I closed my eyes as the burning heat engulfed me, the pain I had been fighting now felt like nothing compared the searing burn that entangled me. As the pain reached its peak it all suddenly stopped. Everything stopped. When I opened my eyes I was no longer on the Citadel. I saw gray in all defections only broken up by ghostly blackened trees and hazy black shadows. The shadows whispered to me but their words were to quite to hear but they sounded familiar like I knew who was speaking. Like I had heard their words before. I felt something looming at my side and I looked down at a lone bench, the same dark color as the trees. I walked behind it and ran the edge of my fingers along the back of the splintering wood. It felt strange, like when a part of your body is asleep and everything you touched to is dulled. I walked around to the front of the bench and took a seat, not knowing why just that it seemed right. I knew where I was and how I had gotten there. This seemed different from the last time. Last time death had been my end, there had been no world after my eyes shut for the final time but that might have been because I wasn't dead for long. I wasn't meant to see the other world, unlike this time. I leaned back on the bench and crossed my arms over my chest as I looked at the shadows trying to understand their gentle whispers.

"Hey Skipper," A voice said clearly catching me off guard, I turned on the bench quickly looking to the owner of the voice as they approached the bench. Ashely, came and joined me. She stared out at gray void tangled with trees. I just I looked at my former crewmate with a deepening sadness. Seeing her again after all this time reminded me how young Ashely had been when she died. So young and brave and she was damn determined all of that was lost to the world when I left her behind on Virmire. I hated myself for doing that, it had been her or Kaidan and as terrible as it might have been I didn't need to think about the choice for long. Ashley had been one of my crew mates and over the time we had spent together we had grown to be close friends but Kaidan was something else, more than a friend. I loved him.

Ashely looked over at me to see my shocked and heartbroken expression. She shook her head.

"I got to say, Shepard, you look like shit." I chuckled and looked down at my arms, my burns were still there, skin blackened and charred. But the pain wasn't there anymore. Just like when I touched the bench everything somehow felt numb.

"Reaper lasers aren't gentle," I said, she chuckled and I was suddenly reminded of our late night conversations in the mess hall, just shooting shit over a beer if we could find one. She had made many of my sleepless night more bearable with hardy conversation and the presence of a friend.

"Are the others okay?" I asked nervously await her answer as I turned my hands over in one another.

"If they weren't," She said raising her hands to either side "They'd be here." She said dropping her arms back in place and slouching onto the bench. I relaxed and mimicked her, looking around almost waiting for something to change.

"I thought it be different," I said letting my worry fall away.

"How so?" She asked eyebrows raised as she looked over at me with the slightest turn of her neck.

"I don't know, brighter maybe. I was hoping to see people." I said and she cocked her head to the side inviting me to go on.

"You," I said nodding at her, "Mordin, Thane, Jenkins," I paused for just second "My dad."

"Well, I hate to break it to you Shep, but this isn't heaven." I looked over at her surprised. Ashley had been one of the very few people I had encountered on my travels that shared my belief of God and the world after death.

"What do you mean?" I asked my voice taking on an edge of the worry I had since let go of. A hand dropped on my shoulder from behind me. I turned around quick I was started to find Mordin standing there, his large black eyes pooling with empathy.

"Time is up, Shepard." He said softly, I turned to looked at Ash again but she was gone I quickly turned back to Mordin and he too, gone. I heard Ash's voice in my head as nothing more than a soft whisper no louder than the black shadows, only unlike the shadows I understood her words.

"Tell the others I say hi." Then everything came crashing away, the sweet numbed feelings disappeared and were replaced with pain unlike that I had ever felt before. I saw black and felt my eyes were shut, I struggled to pull them open; I was face down on the ground. I took a deep breath but felt like my lungs were being crushed by some immense force that was pushing down on my body. I tried to move my arms, pain broke out over the dead flesh that now coated them. Every second I spent with my eyes open felt like a battle, my body wanting nothing more than to lay there unmoving and retune to that world of gray and numbness. This hurt so much. But thoughts of my crew, of my friends, of Kaidan, came to mind and I fought the pain until I could reach my omi-tool and send out a distress signal. When I was done I let my arms fall still once more. I tried to control my breathing but something was crushing me, I couldn't see or really feel what it was but something was there. I tried to move in any way I could and one leg scraped the ground with burning pain, the other I couldn't move. I didn't even know if it was still there. Everything hurt too much for me to tell one pain from another. There was a warm ooze pooling around my body and pain accompanied by the sticky warmth of blood at my core. No matter how hard I fought the blackness came creeping into the edge of my vision and I willed myself not to pass out.

I thought I had succeeded, waiting there in agony for what felt like an eternity; battling pain, unable to move. When I opened my eyes again I found that I had lost my battle of conciseness and was no longer being crushed but moved somewhere fast. My mind overwhelmed I tried to look around unsure of what was happening. Everything was a blur of motion and sound. As I struggled to breathe I heard a voice beside me speak.

"Hang in there Shepard, we're going to get you help." I knew this voice, it was the voice of a friend but with my thoughts so loosely strung together and pain control everything I did, thought or felt I couldn't place who the voice belonged to; not until I heard the voice as a loud course of swearing and shouting at everyone and anyone but myself. Jack. I knew she actually liked me somewhere deep down past that rugged tattooed exterior. I would have smiled if I had had the energy. But before I could stop myself the world and my blurred vision turned to black again and I felt nothing but pain, passing out was suppose to stop the pain. It didn't.

AN/ Thank you all so much for reading this, I really enjoy writing it and would love to hear your feedback. Sorry if there is any grammar or spelling problems, editing isn't really my strong suite.