A/N: Ok so this is my first attempt to write a Mass Effect Fanfic. I've never done this before. I know that there are alot of others out there. But this has been playing around in my mind for a very long time and I just wanted to describe it in how my Commander Shepard see's, feels and experiences things. This is for Creative purposes only. I am having fun with it. I don't own bioware or any of their copy-write stuff.. I just play the games. And I am in-Love with the Mass Effect Universe.
I dont have a beta. If anyone would like to beta for me I'd greatly appriciate it. I would love critiscm. But do keep it appropriate please. Again this is my imaginings of Commander Shepards Journey in the Mass Effect 2 and hopefully now 3. it will be rated M for language and some sexual content.
I hope you all like it. Like I said.. This is my first attempt. I am no pro at this.. I am learning.
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"ow..." A weak voice sounded vaguely in her mind as she started to open her eyes. She raised her hands up to her face.. "uhnn" The sound rolled off her lips couldn't of been her.. was that her? "Wake up! Commander." The bed she was on felt awfully hard and then the bed shook.. or was it the place she was at.. Noise and explosions banged around in unknown areas around the room she was in.
Some unknown woman began yelling. "Shepard, do you hear me?" The place shook again. "Get out of that bed now - - this facility is under attack." Her eyes flickered fully open as she flexed her jaw and rubbed it with her hand, cringing in pain. Every fuckin' part of her body hurt.. "Shepard. Your scars aren't healed, but I need you to get moving. This facility is under attack." Who was that yelling at her.. It was decided. She was going to kill them.. Wait.. kill them.. wasn't that a bad thing? Who was Shepard...
She nervously shrugged off the thought as she sat up on the medical bed. Pain wracked her body and she groaned as she grasped her stomach with her right arm from pain. She looked up and from what she saw were ships fighting and shooting each other outside the rooms windows. "What the hell is going on?" she yelled. "There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!" ~was she talking to me?~ She got off the bed and hopped down again pain shattered through her body and she collapsed to the floor. She grabbed the side of the bed and looked around the room and no one was there..
Some one on some sort of PA system was yelling... at her? "Grab the pistol and the armor from the locker." Confusion broke across her face briefly as she forced her self to get up. Another wave of pain gushed through her body as the woman again said "You don't have time to wait around, Shepard! Grab your weapon and armor!" She saw a locker.. and hobbled over too it. She took out the armor. And put it on... it fit her... she tried to block the feeling that it was strangely familiar.
She took the pistol out and looked at it for a moment before she said "This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip." How did she know that.. "It's a med bay, We'll get you a clip from …. Damn it!" again the station shook. " Keep your head down, Shepard! Shield yourself from the blast!" Quickly, she ran over to the medical stations surrounded by a frame then the doors to the medical bay blasted open. She barely had time to cover her head as she hunched down. "Someone's hacking security trying to kill you. Look for a thermal clip for your weapon." ~Trying to kill me?! What the fuck?~
She walked out of the room looking around briefly before she bent down and picked up a thermal clip and clicked it into the chamber. She went into the next room and looked around.. "Looks like they set up a barricade to try holding off the mechs off." the voice said. She jumped over the barricade and hid behind a crate before some sort of mech began shooting at her. "Look out!" The annoying disembodied voice said to her.
~What the hell is going on?!~ just then a blue aura wrapped around her and a strange sensation tingled at the base of her neck and flared out of her body. A couple of bullets grazed her barrier and she ducked back down quickly noting that, hell, that must be a good thing. She stood up and started shooting at the mech, right for the head. The mech went down. "Keep moving. We need to get you to the shuttles." !again with the voice! Wait till I see her.. I am going to punch her!~
She got up from behind the crate and walked up the stairs and walked around the corner and went up another batch of stairs to another door. "Shepard! Security mechs are closing in on your position. Take cover!" She was starting to get annoyed now. She ran into the room and hid behind some more crates, as the door at the end of the room opened and two mechs came out and began shooting at her. "Don't take any chances. Stay in cover while you take out those mechs."
Again the blue barrier went up around her as she ducked down. Then she stood up and threw out her left arm and some sort of blue … weirdness enveloped her and flew out her arm and toward the mech on the right. Lifted it up into the air and then again more of the blue... stuff.. came out of her other arm and she threw the other one into the mech that she lifted a second ago.
She blinked in surprise as she watched the two mechs explode. The blue light around her dissipated and she shivered from the sensation. Then as she hunched back down behind the crate 4 more mechs came out from the door on the left. She leaned back again the crates and inhaled deeply as her blue barrier reformed around her and she repeated the same pattern before, only this time she flickered some sort of orange device on her left wrist and the last two mechs overloaded then exploded. "Nice work Shepard.
Coast is clear."
She was beginning to think this woman was watching her every move. What was this.. some sort of game and she was being tested? Why was the woman calling her Shepard? She walked up the stairs and turned and looked into the room on the left and ran in and grabbed a spare thermal clip. Then ran back to the other door and went out.
She couldn't believe what she was seeing.. A huge mech shooting at other people! ~so I'm not here alone.. I gotta help them..~ she ran towards the window and began beating it with the of her gun. "Don't waste time. I can't keep the mechs distracted for long." the woman said. " I cant just leave them to die!" she yelled at the disembodied woman. "You need to keep going." she grudgingly went down the hall and went into the room as the woman said " More reinforcements heading your way. Grab the grenade launcher off the security officer's body."
She bent down and picked it up.. Placing her pistol on her hip. "Here come the mechs. Use the grenade launcher to take them out." The raven-haired woman aimed at the 7 mechs on the lower level and fired the grenade launcher. The mechs went down with one shot. She wasn't prepared for the kickback from it and it almost knocked her off her feet. She quickly put the launcher on her back and took out her pistol again.. ~much safer~ she thought to her self. She looked down and saw that the launcher blew not only a hole in some sort of huge ass canister. But it was on fire as well. Jets of flame radiated outwards blocking the way the mechs were going to come in.
"Take the elevator down one floor." She wasn't really thinking she was just going to run through that was she? "How the hell am I supposed to get out of here.." She swallowed hard.. no response from the damn woman on the PA. Obviously the annoying bitch couldn't hear her. So she took a deep breath and made a mad dash for the exit. " You're doing.. - - Shepard. Head to the … - - meet you..." The raven-haired woman looked up to the ceiling.. not knowing why but she thought maybe she could see the face of the disembodied voice there. Trying to understand what it was she was saying through all the static.
She turned the corner and headed to the only visible door there was. "Shepard? - - read me? I've got... - - closing in … - - position?" More static followed and the link went dead. This wasn't good. The raven-haired woman thought to her self. She went through the next door. Opened the door across from the one she exited and shot two mechs that were on the floor. Ran in.. skimmed the money from the safe. And tilted her head to the side. She noticed a couple of desks with computer terminals on them.
She put her gun away for the moment and tapped the console and brought up the thing on her left arm and swiped it across the terminal. "Progress is slow, but subject shows signs of recovery." She stood back and listened to the voice. Now she had a face to go with the annoying woman who was yelling at her.. She put her hands behind her back and watched the rest of the video. "Major organs are again functional, and there are signs of rudimentary neurological activity." The raven-haired woman arched a slightly crooked brow that was almost slit in half from a bright angry scar as the image faded. "In an effort to accelerate the process, we've moved from simple organic reconstruction of the subject to bio-synthetic fusion. Initial results show promise." The raven-haired woman looked down at her hands as she almost stumbled back and thought.. ~She couldn't be talking about me... Could she?~
She backed up and took another deep breath and looked at the other desk and walked over to it and activated that terminal and listened as some man started talking. " Log update: The cost of this project is astronomical - - over four billion credits so far. But nobody seems to care that we've gone over budget." There was a brief pause and the woman shifted on her feet.. trying to lessen the pain she felt in them. She happened to see a bodily display of a holo.. "I don't know where the boss gets all his money... maybe it's better not to know... I just wish he'd kick a little more in my direction once in a while."
She tilted her head back to the terminal at this and made a mental note that who ever did this.. was either sick.. demented.. or desperate.. maybe all the above.. She exhaled the long breath she didn't even realize she was holding and rearmed her self with the pistol again. She left the room and went to the left and up some stairs again.
She saw another huge mech shooting at someone again. "Shepard! Help me!" the man turned and looked at her with fear in his eyes as she ran up to the window and started banging. The mech shot him with a missile and the man fell against the window with his eyes wide as if he couldn't believe it and he fell to the floor.. She looked up at the mech as it stopped for a moment then turned around and headed out the room behind the window. She rested her head against the window and whispered " I'm sorry..."
She swallowed back the tears that were starting to burn behind her eyelids as she took a few deep breaths in to gather her composure. Then she saw another terminal.. She stood back from the window and walked over to the terminal and activated it with the strange tool that was implanted in her left arm.. Growing accustomed to it. "Log update: I can't figure Miranda out." ~Shepard~ as she was getting used to the name the disembodied woman kept calling her. Guessed that this.. Miranda.. was the woman who was bitching at her over the PA. "As project director, she should be ecstatic at all the progress we've made. But she's still the same old ice queen."
Shepard arched her scarred eyebrow at this and tilted her head a bit to the side as if questioning the damn terminal. "Maybe' she's worried Shepard might become the new favorite? Or maybe she's just a pure, cold-hearted bitch." That last statement made a strange noise come out of Shepard's throat.. was that a snicker?! She shook her head and turned around to the next door and heard some man yell "gravity is one mean mother huh?"
She quickly backed against the wall and looked around the corner to see some guy in a black and white uniform fighting off a bunch of mechs across from him. She ran over to him and hunkered down behind the barricade next to him " Shepard.. ? What the hell?" She stood up and started using her strange blue powers to take down the rest of the mechs. Ok, in her mind. This completely confirmed it. She was Shepard. Everyone else said she was so she was going to play with it.
The black man hunched down behind the barricade and looked at her and said " What are you doing here..? I thought you were still a work in progress. Shepard arched her scarred brow and point blank asked him "Who the hell are you.. are you with that bitch that kept yelling at him over the PA? Whats her name.. Miranda?" He looked at her and inched back a bit and nodded to her. "yea... sorry.. I forgot this is all new to you right now." she let out a wry chuckle and said "no shit." He tilted his head to the side a bit and continued "I'm Jacob Taylor. I've been stationed here for - -" That was when the man raised up a bit to look across the railing and a hacked mech alerted its buddies "Hostiles detected!" and started shooting at him. He ducked back down and said "Damnit!" He then cocked his gun.. stood up and shot one of the other mechs head right off. "Things must be worse then I thought if Miranda's got you up and running around. I'll fill you in, but we better get you to the shuttle first."
She was getting sick and tired of this.. She had no fuckin clue where she was. Who she was. Or who these damn people were. So she was going to ask some damn questions. "I am fuckin sick of stumbling around when I dont know what's going on. You will answer me!" The black man looked shocked by this and looked over the side of the railing at the other mechs as they took more shots at them. He looked back at her "This isnt the time. But.. Fair enough.. I'll give you the quick version. You and your ship were attacked and destroyed. You were killed. Dead as dead can be when they brought you here." Her face went slack as the blood began to drop from her head into her stomach. "Our scientist spent the last two years putting you back together. You've been comatose, or worse, that whole time. Welcome back to your life."
She blinked.. words failing her... then she said "Did you say two years?" the reality of the situation.. began to sink in.. How could this happen to her.. What ship was he talking about. "The Alliance Officially declaired you killed in action. The whole galaxy thinks your dead. And if we dont get to those shuttles, they'll be right." She fell back against the railing as he said this to her. "Listen. I'll tell you what - - You help me finish off these mechs, and I'll play twenty questions with you all day." Her eyes narrowed at him when he said this.. "Is this some kind of fuckin joke?" He ignored her and said "we're low on thermal clips, but i'm a biotic. Just give the order when you want me to hit them with the good stuff." He stood up and his whole body turned blue like hers as his arm went out and one of the mechs went up in the air and started floating sideways to them. Then he shot it. ~Biotic huh...~ she thought vaguely.
She stood up and quickly dispersed two of them and said "use it now" he stood back up and used his biotic powers and lifted the other one up and she flew out her arm and crashed the last one into the one he had floating. After the fight he put his gun away and stood infront of her. "Ok, I promised i'd answer your questions. What do you want to know?"
She stood back a bit from him, still keeping her weapon in her hand as she took a moment to look him over. Noticing the strange black, white and gold emblem on his uniform. Her brows knitted together.. She felt like she should know what that emblem ment.. But all meaning.. Memories.. of anything.. failing her.
"You said they spent two years rebuilding me? Why.. What happened.. How bad were my injuries?" she defensively crossed one arm over the one hanging onto her gun at her side.. He looked her straight in the eyes and said "I'm no doctor, but it was bad, When I first saw you, you were nothing but meat and bones." he saw her cringe and her face went pale again as she lifted her chin up. "Anywhere else, they'd put you in a coffin. But Project Lazarus was different. Cutting Edge Technology." He realized he shouldn't of told her about the details so bluntly but there was no time to sugar coat it. Besides. He though that she could handle it, what with every thing else she endured.
She looked at him as if he was insane. "Project Lazarus. What can you tell me about it.. Were there other test subjects." she was beginning to think this team of scientist were crazy.. Were they bringing a bunch of people to do this? Why would they do this?. He shifted on to one foot and crossed his arms across his chest reguaring her " Project Lazarus only had one subject. The whole point was to bring you back. Just you. Even that was a challenge. Two years. All the top scientist. The best technology money could buy." She turned around and sat down on the bench behind them as he went on. Then asked. "Wait a minute. What do you mean? Cloning? Cybernetics? Am I a freakin copy of someone? An advanced AI?" She looked up at him.. "I don't know the details. You'd have to ask the scientists. But I'm -Pretty- sure your not a clone.. I think. They wanted to bring you back exactly as you were. You're still you..." he paused after a moment and then continued as she looked down at her hands "you just might have a few extra bits and pieces now."
She had to have time to process this. She stood up and looked at him again "You mentioned about my ship. My crew.. What happened to them... I'd like to know" for more reasons then she cared to clue him in at the moment.. maybe if she knew about -her- ship.. -her- crew. "Well, Almost everyone made it from the explosion. Only a few servicemen on the lower decks didnt get out. Navigator Pressly was killed by an explosion. You stayed behind to help get the pilot out. But everyone else, including the non-alliance crew - - The Asari, Liara, and the Quarian - - they all made it out alive. It's been two years though, Commander. They've moved on. Left the alliance. Could be anywhere." at his mention of the title Commander she took a slight step back. Her face quickly went blank.
She tilted her head and then said, "When I first woke up. There was someone yelling at me. Then we lost contact." She watched his reaction and saw that he knew who she was talking about "Miranda Lawson is the station's ranking officer. She led the Lazarus team. It was her job to bring you back to life no matter what." She nodded. As he continued. "Should of guessed she'd try to save you. She's not about to give up on you now." She watched as his face now belied some sort of apprehensive emotion crossed his features. "You said you lost contact - - could you tell what was happening?" he asked. "There was a lot of gunfire and an explosion before I lost her."
He looked down for a moment then looked to the side where the mechs had been a few minutes before, and said. "She knows how to take care of her self, but.." and then he turned his head back and looked at her. "I hope she's okay."
Shepard nodded and asked. "Whats the quickest way to those shuttles?" He looked at his left arm, and a similar device popped up on his arm as he said "Let me look on my omnitool. Hmm.. Depends on where the mechs are thickest. It's probably best if we - -" he was cut off by some one else.. sounded like the man she listened too on the other terminals. "Check. Check. Anyone on this frequency? Anybody still alive out there? Hello?"
"Wilson? This is Jacob. I'm here with commander Shepard. I just took out a wave of mechs over in D Wing." She noted the surprise in the other mans voice as he said "Shepard's alive? How the hell... never mind. You need to get her out of there. Get to the service tunnels and head to the network control room" Her eyes narrowed at this. She already didn't like this -Wilson- person. Jacob spoke up and said "Roger that, Wilson. Stay on this frequency."
She shifted her weight to her other foot as she asked "Wilson?" Jacob replied "He's the chief medical tech. He was there once when you almost woke up. He answers directly to Miranda. C'mon, the service tunnels are this way." She nodded him and moved ahead of him. She wasn't too worried about him since he just helped her take out a bunch of mechs, but she wanted to keep her eye on him so she had him move along side her.
As they entered the next room more mechs activated and Jacob yelled into his omnitool, "Damn it! Wilson! This room is crawling with mechs!" "The whole station is crawling with mechs. I'm doing the best I can!." Shepard tilted her head to the side as she took aim to shoot the mech by the door, wondering. ~If he's a medical tech.. why does he know about mech programming...~ Then shot the mech in the head as Jacob took out the other mech. "Oh, God! They found me! Help!" she heard this Wilson yell through Jacob's omnitool. "Wilson? Find us another route out of here. Preferably one that doesn't lead straight to an enemy squad." Jacob said to Wilson. "Just keep moving toward the control room. Don't get pinned down. I'll see what I can do." she heard him say again thru Jacob's omnitool.
Shepard and Jacob walked out the room and around the corner.. They went up more stairs and turned to the right and went into another room with another desk and computer terminal. She walked over to it and activated it. Another holo recording of Miranda giving a log popped up on the display. "Physical reconstruction of subject is complete, but we still need to evaluate all mental and neurological functions. Our orders were clear: Make Commander Shepard who she was before the explosion - - the same mind, the same morals, the same personality. If we alter her identity in any way, if she's somehow not the woman she used to be, the Lazarus Project will have failed. I refuse to let that happen." She turned around and looked at her new companion. "She was very dedicated to bringing you back." he said.. She move out to the next room.