A/N: Hi, everyone. I'm back! Of course with a new story. This one is already finished and written for Mass Effect Big Bang 2012. :-)
Thanks to the wonderful Beta MiraiShirami. And Yanjari did a awesome artwork for it. I'll post the link somehow once I get it. :-D

Enjoy

We are Shepard

The first thing I remembered was the warmth of my womb. The vivid fluid had covered every part of my body but oxygen still filled my lungs.

The second thing I remembered was the cold of the world. The air had been dry and the light too bright. I was wrapped in a blanket but I was still freezing.

The third thing I remembered was his face. Then his voice. I didn't know who he was or what he was. But he smiled at me and I knew I loved him.

My name is Unit Seven and I am only one of many.

Day One

01: Perseverance

Terminus System, 2190 CE.

Perseverance was a ship new to her era. Before her, the galaxy was dominated by a single ship, which was called the Normandy. But now, at the beginning of a new decade and under the spell of a legend, it was time for the Perseverance and her sisters to conquer space and its stars.

Resting in her womb, an old soldier sighed as he gently traced his fingers over her blue surface. She felt the electrical touch of his skin and affection emerged from her core. She enjoyed his presence even though she knew that he hated her.

Perseverance, that was how she was known now; but once upon a time she was called a Reaper. Though the Reaper she had been had long perished, she still carried thoughts directed by her creators. Today, she was guided by a new master. A being once made of flesh and bones, a being that made her listen and watch.

So now, silently, Perseverance gathered what she knew about the human Major who stood frozen in her body. She could see his eyes upon her surface, sense the warmth of his skin and even hear his heartbeat. Though she was only a machine, all these still made her sad for she knew that she could never be close to him again.

It was the part of her master inside her that made her feel this way. It was something she couldn't understand and couldn't comprehend. It simply existed.

Four years ago, when her old master dominated her thoughts, humans were merely tools to be used. But today, with new perspectives stored in her core, she had started to see humans as valuable beings. Sometimes she wondered if this was what she was created for. But she had no control over her purpose.

Her body was handled by a human pilot named Adam Bell and her thoughts belonged to Shepard. She was a machine; a sum of Reaper tech and human innovation. She was only a shell, a tool, which loved a man who didn't love himself.

That was why when she focused her optics on the Major's face she saw nothing but emptiness in his eyes. For him, the world had become silent four years ago. When the last of her kind left Earth, cheers and cries had lost any meaning to him as the world he fought for vanished with the man he loved.

In that tiny moment as the Major had learned that the man who ensured the galaxy's future had become her master, Kaidan Alenko's future had died.

Though many said that from the ashes of burned worlds a new warrior had risen, Perseverance had seen too much to believe this human assumption to be correct. To her, he was just as hollow as she was.

She had recordings of an asari asking him once why he lost faith in life. His answer was something she couldn't understand. He said that without hope he wouldn't be disappointed. Yet hope and disappointment were concepts only her master could comprehend.

"Major." Perseverance's captain coughed slightly beside the man she was watching. "We are approaching our destination."

"Very well," the Major said with an instinctive twitch that was undetectable to human eyes. "Assemble my squad in the hanger bay, I'll brief them on route."

The Captain saluted and Perseverance changed camera‑angles to follow the Major as he headed to the elevator. Once inside, the Major let out a sigh and his hand trembled slightly. He once again placed his fingers over her body and she would have smiled if she could.

"I'm lost without you." His lips moved but little sound escaped his mouth. Perseverance heard.

Since her creation, the Major was the only one who had ever talked to her, though she couldn't be sure if he was really talking to her. She had never answered. Her master forbade this no matter how much she desired Kaidan. She wanted to tell him that he wasn't alone, that she was still watching and that he'd never be alone; but her task wasn't to comfort him. It was to transport him to another deck.

"I wish you hadn't left me." His words were hidden behind another sigh.

But I am still with you, Perseverance thought.

The Major couldn't hear her and his fingers left her body. The spot he touched still stored the heat of his human flesh and Perseverance wanted it never to leave. She would have kept him there in her elevator forever, making his scent fill the room and his warmth heat her floor. But she was only a machine and all she could do was open the doors and change camera‑angles.

His four teammates were already waiting. He stepped in front of them and they would have saluted him in near perfect synch if Corporal Johnson hadn't hesitated for a fraction of a second. The Major nodded. He stepped into the waiting shuttle and Perseverance started to miss the weight of his body on her surface. She could still sense him, but his image was lost to her.

As the shuttle took off, Perseverance thought about closing the hangar door to keep him close. She would, if she could. But instead, she switched to her outer cameras and tracked his drift into deep, black space.

She watched the Alliance shuttle grow smaller and smaller, and something happened that even Perseverance couldn't process. Data flashed through her processors and filled her core. For that fraction of a second, Perseverance was startled. But then, a message emerged from those strange numbers. It took her a long time to decrypt it and when it was done, she registered it as a command from her master, allowing her to follow the Major.

She activated her cyber‑warfare suite and within seconds she had gained control of the shuttle's sensors. As Kaidan's features filled her lenses and his voice reached her mics, her master demanded a report. So Perseverance watched and listened and let her master be part of it.

The Major's moves were empty and his words hollow. None of these actions were how her data‑core remembered them. The profile she possessed said something else about the Major; that he once was a man capable of emotion and passion. But today, the Major was cold.

Just like the space outside which suddenly lit up with a flash of fire.

Her outer sensor alarms cracked into life. She locked onto the incoming missile before it reached the shuttle's bulk. Her combat‑suite kicked in and she directed the shuttle into a dodge more accurate than any human pilot could have managed. She dodged a second missile while three of the four Alliance soldiers lost their hold on the handles. The Major remained standing.

He fought his way to the cockpit and activated the mic. She immediately ran simulations of what he might do or say while she readied the shuttle's cannons in case of returning fire.

"Rouge Base," he said with strength and authority in his voice. "Here speaks Spectre Kaidan Alenko of the Perseverance, cease fire! I repeat, cease fire!"

The chance of the rogue base responding with another missile was over 90 per cent, but Kaidan didn't even blink. Nothing in her simulations and her file on human behaviour told her what gave this soldier his confidence, and she watched with awe as she felt her master's urge to protect this man.

Contradictory to her calculations, the station ceased fire. The path was free for the Alliance shuttle and Kaidan didn't even look surprised. But Perseverance never had recorded a time where the Major showed human emotions in public.

As the shuttle approached the station, Perseverance registered her control failing. She wasn't as efficient as other models controlled by her master and she had no choice but to release her control and focus with her outer cameras.

She remembered the day when her master's thoughts had entered her mind and took control of her. On that day four years ago she had registered an anomaly which she interpreted as an emotion. Her master had been sad, devastated, heart‑broken, and above all she had felt the sensation of loss. Those emotions were translated into data in her core and she remembered those vivid numbers as if it had been yesterday.

Perseverance watched Kaidan fly away with the same feelings her master felt for this man inside of her. All her processors ran hot to increase the chance of him coming back alive.

It didn't matter that she was only a machine; she just couldn't lose him again.