Jane Shepard didn't know if she was in another dimension or if she had simply travelled back in time. All she knew was what Albus Dumbledore has said to her. It now was August 1995 in a world where magic was real, magic so much more versatile and powerful than biotics. However, technology was a far cry from even the most commun computer from Shepard's time. In the wizarding world, it could even be considered non-existant because of how magic allowed their users to just break physic laws.

Shepard got here for a reason. A war threatened to break out at any moment because of some kind of blood supremacists called Deatheaters led by a powerful wizard Voldemort. For now, only a few skirmishes took place but it could degenerate into large scale civil war at any moment. Confronted with such situation, the leader of the opposition, Albus Dumbledore made a terrible decision by his own words.

"I have spend decades trying to prevent such a war by gaining as much political power I could. While successful for a time, my strategy is now working against us. I need to continue to slow down Voldemort and his supporters from gaining political leverage. However, I'm dying. I have less than a year to live. My death would leave a vacuum on the political and military chessboard. They are bound to take advantage of my disparition to gain control of the government. The problem is that by fighting in the Wizenmagot, I can't also take care of everything that need to be ready for the war."

He needed a general. He needed someone who could unite factions of the wizarding world and lead them on the battlefield. Someone with a real military experience who would know how to train and organize troups, to organize supply lines. Someone able to lead his private milicia, the Order of the Phoenix, to fight back against Deatheaters.

A wizard wouldn't have this kind of experience, they were far too isolated from the Muggle world for that. Moreover, Dumbledore feared that the disparition of a Muggle of such competence would spawn too many questions. Therefore, he decided to devise a ritual to summon a hero from another world. He targeted one with all the competences he needed but also a dying one. He didn't want to uproot someone for his war. The ritual chose Jane Shepard, Specter and N7 Alliance Marine, dying on the crumbling Citadelle after the activation of the Crucible.

While the old wizard just kept to pile revelations upon demands, Shepard finally broke under the pressure. Her own universe had already asked for so much sacrifice and now she should do it all over again for one which wasn't even hers ?! She took refuge in the bedroom she woke up in the morning and locked the door. She sat down on the bed, starting to think.

6:12 A.M

Shepard turned off her Omnitool, letting the room sinking back into darkness. Staring at the roof, she laid on her bed, fully clothed. She couldn't fall asleep, her brain refusing to shut off. She still struggled to assimilate all the informations about the new world she found herself into.

Her initial fury from the discussion with Dumbledore had faded quickly, replaced by a mix of tiredness and sadness which threatened to overcome her. Shepard was far too much acquainted with this feeling. She encountered it for the first time severals years ago, not long after her resurrection by Cerberus and the beginning of the Collectors' hunt. At first, she didn't dwell on it, believing it to be a temporary discomfort.

That couldn't be farther from the truth. All her life, the stakes had just risen to new heights every time she managed to overcome one challenge. From simple soldier to the "Butcher of Torfan". From N7 to Specter. From taking down a rogue Specter to spearharding the war effort against the Rippers.

Every time, a new ennemy appeared and the drowning felling kept growing stronger. It was just like the sand from the deserts of Tuchanka. It just makes every steps harder and harder. Until you simply couldn't bother to move...

A burst of willpower allowed Shepard to rise and walk to the bathroom. A feeble attempt to distract herself from the pits of her own psyche. However, a simple look in the mirror shattered any hope, as her reflection reminded her of everything she had to do in the war against the Rippers.

Constantly preoccupied by the war effort, she never took time to look in the mirror in her morning ablutions. Even without actually seeing it, she had felt hers scars deepening. Today, for the first time in what may be months, the Commander witnessed the extent of the damages. Her face was a web of glowing red scars, showing the heavy muscle weave underneath her skin. Her apple green eyes, which made many heads turned at the academy, were only a memory. The pigments had disappeared in favor of the menacing light of cybernetic implants. Shepard remember the Chakwas' warnings when the first signs of reject appeared soon after the mission in the archives of Mars.

"Commander, I know you have a lot on your shoulders. I would even said far too much and for far too long. Your healing is only the visible warning about that. Only a positive state of mind would allow your body to fully integrate your extensive implants. I know the situation is dire. But it is not hopeless yet. You have friends and allies you can rely on. So trust us. You will only destroy yourself by trying to shoulder it alone."

At this time, Shepard didn't listen. Or rather, didn't want to acknowledge the truth behind the words of her medical officer. The actual physical appearance of the soldier only proved how much Shepard had to endure in the war. So much that, when the Citadelle collapsed on her after the activation of the Crucible, there was only one thought in her mind.

Finally. Peace.

As the debris kept pilling on her, for the first time in what seemed forever, Shepard managed to close her eyes and felt into unconsciousness, not feeling guilty about all the lives lost during her sleep.

Thinking back, Shepard felt guilty about this thought. Because it wasn't about the end of the war, the defeat of the Rippers or the fact that her friends would at last be safe. No. It was about the fact to finally be free from her responsabilities. To not having to shoulder the survival of the galaxy.

Unfortunetly, the long awaited rest never came.