A/N: Yeah, it took some time and I'm sorry about that. I wanted to finish this chapter earlier but you know how it is ;) Anyway, I've already told that but I'd like to say 'Thank you!' to Jay, who was so kind to take her time and face my foolish mistakes ;) Thanks to her you are able to understand my not-making-any-sense sentences! ;D Enjoy!

She sadly looked around and closed her eyes with another sigh. She tried to gulp, but she had a lump in her throat. Breathing became difficult. She had to crouch and lower her head to overcome nausea. As she expected, she was overwhelmed by the awareness that here was the place of her death. This was a place where her ship had crashed. Where her crew had died. Yet she was alive. It was bothering her that Cerberus thought that she was the only one worth resurrecting. Of course she was aware that no one could afford bringing back the whole crew . But still she held a grudge against The Illusive Man.

"Shepard, are you alright?", she suddenly heard Miranda's worried voice. "Your pulse has quickened dangerously."

She opened her eyes and immediately recognised an annoying thudding in her ears. Her heart was beating so hard as if it wanted to break her ribs and run away from her chest. She forced herself to take a deep breath.

"I'm okay. I was just... Never mind, I'm okay", Shepard answered quietly. She didn't know how she could explain how she felt. How strong the influence was, that this place had on her.

She carefully stood up holding her head. She wished she didn't have to to wear the helmet. Dull pain was torturing her skull almost begging her to rub her temples. She took another deep breath and looked around more carefully. Tears appeared in her eyes when she saw all the pieces which used to be her ship. She blinked and forced herself to take a few steps. Soft snow was crunching with every step; and snowflakes falling around were limiting visibility. However, it was impossible to hide the giant parts of the frigate emerging from the mist. Shepard's mind was blank as she looked around. She felt a horrible pain in her chest and she almost had to force herself to breathe.

She stopped immediately when something caught her attention. A silver chain was sticking out of the snow. She crouched slowly and brushed the white powder aside. The strong light from the shuttle twinkled on the metal plate's surface. She held her breath for a second and turned her head, again feeling the hard pounding in her chest. Only when she calmed down she could look at the plate again and read the name. Charles Pressly. Her fingers clenched around the dog tag. The Navigator's face appeared in her mind when she closed her eyes. Pressly had been one of her most trusted men and she really missed him.

Suddenly she felt like she was about a thousand years old. She placed her hand on a knee to help herself stand up. She attached the dog tag to her belt and sighed heavily. Again she looked around and saw something that made her smile. There was something big in the mist and she really didn't have to go any closer to know what it was. There it was, the powerful cannon which she had used to shoot thousands of geths. She slowly approached the almost untouched Mako and couldn't help but laugh quietly. She patted the machine's frame tenderly. Oh how she missed those crazy rides! After she had discovered how much pleasure she could gain only by driving, no one else had been allowed to even touch the steering wheel. She was aware that she was driving like a maniac. Even Garrus, the tough guy, had told her once that he'd never ever again sit next to her in this damn machine. But she just couldn't force herself to drive more calmly. Her body and mind both needed the high amount of adrenaline and those rides were a great substitute for killing Geth.

Shepard turned on her omnitool and quickly scanned the Mako. Her eyes grew wide when she saw the results. She glanced suspiciously at the vehicle. After a moment she took another scan and again she couldn't believe her eyes. She had always been sure that the Mako was indestructible – especially after everything that had happened to it during her trips – but the results were clear. The M35 Mako was not able to travel even one mile. That made her sad. For a second she hoped that she could take the vehicle back to the Normandy and later invite Miranda for a small ride. She was really curious how long Lawson would be able to stand Shepard's driving style before starting a giant argument. She could bet that Miranda would say something about not giving her back her life just to see how Shepard was killing herself in a crash.

She carefully analysed every single reading. The sensors installed in Shepard's armour didn't show any anomalies for a long time. It seemed that the Commander had already calmed down and was able to look at the wreck without such strong emotions as earlier. It had been already two hours since Shepard had put her foot on the planet's surface. Although nothing suspiciously had happened, Miranda was still worried. She had this unpleasant feeling that something was wrong, but she didn't know what exactly. What's more, this feeling was still growing.

She was checking another report from the armour's sensors, when the Normandy's radar lost the signal for a split second. Miranda frowned. The reports still didn't show any anomalies; it looked like there was no life on that planet. However, it didn't change the fact that the signal had disappeared for a split of a second, which was more than alarming. Miranda held her breath for a moment when the radar lost the signal again.

"Shepard, do you read me?" she asked quickly, feeling more anxious.

"Yeah, course," the Commander answered immediately. "Why wouldn't I he..."

The next words were jammed by the quiet, uniform buzz which appeared out of nowhere. At the same time the graph on the screen changed into a straight line and the scanning system reported a malfunction.

"Shepard?" The only answer she got was an uninterrupted buzz. "Shepard!" she shouted into the microphone with her heart pounding furiously in her chest.

Again there was no answer. Miranda jumped out of the chair.

"Joker, land," she ordered. The Flight Lieutenant opened his mouth to object, but Miranda's one furious look was enough to quiet him. "I said land," she muttered out.

She stormed out of the cockpit, not looking back, and rushed towards the armoury to grab her reliable heavy pistol, trying to ignore the growing fear.

"Miranda?"

Shepard frowned. She activated her omni-tool to change the channel, but the odd buzz was still there. Every single frequency she checked was interfered. She felt anxiety. Trying to keep calm she looked around, but there was nothing suspicious in sight. She turned the scanner in her omni-tool on, but to her surprise the reports showed only interference. To be honest it wasn't completely unexpected. After all, there was that famous Shepard's luck. If there was anything that could go wrong, it would. It was becoming annoying.

With a sigh she took out her submachine gun. Carefully looking around she moved back towards the shuttle. She regretted that she was alone. It was much more difficult to observe the whole area and if there was any enemy, he could easily go around her and catch her off guard. However, the blizzard was limiting the sight and the enemy would have to come really close to see her. It also meant that she wouldn't notice any danger before it was too late.

The decision was simple. Shepard turned on her heel and rushed towards the shuttle. When she was about five metres from the shuttle she heard a weird noise. The falling snow was muffling any sounds, but the noise was somehow similar to a swish. Shepard stopped and raised her head. Her heart stopped beating for a second as she saw a huge missile, alarmingly similar to an ammo used in a rocket launcher.

The time slowed down when she was hit by the realization that indeed it was a rocker missile and it was heading exactly at the same place she was. Without second thought she turned on her heel and sprinted back, desperately trying to get as far from the danger as possible. She had a feeling that she was not moving at all. Shepard was not willing to give up. She had already died once and it wasn't something she wanted to go through again. Her heart was pounding hard, as if it wanted to break her ribs and free itself; her lungs were on fire, every single muscle hurt, but she didn't stop; she forced her own body to move faster. A deafening boom blasted out behind her. She was able to take one more step before she was hit by a powerful shock wave that sent her flying. Time slowed even more as the ground covered with snow was coming closer and closer. Shepard waved her hands, but she was not a bird. She didn't know if this was a death that she'd meet after the hard landing or whether she would somehow manage to survive. Surprisingly, it really didn't matter. Her mind was completely clear; except the one small thought that appeared a second before she hit the ground. One, simple thought.

Miranda's gonna kill me...

A/N: Yup, I am mean... Hope you liked the chapter ;)