Shepard awoke with a start.
As her breath began to settle into a normal rhythm once more, she groaned softly as she became aware of her surroundings. Only moments ago, Shepard had been standing on the surface of Aratoht, a batarian colony planet. At least, it used to be. Shepard remembered herself screaming, yelling at the top of her lungs, trying to warn the Batarians of their impending doom. Neither seen nor heard, Shepard could only watch in horror as the sky became too bright to look at, and the air became too hot to breath.
But then it was gone. A whole planet destroyed in an instant. No, not just a planet, a whole system. Four hundred thousand lives silenced, because of her actions.
Casually tossing her covers aside, Shepard slowly rose out of bed, glancing at the clock on her way up the stairs to the terminal.
Four thirty. A common number for her to see when she woke up.
Nightmares had plagued Shepard for many years now, and while they were not exactly a common occurrence, she still felt cheated of her full nights rest whenever they did occur.
At least there's some variety to them these days. She thought to herself as she sat down at her desk.
It had been nearly a decade since the Skyllian Blitz. It wasn't guilt she felt, just sorrow. Or anger. Maybe both. For years, that was the event her nightmares had been focused on. Until Kaiden died.
No.
"Until I killed Kaiden." She forced herself to say his name.
An impossible choice. I would have lost a friend either way. Her thoughts provided her with little comfort.
As she scrolled through her emails, she brought up the Alliance profile for Aratoht on her secondary screen. A mining colony heavily populated near the poles to protect from the scalding heat that engulfed most of the planet. The miners were speculated to be mostly slaves or servants to their batarian overlords. This made little difference to Shepard. An innocent life is an innocent life.
She powered the terminal down and sat in darkness for a few moments, listening to her own breathing. With a soft click the blue light from the fish tank turned on, providing the room with slight illumination. The blue glow combined with the silence reminded her of Alchera, another unpleasant memory. When her nightmares were at their worst, Shepard would be forced to live through her final moments, floating helplessly above the beautiful blue planet, gasping for air as consciousness slowly faded. She shuddered at the thought.
Swivelling in her chair, Shepard faced the dark picture frame in front of her. As she moved her hand close, the picture sprung to life, bringing a weary smile to Shepards face.
"Hey you." She said gently.
The picture did not respond.
"All of this, is just a little easier knowing you're out there waiting for me." As Shepard moved her hand away, the blue dim from the photo ceased to exist, and was replaced by blackness.
Rising to her feet, Shepard yawned loudly. It seemed like a fool's errand to try and go back to sleep now. Might as well hit the shower, get an early start. Today was going to be a long day.