Standoff
A/N: Sorry, haven't been writing ME for awhile because of busyness and other projects. I decided to come up with something new and hopefully original. I personally am not a huge fan of original characters in fanfiction, but I'm only doing one and my plan is to develop him as much as possible. Enjoy the intro chapter!
Chapter One
Fresh Start
The Alliance standard was blue, but Shepard insisted on wearing orange. If he was going to be locked up, they were going to know it. Besides, it helped him feel like less of a prisoner, like he had some control over his life at the moment.
Shepard and his crew had stepped off the Normandy after docking in Vancouver and he had immediately been impounded. After three months of confinement he had no idea what had happened to the ship, let alone the people who had once lived there.
A tiny swooshing sound filled the room as a slot in his door was activated. A metal plate slid into the tray, neat little piles of brown mush outlining the dish. He snorted and sat up, gingerly lifting the plate. The brown lumps wobbled disconcertingly. Ever since the fiasco on Elysium, Shepard hadn't been allowed out of his cell. Usually he got away with doing practically whatever he wanted – so long as it was within the facility.
Elysium was undergoing an intense political crisis, but other than that Shepard had no clue as to what was happening on the planet. He did know that the Alliance didn't want him involved, or at least didn't want people to think he should be involved. He was essentially a war criminal to the Alliance, and having him rush over to Elysium to "save the day" would counteract everything they had imprisoned him for.
Shepard looked forlornly at his jellied dinner, poking it with his finger and frowning. Simply put, he had no friends in the prison. Everyone he met either believed what the Alliance had to say about his involvement with Cerberus or were too intimidated to approach him. He hoped the latter was more awe than intimidation, but either way he was lonelier than he had been in too long a time.
An image of Kaidan Alenko suddenly popped into Shepard's head and he cringed, flinching hard enough to drop his tray on the floor.
"Like there was anything there to begin with, Shepard," he muttered, bending over on his bed to grab the plate. The statement was intended to be bitter but it came out sadder than he would've liked. Get a hold of yourself, you won't die in here.
He lied back on the hard mattress and stared at the ceiling, lost in fond memories of his past crews. He even managed to miss Jack and her – to put it nicely – unruly attitude. But as hard as he tried, he couldn't get Kaidan out of his head. For over a year he had been firmly shoving the issue out of his head, but prison was making him go insane. Every time Shepard was alone those caramel eyes would bore their way into his brain, and each time Shepard felt more neglected because of it.
Throughout human history, the most incredible people tended to have something odd about them, something more than their talent that separated them from the rest of the world. Shepard was no different. Though it isn't quite as much of a crux as it used to be, Shepard was gay. He wouldn't say he was necessarily proud of it, but it was who he was, and it had been that way for as long as he could remember.
Kaidan Alenko, however, was not. The main problem was that Shepard had never felt so attached to anyone in his life. He shook his head fiercely, unconsciously bending the metal tray into a ball, the remaining slop dripping onto the floor. He looked down at what he was doing and sniggered, tossing the ball towards the door.
Shepard sat up again and breathed deeply, trying to clear his mind. When that failed, he rolled onto the floor and began doing pushups, the exercise managing to distract him somewhat from his thoughts.
"Kaidan, Kaidan, Kaidan," Shepard grumbled, swapping his posture so only one hand was holding him above the floor. He suddenly laughed out loud and shook his head. "Too goddamn perfect."
Way to distract yourself, Shepard.
He was finishing his fiftieth pushup when an obnoxious clanging filled the room. Shepard groaned and pushed himself off the floor, unhappy to be disturbed. He peered through the peephole in his door and frowned. A dark skinned woman was standing outside, clad in standard alliance prison blues. She was casting wary looks around her and fidgeting slightly.
Shepard opened the latch hesitantly and poked his head out the door, smiling. "Are you lost?" he asked nonchalantly, his hand draped lazily over the doorframe.
"No," she said back, her voice dropping as she spoke. She stared at him wide-eyed for a moment and Shepard looked behind him, simultaneously irritated and amused.
"Uh… do you need help with something?"
"Commander Shepard!" she said suddenly, apparently getting over her sudden attention lapse. Her voice was tinged with a heavy British accent, her hair short and brown to match her eyes. She shook his hand vigorously for a moment and said, "It's so good to finally meet you, the things you've done!"
Shepard sighed and begrudgingly shook her hand. "No offense, but why are you here?"
"Oh gosh, right, well…" she trailed off, as if wondering how to continue. "Do you like chess?"
"Yes…"
"Good well then let's play." She simply walked under Shepard's arm and plopped down on the floor of his cell.
"Are you even allowed to be in here?"
"Probably not," she said with a roguish wink. Shepard swept his eyes down the hallway and shrugged. What the hell, why not?
When he had closed the door, the pieces were all set up and she was back to staring at him. Shepard sat down uncomfortably and crossed his legs.
"Feeling generous are we?" Shepard had been given the white pieces, indicating that he play first. He poked a pawn forward and glanced back at the woman, trying not to look like he was avoiding her.
"Sometimes it's wiser to counter your opponent. My name's Samantha, by the way. Samantha Traynor."
"Nice to meet you." The game went on regularly for a couple minutes, Shepard taking as many pieces as he lost and neither of them talking very much.
"You know, you're good at chess," Traynor said with a smirk. "This is probably the toughest game I've played since joining the Alliance."
"Thanks," Shepard said again, not too interested in a regular Alliance bum.
"Oxford had some nice competition though," she said as she took his first bishop. That piqued his interest, and he could tell she noticed.
"I figured you were another soldier, trying to schmooze up to Commander Shepard."
She grinned. "I am schmoozing, but for very different reasons."
"Oh…" Shepard sighed, realizing the direction of the conversation. "I don't really go… that way," he said awkwardly. "I try not to make it public."
Traynor giggled obnoxiously for a couple seconds, taking a rook and putting herself ahead in the game. "You don't have to worry about that, Shepard, I know already. I actually know more about you than almost everyone in this facility."
"Oh really?" Shepard said, emphasizing his point by taking one of her rooks. "Check."
"Really really," she retorted, moving her king safely out of the way. "For example, I know your mother and father were slaughtered by Batarian raiders." Shepard did a double take. "And that you were captured by them. Akuze wasn't too friendly to you either." She held up a hand as Shepard opened his mouth. "Don't get ahead of yourself. I also know that you were put in here after turning yourself in for working for Cerberus. I even know that you had a pet space hamster, Commander, and that you enjoy putting together model ships."
Shepard stared at her, dumbfounded.
"Nice to meet you formally, Commander John Shepard." She smoothly moved her queen across the board and flashed another smile at him. "Check mate."
Shepard spluttered like an idiot for a few seconds before he composed himself. "Why are you actually here?"
She smiled at him again, and he resisted the urge to smack her across the face.
"That was a fun game, Commander." Without another word she gathered the board and walked out of the room, looking smug.
"What the hell?" Shepard nearly shouted, staring at the wall and trying to wrap his head around the situation.
For the next couple of days, Shepard tried desperately to find Traynor, unable to figure how she gathered so much about his life while behind bars. Was he prone to yelling in his sleep about his personal life? He doubted it but it was the most reasonable explanation he could come up with.
He spotted her once while out on one of his "free" days but couldn't catch up to her. What was even more frustrating was that a week after she visited him he found a model of the Normandy SR-1 sitting on his bed. He still put it together out of a lack of things to do, but it was incredibly suspicious.
Finally, after nearly two weeks of pacing his room and scouring the halls for Traynor, he hears another knock on his door. She didn't bother to wait for Shepard and opened the door from the outside, which was definitely not normal.
"Shepard," she whispered, looking on edge. "Do you trust me?" He did, at least more than anyone else in this hole, but he wasn't about to admit it.
"I'm not entirely sure."
"Ok, well do you believe me when I say that this entire prison is going to lose power in five minutes?"
"No."
"I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better, Shepard, but things don't always play out like a chess game. Especially when your opponent doesn't play by the rules."
"And who is this opponent, exactly?"
"Udina."
Shepard stopped and considered a moment, then pressed his ear against the door. Traynor tapped him on the shoulder and said carefully, "If it makes you feel any better, your friend Captain Anderson doesn't like you being held up, and Elysium is going bad enough that we need you. Urgently."
Shepard swung around and stared her in the eyes, reading her cautiously. "What the hell, I believe you."
"Thank god," Traynor said. "I thought I did a terrible job."
"You did."
"Thanks, asshole."
"I don't hear you arguing against it." Traynor glared at him for the comment and punched him in the shoulder. "Ouch."
"Shut up, I think I hear him coming," she said, shoving Shepard out of the way and squashing her own ear against his door.
"So you aren't a prisoner?" Shepard asked.
"Shut up!"
Within a couple seconds Shepard heard a series of loud smashing noises in the distance. It sounded like a biotic shockwave to him, which wouldn't bode well with the place's security.
"Ok let's go," Traynor said and reopened the door, producing a pistol on her way out. She wasn't short of surprises in any case. "Just so you know, I have almost no idea how to use this thing, so you and Andrew will be doing most of the fighting."
"There's another conspirator in the mix?"
"Haven't you been paying attention?"
Another series of bangs rang out in front of them, and a man ran around a corner accompanied by a blue pulse. Shepard barely even saw his face before he shot past them, the sonic boom of a biotic charge following him.
"How did you find another human biotic?" Shepard asked, though he was pretty much done with feeling surprised anymore.
"Anderson knows a guy," she yelled, already tearing off up the hallway. Shepard tagged after her with a quick look behind him, and he couldn't help feeling a wave of euphoria wash over him. He could feel the adrenaline in the air, and with a wide grin he caught up to Traynor.
"Hey."
"Shut up Shepard. It's hard enough to hold this thing without you breathing down my neck."
"Where did what's his name go?"
"Andrew is clearing the path ahead of us to make sure you won't get hurt." Shepard couldn't help but laugh.
Suddenly a blaring alarm crashed against his ears, and his smile turned into a slight frown. Traynor didn't seem perturbed, however, and kept going, opening yet another door into the prison cafeteria.
Sam screamed as a bullet flew into the wall next to her head and Shepard leaped into the cafeteria, popping up a biotic barrier along the way. The other biotic was being overwhelmed by the security forces and Shepard charged in, bashing one of them against the wall and quickly taking out the others with a series of biotic punches. More of them rushed in and Shepard charged the lot, using a shockwave to propel him even faster. His ally jumped in when he noticed Shepard helping, and between the two of them they managed to take down the rest of the security.
"Hold on, this one's still alive," Shepard said, his fist glowing blue.
"Wait!" A hand latched on to his arm and pulled Shepard back.
"What the he-" Shepard stopped abruptly when he saw the other biotic. Shepard's face was inches away from the other man, and he took it in instantly. Andrew, Shepard remembered suddenly, had an angled, almost heart-shaped face and brown eyes. His hair was nearly the same color, but in certain angles of the light it looked more auburn than brown. It was spiked up in the front in a not-stupid way and Shepard thought it made him look younger.
Shepard coughed to break the short silence and wrenched is hand free, trying to glare convincingly at the other man. "What do you think you're doing?"
"These men are Alliance soldiers," Andrew said determinedly. "They don't need to die for us to escape."
Shepard glanced at his face one more time and shrugged uncomfortably. "Suit yourself."
Andrew swept past him and walked over to Traynor, who was now tapping away at her omnitool. "Just in time," she said sarcastically, and all the lights shut off, leaving them in darkness. "There's a reason I don't do rescue missions," Traynor added with a huff.
"Well that's what I'm here for," Andrew said, lighting a biotic sphere in the sudden gloom. Shepard grumbled to himself but didn't comment. The three of them walked off, Shepard and Traynor following closely behind their "biotic rescue leader."
It was silent – good for the escape – but awkward so Shepard nudged Traynor with his shoulder. "What do you usually do then?"
"Communications specialist," she whispered. "I'm actually assigned to the Normandy right now." Shepard's eyes widened and he let out a low whistle.
"So it's that kind of rescue mission."
"Precisely."
"You're taking me straight there?"
"Right again Commander."
"What are you desperate?" Traynor scrunched up her face but their conversation was cut off with a hard punch to Shepard's arm. Andrew told them to "shut the hell up" and Shepard rolled his eyes, catching a glance with Traynor.
Incredibly, the three of them made it to the facility's docking bay without getting caught. Despite himself, Shepard was impressed, and he guessed that Traynor was better at her job than he thought. She did have a smug grin on her face and winked at Shepard before pressing a button on her omnitool.
"All communications jammed and power taken down without a hitch!" Traynor exclaimed. "The Normandy's ETA is under three minutes."
"Great work, Sam," Andrew said, clapping her on the back and walking out onto the dock. It was nighttime in Vancouver, the city glittering below them with a thousand yellow dots. Shepard's face fell when he remembered his… attachment to Vancouver, but all the thought flew out of his brain when the lights suddenly clicked back on.
"I'm guessing this isn't good," Shepard said, pulling out his handgun from under his armpit.
"Shit, no." Traynor was busy hacking away at her omnitool when ten armed guards filed into the room, crowd control shields held high. Shepard dropped his gun and held up his arms innocently, trying to not to smile.
"Traynor," Shepard mumbled out of the corner of his mouth. "Get behind something."
His muttering caught Andrew's attention and the biotic leapt to his feet, only to be met with a row of guns pointing straight at him.
"Newbie," Shepard chuckled, and without further ado charged the entire squad. He crashed into the man in the middle of the cluster and stole his shield with a flip over the guard's back. He tumbled gracefully to the side and held it up, deflecting all of the battalion's bullets with a little help from his biotics. Andrew motioned to help and Shepard cut him off with another charge, not bothering to see his response.
"No thanks," he said with authority, and charged his hands behind the shield. "This is real biotics." The strain in his hands built to a critical point and he kicked the shield away to clear his path. He stared straight at Andrew, a tiny drop of sweat beading on his temple.
"Boom." Shepard released the stored energy and sent a massive shockwave at the guards. The power of the blast ripped up chunks of the metal floor as it skipped along, blue waves of pure energy radiating from every burst of the wave. The men yelled and tried to flee as they saw the rampaging bull of power flying towards them, but were caught up in the storm and were flung in every direction, banging off the walls with the might of the surge.
Shepard took his gaze away from the now slightly terrified and most definitely awed biotic and strolled casually over to Traynor, reaching a hand down to help her up.
"That was so loud!" she yelled, obviously suffering from some short-term hearing loss. "What in God's name did you do?"
"You didn't see it?" Shepard had to raise his voice in order for her to hear him.
"No!" she shouted back.
"Oh well, I'm sure you'll get to see more of me later!"
"That sounded suggestive and I have no idea why!"
Shepard laughed and glanced back at Andrew, who was still staring at the wreckage Shepard had caused. Shepard couldn't help but laugh again, immensely pleased with himself. Shepard 1, new guy 0.
The sound of a roaring engine filled the room and Traynor's arms flew over her head again, as though anticipating another one of Shepard's famous shockwaves. Shepard tapped her on the arm and pointed, his mouth wide in a smile. If he wasn't careful his face would freeze that way.
The Normandy swooped down into the hangar, executing a graceful spin as the door shot open. A long tube stretched out from the entrance and Shepard nearly skipped with joy, holding on to Traynor as they hurried on to the aircraft. Andrew joined them after a few seconds, threading a hand through his hair. During decontamination Shepard noticed the biotic sneaking quite a few not-so-subtle glances at Shepard. That was interesting.
Finally, a ding sounded above their head and Edi's voice rang out above him.
"Welcome home, Commander Shepard."
"Feels like I never left."
A/N: Yay! That took me hardly any time at all! It's great to finally be able to write with some damn urgency. By the way, if you need a reference to figure out what Andrew looks like, I would use Ryan Reynolds. It's the closest I could come up with. Hope you like it and I'll have the next chapter up soon!