AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This story is purely for my own pleasure, but of course it helps to have some viewers. This is the pilot chapter. More will be released in the near future. I initially had this story on my other account, but moved it here. Please enjoy! This is NOT an extension of my previous works.
She could feel the cold sweat beading on her forehead. Her eyes were open, but the darkness enveloped her.
She was disoriented and it all felt wrong.
In a flash the door opened and the light broke away to reveal her little brother's face- just as she remembered.
"Thalassa, I found you!"
Her brother cheered while holding the closet door open.
It was home. Mindoir.
There was a rush of relief at the sound of her parents talking in the distance.
Her adolescent brother took her hand and pulled her through the threshold of the door.
As she found her footing, the whole room shifted in an instant and her brother had vanished.
The person now beside her was familiar, a beloved sight.
"Garrus."
Her soft voice seemed to echo into the void behind him.
His features crinkled in concern, but his eyes pierced her with an unexplainable amount of anger and pain.
"Shepard, you could have saved us all."
Her heart was sinking into the abyss as his voice rang through her head.
He fell away and she reached out to catch him- her hands were wet and sticky.
Blood. His blood.
Her hands were covered in it- she fought the urge to cry out. But despite her attempt she could still hear her own voice weeping.
The pain was overwhelming and she couldn't breathe.
"Stop!" She cried into the depths of her own heart and suddenly everything became silent.
Her senses drifted into reality- the nightmare began to fade and her consciousness returned. Her ears registered the sound of a consistent bleeping.
Light was absent when she slowly began to open her eyes. The bleeping had become more erratic and footsteps accompanied the chaos.
A dim ray of light flooded the blur of her surroundings.
Her body would not respond to her commands- the only thing she could do was feel her grip on the fabric beneath her.
Her instincts told her to run. Her training told her to run.
There were voices, but they got swallowed by her panic.
Her need to survive shot into overdrive and the information that her senses were trying to interpret seemed to come to a climax.
"Give her another shot. She's not stable. Her body needs more time to heal."
"I know. I did."
Flashbacks of her time in a Cerberus lab heightened the intensity of her reaction.
"Miss, calm down- you're okay."
The voice was foreign. She couldn't even make out the faces around her.
Her eyes would not open past a certain point and it took so much effort to do what she could to even see past the lights and silhouettes.
"Miss Thalassa Anne Shepard? You're in a hospital. You're safe. You can relax, I promise."
The voice was soothing. Like ice on a burn wound.
The bleeping in the background slowed to a steady and firm rhythm.
But should she trust it? Her body ached despite not being able to move.
Her mind could not process anything. Her thoughts started and were quickly cut off because of the energy it took to think.
But she began to realize that danger was not eminent- her eyes closed after straining to adjust to the lights that had come on in the room.
"You're going to be okay."