Note: Okay! Now we are going into my favorite game of them all. I love Mass Effect 2. :) As much as I love it I'm gonna change a bit and move some stuff around. Thank you to the reviews, favorites, and follows.

Please be patient with me as I juggle work and sleep. Rest assured loveable characters will return and my originals will have a bigger part.

This is a bit short but I didn't want to regurgitate the beginning of the game so I went my own way.

Please enjoy Part Three: Resurrection, Chapter One: Dear Diary

Mass Effect
"Foreign Relations"

Part Three: Resurrection

Chapter One: Dear Diary

"Dear Diary, so…I've been dead for two years…yeah…no…Joker was wrong, it doesn't make it better saying it out loud. How's that for having bad luck? I remember the attack on the Normandy but not much else after that. Judging by the description of what happened I'm glad I don't remember it, I mean, I doubt I would have enjoyed the memory of planet fall." Sidda stopped the dictation and sighed, she stood in the middle of her quarters…apparently known as the loft to the crew who built it. A Cerberus crew…Sidda groaned at the thought. How could she be working with Cerberus now? That was just one of seven thousand questions she had. "And then there's the ship…I mean the SR1 was nice but I gotta hand it to Cerberus…they know how to build a ship."

The loft was far bigger than her quarters on the SR1; she even had a fish tank that was fully stocked with bright and colorful fish from several different worlds. She gave it a half smile and sighed heavily wandering over to the bathroom, her hair was the biggest thing to get used to. It hadn't been this short since boot camp; she didn't like the chin length bob since there wasn't enough to pull into a pony tail. She wasn't looking forward to trying to figure out how to put that into a helmet. "And that's gonna take some time getting used to." She loved her hair long, sure it was a pain to braid and bun every morning but that had become routine over the years. She could do an inverted braid in the dark in under a minute now.

Her shrapnel scars from Elysium were missing and so were the scars from her surgeries on the Citadel. An unmarked body was new, she hadn't had that since Elysium when that grenade went off and sent pieces of stone and metal into her face. Sidda didn't feel like herself, she felt odd…almost fake.

"This feels strange," she went on before tearing herself away from the reflection and taking in her new quarters, "not the new and improved version of me, although as seamless as I've been told it was, I still feel like the Bionic Woman. No…I mean the diary or journal entries. I didn't used to keep a diary but then again the Normandy didn't used to have a yeoman/counselor telling me I need to 'talk about it'. Chambers is okay, kind of, way too naïve but I guess that's a running theme for Cerberus. Guess it's not so bad though I'm pretty sure by the time I'm done with this I might just sound like a babbling idiot…should be fun to listen to at my court-martial when the Alliance gets their hands on me." She paused again and thought about that last comment. "Can you court-martial a dead person?"

"Technically, you never left the military, Commander, so I believe the answer is: yes," EDI chimed in and Sidda's brow furrowed at the 'helpful' AI.

"Thank you, EDI, please stop listening in," she replied. The AI was useful but it was disconcerting to know that she was constantly being watched.

"Of course, Commander, Dr. Chakwas wishes to see you in the Medical Bay." The AI replied and Sidda sighed. Chakwas had sent her three messages to come down for a thorough check-up. Sidda was ignoring it. She ended the dictation and headed out.

She saw Chakwas, which was a surprise, and saw the scans of her 'new body'. It was disconcerting to realize that she had so much synthetic bone, muscle, and skin. It was equally disconcerting to see all the new cybernetics and biometrics that now were littered throughout her body. Chakwas and Joker joining Cerberus was even worse than realizing that she was a rebuilt model. Cerberus was a terrorist organization and now she was working with them, along with Chakwas and Joker.

"Have you tried using your biotics?" Chakwas asked and Sidda shook her head. "Be careful, it's an improved implant so it might not be what you are used to."

Sidda had been told that by Miranda, the architect of her new model. She was a little nervous about using her biotics again; she'd gone most of her life with the L3 implant and now she had an L5x. It was just one of the thousand things that was different. "Yeah, that's what Miranda said."

"She's right, you should be careful. Ideally you should test first before combat."

"What makes you think I'll be in combat?"

Chakwas' sideways look was amusing, no one would expect anything less for the woman who found combat around every corner. On leave, training, on a milk run…it didn't matter, trouble always found her. "What makes you think you won't, Commander?"

Sidda chuckled in response. "Change of pace."

"Chakwas and Joker, there's two people I never thought would come over to the dark side and work for a terrorist organization. Joker says they grounded what was left of the Normandy crew after my and the SR1's untimely demise. Clearly the Alliance was still a little miffed about the theft of their prototype. Joker I would believe before Chakwas, Chakwas…that came out of left field. Still good to see people that I trust but something doesn't feel right. If Hackett or Anderson knew about this their heads' would explode."

She flopped down on the bed, her mind went to Victus. What would he do if he saw her alive? Would he sweep her up in his arms or keep his distance with a distrustful look? Knowing Victus she banked on the latter. Cerrus would probably shoot her. Victus wouldn't go that far but she couldn't imagine what his state of mind was…the loss of another woman he loved. It probably sent him spiraling.

She shook the thoughts and cleared her throat, she didn't want to think about it, didn't want to think of Victus' reaction if it had been long enough for him get over her. "Speaking of seeing people I trust, I found one in the oddest of places…little hole in the wall human colony called Freedom's Progress. Creepy as hell and ghost town save for a band of Quarians trying to save the colony's only survivor. Veetor…poor bastard. Tali took my reappearing act pretty well all things considered. Wasn't much time for small talk with the reprogrammed killer Mech trying to kill me and the idiotic combination of Jacob and Miranda trying to snatch the unhinged Quarian and run." She paused in the dictation as she flicked through things she'd missed while dead. A highlight reel Joker called it, one of many he'd given her. Vid's hadn't changed but there was a ridiculous series called Blasto, a spoof on her first human Spectre status. She shook her head with a snort of derision and continued. "At least I know she's still alive and kicking, if she's still seeing Cerrus that accounts for the extra level of toughness."

Sidda sighed heavily and cast the pad aside, she didn't know if it was dying or the fact that she was lonely but dictating a diary made her feel better.

With everything that was cluttering her mind she couldn't relax. Honestly, how could she? She'd woken up a week ago and found out that she had been dead for over two years. So much had changed, even the weapons, but that wasn't the worst part…she still wasn't sure how she was going to deal with Victus. Joker had told her the after effect of her 'death'.

Her mind was racing and she couldn't sit still so she ran, did sit ups, push-ups, pull ups, anything she could do to just take her mind off it all. It really didn't work; all she could think about was Victus. How was he? Did he still think about her? Thousands of other things went through her mind also and all of centered on him.

"Are you distressed, Commander?" EDI asked as Sidda entered her quarters. Sidda had focused almost all of her nervous energy and unquiet mind on working out. It didn't help too much, her mind was still a hot mess train wreck of emotions, questions, and the coming to terms with being dead for two years.

She pulled the sweat soaked shirt off over her head and tossed it in the corner. The best thing about a long hard workout was the shower afterward. "I'm fine EDI," she replied.

"You biometrics indicate a significant level of stress. Perhaps you should see Dr. Chakwas in the Medical Bay." The AI countered.

"EDI," Sidda warned as she collected some clean off duty clothes for after the shower. "I said I'm fine and stop scanning me."

"Operative Lawson instructed me to take regular scans to ensure there are no ill effects of the Lazarus Project."

"Operative Lawson can kiss my ass, EDI, the Lazarus Project worked…I'm here…and I don't like my privacy invaded so knock it off or I'll figure out a way to disconnect you."

"Very well, Commander."

And then there was silence, Sidda took in a long breath and then breathed out an even longer one as she pressed the button to continue her diary. "The Alliance would shit a brick if they knew that an AI was installed on this ship." She began and allowed a slight smile when EDI did not chime in; the intelligence was waiting, maybe not even listening. "I think this is one idea The Illusive Man had that was actually a good one…apart from bring me back from the dead. AI's are illegal in the galaxy but Cerberus likes to thumb their nose at the rule book. Most of the time I have to save them from their stupidity but once in a while the blind squirrel finds a nut. Having a Cyber Warfare and Electronic Countermeasures capable Artificial Intelligence onboard is going to be incredibly dangerous…but at the same time…incredibly useful."

"I am glad you approve, Commander." EDI chimed in finally.

Sidda ended her dictation and headed for the shower. "Just don't make me regret it," she warned. "I've had enough encounters with run away, galactic domination, homicidal AIs. I don't need another in my own house."

Sleep did not come easy, they were heading to the Citadel much to Miranda's annoyance but Sidda needed to talk to the Council and find Garrus. She needed the Turian on this mission, someone she trusted. She sure as hell didn't trust anyone onboard aside from Joker and Chakwas but she'd need more than them to pull this suicide mission off.

The Citadel had changed quite a bit but C-Sec was still easy enough to find. Finding her target, however, was a little more difficult…finding one specific Turian on the Citadel wasn't easy.

Security on the station had increased exponentially, it took forever to get through C-Sec and even then it baulked because to the computer she was very much dead. Once she was over that hurdle she set out to find her target, who was a quite a bit harder to find even in the confines of C-Sec.

Sidda twirled in the chair in front of the desk. The last time she'd come to visit Chellick had been during the pursuit of Saren. He was a good cop, Garrus didn't mind him. Chellick passed her as he entered, for a cop he wasn't overly observant with his eyes glued to a couple datapads he kept flipping through. "Can I help you?" he uttered. He was a busy man and his desk reflected that. Stacks of casefiles were neatly organized but there was still quite a few of them.

Sidda nearly smirked this was gonna be too good; she was going to scare the hell out of him if he didn't stop and look. "Hi, Chellick," she grinned.

Chellick finally saw her. The Turian squawked…he'd seen a fucking ghost. "Shepard!" Sidda's cheeky grin remained. Chellick looked comical, like he was ready to climb the wall. "Shit!" he exclaimed shocked to the core. "You're dead!"

Sidda shrugged, just getting through security told her that the world still thought she was dead. Bailey's magic button made it all go away in the systems but it was going to be fun scaring the daylights out of everyone else. "That's the rumor."

Chellick's head spun, he couldn't wrap his head around this. "So you're not dead?" His mind didn't even register the question, if he had he wouldn't have said it but he was too stunned and mid panic to ask a question that made sense.

Sidda's expression reflected her response to the question. "Chellick…come on, man."

The Turian blinked. "Right…sorry," he replied, still unnerved by the dead woman sitting in his office. "So…uhh…what…what's going on?"

"I'm looking for Garrus," she began as the cop relaxed enough to sit down, "do you know where he is?"

Chellick shook his head. "He quit last year."

Garrus always was one step off of quitting the bureaucratic nightmare that was C-Sec so she wasn't exactly shocked. "Do you know where he went?"

Chellick shook his head. "Not sure. He left and just dropped off the map."

Her brow furrowed as he fidgeted to expel the nervous energy. "That's it? He just dropped off the map?" she asked. "You're Chellick. Garrus told me that you're the guy in C-Sec that can find anyone."

Chellick grumbled, he liked Sidda and was sad when she died but whenever she showed up it always spelled trouble. "Look, it is not my day to watch him, Commander; I don't know where he is. He quit."

Garrus quitting wasn't hard to imagine, he was too impatient for C-Sec which is why he loved working with a Spectre. "Quit why?"

"I don't know. It's Garrus. He hated being tied up in all the red tape and after yo…you died Garrus had enough. Turned in his resignation and left."

Sidda harrumphed. "What about his old partner? The one after you…or before you…what was the order?"

"That's your question?" he sniped back starting to get frustrated, she cocked her head and Chellick huffed. "Leena. After. She moved to Thessia about 10 months ago."

Sidda sighed and got to her feet. "If you do find anything out on Garrus please let me know."

Chellick grunted a response and then looked up at her. He wasn't holding his breath; he hadn't heard from Garrus since he quit so he was sure that he wouldn't now. "Where are you going?"

To the meeting that she wasn't looking forward to, Anderson had gotten wind that she was alive and asked her to come see him. Sidda wasn't looking forward to it; she was looking forward to seeing their reactions but not looking forward to the rest of it. "To scare the hell out of the Council."

Chellick actually laughed, that was going to be a fun meeting. "Oh let me know how that goes…try to leave the Presidium intact this time, two years later we're still trying to fix your last visit."

Sidda grinned. "Pleasure as always, Chellick," she said and paused before she left. "Can I ask a favor?" She came back from the dead, he figured he owed her a favor and gave a single nod. "Can you track down a hierarchy General?"

Chellick sat back and gave her a curious expression. "They're hard to hide…who do you need?"

"Adrien Victus."

Chellick agreed and gave her another nod. "I'll check it out. I'll send you a message when I find him." He said and Sidda nodded gratefully. Two years had gone by so she wasn't sure how to contact Victus, whenever she worked up the courage to do so.

Sidda grumbled as she tossed her jacket clear across the room and punched the button on the terminal to continue her dictation. She'd never really kept a diary before; it was just amusing now to get her thoughts out in the open even if no one heard it. "Dear Diary," she began sarcastically, "well that was six hours of totally wasted time," she grumbled loudly. "Garrus has clearly performed the greatest disappearing act in the galaxy since The Illusive Man can't even find him, Anderson won't tell me where Kaidan is because "it's classified", Udina is still a backstabbing, sleazy, snake, and the Council…the Council still shows that it has more in common with an Ostrich than a group of civilized species. Apparently, all I needed to do was die so they could wash all the stuff about Saren and the Reapers away. Without me to nag in their ears they just stuck their heads in the sand and moved on. Bastards did reinstate me as a Spectre though so long as I keep to the Terminus…terrific…the goddamn Wild West."

She shook her head as she found several messages from The Illusive Man. "Illusive Man…what a pretentious name," she muttered and then tapped her way through the dossiers that he sent her. She'd received the one for Mordin Solus and now two more. One for a Mercenary Veteran named Zaeed Massani, a name she vaguely recognized, who apparently cost a lot of money to hire and another for a mercenary commander responsible for carrying out hits on the Omega gang leaders. On the way back from her Spanish Inquisition with the Council she told Joker to head out to Omega to get the ball rolling on this travelling road show.

The monitor on the desk chimed an incoming call; she couldn't imagine who would be calling her now.

"Commander, I tracked down Gen. Victus like you asked, I transmitted the contact information to you. He's still on the PFS Lante."

That did not surprise her in the slightest. Victus had been the commander of that ship for over a decade, she didn't expect that to change any time soon. She chuckled. "Damn, Chellick, that was fast."

Chellick scoffed. "It's Adrien Victus, Sidda, he's not that hard to find if you know where to look."

Sidda's brow furrowed and leaned forward on to the desk closer to the monitor. "So let me get this straight, you can find a Turian General who's usually off on classified missions in five hours but you can't find one rogue cop after ten months?"

"Everyone's a critic," Chellick replied sounding bored. "And it was more like two hours…I am a Detective, Commander, I have stuff to do." To be perfectly honest he hadn't been looking for Garrus…it was not his job to keep tabs on an officer who quit.

"You've gotten pretty snarky in the last two years, Chellick, I like it," she chuckled and Chellick snorted.

"Good luck, Commander," He nodded back.

"Thanks, Chellick," she smiled back and the screen changed. The contact information was attached just as he said they would be. Sidda hesitated before opening it, nothing would make her happier then to talk to Victus but she was almost scared to.

"Here we go…" she began and heaved a great sigh. "Hello Adrien, it's..it's me. You're not dreaming and it's not a trick. It wasn't a lie either; I did die for two years. I don't even know where to begin with this; I've been mulling this around for over a week trying to figure out what to say. Long story short, an organization spent a lot of money and resources to bring me back to life. I'm trying to pick up the pieces and figure this out but I'm not sure how to do this. Now I'm back for another suicidal mission so I'll probably die at the end of it anyway. Sorry. I swear this isn't a trick, if you're okay with it I'd like to see you. You pick the time and place."

She stopped the dictation and let out a rough breath. "I wonder how many of them are gonna shoot me if they see me?" she muttered and sighed again. She left the letter alone; somehow she just didn't know what to say.

"I don't need your help, EDI, now buzz off." She heard Joker bitch and cracked a half smile. Joker had been the least receptive to the AI, after the run in with Sovereign and the Geth she didn't really blame him, but Sidda had a different opinion. A VI was helpful but the possibilities were endless when it came to an AI. She was curious to see how it would turn out.

"Having fun with the computer?"

"Funny," Joker retorted. "Commander, can we shut this thing off?"

Sidda sat down on the railing to the right. "I think it's gonna be fairly useful."

Joker laughed. "You blew up the last AI that pissed you off."

Sidda shrugged and gave a slight chuckle. "And I'll do the same thing to this one if it turns to the dark side."

"Way to be proactive," he commented and then noticed that something was on her mind. "You okay, Commander?"

Sidda sighed heavily. "Trying to compose a letter…ordinarily not a mind blowing task but the gist of this one is 'hey, I'm back from the dead', having issues trying to write it."

Joker didn't pretend he knew what to say. "Yeah…how you doing with that? The coming back to life thing."

"Well, it was fun scaring the hell out of Chellick…I've only ever heard a Turian squawk once and it gets funnier every time I hear it," she replied and Joker laughed. "It was a bitch to get through security…in and out."

"Not to mention all the sideways looks we get running around sporting Cerberus colors."

Sidda shook her head, she'd sooner strut around naked then wear those clothes. Now she had a black leather jacket, jeans, and straight up civilian attire. "So don't wear Cerberus colors, do what I did…go buy casual. I'll die happy if I never put that crap back on."

Joker grunted and snorted. "You know they're probably recording all of this."

"Fuck em if they can't take a joke," she chuckled.

Joker laughed. "Good to have you back."

She gave him a half smile and looked at the navigation panel. "ETA to Omega?"

"Bout an hour."

She stood and walked off the bridge. "Time to go get ready for the outhouse of the Terminus."

"Just wipe your feet before you come back." Joker called after her and she chuckled.

Cerberus had some funny ideas about how they set up their ships, rather than it being an efficient one stop shop in the bay with arms and armor they were set up on deck two. Odd. Sidda adjusted her armor with the new pieces she purchased on the Citadel, extra ammo packs strapped to her left thigh for thermal clips, grenades, heat sinks; a Sentry Interface that was leaps and bounds better than her old model, a shield harness, dampening gauntlets, and a thousand other things to modify her armor. On the Illusive Man's dime she was okay with splurging.

She tugged at the strange fit of the Aegis vest and twisted to break it in. "So, not only have the weapons changed but the armor has too." She complained

"Commander," Miranda's voice began.

"And there's my other irritation," she muttered. "Yeah?"

"Commander, we are approaching Omega." The Cerberus operative informed her over the comm.

Sidda nodded with a heavy sigh. "I'll be there in a minute," she replied. "And there's my other hell. Cerberus. This ship is crawling with Cerberus, terrorists, racists, 'humanities sword'…more like a dagger in the back. Most of the kids who keep the ship running are just young idealists, big deal, people like Donnelly and Daniels but then there's Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor," Sidda scoffed in disgust. She couldn't stand either one of them. "Jacob Taylor: an Alliance turncoat who can actually turn a blind eye to Cerberus' 'checkered past' and keep a fucking straight face about it. I guess the same can be said for Joker but I at least believe Joker. Jacob struts around like he's the hot stuff biotic ready to give me the 'good stuff'. Just chuck him out the airlock and be done with it. Miranda Lawson: The Illusive Man's Barbie doll. Has the nerve to tell me that she doesn't trust me…ME…she's the terrorist I'm just the Lazarus Man. Jacob is all brawn, and very little at that, and no brain but Miranda is the smart one. Fairly certain that I'll never trust her so I'm waiting for a rug to be yanked out from under me at any moment."

"Commander," Miranda's voice cut in again and Sidda ground her teeth.

"Yeah, in a minute, Lawson!" she snapped back leaving silence in the air.

"And it appears that I have quite the band to assemble. Starting on Omega…yee- fucking-haw…two years ago that asteroid was a no fly zone so I doubt it's gotten better with time. A cesspool that is apparently a breeding ground for people I need to save the galaxy. There's the Salarian scientist who's supposed to help with the Collector's ability to subdue a whole colony, the galaxy's best Mercenary Zaeed Massani, and some lunatic calling himself Archangel." She went on as she did one final check of her new black and yellow armor. It irked her now, Cerberus colors. "So let's recap…I'm supposed to save the galaxy with a merc, a lunatic, and a scientist…we are so screwed."