"Shepard."

Commander John Shepard hastily woke up as he heard a voice whisper his name. In a cold sweat, he looked around. Where was he? It looked like his quarters back on the Normandy SR-1, but that was impossible!

His mind raced back as far as he could remember. It all started coming back to him. The Citadel, Anderson, the Illusive Man, and the Catalyst AI that presented him his three choices. The last thing he could recall was angrily making the choice to annihilate the Reapers with the crucible. He just wanted them all gone after all the friends he lost, and between the other choices of becoming the Catalyst's replacement and rewriting every life form in the galaxy's DNA, it seemed like the soundest choice.

But where was he now? He reached for the door that led out to the Normandy's mess hall. "Locked." He groaned. "Go figure."

Suddenly, there was a high pitch ringing sound and he fell to the floor. It felt as if his mind was being split in two. Then he heard more voices.

"There's no time, get Alenko and get out of here Commander! You know it's the right choice!"

Ashley. The first friend he lost. He remembered how angry he was after her untimely death, and promised to never lose another crew member.

A promise he couldn't keep.

Another voice. Frantic and frightened.

"Mayday! Mayday! This is SSV Normandy! We have suffered massive damage from an unknown enemy!"

His mind immediately rushed back to the Collector attack on the SR-1. He remembered watching his crew die around him, rushing to the bridge trying to save Joker...

And then he died. What kind of Captain was he? He couldn't even guarantee the safety of himself, let alone his crew.

"Had to be me, someone else might have gotten it wrong."

Mordin chose to sacrifice himself, but Shepard still felt guilty about it. The Salarian scientist and former STG Member gave his life to save a species he originally condemned to extinction.

"There seems there will be no one to morn me when I die. You're the only friend I've made in years."

Thane. Shepard never knew an assassin could teach him so much about life. Thane's life was a tragedy, and he was dying already, but those damn Cerberus bastards had to be the ones to end him. He may have been an assassin, but he died a hero.

"You did good son. You did good. I'm...proud...of you."

Anderson. The one who had been at his side since the beginning. That one hit him the hardest.

There was another high pitch noise, and suddenly, he was lying besides Anderson on the Citadel, watching as the arms opened. He remembered seeing shield fleet getting ripped apart by Reapers as they struggled to get the crucible docked. It was a miracle that they docked, let alone survived.

The voices stopped, and Shepard wondered "What the hell is going on? Am I...in hell?"

Everything went white.

Shepard awoke finding himself strapped to an operating table. He couldn't feel anything, and he couldn't move. Was he reliving Project Lazarus now? He gazed around the room, expecting to find the orange and black symbols on the wall, but there were none. Instead, the blue insignia of the Systems Alliance decorated the room. His hearing started to come back, and he suddenly heard what was going on around him. A heartbeat monitor, beepings very fast. The hustle of doctors around the room. One of them yelled.

"Shepard is awake! Quick, administer the sedatives! The cellular regeneration is not complete! Shepard, if you can hear me, just relax."

He saw a syringe enter his arm, and then everything went black.

Alright, that's chapter two. In the following chapters, we will get to see how Shepard was found and what became of the Normandy SR-2. Thanks for reading and please review!