I can always find you
Shepard is incarcerated by the Alliance and fed up with being trapped in a cage. This, and her usual nightmares haunting her, being the last straw.
A/N: Maybe a short summary about my Shepard:
- Spacer kid, Infiltrator and Biotic (this fact is being kept on the down low most of the time), long lineage of Military service in the Family
- She is said to have lived through Akuze, The Blitz and Torfan (The truth about Akuze not being mentioned here. If you are interested I'll write about it sometimes) I know it's much, but I thought the Blitz and Torfan fit so well together that I couldn't resist ^^ (Akuze is another story ;) )
- The first thing she did after waking up on the Cerberus station was find a console and send out a message to Admiral Anderson. Afterwards she joins Cerberus under false pretences, but can only receive indirect support from the Alliance. Kaidan is more reasonable and is sent by Admiral Anderson to join her on the mission to rescuing Dr. Kenson in "The Arrival"
Since I can't seem to write my Mass effect-version as a whole I compose short-stories in times when the muse has visited me again.
Mass effect of course belongs to Bioware. I just like to play and refine my English.
I hope you enjoy.
Seven months. Seven months she had to constantly struggle for a chance to get someone to listen to a word she said.
After everything she had done in the past, all the data and with it proof, she had collected, the lifes she had safed, constantly endangering her own and those of her crew members, risking to be found out by the Illusive Man. All of this just to result in her being incarcerated to wait for the Reapers to invade? Trapped in a golden cage that made a mockery out of it?
There had been worse cells than this, but nothing screamed more of betrayal than a comfortable prison. With the others you at least knew where you were at. This was such a lie. They had all the evidence they needed. She had even pulled the video footage of hers and Kaidan's Helmetcameras when they had been forced to destroy the whole Bahak-System. It all spoke in her favour and the whole reason she was not out there preparing troops and outfitting Dreadnoughts, was because of political power play and red tape. Someone didn't want her out there doing what she did best and it pissed her off to no end.
She had awoken from another nightmare that morning, covered in sweat, adrenalin rushing through her veins, a weight pressing down on her chest, that made it hard to breathe, leaving her panting as if she had been outrunning another Threser Maw. The walls of her "prisoncell" trying to smother her. It had been no specific scenario but a mixture of all of them, compiling every hard decision she ever had to make. Elysium, Torfan, Virmire, Horizon, every fear that had come with it, all the moments in which she had doubted the chance of succeeding, thrown together with the visions of the beacon. Faces of the dead flickering through her head, accusing her of failure.
Her mind still racing, eyes frantically searching the room for an escape route and not finding one, as she scrambled out of bed and started pacing the short distance in front of the barrier of tightly sealed windows spanning the eastern wall. She had to calm down, clear her mind as much as possible, because one thing was certain: She would find a way out of this room and past her guarddog of a soldier to have some time to herself beneath the sky and fresh air. The part of her brain that would usually rein in such utterly unresponsible behaviour, was reduced to an incoherent buzzing at the back of her mind by the animalistic instinct of flight.
After another minute filled with deep calculated intakes of sterilized air did she approach the little, but heavily secured console at the side of her door. The only electronic device they had granted her access to, after having a taste of her hacking abilities in the first days of her imprisonment. Back when she had still been in one of the darker, smaller holdingcells, down in the bowels of the Alliance Headquarters and before they had confiscated her Omni-tool. Rooms, only few knew even existed. It hadn't been a means to cause harm to the Alliance. She had simply forwarded strategies to Admiral Steven Hackett directly, bypassing the protective firewalls around the main servers. He had thanked her by taking away her only link to the outside world. His way of spiting her whim of childish rebellion. At least he thought he had, oblivious of certain visitors, whose clearance allowed them to keep their own device with them. Well, he tried.
Judging from her schedule she could be out and back in without anybody noticing.
The clock read 4:00am so she'd have two hours still to do her morning routine and shower before someone brought her breakfast. Sitting down on the edge of her bed, she again took several deep calming breaths, shaking off the last remainders of her nightmares and then got up to get to work.
The moment he turned the corner he knew something was amiss. It was not the foot traffic, leaving visible prints on the floor. It seemed to be the air. Thick with humidity from people carrying it inside in their clothes and hair. The slight scent of rain lingering despite the constant current created by the air conditioner. Yet it was missing something. He hadn't felt it, whenever he had passed through here before.
The realisation hit him just as the doors to her "cell" slid open presenting him with the gaping emptiness of her room. Emphasized by the grey light filtering in through the large windows, as the rain drummed against the glass in an incessant downpour.
His tone was calm but he was seething beneath the surface. "Corporal. Where the hell is she?" And where the hell was Lieutenant Vega? The young soldier beside him turned, irritation clear on his face, instantly replaced by horror as soon as he saw what the Major had meant.
"Holy shit..." He muttered under his breath before straightening visibly beneath the taller man's stern gaze, swallowing heavily before speaking up. "I'm afraid I have no idea Sir. All the scanners inside where indicating her presence last time I checked."
"And you didn't care to take another look inside since? Not once?!" He tried to keep his bristling anger under control. He was not upset with the soldiers mistake. It was her idiotic behaviour that made his blood boil. So unusual from his normally calm demeanour. How could she so foolishly risk the still unstable trust the Admiraltyboard had extended towards her, after reviewing the Exabytes of information she had pulled from Cerberus' servers, proving her involvement with them had been under false pretences, while she reported everything back to Admiral Hackett. That the Admiraltyboard was a bunch of blind selfish hypocrites who tried to use her as their scapegoat to hide their own incompetence and corrupt intentions was a problem they couldn't ignore and yet not the issue at the moment.
"Yes Sir I brought her breakfast at six and then took up my post." So she had still been there at the time. As far as he knew there were no air ducts worth mentioning that could fit a person, or windows that opened, which meant she could have only left through the door. Which had been locked. "Did she at any point have physical contact with you?" For a moment the younger man looked at him sceptically, surprised by his forward interrogation, but then it seemed to dawn on him. "Yes. I spilled some of her drink on myself and she helped me clean up my uniform. I couldn't believe it. She was so nice when we talked afterwards. Nothing like most people say."
Then suddenly his gaze went cold. Both men's eyes falling to his wrist. The soldier flexed his hand, but nothing happened. "She used me to unlock the door."
Kaidans brows knit together tightly. But she couldn't have opened the door without the Corporal noticing.
No she couldn't have! He thought himself to know Shepard as being one of the most resourceful Infiltrators out there. Her intelligence and detailed knowledge of everything technical being one of the reason why they had limited her access to electronic equipment to a minimum, especially after that little incident with Admiral Hacketts private messages. All of it kept quiet to other officials. Kaidan knew she had wanted to get caught, all for the sake of reminding a man she knew since childhood that she was only staying locked up because she needed to play along. "Everything else could lead to being court-martialled under detention of Evidence." Was what she had told him during one of his visits in which she had snatched his Omni-Tool -not without his protest- to check on some of her sources and contacts. The obedient soldier in him not quite able to believe this overly distrustful view of hers. And at the same time he understood where she got it from. Both parents being high ranking officers continuing a long lineage of Admirals created another angle to take into consideration. It was why she had refrained from picking an open fight with the militaristic system, out of pure foresight towards the looming threat of the Reapers.
Shepard, bluntly spoken, was nobody you wanted as your fully fledged enemy. Cerberus being the alone recipient of her commitment towards keeping her promises at the moment, ever since she had arrived in Vancouver. She had connections all over the Milky Way and if he hadn't come to know of Liara taking up the position as Shadow Broker he would have figured Shepard being one and the same.
Yet even she couldn't just put a Tactical Cloak onto any Tool, not in that short window of time and under the lack of fabric which was compatible to the optical camouflage. What am I doing here? I need to find her, not play detective.
"I'll report this at once." The soldier said already turning to leave, but Kaidan stopped him. "Find Admiral Anderson and tell him I'm taking care of it." The younger man looked at him in uncertainty and asked: "Will you require backup Sir?"
"No I can handle it. Just tell him it's under control and resume your post if you don't receive further orders." He'd have a private word with Lieutenant Vega, about leaving his specifically assigned post to a rather green Corporal, after their return. With a quick Salute did the Corporal turn and march away, while Kaidan locked the security door with a heavy sigh. "Damn it Serene!"
A/N: I'm sorry for the cliff-hanger, but the next part isn't finished and I honestly wanted to see if there are people out there who actually want to read more ;). So again I'm sorry and I hope to finish it soon.
Cheers!