Author's Note: I'm sorry, I know I was supposed to do this last week, but I was neck deep in research. Good news, I should be able to start this first draft of the paper soon...barring no unseen circumstance (heh, heh).
Fun fact of the day: According to a 2010 survey done by the Kaiser Family Foundation, on average, people between the ages of 8 and 18 spent a little over seven and a half hours online daily. With multitasking, the number was nearly eleven hours.
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They raced for the entrance, as another grenade flew overhead, this time exploding behind them. His aim is getting better, Ashley thought grimly. A spark jumped over her head as she dove into the Tardis.
She put out her hand, expecting to hit a wall, but she kept running for a few steps, before she managed to slow herself down. Others streamed past her, coming up short as well, stunned by the sudden change.
Bigger on the inside, indeed. Ashley thought, staring upwards at tall ceiling. Behind her, she could hear the Doctor race in, shouting insults back at the armsdealer.
Ashley was impressed. She wasn't sure how he'd managed to fit all those insults in the three seconds before another grenade was tossed, and he was forced to shut the door.
Not missing a beat, the Doctor raced back down towards the center consol, rubbing his hands together. "Right! Let's get you to your shuttle." He started flicking switches, pulling levers...and several things Ashley couldn't even begin to describe, all the while cooing...and he just call the ship sexy? And she'd thought Joker was bad!
She could hear James shift from behind her. "Uh...is he entirely...you know..."
"Not quite," Shepard murmured. "I think he called himself...a madman with a box."
The Doctor was either oblivious to their conversation, or simply ignoring it. A few seconds later, he flipped a few more switches, then marched to the doors and flung them open. "See? We're-"
He was interrupted by a biotic blast, sending him flying.
...Right. Ashley had forgot to mention that. "Miranda, stand down," she called, marching to the doors.
And it was really weird to be looking at the interior of the shuttle. This was starting to feel like one of those really odd dreams.
But there was another situation to worry about right now. Miranda still had her biotic corona still flaring around her, looking ready to blast the entire ship, if she felt like it. "What. The bloody. Hell?" she growled.
"It's difficult to explain," Ashley said. And you don't know the half of it. "Let's just say, we got a ride."
"...It's a tiny blue box."
"It's bigger on the inside," Ashley explained. She was sure she heard a snicker behind her. "Where's Kasumi?"
"Are you bringing stray clones home now?" Ashley turned to see Kasumi reappear inside the Tardis, slowly turning to look at the ship.
Aaand that's the part even more difficult to explain... "She's not a clone. It's Shepard."
"What?"
...Two minutes later...
The shuttle landed, and Ashley managed to walk out steady. "Uh...Commander? Why is there a dent in the Kodiak?"
"You really, really don't want to know, Joker." Ashley growled. Miranda was the next person out, her back straight, her eyes afire, just looking for another excuse to unleash her biotics. The others that followed came out very cautiously, not wanting to give her that excuse.
They probably didn't have to worry, as Miranda marched straight for the lift, not even looking back. Ashley turned to see EDI helping the Doctor off the shuttle, the latter rubbing his head and grimacing.
Back to work. "EDI, get him to Dr. Chakawas, have that looked at. James, stow those supplies. Kasumi, get that data to Liara and Miranda. Shepard, my office. Now." Maybe she'd finally get some answers. "Everyone else, dismissed."
Shepard was silent on their trip there, ignoring the stunned looks from the crew members that saw them. Ashley wasn't about to offer an explanation again. At least, not until she knew all the details.
Finally, she reached her office, barely waiting for the door to slide close before she whirled around. "I want answers. Now."
Shepard crossed her arms. "Where to begin?"
"How about the part where you're not dead?"
Eden sighed, letting her arms drop to her sides. "Everyone thinks I died on the Citadel, in the blast created by the Crucible. That's what all evidence points to. That's the way it was supposed to be." Her gaze shifted away from Ashley. "Truth was, I wasn't even there when it happened."
Ashley's eyebrow climbed, and she crossed her arms, leaning back. "What happened?"
Shepard started to pace, something Ashley knew she did when she was gathering her thoughts. "The Citadel wasn't the Catalyst, it was the AI the Leviathans made that created the Reapers. The whole damn thing was a test, to see if organics and synthetics could work together.
"When I got there, I was offered four choices: destroy everything with Reaper code, including EDI and the geth, control the Reapers, like the Illusive Man wanted, create a synthesis of organics and synthetics, or just stand back and let the cycle continue."
"That's bullshit. None of those are good solutions," Ashley said pointedly.
I know that, but I didn't exactly have the luxury of time," Eden growled, seeming more upset at herself than Ashley. "But in any case, I never made that decision. My clone did."
"...Right. The clone that died on the Citadel. No, wait. Sorry, this 'Doctor' saved her."
"I know it sounds crazy," Shepard admitted, halting her pacing and turning back to Ashley. "But considering we landed inside the shuttle a few minutes ago, it can't sound all that far fetched."
"I'll reserve judgement for now," Ashley finally said, motioning for Shepard to continue.
She obliged. "I blacked out sometime around the point my clone initiated the Synthesis wave. When I awoke, I was in the Tardis, and the Doctor was telling me that I had to live, because there was some danger coming...something worse than the Reapers."
"And only three years later you're warning us?"
"I wasn't three years for me!" Eden growled. "For me, it was just a few months. Months filled with every kind of trouble the galaxy could throw at me. Did you know the Roman Emperor was actually an insane alien who was harvesting humans in an attempt to create a weapon against the Reapers? Or that there are aliens out there called Daleks that are bend on exterminating everything else? No matter where we went, trouble followed. And when we went to the most remote corner of the galaxy, you know what we found there? A bunch of madmen who'd decided it was the perfect place to plot destroying the world!"
Ashley held up a hand. "I'm still working on believing that...ship can move almost instantaneously anywhere. That it can move through time? Nothing can do that!"
"Talk to the Doctor. Hell, talk to Wrex. You've seen the evidence yourself, Ash." Turning to face Ashley, Eden continued, "you've got all the evidence you need, Ash. Whatever happened to trust?"
"Trust?" Ashley asked with a bitter laugh. "Ask all the Alliance personnel who got assassinated by Cerberus about trust. Ask the Council, after one of their Spectres tried to assassinate them. Ask STG, after somehow Cerberus got their hands on the Collector's plague. The one from Omega. The one they kept so well hidden most of them didn't even know it was there. And while you're at it, ask the people on the Normandy, after several marines turned out to be Cerberus agents. You're asking for trust, Shepard? I'm pretty damn low in it right now."
The shock was evident on Shepard's face. "Damn, Ash. I'm sorry," she said quietly.
For a moment, Ashley felt a familiar tug. That now that Shepard was here, things would get fixed.
But that had been three years ago. Ashley had to fix things herself. Taking a deep breath, she turned away. "Dismissed, Shepard," she said quietly. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Eden open her mouth...
Then shook her head. "Aye-aye, Commander." The door slide shut with a decisive sound, leaving Ashley to her own thoughts.
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I've been asked a couple of times if Daleks are going to show up. I'm pretty sure not...but with the Doctor involved, you never know *cue evil laugh*