They stood around the memorial wall. No one dared to speak. EDI could be heard weeping softly, the consequence of her new-found ability to feel true emotions and the lack of experience to know how hold them in. All eyes were on Kaidan. His shoulders drooped and his head was down, looking at the plaque he held.
Commander Shepard.
He closed his eyes slowly. He didn't want to believe that Shepard was gone. Again. But the strange green circuitry that was running through all of them now brought a deeper level of knowledge that the end had really come, and there was no resurrection for Shepard this time.
I love you. Always.
The words echoed in Kaidan's mind, haunting and hollow. He stepped forward to place the plaque above Admiral Anderson's name. Shepard had been the savior of the Citadel and now the savior of the galaxy. Organics and synthetics could now live in tranquility where there had once been so much conflict. But synthesis had one unintended result, their bodies were the apex of evolution, but so were their minds.
And perfect memories cannot forget.
As his mind processed the effects at a blinding speed he never thought possible, Kaidan realized Shepard's fatal mistake. Kaidan knew Shepard believed that uniting was the answer, the way to harmony. What Shepard didn't know was that uniting them would condemn the ones who loved Shepard most to an existence where recollection was precise and eternal so time could not diminish the mental anguish, and therefore were without peace.
A/N: Just a short piece living up to my name.