Torn – Chapter 1
Alexis Shepard awoke coughing, the stench of an electrical fire burning in her nose. She opened her eyes to see where she was, but immediately clenched them back shut; smoke clouded and stung her sapphire orbs the moment she exposed them. Shepard felt only a light layer of fabric covering the top of her body, and deduced she must be wearing a medical gown. Where the fuck am I? She thought.
Gagging and coughing from the smoke, she carefully rolled her aching body off the bed and gently guided herself down to lay on the floor, hoping to gain some reprieve from the fumes down there. Every limb and muscle felt stiff. How long have I been out? The last thing she remembered was getting spaced above Alchera. She hadn't expected to live after that. Maybe this is hell.
Everything seemed blurry, like the morning after a really fun night. Her senses came about one by one; smell, sight, touch, and eventually hearing, which had finally started to function. "Shepard? God, I hope you're hearing this. You have to get out of there!" an unfamiliar voice laced with an Australian accent called out to her. Alexis groaned loudly in response. "Well, I suppose you're awake, then," the voice responded. "Head out of the lab. There's an equipment locker in the next room. You're going to need your weapons and armor."
"Well, thank god for that, because this medical gown is about as protective as a condom with holes in it," Alexis grumbled as she crawled towards the entrance, her head pounding and body sore.
The voice didn't react to Shepard's quip kindly. "Just get…" Static interrupted the message. Just as well, Shepard thought. Less distractions. She had always been a trailblazer. Whoever pointed her to the guns had simply done her a favor; she would've figured it out on her own if she had to.
Finally, Shepard reached the door to the lab and forced it open. The next room wasn't nearly as smoky as the one before, so she carefully stood and found the locker. It was full of a brand new set of armor, specially sized to fit her, and a new pistol and shotgun as well. Shepard shook off the gown and quickly donned the armor. She grabbed as many heat sinks for the guns as she could, too, figuring they must be there for a reason.
Alexis heard an explosion come from the other side of the door and her survival instincts clicked in. She ducked into cover and fired up her barrier, her biotics surprisingly stronger than ever. The buzz of the energy surrounding her gave her newfound spirit – time to kick some ass.
The door across the room from her opened and two mechs poured in, firing at will. Shepard captured one in a biotic pull, lifting it helplessly into the air, and then used her pistol to pick its limbs off with precision. She charged the second mech biotically, and when it was stunned, Alexis blasted its head off with her shotgun.
Shepard made her way through the facility, making waste of anything that approached or dared to fire at her, and eventually ran into another living being. A dark skinned human was making work of more mechs across the way. She went into the cover next to him and the two finished taking out the enemies. The man then turned to see who had assisted him, and flinched when he saw her. "Woah, shit, Shepard! I didn't expect to see you up and about."
Alexis narrowed her eyes at the man. "How the hell do you know who I am and where the fuck am I?" She indignantly ordered the questions answered.
He man ejected his empty thermal clip and placed in a new one as he answered her, not looking her in the eye. "The short answer is you're in a facility that just spent the last two years bringing you back to life. Everyone on this station knows who you are."
Shepard felt her heart catch in her throat. Did he just say "two years?" Bringing me back to life?
Her mind raced through what the man had just said, noting the repercussions of being gone two years. Dead. He said you were dead.
Shit…Kaidan.
Alexis could only imagine what Kaidan had gone through after death. As her mind started to drift down that horrible path, she realized that she wasn't even sure he had survived. There will be time to think about and fix that later. Right now, you have to focus on getting out of here.
The man cleared his throat after watching Shepard process the news for a few seconds. "Sorry to be so blunt," he apologized. "But we should probably talk about the rest of this later. I'm Jacob Taylor, head of security here."
Shepard looked at him squarely. "No need to apologize. I appreciate the truth. Let's go."
The pair made their way through more of the station, decimated more androids, and finally found another man with lighter skin and a cleanly shaven head, who Shepard vaguely recognized. "Hey you." She abruptly shouted at him. "You were there that time I woke up."
The man wasn't amused. "Yeah, and right now, I've been shot and could really use some damn medigel."
Alexis didn't appreciate his attitude. Sure, she dished out her fair share, but being in change meant that others rarely gave it back. That, and she was rather frustrated right now due to waking up under attack after apparently being unconscious for two years. She hadn't had time to recharge her patience batteries, yet. Jacob took care of getting medigel for the other guy, who was apparently named Wilson. The two started talking about some chick named Miranda, when Shepard butted in.
"A woman with an Australian accent spoke to me while I was getting out of bed." Shepard paused and realized that the voice had probably done more than Shepard realized, even if she didn't process hearing it right away. "Actually, her voice probably woke me up. She helped me out."
"That's Miranda, for sure," Jacob replied. "There's no way a few mechs wasted her, Wilson. She can handle herself."
"Maybe," the injured man replied gruffly. "But she would know to meet us in the shuttle bay."
"Fair enough," Jacob helped Wilson to his feet and then led the three towards the specified destination.
After fighting their way through more attack drones, they came to the door of the hangar. Wilson opened the door and a gorgeous, long-haired woman with blue-grey eyes stood on the other side, her firearm already drawn. "Nice try, Wilson," she said, firing three times successively at his chest. The man fell, lifeless, and Jacob began to contest her actions. Alexis had recognized the woman's voice, and figured she was Miranda. "Wilson's the one who hacked the mechs to attack us, Jacob. He was trying to kill Shepard along with the rest of us," Miranda explained.
Jacob sighed heavily, not sure how to respond to betrayal from someone he had worked with closely. Alexis was all too familiar with the feeling and broke into the conversation. "I'm not sure I trust any of you, yet."
Miranda placed her free hand on her hip, "Fair enough. You want answers, Shepard. And I don't blame you. But first, let's get the hell out of here."
Alexis had always been slow to trust, but also knew that these people had just saved her life, evidently twice, and it wouldn't make sense to do that just to kill her later. Frustrated with the whole situation, Shepard stepped over Wilson's dead body and followed the pair to the shuttle. As Miranda and Jacob argued, Alexis' mind wandered back to Kaidan – she had to find him, and soon.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the start of this fic! There's going to be a lot of feels and angst and smut later on. Once we get into the relationship parts, I'll tag the top of the chapter so you know which one is featured. I hope to make this make both Shenko (my OTP) and Shrios fans happy!
I also posted a one-shot about this character, called "Ticket Out." It's her origin story and it's very raw.
Reviews are always appreciated!