Preamble: Thanks to everyone for being so patient. It's been quite a while since I put anything up. By way of explanation all I'll say is I had some personal problems which are being dealt with. Hopefully future updates won't take quite so long.

That out of the way...onto Chapter 2 of this fic. This opens right after the escape from the Project Lazarus facility and covers some of the interluding time (between missions) from there to Horizon. As you'll remember (or not) from ME2 and the Mass Effect Redemption comic Shepard was reconstructed by Cerberus over a two year period after her body was recovered by Liara.

No Liara in this one I'm afraid, it's all Naomi this time and a bit angsty as well. But I hope you enjoy it regardless. As ever it should fit comfortably around events that happen in game and not contradict anything drastically. And please do leave feedback. Thanks for reading.

Chapter Two: Resurrection

Naomi sat back in the shuttle moodily, glaring at the two Cerberus operatives opposite her. She didn't trust them at all but she had no choice but to put up with that. Given that they'd apparently brought her back from death itself in a two-year and evidently ruinously expensive project she knew she should be grateful but she kept thinking back to all that her and her team had found out about Cerberus previously. Their grotesque experiments and their callous disregard for life were anathema to her, not to mention their murder of Admiral Kahoku.

However Naomi was also curious. She'd killed a lot of Cerberus back then; so to put it mildly they'd hardly been on the best of terms. She despised them…and they had to know that. So the question was why? Why had they done so much to bring her back, in the full knowledge that she hated them?

She looked down at her hand. There was some scarring there, a few red lines. They worried her a little; she knew that she'd had to be woken up before being fully recovered and as such wasn't entirely in one piece. But at least she was alive…people did not normally come back like she had. Thinking back to before the first time she woke up on the operating table was painful. Naomi could remember the Normandy breaking up around her, she remembered helping Joker into the escape shuttle and the look on his face as she punched the button to seal and launch it. She remembered cold and pain. Naomi had struggled as air leaked from her suit through a rupture and she choked. Then there was nothing but a blank spot in her memory, she couldn't remember anything…although when she mentally poked at it there was a strange feeling of peace.

Then she had been dragged back into a painful and bright consciousness. A cold, hard bed underneath her in a clean, bright medical facility. Flashes of scenes and conversation, half-heard in her semi-consciousness before blacking out again. There was no concept of the passage of time to any of it. Some of the memories were accompanies by flashes of pain, other times a haze of delirium as drugs flooded her system.

The three of them appeared to be the only survivors from the station, nobody else had turned up at the shuttlebay. Naomi examined the pair of Cerberus personnel. The man, Jacob, seemed to be fairly straightforward; just muscle, security. It was written into everything he said and did. The woman Miranda was much more curious; clearly a capable fighter but not just a body with a gun. She was intelligent and hiding quite a lot but her voice and body language were completely inscrutable and Naomi couldn't get a read on any of it.

She sighed and stared out of the window. They were apparently heading for another Ceberus facility and they'd promised that she'd find out more when she got there, but Naomi was restless. Two years was a long time to be out of it and she wanted to know what had happened to everyone. No…that wasn't strictly true. She wanted to know what had happened to Liara more than anything. Where had she got to…and how would she react to the news that Naomi was alive? The answer to that she didn't know and was, in fact, quite afraid of…would she still feel the same after two years apart? What about the grieving period she would have gone through? Would she have moved on by now, perhaps?

Too many questions and no way to answer them. Naomi wanted to see Liara but knew the worst possible thing would be for her to go blundering in and say the wrong thing. It was going to be difficult and Naomi had hardly come to terms with what had happened herself yet. For now the smart move would be to stay away and try to work out what to do. To work out how she felt and how she was going to deal with Liara when they met.

Mind made up, but not altogether happy with her decision, Naomi leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. It was going to be a few hours before they arrived.

Naomi left the communications room slightly troubled. The meeting hadn't exactly been what she had expected. She'd wanted to take the opportunity to confront this enigmatic leader of Ceberus but things were very different, and much worse, than she had thought. Entire colonies with no trace, hundreds of thousands of people, how was that even possible? Especially with no proper response to it; surely the scale…even for random remote colonies…would have demanded someone look into it? She shook her head and wandered over to the equipment locker and started idly browsing the armour.

Nobody had though; nobody had the time to care about a few colonies in the ongoing aftermath of the attack on the Citadel. Pirates or slavers, she thought, what a joke. Someone should have noticed, should have cared. She balled her fist and punched the wall in frustration. It made her so angry, the only people who even seemed bothered were from Cerberus and working with them seemed distasteful in the extreme. She knew she had no choice, not if she wanted to try to get to the bottom of it all. Despite Naomi's reluctance if even part of what the Illusive Man had said, and if the Reapers were involved, she had to find out what was going on and put a stop to it. And the only people who seemed likely to offer her the help to do that were Cerberus; after all, they'd spent a fortune bringing her back.

Naomi sat down and pulled out her gun, playing with it as if checking it over. Trusting Cerberus was totally out of the question, she wasn't under any illusions that she was merely a tool to the Illusive Man. An expensive tool perhaps, one that he would want to look after until it could do it's job, but still a tool to be discarded if and when necessary.

She sighed at that thought, it wasn't a particularly pleasant one but it did at least offer some small consolation. So long as Cerberus needed her they would have to do what she told them to and would have to accommodate her demands and listen to her. That could prove useful if things started to get bad, she had the edge over them until this was all over. With a certain amount of reluctance she stood up and holstered the pistol again. After exchanging a few words with Miranda and Jacob she headed for the shuttle. Her concerns could wait, Freedom's Progress couldn't.

A team, Naomi thought to herself as she stood beside Joker looking at the docked ship. This job was far too big for just her by herself, based on the footage she had seen of people being taken on Freedom's Progress she'd need some backup. The Illusive Man was right…she'd need good people and, assuming he wasn't lying, they'd seemingly have to be a whole new group. It was disappointing but understandable; she had been dead for two years after all, her old team had moved onto new things as Tali on Freedom's Progress had demonstrated. They couldn't just drop everything to come with her, especially since she didn't exactly have much to go on yet.

Despite that she took no small sense of satisfaction at having got one over the Illusive Man; the Quarians forwarding their data like that had clearly surprised him more than he wanted to really admit and he'd changed the subject quickly. For a moment she wondered what Cerberus had done to the Quarians to make even basic cooperation such a shock before filing it away mentally under "find out later".

Naomi was also slightly angry. The fact that the Illusive Man had suspected the Collectors but not mentioned it was frustrating and was an ominous sign of how their relationship was going to go. She didn't trust him at all and if he was determined to play his cards so close to his chest then she never would be able to trust him. The man was dangerous and, more to the point, was putting her and others in danger as well; again, just a tool to be used for whatever purpose he thought necessary. Well she wasn't going to make it as easy as that for him. He wanted her to look into this and she would, but not for his sake. And it was going to be her mission, on her terms, with her rules and the people she would be recruiting would answer to her, not the Illusive Man.

She shifted her weight slightly. It looked a solid vessel, bigger than the Normandy SR-1 but not unwieldly and designed very much on the similar lines to her lost frigate. They'd need a good ship if they really did have to follow the Collector's through the Omega Relay. For a moment she wondered if Tali and the Quarians had been right with the way they had reacted to seeing Ceberus. What was she doing with these people? She should be getting the hell away from them not working with them, she'd shut down several of their operations two years previously. After a few moments Naomi dismissed those thoughts. Cerberus was the only one going after these disappearances. The Alliance was seemingly ignoring it, so were the Council. There was absolutely no way that she could rely on them for resources despite her Spectre status, especially after two years of being formally dead. The Illusive Man certainly wasn't optimistic about her chances of getting their support in any way and she had an uncomfortable feeling that he was right on that one. Whatever she thought of Cerberus they were the only place she was going to get unrestricted resources for this little project. The Council and Alliance were already ignoring the attacks and going to them and saying the Reapers were involved was hardly likely to win her any friends considering how hard they'd apparently been trying to ignore the Reaper threat.

Her thoughts turned to Liara, meeting Tali and Joker again as well as her inquiries with the Illusive Man had stirred up those memories and emotions. Naomi chewed her lip thoughtfully and then shook her head, it was no good. She'd made her decision already; she couldn't see Liara, not yet. Whatever happened it was likely to be a difficult meeting and she told herself that she couldn't afford the distraction; although she also knew she was lying to herself, in truth she was scared of how that first meeting would go. Naomi shook her head to clear it, no point dwelling on that for the moment, she had work to do. Mordin Solus on Omega, his dossier was impressive and picking him up had to be a priority because without him there was no way they'd be able to take the Collectors on in a fight if it came down to it. Not to mention this Archangel character was also supposed to be on Omega…taking on all the scum of Omega at once successfully…that was definitely someone she wanted on her team.

"Come on Joker, let's take a look at her," said Naomi, gesturing to the ship. At least there would be one person she knew she could trust, with Joker at the helm they might navigate their way through this mess yet. And with that comforting thought she made her way off to examine her new command.

Naomi was exhausted, sitting back in a chair on the crew deck with a mug of strong coffee. Omega…such a crazy place and its quasi-ruler Aria was an interesting character, dangerous but interesting. Add to that the people she'd recruited and it'd been quite a visit. She sipped her drink and considered those she'd picked up, the doctor Mordin had immediately taken over the science lab and got to work. She'd never met anyone quite so energetic, except perhaps Liara when she was in a particularly enthusiastic mood. What was that phrase Kelly had used? "A hamster on coffee"…she laughed at the memory, fairly appropriate actually. The mercenary, Zaeed, well he was your typical hired gun but came across as significantly more dangerous than most. If the Illusive Man thought he'd be an asset then there must be quite some reputation behind him. As for Archangel…

"Hey Shepard," said Garrus as he sat down opposite her.

She grinned. "Hey 'Archangel', how's the face?"

He winced, though whether it was from her use of his cover name or from a twinge of pain wasn't clear. "Been better. Still not used to this damn prosthetic."

"Better than the alternative…hell, I'd have hated to go through all of that only for you to go die on me."

Garrus laughed in response. "Wouldn't want to inconvenience you; although by the sounds of it this little project you've brought me aboard has a pretty good chance of us not making it as well."

Naomi frowned at that. "Does that bother you?"

He shook his head. "If it was anyone else I'd be worried. But I've yet to see anything in this galaxy that I don't think Vakarian and Shepard can't take down."

That brought another smile. "We definitely work well as a team; I don't think we could have taken down three entire mercenary gangs separately. But together…no sweat hey?" She hesitated before continuing with sincerity. "I'm glad you're aboard Garrus. I've got all of these Cerberus people and unknowns working for me now. I don't really know any of them yet, what makes them tick or even if they can be trusted. It's good to have someone from the old days that I know will watch my back properly."

"Anytime, Shepard. Speaking of which…you heard from any of the others?"

She shrugged. "I bumped into Tali on Freedom's Progress. Lots of work for the Migrant Fleet now she's gone back. According to Cerberus Ash is off somewhere classified and Wrex is on Tuchanka. Apparently he's really busy trying to keep the clans in line."

Garrus waited for a few moments. "…Liara?"

"She's...I know where she is," Naomi replied shortly.

"Shepard…"

"Fine. Illium. She's on Illium, happy?"

"Well…what about her?"

"She's busy."

He sighed. "Shepard, I know that voice…why don't you just…"

She cut him off. "No."

"…can I ask why?"

"It's been two years, Garrus…"

"All the more reason to go there."

"No, not yet. Not until I've worked out some things by myself," she sighed. "It's not easy."

He looked over with concern. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, I just…I can't face that right now," she gave him a serious look and an edge of frustration entered her voice. "I DIED, Garrus. I haven't come to terms with that myself yet. I was dead, I don't know how they brought me back but it wasn't easy. Two years is a long time…she's had time to think and to come to terms with that. Seeing her will be complicated and I don't want to deal with it right now. I need time to think."

"She'd want to speak to you anyway," Garrus replied quietly.

Naomi hesitated and looked away for a moment before saying anything. "…I will. Not yet, but I will. Promise."

He reached across and patted her hand. "And when you do, don't worry…I got your back."

She smiled. "I know…and thanks."

Naomi sat idly tapping through some files on the computer in her cabin. Much bigger and better equipped than the one she'd gotten used to on the old Normandy, and far more aesthetically pleasing. As Joker had pointed out although the military was good for cutting-edge technology they weren't much for comfort or looks, so it was pleasant to have decent quarters for a change.

Quite the motley crew she thought to herself as she browsed the personnel files again. In addition to the two Cerberus operatives, Garrus, Zaeed and the hyperactive Mordin she now had a tank bred Krogan down in the cargo area, an absurdly powerful human biotic criminal nesting underneath engineering and an expert thief haunting the port observation room. It wasn't exactly what she had been expecting when the Illusive Man had said he'd be forwarding her the dossiers of the best people he had files on. Then on top of that this AI installed into the ship, Naomi really didn't know what to make of that at all. On the one hand EDI had been perfectly helpful and courteous so far and had given no cause for concern, although Joker wasn't exactly happy with it. And as a true AI EDI had a personality and was, in effect, a person; and came across as very pleasant in fact. However on the other hand AIs were illegal in Council space for a good reason. The example of the Geth was a clear and present warning to everyone about the dangers of sentient synthetic life. That said based on everything they'd seen so far they'd need every advantage they could get if there was any hope of finding out what the Collectors were up to and stopping them.

With a sigh she looked away from the screen and stared at the fishtank. It had been an extremely stressful time since Omega. First the Council had given her a hard time, they'd let her have her Spectre status back but point blank refused to provide any actual assistance so long as she was with Cerberus. Privately she could understand that, but it was still frustrating. She'd picked up Kasumi on the Citadel as well, but that was the only simple pickup she had because after that it was onto getting Jack out of prison…she didn't even want to think back to that. Naomi shook her head, should have seen that one coming; she'd made a lot of enemies over the years and you could never trust mercenaries like the Blue Suns. They treated their work as a business, not as a profession, and the only thing you could rely upon was they'd take the highest offer even if it meant screwing over their current contract. Then onto the Krogan; she went in expecting to pick up a hugely experienced old Krogan Warlord and came out with…she wasn't exactly sure what she'd come out with. A fully-grown Krogan bred in a tank, imprinted with training but lacking the usual Krogan upbringing, he was extremely violent and completely unpredictable and it was only through her own extensive experience and quick reactions that she'd been able to deal with him after letting him out. That said he was a formidable fighter, and if she could keep him pointed at the Collectors then he'd be an exceptional asset.

Naomi sat back in her chair and sipped at her coffee, thinking to herself about the crazy personalities that accompanied taking only the best onto her team. She wasn't even sure which was the more dangerous; Grunt with his brute strength and volatility or Jack with her absurdly powerful biotics and almost complete lack of restraint. And that's without taking into consideration Mordin's frightening intelligence, Zaeed's decades of experience and Kasumi with her incredible stealth and infiltration capabilities. She toyed with her cup…on the other hand they were all extremely capable individuals, she wasn't at all worried about whether they could go toe-to-toe with the Collectors and surely that's what mattered? After all this was slightly more structured than when she'd formed her first team to fight Saren. With that almost everyone had just…fallen into place almost. It was amazing that it'd all worked out for the best when she thought back to it. She sighed to herself, it was much simpler back then; when she'd started out there was direct Council and Alliance support and her mission of chasing Saren down was much more clear. Something definitely felt very wrong about the current mission, she didn't have a clear lead to go on and didn't like having the Illusive Man feeding her information that he deemed necessary and withholding other things. But short of walking away entirely she didn't think there was any way around that, and for the sake of the vanished colonists she couldn't do that.

It still felt weird to think about how she had even come to be sitting there. Two years…two years technically dead…how are you supposed to feel after being told that? She didn't know but it wasn't as if anyone else would understand either. On the other hand she didn't actually feel any different. She'd just felt pain, blacked out and then woke up again in a medical surgery. Just like she'd experienced with injuries before, like the first beacon in fact. So how was it really any different?

Naomi shook her head to clear it. She'd been worrying about it for far too long but wasn't that all it was at the end of the day? A serious injury that she'd taken and blacked out from, and then she'd been healed and everything was right again. Perhaps it was a rather more drastic injury than others and her recovery had been a lot more complicated than usual but she was still herself. All the neural pathways still connected the same way, the memories and personality intact, the same emotions. Everything still the same as before aside from extra augmentation to repair her damaged body. She was still Commander Naomi Shepard, the first human Spectre.

She sat back in her chair, more relaxed and content than anything she'd felt since first waking up. She was still her…that was all that mattered. Naomi glanced across at the picture of Liara on her desk, thinking and chewing her lip. She was still herself, she'd come to terms with that now, and she still had the same feelings for the beautiful asari. The question now was how to deal with that. Naomi glanced back at the dossier file still open on her computer.

It was Jack's file. Naomi leaned over to examine the computer again. The young woman was fascinating…she wasn't very forthcoming but had clearly had a very hard life. And that hard life had forged her into someone with willpower as tough as steel and an attitude which stuck two fingers up at the entire universe and lived in the moment.

Naomi hesitated. Maybe she could learn something there from Jack. It wasn't that Jack didn't care, not really although she tried to hide it, but she lived for the here and now. If it was worth doing she'd get it done and if not she wouldn't bother. No middle gears or grey area about it. Naomi picked up Liara's picture and stared at it for a few moments. Did she want to see Liara again? Hold her again? Wake up beside her again? Yes. She put the image down again, suddenly decisive. Forget worrying about how things would go between them, it would be difficult and probably not easy but it didn't matter. What mattered was that she wanted to see Liara more than anything. The doubts and questions weren't important in that decision.

She stood up and started to leave her cabin when EDI spoke up.

"Commander, the Illusive Man wants to speak with you."

Naomi sighed. "Can it wait?"

"No, Shepard. It's urgent."

"Fine, I'll be right there."

She shook her head, a little annoyed. The mission had to take priority over everything, so she knew she'd have to find out what the Illusive Man wanted before doing anything else. Naomi balled her fists in frustration as she stepped into the elevator and made a promise to herself; she'd find out what the Illusive Man wanted and deal with it. And as soon as that was done she was setting a course for Illium, because no matter what concerns she had about it she just had to see Liara again.