Chronicles of a Legend: The Rebirth of a Legend. Part 2 of the trilogy. The long lost hero resurfaces after two years. But her sudden appearance raises too many questions and suspicions. Rejected by her previous allies, Shepard is now forced to work with the enemies to take down another threat to the galaxy while fighting an internal battle on her own. Meanwhile, Kaidan's world once again crumbled with words of Shepard's reappearance reach him.

A/N: This is part 2 of a trilogy, Chronicles of a Legend. Like part 1, I don't have a beta reader, so please excuse any typos and mistakes. You can reach me through pinoko19 at gmail, or tumblr under pinoko_k, or just leave a note here. Love to hear from you. Now, let's continue Aerin Shepard's story.

Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to Bioware.

Chronicles of a Legend

Part II: The Rebirth of a Legend

Prologue

Year: 2186CE

Location: Alliance Headquarters, Vancouver

Another pointless session, another hour wasted while the Reapers were still out there. Shepard had no choice but to sit down in this comfortable chair across from the psychiatrist the Alliance had assigned to 'evaluate her mental state' before she could be reinstated. Shepard almost snorted at that excuse; it was nothing more than a candy-coated, softer approach of an interrogation.

How long did the Alliance need to interrogate her before they decided to believe her that the Reapers were coming? It'd been almost six months since she had voluntarily returned to the headquarters and handed over her Normandy, Shepard's patience had ran thin. An impending invasion was coming, and the brass still refused to open their eyes and smell the shit. Instead, they insisted on monitoring every second of her life here in the detention center, even assigning a young marine to be her guard as if she could escape the Alliance fortress unarmed. While Shepard was flattered they overestimated her combat prowess, she couldn't help but frown at their collective intelligence. If she wanted to escape, why would she even bother to turn herself in six month ago?

Although Shepard did feel sorry for the young marine who was assigned to be her glorified babysitter. Right now, outside this office, James Vega must be bored out of his mind waiting for this session to end before he could escort her back to her cell.

You and me both, Vega.

"You've been through a lot in your life," Dr. Troy started with her soothing voice. "But none can be as traumatizing as dying."

Shepard turned her attention to the psychiatrist with a neutral expression. She merely nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Shepard maintained her composure despite her elevated heart rate. "The details are in the report, I'm sure."

"But those are just facts. How do you feel about that event?"

"How do I feel?" Shepard shook her head with a tiny smirk. "Let me tell you, Doctor, there's no light at the end of the tunnel. And if I had been to heaven or hell, I don't remember anything when I woke up on an operating table with two years of my life gone. So how do I feel about dying?" She snorted. "It's a waste of time."

"I sense anger in you."

"Wouldn't you be angry? I'm not angry because I died, I'm angry because those two years I've lost, I could have done a lot more to push the Council and the Alliance to see the truth and be prepared for the Reapers. Instead, while I was dead, they swept everything under the rug and called it a day, blaming everything on the Geth. And guess who is heading our way as we speak? The Reapers. And the brass are still not listening."

"You seem to have lost faith in the Alliance."

Shepard's brows tightened for a second before she forced herself to relax. "The Alliance lost faith in me first."

"Was that the reason why you joined Cerberus?"

Bright blue eyes sharpened and looked straight at the doctor. "I never 'joined' Cerberus. I never asked to be revived, much less by Cerberus, but I was. They burned through four billion credits just to bring me back to fight a war. People out there were missing, and the Alliance couldn't do a thing to stop it from happening. Cerberus offered me resources and people to take down the Collectors, so I used them. Nothing more, nothing less."

"So you were abandoned by the Alliance and the Council. Cerberus offered you the resources you needed to fight the Collectors. Sounds like a business transaction."

"You could say that. I did what I was revived to do. After that, well, here I am voluntarily. Being monitored every second for the past few months like a criminal. But I would do it all over again in a heartbeat because of all those lives I've saved with my team."

"You have never talked about your team – your new team."

The trained interrogators couldn't get one single name from her during hours upon hour of interrogations, and the doctor expected her to spill her guts with a softer approach? Shepard almost laughed. "No, I've never talked about them, and I never will. If you're trying to get a list of names from me, then you're wasting your time. Those people worked for me, not Cerberus. They followed me to a place no one had ever been to, knowing we would probably never make it back, and they never once wavered. They're not the terrorists the Alliance are after, and they will never be a threat to humanity or the galaxy – hell, they're willing to throw away their lives for humanity, and some of them are not even humans. They're heroes in my book, each and every one of them, no matter where they came from. The Alliance – even the Council – owe them a giant thanks for taking care of the problem they couldn't handle."

If the doctor was intimidated by her, she certainly didn't show. "People are willingly follow you to dangerous situation," Dr. Troy observed calmly. "That is a gift."

Shepard recalled something Miranda once said about the fire inside her. "I'm lucky I have worked with some of the best people – best biotics, best engineers, best fighters. And not just within the Alliance."

"You've been with the Alliance for twelve years before the accident. Working with the group you once fought against must be hard."

"I did what I had to."

"The sacrifice you've made, cutting all the ties to your previous life-"

"It's nothing comparing to the lives that would have lost if I didn't do what I did."

"What about your personal sacrifice? Your relationship with Kaidan Alenko."

Shepard ignored that sudden prick inside her. "Commander Alenko has moved on with his life after I died. Just as he should." She paused then added as nonchalantly as she could, "I'm happy for him."

"I've heard a lot about you from him."

Shepard raised an eyebrow despite herself. For once, she was caught off-guard. "You know him?"

Dr. Troy nodded. "He was one of my patients. I was one of the doctors assigned to treat the crew of the Normandy after the accident," the doctor explained. "Then-Lieutenant Alenko was under my care. Needless to say, it was a traumatic experience for all of them, but more so for some." Those dark eyes gave Shepard a knowing look.

"How was he-" Shepard immediately stopped herself and winced inwardly. All this time spent in the interrogation room and this comfortable office, and now she finally slipped. It was because of Alenko – one of her greatest weaknesses even after all these years.

Shepard had to draw a clear line between them; she refused to drag Kaidan through the mud with her.

"I'm sorry," said Dr. Troy. "Doctor-patient confidentiality. All I can say is that Kaidan has been through a lot, and I'm glad he's back on his feet."

"...So am I," Shepard agreed quietly. "He deserves better."

"Than?"

And she slipped again. Shepard hid a frown. "Better than what life's been throwing at him."

The doctor observed her with great interest. Shepard tried not to move a muscle or else her body language might betray her.

"Including you?" asked Dr. Troy.

The doctor knew, why lied? Shepard took a subtle deep breath and cracked open the pandora's box just bit. "Including me."

"What makes you say that?"

"You should know better than anyone how much I've hurt him."

"By dying?"

By dying, by joining Cerberus, by breaking the promise that they would be together for a lifetime. Not trusting her own voice, Shepard only nodded.

"You are carrying the guilt of that tragic event's impact on Kaidan, even though it's not your fault."

"Guilt, regrets, whatever you want to call it." Shepard swallowed hard and slammed the pandora's box close. "He's better off without me."

"Do you miss him?"

Yes. "I miss all my friends," Shepard dodged that question.

That wasn't a lie. Shepard missed them all, although some more than the others. Two in particular – a man who had been to hell and back with her not just once but twice, and a woman who have given her a second chance in life.