Hi,

It's been a really long time since I posted this and now I'm rewriting it. The thing was that what I had before was just an idea that I wanted to throw out there and get feedback on (or so I'm trying to convince myself to feel less guilty). And I got quite good feedback on it, but then I had no idea how I wanted to proceed with it (which is true). But now I've done some brainstorming with jamiepage19 (THANK YOU!) and I've got a better grasp on what it is I want to write. As a consequence of that I'm rewriting the first chapter. Not much, just to make it less confusing.

'Cause it's really confusing…

Sorry for the long wait. Let's hope I don't disappoint.

The Shepard Siblings

Chapter 1: Alive again

"...me?... Shepard… that bed now… facility is under attack… SHEPARD!"

John Shepard blinked repeatedly and immediately wished for the oblivion of unconsciousness to take hold of him once again as pain, hot-blinding-blood-chilling pain, shot through him. But when the sweet depths of darkness did not embrace him and the pain slowly started to fade he opened his eyes and tried to focus on the ceiling. As he lay there he suddenly became aware of the dryness of his lips and tried to wet them but a fresh-white-hot pain shot through his jaw and he raised a shaky hand to rub it away.

There was a voice in the background but he could hardly hear it through the ringing in his ears and wondered, momentarily worried, if it were permanent.

He scanned the room as he tried to sit up and found out three things; the pain, although occasionally shooting through different parts of his body, was slowly but surely subsiding. Also, apart from being partly deaf his eyes could not focus and everything seemed to be covered in a white blur. Lastly, there was no one else in the room, a medical facility, and a sudden feeling of panic shot through him.

His hearing was starting to clear up and he could make out the female voice over the comm. He became wary as she told him his armour was in the locker but Shepard limped over to it as quickly as he could anyway. He did a second scanning of the room through blurry eyes andspotted the exit and then finally registered the sounds of muffled fired.

"No thermal clip." he croaked, thinking out loud, slightly surprised at the sound of his own voice while blinking rapidly to clear his eyes. The armour, black onyx armour with the N7 logo, fit him like a glove and felt reassuring, like a mother's embrace.

"This is a medical facility; we'll get you a thermal clip in a second."

Shepard's eyes snapped up, gun ready, before he remembered that the voice was coming through a comm link and let out his breath. He was alone and safe, for the moment.

"Get behind cover!"

He barely managed to avoid getting his head blown off as the door flew over his head and the woman continued giving him directions. He acknowledged the useful information but ignored the personal inputs. The entire facility was under lock-down and John realised there was only one way to go.

Sounds of gun fire. In the next room maybe? He thought, gun at the ready.

The doors opened and Shepard reacted to the gunshots flying by, flinching, and remembering all too well the pain of a gunshot. A pain like no other.

"Shepard? What the hell?" a black man yelled in surprise over the sounds of fire.

Is he a soldier, hired arms, what? Shepard wondered, ready for any attack but since he had not shot at him, yet, he took cover beside him.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were still a work in progress!"

"Are you with Miranda?" John asked but wondered about what the other man had just said. Work in progress?

The man grimaced. "Yeah. Sorry, I forgot this is all new to you right now. I'm Jacob Taylor. I've been stationed here for..." he was interrupted by more shots flying over their heads and returned the fire before turning towards Shepard. "Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda's got you running around. I'll fill you in, but we better get you to the shuttle first."

"Not until you tell me what's going on." Shepard said calmly and stared the other man down. Jacob broke and started answering his questions. If John was at all disturbed or confused or shocked about what he was hearing, he was hiding it very well. Never losing his mask of cool and collected calmness.

Shepard stood up and took out a Mech and then found out Jacob was a biotic. His thoughts momentarily shifted to his sister. They took out the rest. Jacob continued to tell him of the Normandy, his old crew, Miranda's dedication to the Project and how this wasn't the Alliance. Jacob answered his questions the best he could but it was obvious he was trying to avoid telling him their location.

They moved forward, Shepard on guard for more Mechs and a possible gunshot in the back if he wasn't careful. Jacob was a soldier, there was no doubt about it. Everything about him screamed of Alliance training, but he wasn't Alliance. Not that Shepard would have trusted him even if he were. He had been dead, apparently, and now he wasn't. As far as John was concerned there was something very, very wrong.

They met up with Wilson and Jacob finally had to tell Shepard that they were Cerberus. It didn't change anything since John had no chance of escaping from the facility in time on his own, anyway.

Wilson did turn out to be a traitor, a spy, but Miranda took care of that when they met her. She was the bossy type, used to giving orders and she reeked of perfume.

They argued momentarily about remaining survivors but in the end there was no time and John boarded the shuttle with a heavy heart. It was not in his nature to leave men behind.

Finally John got the whole story and he tried to process the fact that he'd been more or less dead for two whole years while Miranda asked him question after question about him. Meeting up with The Illusive Man was less pleasant than waking up had been hours earlier but he'd been lying if he said he wasn't happy about having the Normandy and Joker back. He was so happy in fact that he hugged the pilot, carefully of course.

"Er… yeah. Thanks, Commander. I guess…" Joker said awkwardly in the arms of the other man and patted him on the back.

What do you think? Better than before? I'm actually happier with it. Not like the other version which was a complete mess.