Shepard slowly felt the world coming into focus again.
"Containment field engaged," A smooth, mechanical voice states, "Subject has been released and physical assessments are now prepped and ready."
Where am I again? Shepard groaned and slowly tried to get up. Gone were the wires stuck in her head, and she was no longer limited by that capsule that they stuck her in. She was lying down on cold metallic flooring, with numerous bright lights focused onto her. Pushing herself up, her eyes quickly adjusted to her surroundings. Looking down, her heart skipped a beat.
Ridges? Spikes? Gone was her usual pale smooth skin. In its place was hard carapace plating, gleaming in the dim lights that illuminated her body. Her hands, tipped with three talons, were a foreign sight to her. She flexed her figures experimentally, noting how it feels as if her five fingers have been split into three. God, she felt like a monstrosity. Everything felt out of place, parts stuck out more than she's used to. Hell, was she taller? Her leg spurs stuck uncomfortably against the hard floor, so she slowly propped herself up onto her side. Running her hands along her hands and touching the ends of her fringe, Shepard tried to get a feel of what she looked like. There were no reflective surfaces that she could see, as the dull metal that surrounded her was glowing an eerie blue.
A containment field.
So it wasn't a dream, she grimaced, flaring her mandibles in annoyance. She was still in the Cerberus lab, and that hostile exchange with that arrogant scientist was real. That, and she's no longer human. That thought earned a dark chuckle, Commander Shepard, paragon of the human race, now a Turian. Wait till the council sees her like this. Hell, wait till her crew sees her. What are they going to say? What will Garrus say? Will he still love her?
Shepard's thoughts were quickly cut short by the familiar voice of Nostromos Gale.
"Welcome back, Commander Shepard. Apologies that we didn't have much time to discuss our situation more, but as you can see, we have to carry on in our experiments." Shepard looked around, eyes scanning the walls for the source of the voice. Of course. Speakers and cameras.
"Over this past week we've been extremely busy. But of course, to have you the way you are now, we needed you inactive. Now's the time to see if our experimental results are true breakthroughs."
A pause. Shepard didn't say anything. Studying the room, she realized the only ways out were through airlocked hatches, no doubt protected by numerous security protocols. She was completely naked, her omnitools and weapons absent. She wasn't going anywhere soon. At least she still had biotics...
"We'll have to check your physical condition, Shepard. Those cyberkinetic implants left over from the Lazarus Project helped in the reshaping of your identity, but we're not sure if, ah, their biotic functions are up to par in the body of a Turian. Just to be sure, we've deactivated them." A chill went down her spine as she heard the cold chuckle.
Never before had she felt this helpless, save for the time on Mindoir, so many years ago.
The Batarian raids... Shepard felt like a little girl again, helpless in the horizon of impending doom. The sense of dread has came back, and a lump was felt in her throat. Sudden whirring noises erupted in a cacophonous as sirens went off in the room. At a steady rate, the glowing blue containment fields closed in on her, stifling her movements and sealing her joints.
"Begin protocol stress test," a voice chimed. Unable to move, Shepard braced herself for what was going to come. Blinding hot pain seared across her body, making her scream in agony. Her flanging curses revertabrated uselessly against the steel walls.
And then, as quickly as the pain came, it disappeared. Shepard gasped for air, her body still unable to move.
"That's it, Doc?" She spat, "Of all my years serving in the alliance military, I've been shot at, burned, electrocuted, so if you think that crap fazes me, bring it." A resonating growl started to emanate from her chest again.
Suddenly, a hologram flickered up before her, very much like the one she's seen the illusive man and Hackett appear in. Nostromos.
The man glanced around Shepard's body, nodding and mumbling to himself, apparently unfazed by Shepard's defiant attitude. "Don't be so prude commander, that was just some simple protocol tests." Tapping some notes on his omnitool, he tapped the glowing orange tool thoughtfully. "Turian plating seems to be holding. Very much like the controls..."
The doctor cocked his head and looked into Shepard's eyes. His blue eyes flickered. "I must say though, you're quite the fine specimen. I actually have no idea why the Illusive man even wants to keep you alive, hell, if it was up to me I'd be sending you into the nearest red star I could find," he made a quick poof sound, hands quickly flexing out in an imitation of an explosion, "nonetheless, he insisted on keeping you alive... with some adjustments of course."
Shepard maintained eye contact, determined to memorize every line of this cocky bastard's face. She was going to kill him, then the chain smoking bastard that brought her back to this world.
"So the Illusive man thinks I'm just his toy, huh? Subject to his sick experiments? What the hell is he even trying to accomplish?"
"Ah, if only you knew," Gale sighed, "Personally I wanted to have you as an ugly Batarian," he laughed, "Imagine how much shit you'll have to go through with all the humans once you're released! But alas, Turian it is. The First Contact Wars hits a more sour string than random Batarian raiders." The doctor continued to walk around her immobilized body, leaning in and out while typing notes onto his omnitool.
Shepard mustered a Turian frown, "You're not planning on killing me aren't you?" She whispered, "You want me to be thrown back into the galaxy, helpless and vulnerable."
She never got an answer, save for a haunting grin from the bearded doctor. His hologram flickered and disappeared, leaving her once again alone in the room, a display of an experiment's sickening result.
"Begin protocol stress test two."
-oooooooo-
"Major, we'll need to set up here for optimal interference." Kaiden and Vega turned and looked at EDI, who was busy scanning the horizon with her visor.
"EDI we're no where near the base, let's go!" Kaiden was nervous. There was no clue whether their plan was going work or not, save for the unshackled AI's initial calculations. EDI shook her head and set down the miniature beacon she was carrying.
"To have optimal deconstructive waves, this device needs to be placed at least this far from the initial force. According to my calculations if we get any closer the waves would actually overlap and amplify rather than negate."
Vega glanced at Kaiden, "I'd listen to the bot, major. She's the one that can do math."
Kaiden nodded, "Alright EDI, get that thing set up and let us know when we can move on. Remember the plan, get in and look for Shepard. Try to be discreet as long as you can-" Vega snorted, earning a look from Kaiden, "-we just want Shepard, not a hundred mechs on our asses. We're lucky their securities have loosened a bit, so let's make this quick."
"Let's hope Lola's still in there," Vega sighed, "and still in one piece."
-oooooooo-
Shepard was rudely awoken in a pool of her own blood. Blue blood. Her body was wracked with dull pain and her face was flat against the floor, one side smeared with the blood leaking from her nose and mouth. Using her new tongue, she ran it across her jagged teeth to find the wound.
Nothing.
Most likely it was internal bleeding. Mustering her strength, she sat up awkwardly, pain shooting up in dull waves as she assessed her situation. Gone was the blue field that held her in place, and all that was left was the eerily sterile metal walls that held her in.
"Must've passed out," she mumbled to herself, still trying to get used to her voice. Standing up was a chore, and she teetered around like a drunk trying to get a feel of her balance before collapsing into the wall. Coughing, she realized something was amiss. She finally noticed the faint sounds of redundant alarms blaring off in the facility.
An emergency? Another experiment gone wrong? Or perhaps...
A shrill feminine voice cut through her confusion, "Sir, there's been a breach in all of our security systems! Majority of all level protections have been overridden by a single program!"
Shepard couldn't help but grin, Confusion and chaos. Looks like luck's on my side.
"Keep her in there! Whatever you do, DO NOT leave her unattended!"
Nostromos Gale's voice cut through the air in a panicked tone, "What the HELL is going on here?"
"Containment fields across all facilities have been disabled. Whoever's attacking our systems sure as hell know what they're doing."
Shepard could hear the doctor cursing through the speakers, "The Illusive Man's not going to like this. What the hell happened to our sonic system securities?"
"Bypassed. The intruders seemed to have gotten through the sound fields unharmed and managed to infiltrate in through the western side." It was a man, this time. Shepard could see it already, Cerberus scientists scrambling wildly as Dr. Gale tried to desperately gain a foothold on the situation. Gotta be my crew, she told herself. She knew they would come back for her. However, getting them to accept her new face was a different matter.
Limping her way to the airlock doors, she tried pressing her talons against the button. To her surprise, it easily gave, and with a hiss, the doors opened.
She was met with a dozen stares, with Nostromos in the back of the room gaping at her, rage flickering in his eyes. Time stood still as their eyes met. Shepard felt heat build up in her. This man... this cocky asshole was going to pay.
"GET HER!" Immediately, bodies flew at the hobbling Turian, tackling her down before she could even make a move. Hissing, she swiped at anything in her way, using her newly gained spikes to do as much damage as possible. Crimson blood splashed as her talons contacted flesh, earning plenty of screaming and agony filled assaults onto her body. Fighting tooth and nail, Shepard tried to get out of the huddled mess she was stuck under, clawing desperately to get out. The pain she felt earlier was doubled as fists made contact with her softer areas that weren't covered by her plates. However, she quickly felt a cool prick as a syringe was plunged into her neck and ejected its contents.
Crap. Fighting to keep her eyes open, Shepard weakly tried to do as much damage as she could, biting and gouging the bodies that overwhelmed her. Voices dulled and she saw Gale head out the door shouting orders at various staff members.
"Get her into the cargo bay! Transfer her out of this facility as soon as possible. I'll take care of Subject Gemini!"
Subject Gemini? What... her eyelids felt heavy and before she once again fell into a drug induced slumber, she wished Garrus would be there, holding her close and dragging her out of this hellhole.
-oooooooo-
"So much for discretion, eh Major?" Vega yelled over the din of a firefight. Poking out of cover, he quickly landed two shots on an advancing soldier, "and there goes another!"
Kaiden gave a dry laugh, "Well, at least we got EDI to take over the mainframe and override all the security systems! Speaking of which, how's the search going EDI?"
The AI was crouched behind two crates, eyes moving frantically over the data that was pouring in to the front of her. Her fingers were flying over the keyboard at the nearby desk terminal, frantically typing in commands. "Major, you've asked the exact same thing exactly five minutes and thirty eight seconds ago," Kaiden could swear he heard a tinge of annoyance in her voice, "and as I have said before, I need more time downloading their files and bypassing their encryption."
A sudden ping made Kaiden look over to EDI, followed by a satisfied "Ah," from her synthetic body.
"Got something EDI? Because they keep coming in! We need to move!" James quickly bit down on the pins of two grenades and launched it over into a group of Engineers setting up a turret, "Get down!"
A large explosion followed, leaving bodies in fragments as the smoke settled.
"According to their records, they're keeping Shepard in the containment are of the basement labs. I suggest we move there with haste."
"You heard her Major, let's haul ass! Wastin' daylight here!"
Kaiden was about to retaliate at James's outburst, but quickly closed his mouth and nodded.
-oooooooo-
Voices. Creeping closer to the door, Vega signaled to both EDI and Kaiden to quickly get into position. Peering in through the window, they spotted a group of Cerberus agents huddled over a stasis pod, prepping it for whatever they were going to do with it.
"What's the ETA on the transport to the cargo bay?"
"About 10 minutes. Going to be one annoying trip to drag this bitch all the way there."
"Well, and order's and order. Looks like whatever's happening here spooked the doc from staying here. Hurry up and get the pod's security system locked up!"
Kaiden frowned. Whoever they had in that pod wasn't going to be here long.
EDI signaled the two for their attention, "Shepard should be in here!"
"Alright. Ready? We've got the element of surprise. On my go..."
"3..."
Vega tightened his grip on his assault rifle.
"2..."
God, I hope it's her Kaiden silently thought to himself. Glancing over at EDI, he roared out the final count,
"ONE! GO!"
Rampaging through the door with biotics flaring, blue flames flew across the room, launching five soldiers flying through the air. Followed by skilled shots from Vega, the bodies slumped down, hitting the floor and leaving a blood smear across the wall that they hit. Quickly clearing the room, the three checked the adjacent rooms searching for any signs of their commander.
"Yo, Major, check out the monitors here! Looks like they were conducting some sick torture experiments or something!"
Kaiden and EDI walked up to Vega, who was fiddling with the main control panel and scanning through numerous experiment data and vids.
"Allow me, James," EDI said calmly as she gently steered Vega aside and started a data download.
Kaiden walked back towards the stasis pod and bent down, engaging its lock system to try to open it. With no success, he looked back up to EDI was still preoccupied with the control panel. "EDI, can you crack this pod open afterwards? Whoever or whatever they've got in here seems to be worth placing under level ten security functions."
"Think it's Lola?" Vega wondered aloud hopefully, "It's gotta be right? EDI said she should be in here..." he glanced around and spotted the open airlock. "I'll check that room. We didn't clear there did we?"
"Already did, Vega. Glanced in, and no one's in there."
"Major, James."
Both men looked at EDI and noticed the confused look on her face. Quickly glancing at each other, they realized something must be up. AI's don't get confused easily.
"I've managed to decrypt the confidential files and have come to some puzzling data. Cerberus data logs state Commander Jane Shepard as present in this facility. In fact, security logs state that she was experimented on in this very lab we're in. However..."
Both Vega and Kaiden looked expectedly at EDI as she turned around with a look of bewilderment on her face.
"They seem to have mistaken and have her personal medical records mislabeled her species as a Turian."
"So? Simple mistake?"
EDI shook her head, "Simple consistency states that it was no mistake, Major. There are only two possible conclusions: One, this is not our Commander Shepard that we're looking for, or two, they've... altered her."
Both alliance soldiers stared at the AI. EDI, unfazed, continued, "Logically, I highly doubt that the first scenario is the probable case. I regret to inform you that Shepard has most likely been experimented on and may not be the same being you've came to know. I wish to delve further into their files, but we seem to be short on time. Cerberus infantry is closing in on our location and decrypting the remaining files would take longer time. I've taken the liberty to copy the files over onto my systems so I can review them later. In the mean time..." she walked over to the stasis pod and peered at the lock system.
With a couple of taps on the holo keyboard, the sealed container snapped open. All three crewmembers looked down at what was presented before them.
"Shit. Lola? No way."
Kaiden was at a loss of words, jaw slackened at what he saw.
Dear God, Shepard is that you?
"Major, I believe this is supposed to be Commander Shepard, post Cerberus experimentation."