Verisimilar, a mass effect fanfic

Verisimilar: having the appearance of truth.

This fic has been a pet project brewing in the back of my mind for sometime. I thoroughly enjoy the Mass Effect universe and have seen it as a veritable literary playground for sometime.

To be honest, I'm not even sure of where this will end up. I am using this to get me back into my groove for writing as it has been a couple years since I have written anything with any level of seriousness. It's really just my way of refusing to let this passion of mine die.

And yes, my penname used to be AurelieViatcza and I did have several fictions up like It's a Dead World, A Contract of Vengeance, Revenge in A Minor and Asylum. I am re-editing and reevaluating my past work and I may or may not post them once more. It's not me ending my writing, but really moving forward and attempting to expand my abilities and capacity as a writer.

The main character is an original character that has interactions with members big and small from the ME trilogy. There will not be any overt sexual content in this so, sorry if that's what you were here looking for.

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

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She didn't want to move. Fighting to stifle the panicked gasps that tore raggedly through her chest, she huddled in her dark and safe corner. Any second now, the alarm would sound and the red lights would begin flashing. She'd have to move from the illusory safety of her little nook. Any moment… they would find her hiding in the shadowy hallway and drag her back to her cell as she kicked and screamed. A fist clenched at the thought, her nails digging into her palm painfully as she struggled to control her tremors. After so many years, she was finally close to escape. Stalling out now was a waste of all her efforts.

Fear nearly paralyzed her legs but, the drive to taste freedom and to feel the warmth of sunshine on her vitamin D deprived skin overrode her terror of being recaptured by the people who ran this nightmare factory. Taking a shuddering breath, she imagined her spine to be made of cold, hard steel. Unbending, unbreakable… She would remain undetected and she would find her way out of this hell.

The stolen researcher's uniform was a bit big on her less than womanish body, but she willed herself to fill it out as best she could. She was relatively new to her abilities, so they were still difficult to control at times. Slowly, excruciatingly, her hips and chest swelled to fuller, more mature proportions and her arms and legs protested in agony as the muscle and bone lengthened till the uniform finally fit properly. Panting with the effort, she bit the inside of her lip to control her whimpers from the searing pain that still ached in her newly changed physique.

Clipped to the uniform was the stolen photo ID badge. It belonged to a newly arrived scientist that had gotten careless around her. Focused intently on the features of the woman in the small picture, she willed her face to take the now unconscious and hidden woman's features. It was an odd and uncomfortable sensation to feel her cheek bones fall, her face grow rounder and her lips plumper. She now looked twice as old as before.

She was a freak; an experimental monster that had been designed by the hands of man. The purpose of her reconstruction was unknown to her, but she didn't give a damn. Pain did not breed loyalty, and pain was something she knew well. Glancing out from her little corner of quiet and shadow, she saw the hallway was empty.

Move. She commanded herself.

Even though her muscles felt rigid with terror, she stepped forward with the grace of a dancer; or a predator. Making her way down the empty corridor, she glanced about furtively before turning a corner to the left, into one of the main wings of the Facility. She nodded to a passing scientist who openly gawked at her curvaceous form encased in the glove-like lycra uniform.

Did I get something wrong? She wondered with slight panic as she tried to throw the man a charming smile.

Her pristine, golden blond hair tickled her face as she walked past a vented doorway; the warm air hit her and she could smell the chemicals that kept the stark white facility clean. The pixie cut was annoying as she was not used the weight of hair on her head or the tickling of strands at her skin. Her own head was shaven. The man smiled back and hurried back down the corridor along his way.

So far, so good.

Being the evening hours, the halls were rather devoid of activity. As she passed another laboratory door to her left, she nodded and forced a second smile to another scientist. The woman in matching uniform paid her no mind, face first in a glowing orange data pad. Taking a deep breath, she tried to quell her shaking.

Coming upon a locked checkpoint door, she hesitantly lifted her stolen ID badge and swiped it past the security holo-pad. Muscles locked in baited suspense, she stood for a breathless moment till the door whooshed open and let her pass unhindered. She suppressed the urge to run, as she rounded a corner and headed past an armed guard making his rounds. He too, paid her no attention. She looked like she belonged. It was then the red lights began to strobe throughout the halls and the loud squawk of a siren announced that something was terribly wrong.

They had discovered she was missing.

The hallways became a flurry of activity as scientists emerged from the woodwork and rushed to ensure that data, samples and subjects were properly secured. A VI came over the facility's intercom system announcing that security was breached and subject "Chimera" was missing. She was missing.

White and gold armored guards rushed past her and towards the back of the facility where the high security subject cell blocks were... Towards her now empty cell.

Putting a bewildered look on her face, she did her best to look confused and new to the facility. Pausing, she looked over her shoulder at the guards rushing back towards the more top secret project wings. A man coming out of lab clad in a researcher's uniform had his eyes on her and she took that as her cue to put on her best damsel face. Wide baby blue doe eyes met with brown and in an instant, the man was at her side, hand on her shoulder.

"You are new here I take it?" He asked, clearing his throat as he spoke. She merely nodded in response, not trusting her voice.

"Well I'll help you out." He offered, steering her away from the rushing guards and the high security cell block; closer towards freedom.

"We need to check in and do biometric scans on personnel while the guards secure the building. And then, when it's all sorted out, we return to our given tasks and projects." He explained casually, like a red alert was nothing new.

A biometrics scan would definitely reveal who and what she was. She would not match the genetics on file for the scientist she had disguised herself as. The check-in station was in sight, forty feet ahead at the end of the main hallway they were walking down. There was a group of several scientists waiting to check in and perform their scans. She quickened her breaths so they were hitched and shallow, furrowed her brow and let her muscles give tiny quivers. Breathing more shallow and faster, she simulated the signs of a panic attack. It wasn't too hard, she was near panicking anyways.

"You doing ok?" The scientist asked, his arm slipping around her waist in an effort to support her as she feigned being dizzy.

"I… I… I need air! I can't- this is all too frightening!" She gasped in a tenuous, breathy soprano.

"Well, we have to do the biometric scans, but you obviously need to rest a moment. Let's get you to a quiet place that's not so occupied. You can lie down and recover yourself a bit before we go check in." He smiled at her kindly, and she felt the barest pang of guilt.

She had never seen him before. He had not been one of the doctors that had been involved in her remaking. He was polite, kind and helpful and she was considering killing him to escape. It was almost too easy. She chewed on her lower lip as the man helped her along, her eyes glancing furtively back towards the check in station, and back behind them. There was no one watching them at all.

The nameless scientist led her down a hallway to their left. She had memorized the facility map from her stolen omni-tool (which also came from the now unconscious blond she was currently wearing). She knew that he was leading her to a small personnel lounge, and that down the hall followed by a right and then two lefts was the hangar and shuttle bay. They had passed no one else after leaving the main hallway, so she knew she was in the clear to dispose of the man at her side.

Reaching the door of the lounge at last, the scientist opened it and led her inside. The room was empty aside from the two of them. The second the door slid shut behind them she tapped into her biotic abilities and slammed her blue glowing fist into the man's smiling face. She bit the inside of her cheek hard as she hit him, feeling a twinge of remorse. A bitter coppery tang filled her mouth.

Without any resistance, the researcher took the blow before he even knew what was happening. The man toppled like a marionette whose strings had been suddenly cut away. Not wasting a single second of her precious time, she drug the man's unconscious body behind a padded bench at the back of the room. She took a shuddering breath and quickly checked his pulse. He was alive. She felt relieved. She knew that she probably wouldn't get away without killing someone. She should kill him, she definitely could; something inside told her no. Shaking her head angrily at herself, she turned away from the unconscious man.

Crossing the room back to the door, she slammed her hand onto the green, glowing holo-lock. Checking to be sure the hall was clear, she dashed out of the lounge and made her way towards the hangar. She couldn't repress the urge to run anymore. Her legs pumping, she sprinted and careened around the corner to her right, down another hallway with many closed doors. She took a left and passed an empty cafeteria area. Doubling her speed she took her final left that would lead her to the hangar. Reaching the side door into the hangar, she pressed her hand to yet another green holo-lock and stepped inside through a blast of cool air and onto one of the bottom floor loading docks.

She could immediately see that the hangar was being locked down. An armored guard spotted her and barked out at her through the transmitter in his helmet.

"Hey you! You aren't supposed to be in here!" The guard's voice was harsh; distorted by the helmet's transmitter.

Before he could even take aim with his assault rifle, she launched an angry orb of explosive biotic power into to his helmet hidden face. The guard went flying like a rag doll tossed carelessly into the air. Immediately ducking behind cargo crates, she took cover as the hangar lit up with gunfire.

There wasn't even time to process the fact that she had just killed a person. Not seeing his face made it shockingly easier than simply punching the nice scientist back in the lounge. Shaking her head, she cleared her mind. She had to focus to survive. She was so close to her goal. Lithely slipping in and out of cover, she made her way across the loading docks towards an open and empty white and gold shuttle. She hurled another large biotic attack at a too close guard. The force of the blow cracked the guard's chestplate and threw him into a stack of crates. He did not get back up as she dashed up to the waiting shuttle.

Now, for the hangar doors.

Before she ducked inside the shuttle, she threw a biotic warp field on an empty Atlas mech by the hangar doors just as a guard was attempting to climb inside it. The guard didn't even have a chance to dodge backwards before she launched a detonating orb of biotics at the shimmering mech suit.

Right as she ducked into the shuttle she had claimed as hers, the two biotic powers met in a violent blast. The mech detonated, causing a large explosion that ripped a gaping hole in the hangar bay doors. Molten bits of metal and shrapnel tore past her shuttle. She gritted her teeth and ignored the agonized screams of men who had not been so lucky to find cover in time as she used the blonde's stolen omni-tool to hack the shuttle controls. Praying that she was doing this right, she took the helm of the shuttle in her hands and engaged the engine. In moments the shuttle was hurtling through the yawning breach where the hangar doors used to be.

Back pressed firmly to the leather pilot seat as she accelerated without a sign of slowing, she tore off across the desolate desert expanse and away from the facility where she had been kept captive for too many years.

Commanding the onboard virtual intelligence to bring up local star charts, she quickly surveyed her galactic surroundings with untrained eyes. With the help of the piloting VI, she managed to charter a course to the next closest planet. She hoped the shuttle could make as the VI took over. Ascending up away from the red sands, she knew that in moments she'd break through the small planet's atmosphere. Releasing the shuttle's UV shields, she looked out the windows and savored the feel of the burning orange light as it warmed her pale face.

She'd done it. She was finally free from Cerberus.

...