There for You
Chapter One: A New Beginning
She had died. A routine mission that had ended with her blown up, suffocated and spaced. Her corpse had ended up with Cerberus, a pro-human organization. Some people labeled them terrorists, some called them people of action that when faced with a universal threat would do something about it instead of letting themselves be bogged down by bureaucracy.
Through billions of dollars and two years of surgeries she was brought back to life via the Lazarus Project. It's not that she wasn't grateful… Shepard sighed, pushing her indignant red curly hair out of her face for the umpteenth time—it had grown a lot in two years and she was not used to it yet, though it only fell to her shoulders. Anyway, it hardly mattered right now how she had come back, she was alive and had some giant evil machines' asses to kick. For now, that was enough.
She'd met the Cerberus boss earlier—the Illusive Man—the one who had paid for her to pumped full fun drugs and then sent her on her merry way to free mankind and the universe from giant four eyed insect alien things—the Collectors, not batarians. The Illusive Man given her back her old pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau and a new leather-seated and AI saddled Normandy—probably just trying to soften her up. Damn if it wasn't working. Shepard stared up at the ceiling of her luxurious cabin—listening to the sounds of rain from her stereo. Back on Mindoir it hadn't rained all that often, probably once or twice every couple of months but when it did—it was breathtaking. And the next day, the air would feel fresh and clean and tiny wild flowers would burst from the ground, filling the air with a light, pure scent. Then it was attacked… her home, family and friends—vanished under ash and fire. Surviving, she'd gotten onto a passing Alliance patrol and never looked back.
Shepard and her team had just got off Freedom's Progress. What a mess that had been.
"What's our plan, Shepard?" the woman in the white cat suit, Miranda, asked her. Shepard sighed, moving a hand through her hair. "Well, everyone's gone, right? So this will mostly be an intel drop but as I can hardly go anywhere without being shot at—" She waited for a grin, a nod in agreement—nothing but blanks stares. "Be on your guard. We'll see when we get there." Damn, she knew she told bad jokes but at least her old team was polite enough to crack a smile. Tough crowd.
Upon landing, Shepard started poking around. There were even deposits of minerals lying around and spare parts—easy money. "I can't believe I actually had to dig for this crap before. People just leave it lying around!" Sticking her head into buildings, she stilled when she heard voices. Signaling to her team, she punched the door and stood out of the way as it opened. Peering inside she recognized the one figure. "Tali!" Shepard exclaimed, surprised. She was less surprised when the general Tali'Zorah was with shoved a gun in Shepard's face. Well, she couldn't go anywhere without being shot at or apparently, she amended, have a gun shoved in her face. "Shepard, is that really you? Prazza, what the hell? Put your weapon away."
"With your old C.O. working for Cerberus? Unlikely," he sneered at Shepard and her current team.
"Okay—" she blinked at the cold reception. Shepard had expected a hand shake or a hug from Tali, but she seemed frazzled and with the whole wearing-insulated-suits-because-our-immune-systems-suck-society might've had something to do with it. Or the fact that she had come back from the dead. "What's up with you guys hating on Cerberus?"
Apparently a fugitive Cerberus wanted had hid on a flotilla and to get the fugitive back, Cerberus shot up the place. Well shit, they certainly lacked tact. Miranda did not remember the events happening that way… Shepard sighed, tired of having to deal with petty arguments already. How long had she'd been awake now? Twelve hours, if that. "What are you guys doing here anyway?" she asked the quarians.
"Veetor, a quarian, was on his pilgrimage was here. We saw him run into a warehouse when we arrived. He has a suit rupture and will need medical care. He's reprogramed the mecs—" Of course he had because I hadn't been shot at yet. "We can go together, as a team—"
But Prazza and his lieutenants had already scrambled away—trying to find Veetor first, not believing Shepard wouldn't hand Veetor over to the Illusive Man at the first chance she got. "Well, let's go before they get killed." she sighed. By the time Shepard, her team and Tali got to them, they'd been crushed by a huge mec with a shield. Biotics easily shredded the heavy mec like tin foil, causing it to explode. "I'll check on my team, go find Veetor."
Shepard had found Veetor, returned him to Tali after being promised to send the footage of the Collectors. Tali declined re-joining the dream team—she had her own stuff to deal with apparently.
Shepard turn on her side, burrowing into her blankets. She flexed her hand in front of her face, the blue glow from her fish tank casting light over her skin. Everything was just so different this time around, surrounded by strangers and not a single friend in the universe by her side.
...
A/N:
I'm likely to always have an author's note at the end. If you don't like it, you can skip it.
Here, I'll try to explain some things that I may have done a bad job at trying to explain in the 's that, as well as trivia, side notes and anything else. (Maybe tiny hints for the next chapters mwah ha ha.) If you still don't understand, shoot me a review and I'll try to explain in the next upload. If it's something I all ready explained, I'll tell you and send a link to the chapter where I explained it.
I don't tend to upload regularly, sorry. I'll have a lot of free time this summer so at least I'll try not to leave you hanging. This may turn out…interesting as I usually don't do 3rd person POV.
Leave a review—reviews are love.
This story is much different from my draft, so.. we'll see where it goes.
Hint for later Chapters: It's pronounced "An-na-lee-zee-ah" for Analisia.
Magic from my brain cells. enjoy.