Chapter One - Jessamine Shepard
It was suffocating; layer upon layer of rubble crushed my chest. I couldn't move my legs, couldn't feel them properly. I couldn't hear anything other than a tinny ringing in my ears, a soft echo in what was otherwise radio silence.
It was dark, so dark. I tried to open my eyes. Dust fell from my eyelashes, sticking to my tear ducts. I shuddered as I breathed in, my body racking in pain as my lungs attempted to fill with much needed oxygen.
What the hell had happened? Everything was a jumble, a mess. If only the pain would stop…
"Jessamine! I found her!" The familiar voice sounded close, I couldn't tell properly because I couldn't see past the metal plate barely an inch away from my nose.
"Liara?"
"Shepard." A hand found mine in the rubble. "We're going to get you out." I felt some of the weight being removed from my chest – I choked a little as it got lighter. "We daren't use biotics. Garrus as Tali are helping to move it now." Liara hesitated, "Jessamine…we can move quicker if I help, we don't know the extent of your injuries…" She gripped my hand tightly and made as if to go.
"Don't, please. Stay." My voice came out raspy, dust coated the sides of my throat, tickling me as I forced each word out.
"Of course." I heard the frustration in her voice. She wanted me out, the logical part of her knew that I would be free quicker if she helped. I knew if she had been alone when she had found me, she wouldn't have stopped working until I was free and safe. The archaeologist in her would think of me as the most precious find, untrusting in the idea that anyone else would treat me as delicately as she would.
"I need you here, T'soni." The words slipped out like a command. I was desperately trying not to scream, or cry. If I didn't have her to hold onto… I would break.
I was a mess. Unable to trust my body or my mind. I had absolutely no idea what was real and what wasn't anymore. The Reapers, my choice to destroy them… the little boy…shadows, death, the whispers in my head.
"Where are we?" I ask.
"You don't remember?" Concern laced Liara's response. She lifted the metal away from my face. I blinked, it was still dark. I could barely make out the stars in the navy sky, but Liara was glowing with her biotics, an azure light casting so that I could make out Garrus and Tali beside her.
"Keelah, you gave us a fright!"
"Everyone thought you were dead, Commander." Garrus looked at me critically with an amber eye. Liara grimaced at his words. It occurred to me that she might have believed me dead until very recently.
"Yeah, thanks for getting me out." I tried to sit up.
"Don't." Liara pressed me back gently. "You need to stay still until I can figure out the best way to move you."
Her next words took away what little breath I had. "You're on Earth Jessamine."
I rocked with the revelation. Real or not real? True or false? Honesty or lie? I no longer trusted anything my brain told me.
I shuddered, breath quickening painfully. Oh God. Everything hurt so much. I wanted it to stop, I wanted to stop and be sure of the world again.
"She's having a panic attack." Tali's voice was muffled, like it was underwater.
"Jessamine. Jessamine Shepard, please. Calm down, I just found you again. I'm here."
The last thing I saw was Liara's worried eyes as I slipped into darkness.
She had such beautiful eyes.