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Mass Effect 2: Lanius

Begin Lazarus Recording

Two years, three months, and six days after the Reaper Sovereign is killed, Commander Shepard wakes up in a medical bay.

"I think the Commander is waking up," a voice says redundantly.

Bright lights blind Shepard, who stirs. Mercifully something blocks the light, and eyes long closed squint open.

"Shepard?" a voice asks, clearer than the last. "Can you hear me? Are you alright?"

Commander Shepard's eyes see a blurry figure, and then a hint of blue as pupils adjust to the light. There is a pretty, feminine face leaning over the Commander.

"Liara?" a raspy voice asks. "Is that you?"

Something wet drops on Shepard's face, and the eyesight finally clears.

"You're crying," Shepard realizes in a dazed tone. "Are you hurt?"

And with that, Liara T'soni sobs over a corpse that is no longer a corpse. "No, no I'm not. No I'm not," she keeps repeating.

Liara is led away by a strange person in a cloak, and Shepard is walked out of the medbay by two different figures. The first is a human woman, Japanese, with a hood hiding much of her face. The other is a scientist Salarian, the only person who in view who does not treat their identity as something to be hidden. As they walk down the halls, a number of cloaked figures stand by and watch them pass, taking in the sight of Commander Shepard alive.

"Poor girl," the human, Kasumi, is saying. "You have no idea how worried she was over you."

"Last I remember, she was on an escape pod and I was being thrown into space with a leaking space suit," Shepard offers. "I didn't expect to survive either."

"Technically, didn't," the Salarian, Mordin, offers. "You expired."

Commander Shepard doesn't stop in the middle of a hallway and nonchalantly says, "I feel pretty alive now."

Mordin shrugs. "Such things happen. Capability for revival after clinical death when proper conditions are met is amazing. Didn't believe it possible myself until I was called in."

Shepard blinks. "So… I was dead for a few minutes? Hours? And then someone came by and revived me?"

"Two years, actually," Kasumi spoils.

Commander Shepard does stop in the middle of a hallway. "You're joking."

Mordin shakes his head. "No comedy. Reviving you was the work of years. Entirely disproportionate amounts of credits, billions, for one person. You."

Somehow, Shepard believes him. "Who paid for this, then?" Shepard asks. "Who wants me alive that much?"

"The Shadow Broker," Kasumi answers. "If you want to ask any other questions, ask him yourself, inside. He's waiting to talk to you."

"You aren't what I expected the Shadow Broker to be," Shepard says.

"I am not the Broker. I am of an insignificant species known as the Yahg," the not-Broker answers. "I represent the Shadow Broker network, and the Broker to the most powerful of outsiders. I am the… public face, you might say. I speak with the full authority of the Broker and this network. For all intents and purposes, however, you may call me the Broker. What was it like to be dead, Commander?"

"When I decide, I'll be sure to tell you," Shepard responds. The… Yahg… seems to find this amusing.

"A good answer: honest, but not definitive. To keep the truth hidden is trait we respect: we'll find out another time. I understand you will have questions, Commander. Feel free to ask. I will not lie, but understand I make no promise to answer them."

"Why is the Broker interested in me? From what I understand, you could have built a dreadnaught for the price it took to bring me back."

"A dreadnaught would be useless to us," the Broker answers. "We value secrets and understanding, and you, Commander, represent both. You possess both the entirety of the vision of the Prothean Beacons and the Cipher: both would be priceless in their own right. Your resurrection was simply a significant cost."

"What is the Broker network? All the cloaks make you seem like a cult as much as anything else."

"That would not be too inaccurate," the Broker answers. "The Shadow Broker network is an understanding, and a brotherhood of sorts. We value secrets: not only secrets kept, but the discovery and trading of secrets as well. To others, that makes us a spy network. To ourselves, our highest orders find greater meaning in the act of discovery itself. We find no greater honor in discovering long-kept secrets. The greater and better kept the secret, the greater the honor. It… motivates us."

"Why was Liara here? She never had interest in spying before."

"Doctor T'soni has joined us as a specialist. As a Prothean expert, she possesses understanding and the ability to discover secrets that many of our order find too mundane to pursue. She is valuable to us, providing us with expertise we lacked. In exchange for her services, she required that we promise to bring you back. A foolish demand: promises are easy to give, but not the same thing as results. Luckily, we already had need for you to live again, in the face of what you and we know."

"And what do you and I know?"

"The Reapers, Commander. They exist. They are coming. And since your death, they have begun targeting Human colonies."

"Human colonies? How do you know?"

"Besides the empty cities where tens of thousands of humans once lived? There are secrets, hidden in the chaos of the Terminus. Human populations have been reaped, harvested, and yet it has only started after your race's victory against Sovereign. We wish to discover why. The Broker Network is as interested in the galaxy's survival as any force."

"What about the Council? Why aren't they doing anything?"

"Why else? Politics. Priorities. Fears of the Terminus systems, where these colonies reside. The Council is still rebuilding from the Geth War, Commander, and still has the threat of the Perseus Veil to consider. Though the Geth threat has diminished, the war still continues. It is… convenient to blame these abductions on slavers, pirates, even if the evidence indicates otherwise. There are few signs of battle, not nearly enough, but the Council simply has larger concerns, even as it prepares for the Reapers on the pretext of facing the Geth."

"And the Alliance?"

(Paragon Council)

"The Acturus fleet that saved the Council was devastated, and the rest of the Alliance military remains committed against the Geth and to the Council fleets. The Alliance simply has no forces to extend security to the Terminus Colonies as well, even if the independent human colonies were inclined to accept such offers. Many of the Terminus colonists left the Alliance after the Alliance joined the Council, leaving in protest of what they see as Alliance capitulation to the Council's interests."

(Renegade Council)

"The Alliance is consumed in maintaining and strengthening its grip on the galaxy, Commander, even as it faces the Geth beyond the Veil. This is a critical moment in regards to the Terminus Systems, far too fragile to send the Citadel Fleets into the Terminus frontier, even if the human colonies there were inclined to accept any such aid. Many of the Terminus colonists left the Alliance after Humanity seized control of the Council, leaving in protest of what they see as Human imperialism of which they want no part."

"I can understand your confusion, Commander, but two years have passed. Galactic politics have changed."

"I haven't. I won't give up on Human colonies, or forget about the Reapers."

"We expected nothing less. With your past experiences with the Reapers, with their interest in you, you will still remain the key to deciphering this mystery. Go to Freedom's Progress, Commander: it is the latest colony to cease communications. Take Doctor Solus and Kasumi Gotto with you: they have been hired to support you for as long as you require. Neither is loyal to our network personally. Go, find what evidence you can before official investigators can, and return with what you can. If you wish to continue working with us, we will talk more: if you wish to leave, we will consider your debt settled with the Cypher we have already extracted from you."

End Lazarus Recording

Author Notes:

This is the latest, if not last, project to be presented. An AU of ME2 that, while written out, has been sitting around for who knows how long. The biggest reason is that it isn't smoothly organized. That means it will be a bit... unconventional. You may like it. You may not. You will, I expect, remember it for being outside the norm.

That first chapter? The one you weren't qualified to see? You don't get to see it until the second playthrough. Readthrough. Whatever. It won't be the only scene you're barred from seeing for awhile yet because, well, spoilers.

So the first big cornerstone of the AU of ME2. The group behind the Lazarus Project is not Cerberus, but the Shadow Broker... primarily for the purpose of getting both the Cipher and Prothean Beacon out of the Commander's head. The rest of Shepard's body just came along with it.

The Lanius-Shadow Broker network is not the nigh-omniscient criminal state of canon. Distantly descended from the League of One, it has evolved and gradually turned into a psuedo-religious cult: espionage and the discovery of secrets for their own sake, rather than for a mundane goal like wealth. Given the high prestige placed on important secrets, but the relative insignificance of data mining and 'mundane' methods and discoveries, the Broker network is reknowned for its ability to ferret out big secrets... but far less capable at brute-force, low-level intelligence.