Summary:
Katy Shepard is the leader of an Earth street gang called the Tenth Street Reds. Thane Krios is an assassin with a deadly reputation. They're both living the sleep without dreams.
Mass Effect AU. Will contain some characters, events and plot points from all three games, though not necessarily as they happen in game canon. Character personalities will generally be true to canon, but character timelines and histories have been altered.
Rated M for adult themes and language.
Introduction
First, the blanket statement: Characters et cetera all belong Bioware. I just make with the stories about them. Please no sue.
Second, this is an AU fic. It does NOT follow the storyline of any of the three games, though it takes elements from them. Also, character timelines and histories have been altered, in some cases significantly. If this does not appeal to you, please do not read.
Third, I hate my brain for this.
Sleep Without Dreams
Prologue
The Day the World Changed Forever
Kathryn Shepard was six, and the hot San Diego sun burned down on the top of her freshly shorn red curls. Her speckled green eyes stared at the big polished box on it's stand, and at the man in his black suit with the white collar at his throat. Her freckled nose wrinkled at the smell in the air - something heavy and cloying and fake, like the air freshener in the foyer of their apartment building that somehow managed to neither eliminate or cover up the stink of the place, but instead permuted the other odors into something truly horrible. Her scratchy new dress rubbed the back of her neck and under her arms and around her middle.
She tugged at her hand, enveloped in her uncle's, and asked, once again, when her mommy and daddy would be home. He squeezed her hand, and, once again, gave her the answer she couldn't understand.
Your mommy and daddy aren't coming back, pumpkin.
Kathryn Shepard was six, and her world had changed forever.
Thane Krios was six, and he held his mother's hand while the hanar spoke to his father, ripples of light fluttering along its skin. Beside him was a bag holding all his favorite things. He'd helped his mother pack it this morning, pausing often to hug her, because she seemed so sad. Her fingers tightened on his, deep blue against his pale green, and he squeezed back, trying to reassure her. He was a big boy, now. He'd make them proud.
She knelt by him, taking him into her arms and murmuring for him to be good, to be strong, to be brave, that she would remember him, every day. Then it was his father's turn, his voice gruff and his shoulders tense with unhappiness. His father, too, crouched down beside him, the fingers of his father's left hand gripping his shoulder hard - too hard, but he was a big boy now, he wouldn't complain.
He picked up his bag and put it on his shoulder and walked over to where the hanar waited for him, one tentacle extended. Stopped, looked back, waved. He was a big boy now, and big boys didn't cry.
Thane Krios was six, and his world had changed forever.