A/N: I've re-edited this chapter hopefully its more clear.
Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect, its characters or any of the official fiction. They are the property of BioWare and Electronic Artists.
"Commander Shepard's body has been recovered. The Lazarus Project is a go,"
Miranda Lawson and Wilson looked at Project Lazarus' only subject. She admitted she was worried that the project would be a failure. Wilson on the other hand had reassured her, to think otherwise. The procedures began with cybernetic reconstruction of his body.
Over time they began with his physical reconstruction and began rebuilding his internal organs. This was only the start; the hardest part was the neurological rebuilding and having his memory restored. Commander Shepard's body had been heavily damaged to the point of it being nearly unrecognizable.
She checked over his vital signs, he was stabilized for the moment. Wilson came in with a data pad that contained his calculations. She took the data pad, with an icy glare towards Wilson, who immediately backed off when he saw her piercing eyes, staring through him.
"These estimates are off, run them again," she ordered. Wilson was taken by surprise, how she could possibly know the estimates were off.
"I assure you, Lawson, the estimates are right," Wilson angrily replied as he snatched the data pad out her hands.
"This project has no room for error, Wilson! It's either perfect or it's wrong and if one minor decimal is off, Commander Shepard will not come back to life. Run the numbers again and do it right this time," she stated bitterly as he turned back to the slowly reconstructed Cmdr. Shepard.
While still unconscious, Adrian Shepard was very much alive as far as vitals, EKG and neural activity was concerned. His face had to undergo complete reconstruction, and it looked like he had still fought at Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz where he had received a prominent scar going down the left side of his face. His current scarring was from the adding of cybernetic implants to his skull. The only thing to note was his rapid eye movement was increasing a sign usually associated with dreaming.
Adrian Shepard looked around, he was standing on a grassy plain on a world, the reminded him of the little he had seen of Earth. He was confused as the knee high grassy and azure skies were all he could see in every direction. The last thing he remembered was the Normandy being destroyed and for reasons unknown Ashley Williams. His pondering came to an end when he heard heavy footsteps in the grass, and turned to see the last person in the galaxy he ever wanted to see, Saren Arterius.
"Now…isn't this an interesting coincidence, Shepard," Saren walked up to his former enemy. "I'm not sure how this happened or why we're talking, but it doesn't matter. What does matter is that you and I now have a chance to talk,"
"Why should I talk to you…Saren?" Adrian replied with an air of hostility. "In case you forgot, you tried to kill me on Virmire, and then you tried again at the Citadel!"
"I am not acting under the influence of Sovereign," Saren wasn't even fazed by Shepard's statement.
"Right…and next you're going to tell me, that you didn't shoot Nihlus in the back of the head!" Adrian replied with a near shout.
"The fact you are arguing with your subconscious is laughable at best. It only goes to show how far gone, your mental state is," Saren stated with little interest in what Shepard was saying.
Adrian stared into the turian's blue eyes, trying to discern any truth from what was for all intents and purposes a figment of his imagination. Saren simply stood there with his hands behind his back, looking at the human with a blank expression on his face.
"So is this some kind of dream?" Adrian asked.
"Since when did you start asking all these questions, skipper?" A new voice said.
Adrian turned around, much to his surprise, he saw someone else. This someone was Ashley Williams, once a proud and headstrong soldier. Ashley now only existed in his dreams, as the rest of her was vaporized on Virmire. He knew his mind was probably playing a trick on him, since he knew full well that Ashley Williams was dead, a fact that haunted his every dream.
"Ash? Is that really you?" He forced himself to ask.
Before Williams or his minds projection of Williams, he was jostled awake. The sound of sirens and gunfire was heavy in the air, or heavy wherever he was. His eyes snapped open as he took in his surrounding, which appeared to be some sort of room or med bay.
"Shepard wake up!" A demanding feminine voice ordered.
He rose up on the top of an operating table slowly. He managed to sit himself up, despite the stabbing pain in his ribs and the sides of his waist. He swung his legs over the table noticing the black combat boots and white and black utility trousers along with what looks like a utility uniform top he was wearing, he looked at the golden insignias on both of his shoulders with confusion.
Adrian leaned forward and nearly fell off the table. He brought up his left hand to rub his forehead, which felt like it had been on the receiving end of a turian dreadnought's main gun. He looked around the med bay he was in, he wasn't sure if this was an Alliance facility. "Your scars haven't fully healed yet, but we need to get moving!"
"Shepard we don't have much time to waste. Get over to that locker and suit up!" The commanding voice said again, which he identified with the name Miranda.
Adrian walked over to the locker and opened it up, the first thing he noticed was the set of N7 armor, which was made of interchangeable armor segments. He quickly strapped the chest plate, greaves, gauntlets and shoulder pads. He noticed an M-3 Predator pistol and grabbed it.
"This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip," he said as he pointed out the obvious.
"It's a med bay! Don't worry, you'll find a clip; take cover near the door," Miranda ordered.
He did as he was told, but after taking cover the door exploded. He rushed forward and noticed a body nearby. He crouched down and began to check for anything that could help him, get an idea what the current situation was apart from being told to wake up, and that there were mechs bent on killing him. Feeling around the pockets he found a thermal clip for his pistol.
Adrian loaded the clip into the pistol. He was glad they used thermal clips, since after Sovereign's attack; they became very popular in demand as opposed to waiting for your heat sinks to cool down. The heat sinks as they were alternatively, called were interchangeable with any weapon short of heavy weapons, which required powers cells.
He vaulted over a makeshift barrier made of what appeared to be a desk, a few chairs and a couple of crates. Looking around, Adrian tried to get an accurate assessment of his surroundings, when a shot impacted his armor's kinetic barriers. He quickly took to cover, and proceeded to shoot the mech with well-placed shots. He was about to proceed further when a group of them appeared, he fired a few rounds managing up to take out a couple of the LOKI mechs.
That was when he noticed the concussive shot feature on his omni-tool, curious to see what it could do to the mech, he fired the concussive shot at a mech sending the machine flying back into the wall behind it and shattering. He dispatched the last mech with a well-placed shot to the head.
Adrian proceeded forward keeping his pistol ready, so he could take down any hostiles that unexpectedly rounded a corner. Taking one last glance of the room he was in, he looked out the window and saw the stars and nebulae giving him the impression that he was on a space station.
Leaving the room, he proceeded down the hallway, and saw a massive YMIR mech gunning down people, and shooting those nearby. The heavy mech looked at Shepard, seeing that its target was on the opposite side of a window, it clambered down the opposite direction of where it had come.
"Shepard there's a squad of mechs heading your way. Grab the grenade launcher and get to cover," Miranda instructed over the radio.
Adrian picked up the discarded M-100 Grenade Launcher and took cover behind the railing. Three hacked security mechs walked in. Taking his chance, he fired a single grenade in the middle of the three mechs, taking them out simultaneously, but causing a steam valve to ignite sending a jet of flames across the walkway.
"Take the elevator down one level, and I'll try to meet you on the other side of those flames," Miranda said.
He walked over to the elevator, while collapsing the grenade launcher and putting it on his back. He reached for his pistol and in walked onto the platform. The platform stopped at the walkway and he got off just as it fell off its rail down into the dark confines of the station. Adrian sprinted through the jet of flames, without pause.
"You're doing fine Shepard. Shepard! I have mechs on me I'll try to…" Mirada tried to say before being cut-off by static, gunfire and an explosion. Looking both ways the corridor, he saw a door panel glowing green and proceeded into the room to see two LOKI mechs crawling, in which he shot both of the mechs in the head.
He saw a computer console and walked over to it and activated it. He listened to what he was guessing was Miranda explaining about the status of a subject. He noticed a wall safe and activated his omni-tool, he hacked the security measures on the safe and opened it half expecting to find information on the station, and instead he found 975 credits.
Wilson's log was slightly less interesting, as it pertained to the astronomical cost of the project. He thought he had heard the sound of footsteps caused by the mechs and decided to keep going. Adrian sprinted to the top of the stairs as he witnessed another YMIR mech massacring what looked like a lab technician. He heard the sound of gunfire coming from what was labeled as the D wing mezzanine.
Crouched behind cover, Adrian saw someone firing at the mechs across from them in the opposing mezzanine. Keeping himself near cover he rushed over to the unknown figure. The figure stood up and reached out with his right arm, which was glowing blue as he lifted a mech off of the mezzanine on out to the side of them.
"Have a nice trip," the unknown biotic yelled out in triumph before seeing Adrian," Shepard...what the hell? What are you doing here?"
"I just woke up. Are you with Miranda?" Adrian asked.
"Yeah, I am. My name is Jacob Taylor, I have been stationed here… well, it doesn't really matter anymore," Jacob answered as he looked over their cover for anymore mechs.
"What's with the mechs?" Adrian indicated with a nod of his head to remains of the LOKI mechs.
"Security mostly. Technically you can't hack them unless it's an inside job," Jacob replied.
"I know a few who could. Where are we anyways, this doesn't look like an Alliance facility?"
"Technically it isn't. The Alliance declared you missing in action, when you died two years ago," Jacob answered.
"Two years? I've been dead for two years? How am I alive?" Adrian asked simultaneously.
"It's been about…" Jacob began but was cut off by gunshots as he ducked back down. "Dammit more mechs, look Shepard, we'll deal with these mechs first. Then we can get back to your questions. We're low on thermal clips, but I'm a biotic,"
Jacob stood up and pulled another mech into the abyss below the mezzanines. Adrian rose up and fired another concussive shot at a mech. Three more mechs fired their machine pistols at Jacob and Shepard. The two of them dispatched the remaining mechs with little trouble. "They're pulling back. Alright, what questions do you have?"
"You said they spent two years putting me back together?" Adrian asked with confusion.
"I'm no doctor, but it was pretty bad, if it were anywhere else you would've ended up in a coffin, but Project Lazarus had only one subject. You." Jacob answered.
Before any other questions could be asked, Wilson contacted both Jacob and Adrian and was shocked to learn that Adrian was still alive. Adrian was surprised by the same, but he found it to be a little suspicious. The two of them raced up to the control center.
They headed up the stairs into what looked like an air processing center, where they ran into three mechs. Adrian ducked behind a pipe and took out the closest mech to him. Jacob took down another with pull, while Adrian finished off the last mech with a concussive shot.
Jacob was angry that they ran into a squad of mechs. "Wilson this path is full of mechs,"
"The entire station is full of mechs," Wilson replied over the radio while Adrian shook his head slowly.
"Wilson's grasp of the obvious is… inspiring," Adrian bitterly thought as he made his way through the room.
Adrian ignored Wilson's and Jacob's banter over where they should go. Adrian checked his corners has he kept on the lookout for any mechs, primarily the heavy YMIR mechs. He looked back at Jacob, who was still talking to Wilson over the radio, when suddenly, Wilson let out a yell in fright.
"Oh, God! They found me! Help!" Wilson cried out over the radio.
"Wilson where are you?" Jacob asked.
"Server Room B, hurry!" Wilson replied.
When they arrived, Wilson was sitting on the floor leaning against the crates. Adrian looked at Wilson the expressionless face. He couldn't tell if Wilson was lying or not, it didn't make sense for someone who was in the bio wing, to have security mech clearance. Adrian patched up Wilson's wound with medi-gel. Wilson looked Adrian in the eyes, who looked back at Wilson with suspicion.
"Thanks. I guess we're even now," Wilson said as he grunted in pain.
"We need to find Miranda," Jacob stated as they were planning their next moves.
"Forget it. Miranda was over in D Wing. The mechs are crawling all over it" Wilson asserted.
"I just came in from D Wing and I survived," Adrian countered as he slammed a thermal clip into his pistol.
"Then where is she. The only possibility is that she's a traitor or the mechs got her," Wilson said in speculation.
"Miranda helped me get out of there," Adrian pointed out.
"Listen, we can speculate about this later. We need to get to the shuttles, they aren't that much…" Wilson said as he noticed several LOKI Mechs come through a door on the far side of Server Room B.
Wilson overloaded a container taking out the mechs. Wilson placed his M-5 Phalanx pistol on his belt. Jacob and Adrian came over. Jacob looked at Wilson and then at Shepard as he was preparing to head out. "All right, we've got this sorted out, but it is starting to get tense. Shepard, if we tell you who we work for, will you trust us?"
"This really isn't the time," Wilson looked at Jacob with annoyance and then sighed with reluctance. "If you want to piss off the boss it's, your ass,"
"We won't get anywhere if he's expecting a shot to the back. The Lazarus Project, the project that brought you back was funded by a group called Cerberus," Jacob explained.
"I think I ran into Cerberus, a few times when I was hunting down Saren. Some sort of splinter pro- human radical faction, right?" Adrian questioned as he went for his pistol, but he didn't draw it.
"That's what the Alliance wants people to believe. When we're done here, we'll take you to the Illusive Man," Jacob explained.
"Elusive Man?" Adrian raised his eyebrows at the odd name of the apparent leader of Cerberus.
"That's Illusive Man. It's a codename, the Alliance gave him, and it kind of stuck. He'll explain everything, when we get there," Jacob replied.
"Don't count on it. I'm not working with Cerberus-," Adrian looked away clearly not relishing the idea of having to fight both rogue Mechs and Cerberus operatives. "But, I'll put aside my distrust of Cerberus, until we're off this station,"
"Fair enough," Jacob replied, not expecting Adrian to side with them.
Adrian led the way as the two Cerberus operatives followed behind him. He stopped above a fallen Cerberus employee, and checked the data pad for anything useful, which there wasn't any. In Adrian's mind a lot of things weren't adding up, and this was a Cerberus facility, why weren't there more armed guards.
The facilities he and his team had attacked in the Voyager Cluster while tracking down Saren were heavily guarded, only their remote outpost in the Argos Rho Cluster, which had been overrun by rachni and their outpost on Chasca, which had been crawling with husks, were the only Cerberus facilities he hadn't encountered resistance from the mysterious human centrist organization.
The three of them made their way to the shuttles in the shipping warehouse. Adrian went to the left flank while Jacob and Wilson broke off and headed towards the right. Grabbing his M-100 grenade launcher, he fired it into the group of mechs. Wilson overloaded a group while Jacob pulled on over a balcony. Securing the area they made their way to the shuttle.
"Just one second …let me get this door opened," Wilson said as he opened the door with Adrian and Jacob not far behind. "Miranda? I thought you were…,"
Miranda gave an evil look at Wilson, before she shot him at point blank in the face. "Dead?"
"What the hell are you doing?" Jacob asked in surprise as he rushed over to Wilson's body. Adrian raised his pistol at her, keeping it aimed at her.
"My job, Wilson betrayed us," Miranda coldly replied.
"Not exactly the best way to greet him," Adrian pointed out as he kept his pistol trained on Miranda as he indicated with his head.
"He killed my staff, he nearly tried to kill me and he was going to kill you," Miranda replied.
"If you say so," Adrian finally said as he holstered his pistol.
"Come, we have very little time to waste. My boss wants to speak with you," Miranda beckoned Adrian to follow her, but he remained right where he was and crossed his arms.
"You mean the Illusive Man. I know you work for Cerberus," he crossed his arms and watched Miranda, trying to anticipate any unexpected attacks from the newcomer.
"Figures Jacob always knew that conscience of yours would get the better of you," Miranda commented as she looked over to her compatriot.
"Lying to Shepard, is not the best way to get him to join our cause, Miranda," Jacob countered as he looked at Adrian, who wasn't faltering in his judgment of Cerberus.
"Fine. Is there anything else you want to know, Commander?" She asked impatiently.
"I'll go with you, but I'm not joining Cerberus. I'm willing to hear this Illusive Man out, but apart from that I don't trust any of you… yet," Shepard as he sighed heavily before stepping past them.
Three of them boarded a UT-47 Kodiak dropship, as it left the Lazarus Station. Cmdr. Adrian Shepard leaned back in his seat. For the first time in who knew how long, he could finally rest without having to worry about anything shooting at them or a ship being suddenly attacked. Miranda looked at Shepard with slight suspicion; he wasn't exactly what she envisioned the Hero of the Citadel would be like.
The shuttle jumped away, while Shepard had taken the staring out the window with deepening contemplation. He was wondering where the rest of his teammates were, and how many had survived the destruction of the Normandy. From what he had gathered from Jacob it had been two years and twelve days since his apparent death, not that he had believed it.
"Now, before you meet with the Illusive Man, I have a few questions ask you?" Miranda informed him.
Adrian turned his gaze to the Cerberus officer. His brown eyes narrowed as he attempted to guess her intent, and was debating whether or not they were to be trusted. "What do you want to know?"
"All right, according to the records, you're a spacer kid. Raised on one ship or another. You enlisted and won a medal fighting the batarians at Elysium, do you remember why you fought there?" Jacob asked.
"There were a lot of lives depending on me holding the line. I don't regret any action I did on Elysium," Shepard replied, while curious what his past had to do with his current situation.
"I'm not disagreeing with you, Commander. I had friends at Elysium that saw what you did, it was impressive," Jacob commented on Shepard's answer.
"Let's try something a little more recent. Virmire, where you destroyed Saren's breeding facility. You were forced to leave one of your team members behind…" Miranda began as she looked to Jacob.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was killed in action. It was your call; do you remember why you chose her?" Jacob asked.
"Ash was more than a friend. I regretted my decision, but at the time I knew what had to happen and I didn't do it casually," Adrian replied as he had flashbacks of Ashley Williams' death.
"Everybody at Cerberus knew that cloning facility had to be destroyed. I wasn't questioning your judgment; you made the right decision even if it didn't feel like it at the time."
"Shepard think back, when humanity was offered a chance to gain a seat on the Council, you were given the choice of selecting who would be the Councilor?"
"I remember, I chose Captain Anderson," Adrian answered with perfect clarity.
"Yes, Captain Anderson is now Councilor Anderson. Though I hear he prefers military life over politics," Miranda commented.
"Still, it's good to know there is someone on the Council who won't put politics ahead of defense," Jacob said with approval.
"I suppose there are a few others tests, we could run," Miranda said in contemplation.
"Come on Miranda, it's him without a doubt," Jacob declared.
"It has been two years, Jacob. We need to make sure that he is ready," Miranda refuted.
"I thought the two years, was a lie?" Adrian slowly admitted. "You mean... I was actually dead for two years?"
"For all intents and purposes yes, but more accurately it has been two years and twelve days since you were declared dead," Miranda informed him.
The shuttle exited FTL as it move closer to the gargantuan Cerberus outpost, called Minuteman Station. The station was larger than the Lazarus Research Station. The shuttle landed in one of the many hangar bays on the station, Miranda, Jacob and Adrian went up to one of the levels of the outpost.
Adrian was still shaken by the revelation he had been dead for over two years. He walked in looking around the facility; he knew the Council, Admiral Hackett and the Turian Hierarchy would have a field day if they ever learned about the existence of this station. The station looked like it could hold its own against a turian patrol, with ease.
"The Illusive Man is waiting, I suggest you go talk to him," Miranda informed him.
He shook his head. Wilson was right; she was quite the ice queen. He made his way down the hallway and a flight of stairs as he walked into a room with a circle in the center of it. Standing in the center of the room, Adrian looked around as he was suddenly enveloped by an orange hologram and then standing in a dark room with a star in the background. In front of him, who he assumed was the Illusive Man sat there smoking a cigarette.
"Commander Shepard," he said as he greeted his guest.
"Illusive Man, you're shorter than I expected and I thought we'd be meeting each other face-to-face," Shepard crossed his arms at glared daggers at the mysterious leader of Cerberus.
"A necessary precaution for those who know what you and I know," the Illusive Man responded.
"You may be the reason I'm alive, but I don't trust you," Adrian shot back.
"You need to put your feelings aside to face the greatest threat humanity has ever faced,"
"The Reapers," Adrian answered.
"Good to see your memory is still intact. How are you feeling?"
"None of your damn concern," Adrian sharply replied as he looked at the figure in front of him. "Cut to the chase and tell me why I'm here?"
"Very well. We're at war. No one wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack," the Illusive Man explained. "While you have been sleeping entire human colonies have been disappearing. You've seen what the Reapers can do yourself; you bested one of them,"
"You're going to have to try harder than that to convince me," Adrian said as he narrowed his eyes at the head of Cerberus.
"I'd be disappointed if I could persuade you that easily. I have a shuttle waiting for you, to take you to Freedom's Progress. The latest colony to fall silent,"
"Am I being volunteered or is this a volunteer mission?" Adrian questioned with a high degree of suspicion.
"You always have a choice, Shepard. If you don't believe me, you can leave whenever you wish, but first go to Freedom's Progress and see for yourself," the Illusive Man finished by deactivating the projector with the press of a few controls.
Shepard left the room and headed back the way he came in. He made his way past Miranda and Jacob, who both followed him out of the room. He didn't care what this Illusive Man said; it would take more than a simple investigation of a missing colony to convince him otherwise, unless there was a Prothean beacon involved the geth, a rogue turian Spectre or an actual Reaper. He boarded the shuttle along with Miranda and Jacob to Freedom's Progress. Hopefully he could get out of this deal with Cerberus and part ways just as fast as he was forced into this situation.
