Author's Note: Well I finished playing the Citadel and I loved it….but it has inspired me to do something. And well to take a break from Galaxy Fall since…well it inspired me to write a fan fiction about it. Since I believe that the clone was a bit familiar to how I play my Shepard and how a lot of different things computed. So I am writing this. Just a brief little fic before I get back to Galaxy Fall which I hope to get back to. But as always that does depend on what my fans think and what people reading it, the more people review, positive or negative, the more inclined I am going to be to finish the story…any story.
Description: Well since I did not want to spoil anything in the other description. I will here.
Commander Abigail Shepard runs into a clone of her while fighting through the Citadel and tracking down the person who is stealing her identity, and discovers that it is indeed the clone who has a megalomaniac plot to take her identity. This leads to a bitter chase and a final confrontation as Abigail must walk the moral line between good and evil, Paragon and Renegade, in order to defeat her clone, and give herself peace at being faced with someone who is so like her, and yet isn't.
She then has to deal with the consequences of her actions and come to grips with herself.
Features alternative dialog, action, and some retrospection from Abigail Shepard sprinkled throughout.
Agent Christian Sterling…as she was going by these days…looked over the sleeping form of her prize. The thing she dragged from the Illusive Man's grip when she had high tailed it out of his employ just two weeks prior.
And now it was the big day.
Not to toot her own horn too much but she considered what she had done to be rather impressive. She had first fled from the Illusive Man's grips, and then went to find a hiding place to make sure she was not going to be followed by any Cerberus goons. After that she had tentatively gone to find any material or supplies she needed to complete the resurrection, including the vital neural implants to make her brain function in a sentient manner. Though she did have a template to follow with the original Lazarus project…it was touch and go.
And now, just after a week, the big moment was finally here.
The agent tentatively hit the switch and the electrical device whirred next to her. Then folded her hands and waited for the show to begin.
The red head, the woman on the operating table below her began to stir. Christian thought she could have heard the slightest moan escape her lips. Her blue eyes slowly opened and she winced as if under a light, but Christian made sure to keep things dark.
The woman continued to gather her senses about her, continued to get used to the new thoughts rolling through her head. Continued to get used to the idea of having thoughts, memories flooding in.
Christian opened her mouth as if to speak, but closed it again.
What do I say to her? What can I say to her? Especially after all she has been through...and me…representing the organization that did this to her.
The stream of thoughts rattling around in the agent's head were ripped from her when the woman below her emitted a primal yell of fury and pain, rolling to the side of her bed and clutching her stomach, not from pain but the memory of pain.
Instinctually Sterling ran to her bed side and moved to check on her.
"Hold on, it's all right, there there." Christian said to the woman.
"My head!" She cried out, "All this pain…the memories…I was…created?...to provide parts?...in some sick experiment?...and YOU!"
Before the former Cerberus agent could react the woman leapt from the bed and wrapped her fingers around Christian's throat. She was lifted off the ground, if only by an inch or two.
Well that must be all those Lazarus implants I had to borrow, Christian's mind raced as it was already starting to her from the lack of oxygen.
"Please, I just want to help you!" Christian spluttered.
"And why should I believe you?" The voice snapped the voice she had heard on audio recordings but never had the pleasure of hearing in person.
"Because!" She coughed as the woman's fingers tightened on her neck, "I saved you, and you are here because of me! Awake!"
"But you belong to them you were there…you are a part of…Cerberus!"
"I left them, because of how they treated you!" She squealed, "Because I need you!"
The woman continued to squeeze for a few seconds before letting go, "You have your say…you need me?"
Christian grabbed at her neck, panting for a few minutes before answering the probing questions.
"Yes!" She spluttered as the woman took half a step towards her, "Cerberus…Shepard! They have abandoned the ideals they started out with. They have become enemies to the very things they swore to protect! To humanity! And only you can set things right!"
"Shepard!" The woman's eyes effectively bulged. "Where is she?"
"In jail," Sterling finally announced calming down, "she is in jail for conduct unbecoming, on Council War Crimes, the Alliance turned her in before the Council could get to her…they are protecting their idol."
"But Shepard…I want her." The woman said.
"In due time you have to…"
"Have to what?!" The Woman screamed.
"You have to learn how to be human, to become who you are, who humanity needs you to become. We need to train you too, in all the tactics and abilities, make sure everything is working." Christian continued to think, "And we need a plan we just can't take on Commander Shepard without one. I will work on the details."
The woman nodded then eyed Christian, "And what's your interest in all of this?"
"Shepard has become too important. She has become more important than the mission, the humanity. She has forgotten her duty, to humanity, to human lives. Once, she was fine, she massacred Batarians on Torfan, in revenge for their attack on Elysium. She became a symbol of what humanity could accomplish…and then she became a Spectre and ever since has been going out of her way to appease the Aliens. Even turning down endorsements by Terra Firma! Then she abandoned Earth, going instead to save the Alien home worlds of Palaven and Tuchanka and Rannoch. Saving alien lives, instead of saving human lives in the colonies, or fighting on Earth."
The woman…what do I call her? Christian wondered…stroked her chin in thought. "And just why is that important? I have my own reasons for rejecting Shepard, your Cerberus created me specifically to service her. But that doesn't mean I have to trust you either, humans, aliens, it's all the same to me."
"All the same to you?" Christian snorted sarcastically. "They are your species, they are you!"
"Yeah, but you are my species, and you used me, Cerberus is my species, and they used me to. Shepard is human and yet I was used as spare parts to keep her alive. Why should I trust any of you?"
"Because there are people out there who want to kill you for being human! Or treat you like a slave! And whatever Cerberus has done to you, which was wrong, it does not mean that there aren't worse people out there. The Asari and the Salarians, think they are so mighty, believing they can manipulate us, throwing us a bone now and then to keep us quiet! And the Turians! They fired on us and attempted to commit genocide for trying to activate a Mass Relay. Never mind the Batarians who has been after us from day one, thinking it is we who have wronged them. Killing humans, enslaving humans, and being despicable."
"Well…that does sound bad."
Christian spurted for a bit, "That sounds bad? Is that all you can really say? Humanity needs you to be the person you can be! To be the person that Shepard isn't because she failed. Getting too wrapped up in her own legend! Causing people to fall into the legend and abandon their duty, corrupting Cerberus itself! Humanity's sword and shield!"
"Look," The Woman snapped lightly, "you are right. But my main goal is to stop Shepard and have my revenge, to find my place instead of being a shadow. And to protect humanity I guess, but as long as I get at Shepard then I will join you."
"Welcome aboard." Christian held out her hand.
And Abigail Shepard took it and shook it.
