WAIT! HANSON!

"Who the hell is Hanson?!" she exclaimed, starting to panic, "What's going on here?" the doctor nodded before typing something onto a data pad.

"Relax Commander Hanson," she said in a soothing voice, "it seems that you are experiencing memory loss, probably due to the electrical pulses in your brain faltering when your heart stopped, it doesn't always happen, but it's common enough. Your memories should come back, but it may take some time, I'll see about getting you your files for you to read. Hopefully that'll jump start you memory."

She took some deep breaths and calmed herself down. She couldn't go blabbing that she was Shepard if this woman thought she was this Hanson person. Either the woman was crazy or whatever had sent her back to this life had sent her to the first available vessel.

"How long have I been out? What date is it?"

"You've been out for two months, it's now the 14th of January 2186, I'm sorry to say you were out through Christmas," the doctor typed a few more words into her data pad before she walked over to her desk and put it down, either not noticing the gaping look on her face, or putting it down to having missed Christmas, "Now I'm going to see about getting you those records, the button on the wall to your right will call me if you need anything, Is there anything I can get you while I'm still here." She nodded.

"Water," the doctor nodded and left the room, returning shortly with a glass of water before leaving again. She sighed and took a sip of water. It had been a shock to learn that she had been thrust back in time. It was currently three months before the reapers arrived. A part of her was tempted to call Liara on Mars, but Liara didn't know who this person was, and Liara was in love with Shepard, wait, she meant her, the younger her, the her that would die again, and that would break Liara's heart. There was only one thing she could do, make sure this person made it to the citadel before Shepard, so that Liara could be happy. She felt an uncomfortable pressure in her head and somehow knew that whatever entity had put her here was still communicating with her. It obviously disapproved of that Idea, it didn't take her long to realise this would create a paradox.

Hmm, the 14th of January, that was the day Ashley was on the news being praised by the Alliance Brass, it couldn't hurt to watch it, she hadn't had the chance the first time around, she had heard about it later from Vega. It would put off trying to think up a plan in what seemed to be an impossible situation. She fiddled with her Omni-tool and brought up the news vid. There, on stage, was Real Admiral Mikhailovich giving a long winded speech. She picked up her glass of water and settled back to watch.

"… and so, without further ado, I present to you a Marine above and beyond reproach …" When he said the name she choked slightly on the water she was gulping, thinking she'd misheard him, but as she saw the Marine walk across the stage she spat out the water and stared at the screen. She was not only back in time, she had to be in another universe, for that was the only way she could be looking at Kaidan Alenko shaking Mikhailovich's hand.

Thank you for reading, now please review.