It took something like two hours of speaking to the older lady, Dr. Chakwas. She'd asked a lot of questions about my past, and I essentially told her my life story. She asked about a lot of world-wide events that had occurred within my lifetime, and periodically checked a glowing orange device on her wrist to see if I was correct. I always was.

"Commander Shepard, I just gave our guest a psych evaluation. Could you come in here?" she implored at the thing - she'd called it an omni-tool.

A few minutes later, Beard Guy came in.

"How is she?"

"It's the weirdest thing, Commander," the doctor shook her head. "She isn't crazy. She is in perfect mental health, but she is convinced she came from 2013. She even knows everything she should about that time period. It's like she time-traveled."

"Time-travel is impossible," Beard Guy replied flatly.

"Obviously. It's just... How else could she be totally sane, but still think she's from 200 years ago?"

Beard Guy - Shepard - stared at me intensely.

"Are you a spy?"

"If I were a spy, wouldn't I tell you no anyway?" I replied warily.

He shrugged at Dr. Chakwas.

"Good enough for me."

"Shepard, how are we going to deal with her? This is a war ship. If she thinks she came from 200 years ago, that means she thinks everyone she knew is dead. As far as she knows, she has no home. We can't just drop her off somewhere and let someone else deal with her."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" he huffed. "We're trying to fight the Collectors. Don't you think dropping her anywhere is a greater kindness than forcing her to risk her life every day while we save the galaxy?"

Chakwas' face lit up. "I have an idea - what if we put up fliers with her picture on the Citadel and on the Extranet? That way if someone is trying to find her, they'll be able to get in contact with us. While we wait for that to happen, we can help her find a job and get herself an apartment on the Citadel, get some sort of psychologist to deal with whatever's going on in that head of hers."

Shepard frowned. "That still seems like a lot pf work to do. We all need to focus on the mission right now. Good of the many, remember? Maybe she doesn't find her family again, but at least she won't be abducted by the Collectors."

"I'm not leaving this poor thing on a strange planet. She has no idea what life is like, nor has she seen the other races of the galaxy. She needs guidance, and maybe you won't give it to her, but I will."

She put her arm around me protectively. I liked her. She was nicer than Beard Guy.

"We probably should have asked sooner, but given the circumstances... well, you were there. What's your name?"

"Iliana Thornton."

They both stared at me before exchanging a worried look.

"Definitely a spy," Shepard muttered.

"What? Even my name is wrong?" I grew irritated.

"I'll pull up an Extranet article for her to read," Chakwas murmured, clicking away at the omni-tool again. "That would be easier than trying to explain... oh, wow. That's..."

She looked up at me, then down at the omni-tool screen again.

"Shepard, look at this picture."

He peered at it. "What the hell - how can that be?"

"What's so fascinating?" I demanded.

Chakwas turned her arm so I could see the screen. The woman in the picture was in her mid-forties, a blank expression on her all-too-familiar face. Mom?

No, Mom had brown eyes. The woman in the picture had blue eyes like mine. Just exactly like mine. My body went cold.

"Is that supposed to be me?"

"I don't know what any of this is supposed to be," Chakwas sighed. "You look exactly like her. What year were you born in?"

"1994."

She clicked on her omni-tool again. "Yep, same birth year. But how... 200 years later, how could Iliana Thornton possibly be here?"

A brief silence. They were thoughtful, but I was totally lost.

"Cerberus," Shepard whispered suddenly.

She stared at him, mouth open. "Yes."

"They brought back Iliana Thornton."

"Oh my god, I can't believe it's really her."

I coughed awkwardly. "I have no idea what you guys are talking about."

"You... You are famous. You are the scientist who discovered Prothean technology on Earth and decoded them to vastly improve space flight technology for humans."

Chakwas sounded awed, but this really didn't help to explain much to me.

"But how did she end up in a geth base?" Shepard mused, frowning in concentration.

"It doesn't make any sense," Chakwas shook her head. "So they didn't say anything to you about her?"

Shepard grimaced. He almost looked guilty.

"When is the last time you checked your Extranet messages?" Chakwas asked suspiciously.

"Two weeks ago," he mumbled, turning heel and walking out, not unlike a scolded child.

"Oh, you have no idea how exciting this will be for everyone," Chakwas trilled to me. "They'll have so many questions to ask you about your work!"

"Uh, I don't even... Seriously, I work in a cell phone booth in the mall."

"But that was in your younger life. Later on, you discovered a Prothean ship that had crashed on Earth over 50,000 years ago. You examined it and extracted the drive core, and used it to give humans technology that would allow them to reach faster than light speeds. That's how they found the mass relays, which then introduced us to the other sentient species of the galaxy. You are the reason we are all here right now."

I stared at her blankly. This was starting to make sense, but at the same time, there was no way she could be right about any of that.

"What are mass relays and Prothean ships?"

"The Protheans are a dead race who were very technologically advanced, but died suddenly due to a galactic purge caused by an ancient race of sentient machines called the Reapers. Mass relays are structures built by the Protheans that create tunnels of virtually mass-free space, allowing ships to travel thousands of light-years in mere seconds."

This was all too much for me, but I tried to follow the strange logic anyway.

"Right. So, if I've already done all this stuff, how is it that I don't remember it?"

"Well, we can't be positive yet, but when Commander Shepard died two years ago, a corporation called Cerberus healed his body and reanimated him with lots of cybernetics - sorry, mechanical body parts. They brought him back from the dead, and gave him all his old memories and personality. We think that's sort of what they did to you."

"You think some company dug up the corpse of someone famous, brought it back to life, gave it some memories, and that resulting experiment is me?"

"Well, more or less."

"Then why don't I have memories of making these discoveries you said I did?"

She sat at her desk pensively. "I'm not sure. It doesn't make sense for them to equip you with memories of your childhood, but leave out the stuff that changed the course of history for the human race."

The door slid open and in walked Alien Guy.

"Chakwas, I think the new human sprained one of my mandibles. Can you have a look and see - oh, hi."

This time, after all the talk about other sentient species, I really looked at him. A real alien. He was covered in spikes, and beneath his armor was a skin that looked like a second armor. He looked dangerous, almost a bit frightening, and I'd gone and tugged on his face. We stood in awkward silence for a minute before we were interrupted by Chakwas' smirk.

"That fast, Garrus? The poor girl didn't even know where she was. I didn't realize you had a thing for humans."

Wait, was she actually implying - ?

"No!" the alien she'd called Garrus choked out. "Nothing like that! I didn't do anything to her."

"Yet you're sporting a sprained mandible?"

"She ah - seemed out of sorts. Walked over and - uh -"

"Sorry I messed up your face," I murmured, heat flooding my cheeks. I felt like such an idiot. My first contact with another sentient race, and I'd made a valiant effort to mutilate his face.

Chakwas roared with laughter. "Alright, it's none of my business what you two want to do. Garrus, take a seat. I want to look over her cybernetics and make sure everything's normal. Oh - I almost forgot. Allow me to re-introduce you to Iliana Thornton."

His eyes ran over me briefly, and for some reason this chilled me.

"Isn't that some sort of famous human?"

Chakwas nodded. Her eyes were lit up. "She's the one responsible for getting humans out of the Sol System. We think Cerberus dug her up and did to her what they did to Shepard. The only weird part is that she doesn't have memories of all the important work she did."

"Odd." He walked over to me and extended a - hand? Claw? - in what had to be an invitation for a handshake. I grasped the three digits and shook, feeling the rough texture of his skin on mine. The talons at the ends of his fingers looked dangerous, but he held them carefully away from my flesh. "Iliana Thornton, my name is Garrus Vakarian. Welcome to the Normandy, even if the sentiment is a bit belated."

He released my hand and sat on one of the cots as the doctor ushered me to do the same, poking and prodding at my limbs.

"Mhm, as I expected, you're almost entirely composed of cybernetics. Reinforced skeleton, skin weave, biotic amp, and I can only imagine what sort of upgrades they've done up here." She tapped my forehead lightly. "Your organs must be transplants, but I'm sure those are enhanced also considering the effort they've gone through with the rest of you. Looks like everything is functional, but I'd like to keep monitoring you for a few weeks to make sure."

She turned to Garrus, casting a wicked grin at the two of us.

"Now, let's get that mandible back to normal so the two of you can pick up where you left off."

Our mutual cries of protest were cut off by her evil laughter.


(A/N): So now you probably know it's not a SI, just an OC, despite the first-person narrative. What do you think so far? I'd love to hear some feedback. I'll be posting a poll on my profile asking what character, if any, should Iliana become romantically involved with.

Footnote: PM me if you have a suggestion for a romance with a different character and I might add it to the poll. NO, I will not add Blasto or the Elcor ambassador.

Elcor ambassador - "With great disappointment: Why doesn't anyone love me?"