Resection
"Go Long!" Simon yelled and then threw the football,
Cassandra jumped up and caught it, then laughed as her twin felled her. It was so peaceful here, she had been reunited with her brother and her father, although she had been concerned for her mother, but this...this was ultimate peace.
She wished she could have told Ashley about it, that there was an afterlife but, it was nothing like they had been ever been taught. She had seen other souls here, free of the burdens of their lives, soldiers who had died at the Citadel, reunited with their loved ones, or waiting for their loved ones. Time had no meaning here.
There was no war, no violence, just a place of harmony.
"You wont be staying here Cass" Simon suddenly said, taking the ball from her and tossing it towards a group of marines, to look at him, you wouldn't believe that he had been mauled by a Thresher Maw.
"What? What are you on about?" Cassie scowled "Where else am I supposed to go?"
"You're going back"
"Am I hell" She playfully punched his shoulder "You're just winding me up Simon Shepard"
Her father waved and joined them "I will always love you Cassie" He said and kissed her cheek. "I will always be with you, always"
"Dad, you been sniffing the oxygen again?"
She looked at her hands as they started to fade.
"Goodbye my little hellion" he sadly said.
"Dad? Simon..."
"Take care sis, be the best that you can be"
Cassie began to struggle, she didn't want to leave this place, she had done enough, she had done all that was asked of her and now...why did she feel so...faint...She lay back and felt her fathers hand in hers.
"Its time Hellion..." he whispered and kissed her forehead...
"Shepard your scars haven't healed but I need you to get off that bed now"
Cassie almost fell off the bed, her mind fogged and disorientated, she felt like she had been torn from one place to another. She pulled herself up and found a pistol, where the woman said it would be. No ammo though, the sound of explosions and screams echoed around her.
She stopped for a moment to clear her head. She ached, her mind was fogged, one moment she was with her father and her brother and the next...where was she exactly? There was no death where she had been, someone had ripped her from the only true peace she had known in her life, since she was a child.
She gritted her teeth and did as she was guided, she didn't want to think ordered, but guided seemed to be a better word for it. There were answers and by the gods of war she would have them.
She sat in the shuttle waiting to take her to the Cerberus base. She was quiet but deep inside she was seething. She had been taken and brought back to life, rebuilt by the same people who had murdered her brother and his unit, not to mention Admiral Khohuku. The same people that thought making Rachni warriors and Thorian soldiers was a good thing, and the same people who had left her and her unit subject to a Thresher Maw attack, just for the sheer joy of watching how the Maws Acid worked.
Her memories had been coming back quicker than she hoped they would. It was taking all of her immense willpower to keep her temper in check, how dare they? How dare they take what was left of her body and rebuild her.
She not only felt indignation but violated on every level that was humanly possible. She had made her way through the station. Eventually the woman who was now sitting across from her had shut up, she had met up with Jacob Taylor, the man now sitting across from her and next to Miranda, when he had told her that it was Cerberus they worked for she had put him on his arse and almost pounded him to smitheries. It was only the fact he did not resist that stopped her, even now he showed the results of her assault, but she made no apologies for it.
And he asked for none.
"I need to check your memories Commander" Miranda spoke and even though Jacob protested that this was neither the time nor the place, she got her own way "You were raised on numerous space stations and ships as a child, your father died during the reclaiming of Shansxi and you along with Corporal Andreas Toombs were the soul survivors of a Thresher Maw attack"
"Yeah, a Cerberus experiment as I was later to discover, I got away alive...poor Andreas was...tortured"
"That had nothing to do with us Commander I assure you"
"Of course not Lawson" Cass sarcastically said "It was a rogue unit, I did not fall off the last Banana boat. I know how black ops work"
"On Virmire, you had to make a decision about your team, for the good of the mission"
"Alenko decided to act on his own, I was not about to let his actions jeopardise the fact that Saren had a genetically created hoard of unstable Krogan. I sent my team to help Williams and I went back for Alenko, where he is now I couldn't say, I removed him from my ship"
"Gunnery Chief Williams is now Chief Williams, and Lieutenant Alenko is now Commander Alenko although where they both are we cannot say." Miranda explained. Cassie thought her heart might skip a beat at the mention of Ashley's name, but all she felt was a sense of relief that the Williams curse might already be broken. She hoped so, Ash deserved better.
As for Alenko, well she still simmered at his apparent lack of respect for the mission and his team-mates. Although a part of her did wonder if he was doing something more suited, to his talents.
"No one was questioning those actions Commander, we all knew that the base had to be destroyed. Cerberus was happy that our first human Spectre did what she had to do"
"Sure Taylor" She quipped "Cerberus would have killed all the personnel and then taken the base for themselves to discover what they might be able to use" Taylor went to protest but she rose her hand to stall it "Anything else?"
"When Sovereign and the Geth attacked the Citadel, it was your decision that ultimately made humanity heroes" Miranda looked at her.
"if I had left the council to die, we would have been vilified and those that say Humans are out for themselves would have been justified. The council needs to keep galactic stability and I chose Anderson to be our representative, I found Udina ready to do whatever ass licking he needed to do to be on top. I would have preferred someone else as I know David Anderson, but I was not about to put Udina in charge and that was that"
"Yes Captain Anderson is now Councillor Anderson, although he is not completely happy with the way things are" Miranda sighed.
"I am not surprised" Cass reluctantly agreed.
"Come on Miri, no more questions huh? The Commanders memories are all there and I saw her in action myself." He rubbed his jaw "and if anything she's stronger than ever"
"Fair enough, just have to see if the Illusive Man is satisfied"
"He will be and Commander it will be an honour to work with you"
Shepard didn't say anything, she turned her attention to the window and watched the stars zip by, she was not the same, she never would be the same again, and when she found out the truth, and not Cerberus's truth either, then she might start feeling herself again.
