The world, such as it was, burned. The death reek familiar from that terrible day and night when Mindoir fell filled the air. Smoke and ash blinded her. She stumbled forward, the metallic taste of blood and fear filling her mouth, her shoulder and back aching from carrying the stolen rifle for hours while she searched for other survivors and dodged slaver patrols intent on rounding up surviving human chattel.

She stumbled and landed hard on one knee, the new ache of the injury joining the dull symphony of discomfort cascading through her skinny adolescent frame.

But, no, she wasn't an adolescent. She looked down, she was an adult, wearing hard earned N7 armor and armed with her trusty Avenger assault rifle. She looked to her right and left and spotted the dim silhouettes of similarly equipped humanoids.

Her squad? Where were they?

"Commander should we call the mission? We haven't seen any sign of survivors." Garrus Vakarian's voice crackled in her ear.

"Commander we don't know for sure there isn't someone still hiding here, if we leave now they could die from exposure or starvation. The batarians haven't left any supplies or equipment behind." Kaidan Alenko countered.

"Kaidan?"

"I'm here Shepard."

And he was, impossibly and immediately, it's a dream Kaidan despises you and you're locked in a cell for murdering batarian civilians His easy smile filling her visor as he put a hand on her armored shoulder.

"We should keep searching Commander, until we're sure, there's only a few more prefabs marked on the nav map."

"Right, Garrus you heard the man let's do this right, be sharp, visibility is nil in this smoke."

"What smoke?" Garrus asked.

"The-" They were standing in the Citadel tower, the Council complete with Udina stood before them. She wore her Alliance dress uniform and the asari ambassador was pinning a medal on Shepard's chest.

"Shep, keep it together, this is being recorded." Garrus growled under his breath somehow managing to barely move his mandibles.

"Commander Shepard." The asari ambassador said and the few dozen beings scattered among the various vantage points cheered and clapped. Except for one, a batarian. Shepard watched as he raised his arm revealing a small pistol. She lunged away from the ambassador fearing the innocent politician would be caught in the assassination attempt and injured.

Her movement caught Garrus and Kaidan off guard. She slipped past them as the first shots rang out and missed but her momentum knocked her off the small dais and down to the garden below, the garden that had been destroyed by shrapnel from Sovereign...

"Commander?"

She sat up sharply, sweat beading her face and chest. James Vega stood in her doorway, her breakfast tray in hand.

"Hey James, what time is it?" She croaked.

"Almost nine, I checked the log and saw you were still out so I figured I'd give you time to sleep in. Guess I maybe shouldn't have huh?" He said and entered the cell far enough to set the tray safely on a flat surface.

"No, you're fine, thanks for breakfast."

"I'll uh be outside."

"Anything on the agenda today?"

"Not that I'm aware of Commander, but who knows?"

"Yeah." She sighed and slowly laid back down.

She wasn't tired anymore, well she was but she wasn't sleepy. So once Vega had cleared the cell she got up and showered, dressed in the rankless work uniform she had been issued upon her incarceration and tried to eat.

The rations weren't the problem, the dreams and her worry were. She felt like a caged cat, pacing back and forth just waiting for a chance to be free. The Reapers were still coming and she was effectively iced. Locked down indefinitely and unable to help in any meaningful way. Anderson did his best and Alliance intel and ops officers made a habit of interviewing her several times a week but it wasn't enough by far.


"Her mental state sir?"

"Yes lieutenant." Anderson said firmly.

"I'm not an expert sir –"

"You've been in combat, you've also studied the Commander's file, or at least as much as you have access to. In your opinion how is her mental state?"

"I –"

"I'm her friend Lieutenant, her ally, I'm not going to try to hurt her or make things worse."

"Yes sir. She's having nightmares, has been since she was brought in. They seemed okay for the most part but lately she's been sleeping late, losing her routine, and she looks tired all the time just..worn…sir."

"I'll have the medics evaluate her. What about her mood?"

"Mostly optimistic sir, she's worried about the reapers and frustrated but she understands what you're doing, hell, uh heck sir, she uh defends the decision when I get frustrated over it."

"With any luck this won't last much longer. We're in negotiations with the batarians, have been for weeks, but ideally we'll be able to come to an arrangement that won't require a trial."

"Is that preferable sir? Wouldn't a trial help clear her name?"

"Lieutenant the only way a trial would help her is if it were publicized and the batarians had a say in sentencing. Considering the nature of the event and the highly classified activities involved in it… that's a no-go."

"Right, I guess confirming the Reapers are real and got so close so soon would result in galaxy wide panic."

"Only if they took it seriously Lieutenant, and if they don't, well… there are a lot of short sighted politicians involved that are trying to cover their careers."

Vega's hands curled into fists and his expression turned into a hard smirk.

"Cowards." He spat.

"Maybe, ask yourself this Vega, if you had been briefed about the reapers without solid evidence to back it up would you believe it? I'm sure you'd follow your orders and get the job done but would you believe the reason for them? Sure the politicians are scrambling to look good, they always do but they also have a point this time."

Vega spotted Kaidan Alenko's name on the data pad on Anderson's desk.

"Sharp eyes lieutenant. You saw him on your way in?" Anderson asked following Vega's line of sight.

"Yes sir."

"Major Alenko is as concerned about Shepard as either of us. Escort her to the medics if she's eaten, we can't afford to let her languish in prison, we need her ready when the Reapers finally do arrive."

"Yes sir."