"Today, we celebrate the life of the saviour of the Citadel, Commander John Williams Shepard. He was always a warm and accepting person, and never saw species or gender or whatever else as important. If you were qualified for the job, he accepted you, no questions asked. He was from Earth, and his nation, a low-population country known for its beautiful landscape and incredible amount of natural resources, was forged amidst the artillery and gunfire of 'The War to End All Wars.' He requested a particular poem from the war be read at his funeral."
"In Flanders' fields, the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place, and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amidst the guns below.
We are the dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you, with failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders' fields"
Tali'Zorah was silently crying as David Anderson read the now nearly three hundred year old poem. It was so unjust that Shepard had been taken so early. Just as she had begun to admit her feelings to herself, just as there was perhaps, a chance of them being reciprocated, just as everything seemed peaceful, if only for a short intermission, he was killed. She would have to go back to the fleet, to live the rest of her entire life there, with naught but regret to keep her company.
To say that Garrus Vakarian was pissed would be an understatement. The turian was fucking livid. Not at Shepard of course, but rather the way he had been taken. He was never even given a chance to say goodbye to those he loved before getting spaced. Right there, he swore an oath that whatever happened, the memory and legacy of his late Commander would live on, and if he had to single-handedly murder his way through all of Omega to do it and stop the Reapers himself, then so be it.
Liara T'Soni, meanwhile, had her face in her hands. She was sad, sure, but in the two weeks between Shepard's death and his funeral, she had found his body, and supposedly, a human supremacist organization called Cerberus had the ability to bring him back to life. Not that Cerberus was to be trusted at all of course, but, she reasoned, working with Cerberus for the time being was a better option than leaving his body to be bought by some auctioneer or another, or for it to just be left to rot under the skies of Alchera. She would keep it hidden, of course, if the so called "Lazarus Project" failed with the rest of them knowing about it's existence, they would be even more heartbroken.
Tali was roused from her thoughts by Garrus tapping her on the shoulder.
"Come on, Tali, we're supposed to go listen to Shepard's will."
"Right."
They walked into a small atrium with a video screen set up on the wall. A video of Shepard began playing.
"Alright, not gonna lie, feels a bit goddamn weird filming a video that'll only be seen when I'm dead, but, fuck it, here we go. I have nothing aside from whatever pay from the Alliance has built up in my bank account. Take whatever you need from that. Tali, I hope to God this isn't the first time you hear this, but I care about you in a way that's indescribable by the term 'close friendship.' Garrus, despite the fact that we don't even share the same goddamn amino acids, you may as well be my brother. Keep fighting the good fight. Anderson, you were always the man I looked up to, saw as a mentor. If the Reapers are still out there, don't lose hope. Liara, I doubt you'll be going back to archaeology any time soon, but don't get in too much trouble. Kaidan, mate, you were there since I first joined the Marines, and you've questioned my decisions, but never have you let me down. Wrex, you're a shining example of the krogan race, and I hope you do end up finding a cure to the genophage. That said, I have a message for this entire crew. Don't kill yourselves over me, and at least try to move on. The Reapers aren't going to slow down because one soldier's fallen dead."
"I fucking knew it." said Garrus.
"Knew what?" asked Liara.
"That he had a thing for Tali. Too bad he had to bloody die to say it."
"God fucking DAMNIT." Tali shouted, to the surprise of everyone. "I could have said something, anything, and we would have been happy, but nooo, that goddamn ship had to blow us out of the bloody sky and kill him."
"Tali, that wouldn't have kept him ali-" started Garrus.
"I know, it's just…" she dissolved into tears once more.
"Yeah, I get it. Just… don't kill yourself over it, alright?"
"No promises." she muttered darkly.
John Shepard's body felt like it was on fire. He had inhaled all kinds of gas from chlorine to VX before, he had been shot plenty of times, he had taken shrapnel to the chest, but this was so much worse. Every nerve in his body screamed in pain. Only the thought of a purple mask and of the Reapers' imminent arrival kept him from wanting to curl up and die.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, he's waking up, heart rates and brain activity is off the charts, more sedatives, Wilson, get your ass on it, your estimates were off, run the numbers again!" was the last thing he heard before passing into the void once more.
"Shepard, you need to wake up. Mechs are attacking the facility, there's a pistol in a locker at the corner of the room." said a female voice over the intercom.
Shepard grunted in pain, apparently his face was still fucked up from whatever surgeries they had put him through… wait, surgeries?
The last thing he remembered before getting woken up for the first time was desperately trying to hold the leaks in his hardsuit closed, the excruciating pain radiating through his entire body, and hoping to God almighty that Tali would live a good life in the Migrant Fleet and get past the grief of his death, that Garrus wouldn't turn into some sort of blood knight, that Wrex would cure the genophage and that Kaidan would get past Ashley's death on Virmire… so the question remained, what the fuck had happened?
He stumbled over to the locker and grabbed the gun sitting in it. Curiously, there also appeared to be a few cylindrical things sitting next to it, which he picked up.
"Shepard, that pistol, an M-3 Predator, uses thermal clips. Slam the metal cylinder into the spot for it on the top right of the frame. The Predator isn't super efficient so you'll only get about 12 shots to the clip." the voice rang out once again.
"Wait, but the thermal clip system wasn't supposed to be out on civilian markets for another six months, the Alliance Marines and the Salarian STG were just getting testing samples after Sovereign, since as much as the Council called bullshit on the Reapers being the threat that they are, the weapon manufacturers saw the way the wind was blowing… how fucking long have I been out?" Shepard wondered.
He walked out of the room, only to be found by two LOKI mechs almost instantly. Something on his left hand crackled, and he instinctively shot it forward. Blue energy shot from his fingertips and crushed the mechs into spare parts in the space of about half a second.
"Wait, when the fuck did I become a biotic? Am I even really Shepard? What the hell is happening?"
Eventually, venturing through the facility, he came across a dark skinned man in a black and white uniform, crouching behind a bulletproof glass barrier while mechs shot at him from across some sort of ravine.
"Shepard? Damn, things must be bad if Miranda's got you walking around. Tell you what, help me kill these mechs and I'll tell you everything you want to know. Name's Jacob by the way."
"Alright, but you will tell me everything."
"Hm, I've established that I'm a biotic, now I wonder if I can change what happens with my biotics…"
Shepard felt the crackling energy at his fingertips and aimed it at the mechs again, but instead of crushing them, they rose into the air like marionette puppets. Within about a second and a half, he had blasted them into pieces with the pistol in his other hand.
"Damn, so the rumors about you really were true, eh? Right, I'll tell you anything you want to know, right now." said Jacob.
"First thing's first, what the fuck happened? Last thing I remember before getting woken up for the first time is getting spaced, and all of the sudden I was there in a hospital room with a gun that used a reloading system that wasn't supposed to be out on civilian markets for another six months after I had gotten spaced, you've got some weird ass symbol on your uniform and we're under attack by LOKI mechs. What the fuck kind of civilian operation has money for LOKI mechs?"
"Right, so you uh… died. I didn't see the body, but from what I hear you were nothing but a pile of meat and tubes. Two years and four billion credits later, and you're back to life."
"Two years and four billion credits? Who the fuck do you work for?"
"Please, for the love of god, hear me out before you decide to shoot me if I do tell you."
"I'll hear you out, don't worry. No promises on me not shooting you afterwards though."
"So, I work for Cerberus, this is part of the Lazarus Project cell. I don't know much about why or how, but for whatever reason, the Illusive Man wanted you alive and was willing to pour enough to buy several armies into you."
Shepard had his gun under Jacob's chin in a flash.
"You better have a god damn good reason for me to work with Cerberus. I've seen what you fuckers have done."
"I won't deny that Cerberus has done some terrible shit, but after Sovereign, the Alliance and the Council refused to believe in the Reaper threat. Can you believe they're claiming it was nothing but a geth attack? The geth, who haven't been seen outside of the Perseus Veil for three centuries, suddenly attacking organics for no discernible reason? Bullshit. There's obviously more to it than that, which Cerberus sees."
Shepard slowly lowered the pistol.
"I'll work with you. For now."
"That's the best I'll ever get."
Suddenly, another voice rang out over the intercom.
"Jacob, you gotta help me, I'm trying to shut off the mechs, but they're surrounding m-" *BANG* the sound of a gunshot rang through. "Oh god, they've shot me! I'm through the door from your position, up the stairs in the room on the right!"
"Shit, Wilson's hit. Shepard, we'd better go."
"I'll take point."
They moved up the stairs, dispatching mechs along the way. As they walked in, Shepard noticed Wilson sitting upright on the ground with blood pooling around him.
"Shepard. Didn't think you'd still be ali- never mind. I need this bullet wound in my leg fixed, the medi-gel's over the-damn this hurts."
Shepard was suspicious, looking at the wound. The man had pretty clearly shot himself; the entrance wound was on his inner thigh and the exit was presumably on the other side. That being said, he did need to get out of wherever he was before he was overrun by mechs, so he grabbed the medi-gel capsule and applied some onto the man's leg.
"Wait… why the hell did you have access to the security clearances? You're bioscience, aren't you?" asked Jacob.
Wilson looked panicked for a second before recovering.
"Something's obviously off with Wilson. I suspect he may have been the one that released the mechs, though he does seem willing to help us, now at least. I'm going to blast his brains out if he tries anything though."
"Shepard, take point. I'll blow up those crates and we can get the hell out of here."
"We have to search for Miranda. There's no way she's dead, a couple of mechs wouldn't drop her."
"You kidding?" asked Wilson. "No way she's alive, her location was swarming with mechs."
"Wilson, this whole goddamn facility is swarming with mechs. I agree with Jacob, we find Miranda before we get out."
"...Fine." Wilson conceded with a hint of bitterness in his tone.
Wilson tapped a command into his omni-tool, overloading the electrical mechanisms of the crates and causing them to explode.
They quickly went through the facility, though there was no sign of Miranda, alive or dead.
As they opened the door to the elevator leading to the shuttle bay, they saw a dark haired woman, with a pistol in one hand and the blue glow of biotics in the other.
"Miranda? But you were-" started Wilson, but he was abruptly cut off when Miranda pointed her gun directly at his forehead, pulling the trigger.
His body dropped to the ground with a soft "thump".
"Dead?" asked Miranda sarcastically. "Come on Shepard, we have a lot to talk about."
"Shouldn't we search through the facility for survivors?" asked Shepard.
"Hell no, even if there are any, we have about three clips between all of us. The likelihood of anybody still being alive is slim at best."
"I don't like it, but I get your point. Let's go."