A/N: Greetings! This is the sequel to 'Jane Shepard: This is my story'. Also goes with 'How Shepard Changed My Life'. I was originally going to have the story be one long story with all three ME arcs, but have since decided they will all have their own stories. The ME1 arc is done through video diaries and gives the reader a chance to see a little bit of who my Jane Shepard is and the choices she made.
The name of this story comes from Evanescence song 'Bring Me To Life.' Also, italics are thoughts and I do not use direct game dialogue or exact cut scenes. This is also completely canon.
Please review and tell me what you think! I always appreciate it!
Mass Effect belongs to Bioware!
I Die For You
It was difficult to walk with the gravity starting to leave the ship. Picking up Joker out of his seat isn't easy. Shepard's head turned toward the chain reactions of explosions she could hear descending upon the two of them.
'Forget nice and easy. Sorry Joker.' Jane thinks and grabs his arm and his side, lifting him out of his seat.
"Hey, watch the arm!" Joker yells out and Shepard winces when she hears a crack, but stays resolute that a broken arm can heal. You don't come back from death. Joker just groaned and walked as best as he could to freedom.
Shepard is gentler putting him into the escape pod. A surprised gasp leaves her mouth as an explosion rips her from the door. She grabs onto the siding, looking for a way to get back to him when she realizes there is no way. Shepard looks back at Joker and smiles, though he can't see it. Which is just as well as utter fear settles into her eyes.
"Commander!" he yells panicked when Shepard is blown off the siding.
'NO! I have to get Joker out of here!' Shepard thinks with determination and she twists toward the shuttle button. 'Just…. There!'
"SHEPARD!" She hears Joker scream as the doors in front of him close and he rockets away.
The chain reaction of explosions finally catches up and Shepard feels her legs, arms, and back burn as she hurtles into space.
'Now what do I-' She watches her home blow up around her. Panic rises in her chest when her ears catch the sound of her leaking oxygen tank. Swinging her arms, she tries to stop the leak. 'No, I am not ready!' her thoughts scream and she can feel tears form in her eyes.
Visions suddenly dance before her. Faces. Anderson, Garrus, Tali, Ashley, Liara, Wrex, Joker.
'Joker… he's alive. So… this is… worth it,' her body starts convulsing and she grabs the underside of her helmet. 'The sunrise is so pretty. I… wish I…'
Jane Shepard flies into the void, hoping Kaidan is there to welcome her.
She recognizes this darkness. It sounds like she is in a tunnel. The booms of explosions in the background bring feelings of fear and panic that she can't explain. These things hadn't fazed her before, and she didn't understand where this odd feeling of doom was coming from.
Her body lurches as a strong impact and a very loud voice wakes her up. 'Wake up? From what? Why am I sleeping?' Shepard asks herself, confused, and opens her eyes.
She sits up at the demand of "Get up Shepard!" and grabs her side in pain. There is apparently no time to sort out her confusion, because the female voice calls out again. "Get to the locker. Your armor and gun are in there."
Shepard stumbles over to the locker. 'Is this thing a VI? What happened? This is NOT my armor. Where the hell is my SHOTGUN?!' She brings everything out anyway.
"This gun has no thermal clips!" She yells to the disembodied voice, tossing the gun onto the bed. She locks the armor in place, a little disturbed at how well it fits and turns back to the useless gun.
"Find a thermal clip. There should be one near you."
Shepard finally gets a good look around. 'Is this place a medbay? Looks like a scientific lab. Where the hell am I?' She finishes her last question upon finding and equipping the thermal clip.
"There are mechs heading your way! Get into cover and shoot them Shepard!"
She quickly ducks behind a desk and starts firing. 'Loki mechs. Easy.'
"All right Shepard, you're clear. Go to the next room." Shepard glares at the ceiling.
'Does she have video feed or something?' She runs out of the room.
To say Shepard is disturbed is an understatement. People behind the glass windows were calling her name before being blown to bits by a huge mech. Though this grenade launcher had made a nice explosion when she was faced with multiple mechs, and the memory made her smile. Her hair still smelled burnt on the ends after being told to 'run quickly through the fire'. Yeah. At least her shields were up. The voice was gone now, having turned to static. Shepard didn't really mind.
She found a room with video logs, data pads, and computers full of data on her. A picture of her insides and bone structure is spinning in a circle.
"Heart. Arm. Brain functions. Vitals," she reads off the screen and her blood runs cold, goosebumps forming on her flesh. The video logs show that the voice belongs to a brunette woman, talking about a 'Project Lazarus' being a huge success. There was something about cybernetics and diagrams. Shepard didn't like it.
She steps away, stealing all the credits she can hack from a wall safe, deciding to get out of here and back home. She tries downloading all the data she seems to be an intricate part of, but there is too much and the ship rocks with another explosion, reminding her to find her exit quickly.
'Tali can hack into this later and find out what happened and what these people have done to me. Once I can find the Normandy anyway.' Sadness stings her chest, but she doesn't understand why.
A dark skinned man is fighting a few doors later and he yells out at her surprised.
"Shepard?!" She concentrates on making the mechs explode with her pistol before joining him behind cover.
"I've been dead for two years?" Shepard replies when Jacob Taylor told her this disturbing news after they defeated the mechs. She was surprised and tried to keep the despair out of her features. Suddenly memories came crashing back, merciless. The explosions, telling Ashley to get everyone out, fighting her way to Joker, and throwing him into the escape pod as she was hurtled into the void. The sunrise, the fire, the air leaking from her tank, and her asphyxiation.
Then nothing.
Well she kind of remembers waking up in pain and looking around before being put back under.
She gasps as the memories pummel her, making sure she was alive and indeed breathing. The moment felt like hours, but had in fact only been seconds and Taylor was just starting to notice something was wrong. Shepard quickly schooled her features so he wouldn't see her fear, sorrow, and loss.
"I've been gone that long?" She asks letting some emotion leak out as she thought of her friends and crew. "How bad was it?"
"When I first saw you, you were nothing but meat and tubes-" 'you, sir, are disturbing and rude' "-anywhere else they would have put you in a coffin and declared you dead. Not Miranda though. She spent two years bringing you back."
'WHY?!' resounded through Shepards head at the last statement.
Demanding more answers gave her a relief when she found that Liara, Tali, and Ashley had made it off the Normandy alive. However a giant wave of grief washed over her upon hearing about Pressely and the other 20 crewman who were murdered in that attack.
'Who the hell blew up my ship and killed my people?' she raged and vowed to rip whoever had a new one.
The two soldiers decided to go to the escape pod and upon receiving a distress call from a man Taylor called Wilson, they ran for his position.
# # #
Jane was tired of fighting mechs. She just wanted to find out what was going on and get away from this giant death trap.
Meeting Wilson did not ease her mind. He only seemed to trigger her defenses so she put up even stronger walls of protection. Nobody was going to get through her defenses. Metaphorical and physical.
He started ranting about Miranda being a traitor, though he seemed incredibly well informed as to what was happening. Suspicious. When they looked at her for an opinion, because Taylor was defending this Miranda, Shepard scowled and threw up her hand.
"You're all strangers to me." Taylor seemed to understand, but Wilson appeared to want to take advantage.
Apparently these two liked to argue. She wondered if this was a recent development or just a new round to an old game. Taylor wanted to tell her who they were. Wilson disagreed. Shepard sided with Taylor.
"If she is going to trust us, she needs to know who we work for."
"Damn straight," Shepard interrupted and made sure she had two clips in her pistol. Just in case.
"We work for the Illusive Man."
"Yeah, you mentioned him," she retorts.
"He is the head of Cerberus." Jacob finishes and suddenly she remembers where she had seen the logo before.
A pulse of biotics emanates from her in a wave of fury. Akuze, Admiral Kohaku, and the experiments she found while she hunted Saren flashed through her mind.
"I remember you. I fought against you terrorists while chasing Saren. I will never work for terrorists," Shepard growls out.
"You can take that up with the Illusive Man when you meet him." Taylor responds and expects it to be over. Personally, Shepard wants to shoot them all in the face. But, since she has no idea what is going on and needs answers, they will live. She suddenly feels a comforting presence and it startles her. She recognizes this aura. Peace comforts her, making her more herself and less vengeance. She shivers and looks to see if Kaidan had walked into the room.
No. He didn't.
She sighs and continues. What was that?
