This is a Post ME3 Fanfiction where most of Shepard and her friends have survived, consider this the end result of a Paragade with a non aneurysm inducing ending.
I took ideas or themes from:
- Violet Eyes
- Blue: Cerulean
So check those out, because I think they are awsome.
~ I don't own mass effect, Bioware and EA does ~
Location : Unknown
Date : Unknown
Calm blue water flowed around and through her, slowly pulsing and swaying, with but a thought the water receaded and a beach materialised in its place.
Shepard smiled and walked up next to her lost friends, Mordin was examining a sea shell next to Legion, and she could see Thane was meditating not to far away, his Wife sitting next to him.
She spotted Kaiden talking with his father, his mother watching the sea next to him.
Peace radiated from both within her and her surroundings.
David Anderson walked up next to her and watched the sea move with her.
He sighed, "you don't belong here Zaire."
She felt the world, her world, shift slightly.
She turned to ask what he meant, but he spoke again.
"Light Blue still needs you."
The world around them pulsed red and purple, causing Zaire to take a step back.
The world pulsed again, she could hear muffled yelling from somewhere.
Slowly the pulses began picking up speed, until all she could see was black and Blue.
24.01.0005 PRW
Earth
England
Private Medical Hospital
1600 Earth time
Zaire Shepard groaned as she woke, someone was yelling and it was giving her a headache. She slowly opened her eyes and turned to the location of said noise, a doctor of some degree was arguing with an Alliance Officer, and was clearly not happy with what was being said.
"Hey" was all she managed before she fell into a coffing fit, her throat was incredibly to dry. Both the doctor and the officer were to far away from her and too engrossed in their argument to realise she was awake.
After a few moments she tried again to get their attention "Hey, shut up will you, some of us are trying to sleep!"
'That's better' she thought, as the yelling stopped and silence ensued. Shepard smiled and let her head hit the pillow again, the sound of shoes hitting floor made her open her eyes again and she watched in amusement as the doctor looked at the monitors in disbelief.
"Eyes get any wider Doc and they will fall out of your head" she joked at his disbelief.
Though inside she sighed in acceptance, she had obviously been out again, and she desperately hoped it was less than 2 years.
The Alliance Officer who the doctor had been arguing with cleared his throat noisely, but when the doctor ignored him he simply stated. "We will continue this conversation after I consult with the Admirality board."
Then promptly walking out the room, the doctor turned to Zaire and quietly said "be careful Commander, the Alliance has changed while you were gone." Before going back to his charts.
1 Week later
Vancouver
Shepard looked out at the skyline from the Kodiak, and privately she wondered how long it took to simply remove the Reaper carcasses from where they had obviously fallen.
She wished Anderson could have seen it, he had been so proud of the resistance, they were slowly putting Earth back together again, after fighting for it for so long.
What worried her however, was Admiral Hackett's status: missing and presumed dead.
Hackett had been rumoured to be next for Fleet Master, and was responsible for the Crucible being built in the first place, the fact that he was reported missing and dead was troubling.
What really set her on edge was the Alliance Admirality board: they were lying to her.
According to the Alliance, her Crew had stayed around as long as possible, but commitments else where had drawn them away.
Liara had apparently gone back to Thessia to help rebuild, but Shepard knew Liara, and that she had left to help 'rebuild Thessia' was in her opinion, as likely as the Earth self-destructing.
She figured that the Alliance was keeping her Crew away, and she was worried about their rather obvious attempt at isolation.
The Kodiak landed on the roof of the Alliance HQ and she was escorted inside. The HQ was decidedly simplistic, bullet proof glass allowed light in and white washed walls separated rooms. The only colour was the standard Alliance Blue stripe and the holographic interfaces scattered around the walls.
Assistants, Office workers and Officers moved around with a sense of urgency, while security teams stood by doors and tried to look both reassuring and menacing at the same time.
Shepard walked past them all, escorted by the two stone faced guards in full armour from the Kodiak. They hadn't said a word to her since they had gotten on the shuttle, and it was getting rather irritating.
Walking up to a door marked as 'Private Conference', Shepard sighed and hit the door control. The door slid open smoothly and she walked in, mentally cataloging hidden turret inplacements, hidden doors and useable weapons and cover. By the time she had sat down, she had come up with 3 different options to escape with the current level of offensive weaponry pointed at her.
As she sat holographic projectors kicked in and 2 men and 1 woman in Alliance standard uniforms appeared, all three had Admiral ranks. Shepard only recognized Admiral Holt, as he was, according to Shadow Broker files, been a Cerberus supporter.
Finally a fourth appeared, this person she also recognized. As she stood up and saluted Shepard analysed the faces of the three Admirals.
And Mikhailovich, who had apparently been appointed as Fleet Master of the Alliance Navy.
Outwardly Shepard was the epitome of a perfect officer, straight backed and blank face, inside however she was fitting pieces together, something was going on behind the scenes, something big.
Her and Mikhailovich both disagreed with multiple ideals and methods:
She was pro-Alien where he was (apparently) Terra Firma.
She believed that constant patrols of the outer colonies was necessary, he believed that the old system of waiting for attacks before attacking back.
She believed that ships like the Normandy were tactically brilliant, he thought they were efficiently costly.
He had never faced ground combat, she practically lived in it.
Overall they were opposites in the worst possible way, and he was the one calling for her to be imprisoned back in Vancouver, claiming she was indoctrinated by Cerberus.
Her friends, most alien or pro-Alien had been denied access to her or sent on assignments.
She had heard through the doctors that the Alliance was preparing to cut life support before she woke and that somehow her implants had changed and were behaving oddly.
With the knowledge that Mikhailovich was in charge of the Alliance Navy she deduced that he had made some sort of power play with the Admirality board and was now trying to gain access to the Cybernetics and Implants in her body.
Keeping everyone away and having people with similar ideals in charge with him meant that few important people could object on moral grounds, and they could always say that one of the doctor was indoctrinated.
All this was deduced before she finished saluting and sitting back down.
"Commander, it's good to see you up and walking" said Mikhailovich, though his tone and stance stated otherwise.
"May I introduce you to Admirals Dunham, Salvia and Holt." He continued gesturing to each in turn. No doubt all three were part of the power play he had made to gain control of the Navy.
"Admirals" Shepard nodded in false respect.
"We will keep this quick and to the point, Commander, we all have things we could be doing right now" started Admiral Holt.
"Shepard, I assume you have been briefed on the general progress that has been made, and current affairs?" Asked Mikhailovich.
"Yes sir"
"Good, then that saves us all time then, Shepard, at some point between you getting to the Citadel and us finding you a week later in the rubble on Earth, your Cybernetics were tampered with." He continued.
"As far as we can tell ... they are reaper in origin" as he spoke Holographic displays lit up around her 'desk'.
The Holo's showed pictures of her Cerberus cybernetics through out her body to her left, a few seconds later and comparison data appeared on her right.
Shepard took a few seconds to look before paling, the Cerberus cybernetics and implants were mostly boxy and white washed with orange highlights, however, what she had now was definitely some sort of reaper technology. The smooth curves with an organic shape and black colouring was a dead giveaway, she also absent mindedly noted the more compact size.
"Commander, as hard as this may be to understand, until we can clarify that you are not indoctrinated, you will remain here, where doctors can test the cybernetics for indoctrinating effects."
Shepard however wasn't listening, facts, assumptions and possibilities were being sorted and plans of action were being formed. She couldn't stay with the Alliance, Mikhailovich would see her on a lab table for years, she couldn't go to council space due to the cybernetics, but she did have one friendly place to go.
With that decided she stood up and crossed the room, ignoring Mikhailovich's orders to sit back down, reaching the door she drew back a fist and punched the control panel, the door whined at her before shorting out.
The hidden turrets in sealing revealed themselves and turned to fire, however, before they could Shepard ripped the bullet proof panel off the wall, and used it as a shield as she hot wired the door.
As Shepard back out the now open door, Stone Face one and two were standing outside and reaching for their weapons, she never gave them the chance, with speed she didn't know she had, her fist whipped out with bioticaly increased mass and crunched into the faceplate of Stone Face one, decking him instantly.
Stone Face two began back up but Shepard hooked a foot around her ankle and pulled, sending the guard to the ground, before she could move, Shepard had gotten on top of her and pulled her helmet off, bashing her into unconsciousness with it.
Quickly stripping guard number two of her radio, heat sinks, rifle and Omni-Tool, she set out at a sprint, heading for the stairs. If she could get to the shuttle depot and steal a Kodiak, she could probably be in space before they could ID which one she had taken ... hopefully.
That plan quickly lost its appeal as the emergency alarm went off and a PA system called for security teams, the entire base was going into lock down as a 'prisoner had escaped'.
Deciding that a moving target is harder to pin down than a still one, Shepard started running.
Coming up on a T junction she heard heavy boots hitting the floor from both right and left, she ducked into a door marked as Staff Only and kept moving.
Two drones flew into view at the end of the maintenance hallway, not slowing down Shepard lifted her stolen rifle and pulled the trigger, the hyper accelerated grains of metal hit one of the drones dead center, and as it crashed into the ground, the other one turned towards her, and was promptly smashed into the wall with a mass increased fist.
Shepard was never more glad for her unusually placed Eezo nodes, as increasing and decreasing her mass without a amp was always an advantage.
Shepard quickly realised that she had to move, as the drones will have reported their last position, as Zaire moved forward again she thought about the security of the perimeter, from what she saw on the way in it mainly consisted of drones, cameras and fences.
She also remembered the damaged areas to the north of the base she had seen as they passed over them in the Kodiak. She could easily get lost in there for a few days.
Making up her mind she continued towards the stairs, absent mindedly however, she noted that she could remember the bases floor plan from the signs dotted around the hallways. Filing that thought away for later she moved towards the door that would lead to the main elevator.
Upon opening the door however, she walked right out in front of 4 security Officers guarding the stair well. Time seemed to slow down for her, as she brought her rifle up towards them, two of them were shouting at her to put the gun down, while the other two moved to lined up clear firing lines.
They had barely move before Shepard made her decision, lightening her mass as much as possible she hopped onto the wall and fired 2 rounds into the knee of the most left Soldier, as he fell she switched aim to the right most Soldier who had her rifle raised to fire, knee capping the two guards with rifles left the 2 with pistols.
They however hadn't the chance to draw them before Shepard was on top of them, swinging the rifle like a baseball bat, Zaire hit the officer closest to her with it before letting go, and using his falling body as a step to jump up and kick the remaining officer, knocking her out.
Spinning round Shepard grabbed the two pistols and tucked them into her trousers, retrieved her rifle and bolted for the stairs.
From her stolen radio she got from Stone Face two, she heard someone state that she was most likely headed for the roof and that he needed backup, realising she would have to be quick she once again lowered her mass and started taking 3 steps at a time. Getting to the top she burst out the door and was quickly spotted by the lone Officer, who managed a yelp and radio a quick "help" before she knocked him out with her rifle.
Doing a full 360 degree spin she quickly orientated herself and started moving towards the nearest edge, as she started moving however, an Alliance marine squad bursts up onto the roof behind her. Spinning around to face the threat Shepard lifted the stolen rifle and fired, putting a stream of rounds into the chest of the closest marine, the rounds didn't penetrate due to his Kinetic barrier but it did force the team into cover.
Walking backwards at a steady pace she continued to fire the rifle in bursts, the marines returned the favor but we're hampered by Shepard's good aim and reaction time.
Rolling backwards over a air vent and taking cover Zaire reloaded the rifle, unfortunately the marines took advantage of the pause to lay proper covering fire and to move up. Shepard, keeping to cover, moved along the vent towards the edge of the building, blind firing the rifle over her head. Coming to a stop at the end of the vent and just 8 feet from the edge of the building, Zaire took a deep breath, exhaled, and fired the last of the rifles clip towards the marines, who ducked at the sudden return fire.
Dropping the rifle Shepard strode the final 5 feet to the buildings edge and jumped.
Air flew past her face as she fell 170 floors before slowing her descent using her biotics, hitting the ground running she kept her mass low as bound towards the perimeter fence.
By this time the marines had reached the edge of the building and began shooting down at her, while drones were called in to follow her.
Taking one more stride Shepard jumped the fence and sprinted for the buildings of Vancouver, drones following her like a pack of wolves.
10 hours later
The petrol followed the drones as they swept over the rubble and narrow pathways.
Private Mcdraw sighed and looked to their squad leader. "Is it just me, or was the Major looking nervous at the briefing?"
"The IR was being questioned and somehow got loose, knocked out her guards, ran over half the base shooting people, before jumping off the roof of HQ and escaping into the City, I think it's safe to say this woman is dangerous." Replied Lance Corporal Shaw.
"I'm more confused about who the fuck she is" Added Private Adder
"Some political woman with friends in high places, they probably don't want her name on the news" stated LC Shaw.
They turned the corner and Shaw spotted a woman matching their IR's description (Pale face, green eyes, black hair and around 1.6m) wearing a trench coat.
Turning to their drone operator he nodded towards the ally she had taken, their drone operator, private Davis nodded back and begain typing into his Omni-Tool.
Their drones followed their orders and pursued the woman down the alleyway, but promptly went offline.
Private Adder started moving towards the alleyway, backed up by the rest of the team, reaching the edge of the ally he took a quick breath before spinning to face the dark path, weapon sliding from left to right. Nothing. It was a dead end, which ment their drones were gone as well.
"Now, where did you go?" He muttered to himself.
Having swept the alleyway, he turned his attention to the walls around them.
"Hey, LC, didn't you say the IR could use her Biotics?" He asked, pointing at the window two stories up.
Shaw grimaced, that building would be a CQB nightmare, making a decision he turned to Mcdraw and Davis.
"Davis, give Mcdraw a boost, I'll do the same for you, Adder."
Without hesitating they got to work, boosting two of their number up to the second story blown out window. Before Adder could get a grip on the ledge however, a foot lashed out and knocked him backwards, sending him crashing back down to the ground.
Mcdraw had enough time to grab his pistol, but it was batted out of his hands before he could aim it, two hands reached out and grabbed the collars of his armour and lifted him up.
LC Shaw couldn't believe his eyes, Mcdraw was wearing Standard Alliance Heavy Armour, the woman holding him up was holding three times her own weight easily.
The woman sighed, "I honestly don't know what the Alliance's idea was, teams of four Alliance Marines against an N7 Veteran in urban combat" she stated calmly.
"Mikhailovich must be off his nut to think they can catch me" she added before casually letting go of Mcdraw, sending him crashing at Shaws feet.
Turning to face Shaw she added one final statement "Tell the Admirality board that if they wish to dissect me, then I would recommend N7 teams or spectres" she laughed, "I've been both".
Taking a step back, the woman disappeared into the darkness, freaked out and thoroughly confused Shaw pulled McDraw to his feet and ordered a hasty retreat.
His helmet camera had caught it all.
thank you for reading, this is one of my longest chapters [checks the word count] ... huh, I could have sworn it was longer.
If you like this length then let me know and I will keep them this way, if you preferred the 1,000 to 2,000 word chapters of V.B I will do that instead.
Please note that short chapters are updated more quickly than longer ones.
Anyway with that out of the way, once more thank you for reading this.
~ JunkMail