Bridge

Her visor is cracked. The cold seeps through, mingling with the warmth of her breath. The visor is fog and frost and a fracture where the starlight shines through the polymer.

The first thing that bothers her about Cerberus is how cold they keep their facilities. It shouldn't be the first thing that bothers Shepard about Cerberus, but it is. No one else seems to feel it, and she spends as many hours as she can steal in her cabin with the temperature turned up as high as it will go. It's never enough.

Her pulse is faint in her ears, overshadowed by her own ragged, irregular breathing. The air is bad. There's no one here.

With the Collectors gone and the Reapers still distant on the horizon, Omega is as good a place to be as any. Afterlife proves the backdrop to the first, she presumes, of many nights. The crew needs to wind down; the Normandy needs repairs. While Shepard does not share the inclination of partying, the crush of bodies endemic to such establishments provides a semblance of warmth, so long as she can stand the air.

Minutes bleed to hours bleed to days bleed to hours bleed to minutes. Nothing moves. Nothing happens. Nothing is. The starlight falls as cold as snow. Ice settles. Ice crunches around her. The stillness is broken. "Oh my God..."

"...Shepard!" Someone calls to her, over the thick of the music and the crowd. She knows that voice; she follows it like a beacon, pushing through the crowd. Although she hesitates at the edge, the woman beckons her from the back rooms, and she can't but follow. She has to know for certain.

"Get Chakwas." The sound is clear. It cuts directly into her mind. She remembers this part. "Commander? ...Shepard?"

She passes all sorts, following the labyrinthine twists and turns through the underbelly of the station. Some of them she almost recognizes, even if she can't place them. Some glare. Some smile. One man salutes, causing her to pause and lose her quarry at a cross-path. With a sheepish smile, Toombs nods towards the far hall; he is in no way troubled, it seems, by the hole in his head. "Left, Commander. Remember?"

There's a pressure on her fingers. She can barely feel it, but its warmth radiates outward. Burns. Her hands are numb with cold. She struggles, but at best she can only twitch. The starlight is gone.

Beyond the door, the room is cozy and warm and inviting; it feels for all the galaxy like home. Ash smiles, almost embarrassed. Shepard has to admit, there's more pink than Alliance regulations generally allow for. "You look good, Skipper. For having been blown out into space and everything."

"Shepard, I-... You can't..." The warmth digs in, unfamiliar. It hurts. She'd struggle, if only she could move. "Stay with me."

Pulling the younger soldier into a strong hug, Shepard feels the weight of the Galaxy melt away. "I missed you."

"Please."

the end

Working Title: Rainbow Bridge

Inspiration: ME2 gave me an awesome Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge vibe... as in, this only makes sense if it's my Shepard's absolute worst nightmare. (More on that later, I'm sure).

Noteworthy: First completed ME story yay!

Disambiguation: Assume that Shepard got caught in the Normandy's malfunctioning Mass Effect drive field and that is why she lived through the atmosphere. Assume that those little life pods were meant to hit ground. Assume ME2 was a death/near death vision. Assume quite a bit.

Published: To the KAST first, here now.

Derivative work of material © Bioware, Electronic Arts.