CHAPTER 2: CONSEQUENCES

Kaidan was waiting along with the rest of the ground team on answers from their mysterious guest when he suddenly collapsed to the ground. James was the first to act, moving forward to flip the man over while shouting orders.

"Alert Dr. Chakwas and have the elevator on standby. Kaidan, help me move him." As the others rushed to follow the orders Kaidan bent down to help lift the man up, understanding why Shepard wanted the help. He was heavy. With the downed man's arms over each of their shoulders they made their way to the med bay. In the elevator, Kaidan couldn't help but comment, "You'd think he was a krogan, how heavy he is." Shepard gave a slight chuckle in agreement.

With a ding the elevator arrived at the lower deck and the two maneuvered their way to the med bay. Chakwas was there to greet them.

"What's the situation, Commander?" Shepard gave a rundown as they laid the man onto a bed.

"Spectre that helped us down on Virmire. He collapsed in the middle of the debriefing." Chakwas nodded and started to unclasp the man's armor. First the extremities came off, then the chest plate. Kaidan ended up having to biotically help lift the armor off, it being too heavy to safely pick up. As the chest plate was lifted the three got their first glimpse of the man's chest. The entirety of his undershirt was soaked with blood, being concentrated around a gunshot wound in the lower abdomen. The rest of his skin was blackened with burns and what looked to be the remains of a previous set of armor practically melted onto his skin.

While Kaidan and James silently wondered how the man had stayed standing so long Chakwas attempted to remove the facial mask. She was unsuccessful. Her fingers found the bottom seam, but could not lift it without ripping it from the fragile skin of the neck, as it appeared to be melded together. Leaving it be for now, she immediately went to work, shooing the two soldiers out.

Shepard and Kaidan complied, and with one last glance at the still form on the table, went to plan their assault on Ilos.

1 Month After Battle Of The Citadel – Above Alchera

Commander James Shepard sat at his desk reading a status update on the mystery man in the infirmary. He had yet to wake up. Apparently he was in some sort of coma, induced by the trauma his body had gone through.

Shepard sighed, putting the data pad down and rubbing his temples in thought. He had yet to tell anyone outside of the ground team who the man was in the infirmary. He had no idea if the man was really a Spectre or not, yet the man's equipment was too advanced for him to not be a Spectre. He wanted answers first, before he made any decisions he couldn't take back.

Shepard's thoughts were interrupted by something hitting the Normandy and the sound of an explosion somewhere above him. He leapt into action, putting his armor on in record time. As he ran from the room and up the stairs he spoke into the common radio frequency of the Normandy as another explosion killed the main power.

"Alenko, Williams, help Dr. Chakwas with our guest, take everything he brought and get to an escape pod. To all crew members, evacuate immediately. I repeat, get to the escape pods." So saying he triggered the evac alarm and made his way towards the CIC.

22 Months After Normandy Crash

The air felt filtered, stale, and there was an odd humming noise in the background. Where most would show obvious signs of waking he was different. Trained to go from asleep to awake almost instantaneously, the only sign that he had woken up was an almost imperceptible heart rate increase. John could feel the recon mask covering his face and so chanced opening his eyes. Blinking a little at the sudden brightness he turned his head to both sides, taking in his surroundings.

He looked to be in a standard hospital room, but there were no windows and he could hear none of the regular sounds that he associated with hospitals. Not liking his first impression he sat up, removing various needles and wires, turning the machine next to him off when it gave off a loud beeeep in protest. John froze, straining his ears for the sound of anyone coming. Knowing that that had probably tipped someone off that he was up he stood, ready to leave, when he felt something.

A slight breeze…apparently he was wearing a hospital gown. He glanced down in annoyance before looking around for his stuff. There was no way he was escaping in a damned gown.

A personnel locker with a keypad on the front was in the corner of the room. With a shrug he made his way over and examined the door. Hmm, structurally sound, yet if I pull here… He gripped right above and below one of the hinges and, using the heavy muscle weave and generally strengthened bone structure he was enhanced with, he pulled. With a metallic screech the upper hinge gave way, allowing John to pull the door off completely. Not exactly subtle he thought with a slight smirk. The smirk widened into a grin when he saw his armor and various amenities inside. Still grinning, he tore the gown off and proceeded to get dressed.

Now completely armored up and feeling more like himself than he had since waking up he moved to the door and slowly stuck his right side out, panning from one side to the other. Still no sign of anyone. Odd. Picking a side at random he left the room, his Saber raised in front as he continuously scanned the halls.

It was like a ghost town, and it wasn't until he hit the living quarters that he heard the sounds of other people. It sounded like it was dinner time, and he'd stumbled onto the mess hall. This should be interesting. Just as John had the thought he turned the corner at the exact same time as a woman walked out of the mess working on her omni-tool. He froze, eyes widening as he recognized the cat suit. Miranda. He lowered his rifle automatically, and the motion caught her attention. Her head snapped up to see a heavily armored man standing not 5 feet away with an assault rifle at standby. John could see her process this all in the fraction of the second it took her to raise a heavy pistol and train it unerringly on his head.

"Who are you? How did you get into this facility?" John stayed silent, not entirely sure what he should do now. Slowly, he took his left hand from the support grip of his rifle and raised it, palm up. The pistol twitched at the motion but thankfully didn't fire.

"I woke up 10 minutes ago and have no idea where I am. Care to share?" It seemed she didn't appreciate his small attempt at humor, sad as it was. Her face became more rigid, if that was possible, and she was now glaring at him. Wonderful.

"I will not ask again. Identify yourself." The voice wasn't raised, but it had certainly frozen a few degrees. John remained silent again, not sure what to call himself. Apparently she took that as a sign of hostility, as her biotics began to glow.

Her attack was interrupted by the arrival of a few scientists turning the corner behind her. As her head turned slightly to see who it was John acted. He shouldered his rifle, bent his knees slightly, and slammed his shoulder into Miranda's midsection. She was lifted off the ground a good foot before her back rammed into one of the scientists. Taking advantage of Miranda being incapacitated he ran into the mess hall and scanned for another exit.

Spotting one on the other side of the room he ran for it, shoving passed uniformed individuals in the process. Cerberus…he had almost reached his goal when a shock of grey hair had him looking sideways and locking eyes with Chakwas. The moment stretched on until the sound of a pistol firing had him moving again. A few rounds impacted his shields and drained them to the point that John turned and biotically shoved an occupied table towards Miranda. This allowed him the chance to grab Chakwas and drag her with him out of the room.

Inside, Miranda was pissed. She ran around the table, shouting orders at the disorganized mess in front of her and ordering the station into lockdown.

As alarms began to blare John found an empty room and went in, dragging Chakwas with him. Glancing from side to side he asked,

"Where are we? What's the date?"

Out of breath at the running Chakwas gasped out, "It's 2185, you've been in a coma for 22 months. And we're on a Cerberus station."

John took a second to process this, before laughing. I go back and still end up missing almost 2 years of my life. Unbelievable. Chakwas looked at him strangely, not understanding the humor. He stopped abruptly, almost like a switch had been flicked, and said, "Where's Alenko?"

Chakwas was silent for a moment. Probably wondering why he had asked, before replying. "I don't know where Kaidan is. The Normandy crew split up after the crash." John nodded, before asking for directions to the shuttle bay.

He paused at the door, feeling compelled to thank the doctor. He had no doubt that the only reason he was alive was because she had brought him with her. Otherwise, there's a good chance he would have woken up in a cell somewhere.

"Doctor, thank you, for everything." He made to leave, only to continue with, "Oh, and the Lazarus project will work." With that last comment, he left. She stared after him in shock, wondering how he knew what the Lazarus project was when he'd been comatose for almost 2 years.

John followed the mental directions in his head until he had a definite map towards the shuttle bay. He prepped his biotics in anticipation and took off, starting at a jog and increased his speed till he was all out sprinting towards his destination. Because he was a Vanguard he was up close in almost all of his fights, and so his armor had to reflect that. Therefore it was a lot stronger and more durable than most armor, and as a result it was significantly heavier. So there was no automatic sprinting without a biotic charge, more of a buildup of speed until he was an almost unstoppable juggernaut of force.

Rounding a corner at full speed he ran into a squad of Cerberus mechs blocking the corridor. Not pausing he flung a shockwave straight down the middle, sending the mechs smashing into the walls. Barely a thought was devoted to this as he was focused on making sure he didn't crash through any walls on his way out.

A few more similar encounters occurred before he reached the shuttle bay. Barely pausing to rip the doors off their hinges he glanced around, looking for his way off this station. Finding what he was looking for he headed to the shuttle before a familiar sight met his eyes. With a quick grin he changed direction, running towards the fighter reminiscent of the one he had launched through the Cerberus facility during the war.

Getting into the cockpit he typed in a quick command into his omni-tool as he fired up the engine, his technologically superior software quickly hacking into the docking bays protocols and overriding the bay doors. With an electronic whine, the doors opened and John shot out of the Cerberus facility in a stolen fighter, a manic grin on his face.

Back in the shuttle bay the troops of Cerberus soldiers slowly picked themselves up off of the ground and wondered if they would survive telling their boss that their target had escaped.

Alone in the emptiness of space, at least for the moment, John pondered his next move. His options were extremely limited. His alternate self had yet to be revived, and so the only team that challenged the Collectors wasn't together. Without the other Shepard awake, John had no credibility. He doubted he'd be able to just waltz up to Anderson or Hackett and explain the situation without sounding like a lunatic. He needed the other Shepard awake to push things forward. But this left him with the dilemma of what to do until that happened.

The best option to meet up with the crew was on Horizon, it would give him a chance to explain to Ash and Kaidan what was really going on with their Commander, and would hopefully avoid the entire argument that he'd experienced. But until then…a past conversation came to the forefront of his mind. Ferris Fields, Collector attack, Cortez…Perfect. He'd just go help out an old friend.