Her Name is Death

by indignant mushroom

Asa Shepard died alone in space, and this new one is nothing more than a fabrication of damaged parts left behind. A short re-telling of her life after resurrection, and what humanity means to a woman who wears it like ill-fitting sheepskin. Post Horizon and onwards.

When Asa died, she remembered only darkness. The abrupt blackout of her mind, like pulling a cord from its electrical socket. She wondered if that was how God saw itraised scars that burned when the nightmares came. All night she would writhe and shake, choking herself with her duvet until Dr. Chakwas came with a syringe to untangle her.

Humanity does not fit her, not as it did before; it hangs from her bones like sagging skin. But she needed to be nothing more than a clever parlor trick; an illusion for mankind to gather behind while the rest of the universe blinked out like so many dying lights. The real Asa Shepard died in space far away from the Normandy and her crew, and this new Shepard is nothing more than a fabrication.