N/A: A big Thank You to Buggirl who beta-ed all chapters! Thank you so much for everything so far. I don't know where I'd be without you.

Kara Shepard was born and raised on Mindoir. She enlisted with the Alliance at age 18. I chose the War Hero background for her. In ME1 she was 100% paragon, in ME2 I played her 100% renegade, except for Tali's and Garrus' loyalty missions, where I chose the paragon way. This is my explanation for Kara how she came from being paragon to being renegade. At least, it's a try.

The title "Darkangel" is a song by the band VNV Nation. Full lyrics of the song can be found on their homepage .com - For some reason this song was very fitting for this Shepard. I always had it in mind when playing.

Any review is appreciated. So feel free to comment. I've tried to stay IC as best as I could, and although my story goes along the game's storyline, I chose to stray away from the path every once in a while.

They fall again

Caress the air. Embrace the skies. Escape the sorrow and restraint of mortal cities.

"Commander!"

She heard the panic in Joker's voice as the Normandy was hit by another large beam of what seemed to be pure energy and she was hurled away from the door that promised rescue, away from Joker, whose face was now only a blur.

A red button came into her view. A button which, if she reached it, would at least grant safety for her pilot.

"Shepard!"

Despair - as it became obvious to Joker what Shepard was about to do when he saw her stretch out her arm and her fingertips to touch that button. The airlock closed and as the last remaining piece the of the SSV Normandy SR1 spat out the escape pod with no one else aboard but Jeff Moreau, Commander Shepard was hit by the force of an explosion that threw her out into open space. It only took her a second or two to realize she was floating in pure nothingness. Pieces of destroyed ship surrounding her. It took her another second to realize that her suit was losing air. Fast.

In pure reflex, her hands snapped upwards to behind her neck, trying to fix the leak. Trying to make this stop. She panicked, knowing that it would only worsen the situation, but even after all those years of military training and service she could not stop her fear rising. She soon ran out of oxygen and started to feel dizzy.

They fall again.

She lost consciousness only a few seconds later. Panic and her body's fight for air didn't leave any time for rational thoughts. Nor for the legendary your-whole-life-passing-you-by-moment that most people believed happened. When her body entered the atmosphere of the nearby planet, she was already dead.