Chapter 3 : Unforeseen Consequences

Shepard was sleeping in her cabin and she was going through a nightmare. She was seeing her last moments as she flew out of the exploding Normandy and her suit failing, making her lose air rapidly. Slowly moving towards the unknown planet's atmosphere. Then the time suddenly slowed down, stopping just as she was desperately writhing through space, an odd voice spoke to

"Commander Sheeepaaard."

A faded man's face appeared in the background with pale green eyes that seemed to glow. He spoke in a slow, raspy, commanding manner. Making pauses and placed unusual stress on syllables and stretching consonants.

"I apologize for... appearing unannounced like this." He inhaled a bit then continued. "But there is something I must ask you. What is the last thing you actually remember of your... family? Were they really killed by slavers? Did the Skyllian Blitz truly occur? Do you... know who, or what, you really are? What of your choices? Every enemy you've killed, every bullet you ever fired from your gun. Even the very words you have spoken. Were those... performed from your own consciousness? Or from an outside source?"

Then the man appeared in the middle of the background. He was wearing a blue business suit and was carrying a briefcase. He straightened his tie and spoke again.

"No need to... worry yourself to answer just yet. Although, I do wish I could tell you more but I am bound by certain... restrictions. Until we meet again."

The man formed a slightly amused expression on his face and said. "And a word of advice. Prepare for unforeseen consequences."

Shepard woke up and quickly rose from her bed. She panted heavily and felt her skin covered in cold sweat. Shepard knew she saw a dream and that something unusual happened in it, but she couldn't remember what. Only the words "Unforeseen Consequences" ringed in her head. She decided to take a shower to wash away the sweat off her body. When she was done, she dried herself with a towel and put on her Cerberus Captain uniform.

"Man, I really need a new set of clothing." she said to herself with an annoyed tone. "These Cerberus uniforms are starting to get out of style. Especially when I told the Illusive Man to piss off."

Shepard then decided head to the command deck to have a chat with Joker. She always liked hearing his opinion on things. Shepard saw Joker pressing buttons at his monitor and occasionally speaking to EDI. Shepard approached Joker and greeted him. "Good morning, Joker."

Joker turned his chair around and greeted back. "Morning Commander. Is there something you want?"

"I'd like to hear your opinion of our guests here on the ship, if you have the time of course," replied Shepard.

Joker was being thoughtful for a bit. "Opinion of our guests huh?" He was unusually silent for a while and then said. "I don't trust that woman. What was her name? Moira Brown?"

"Why?" Asked Shepard curiously.

Joker explained. "Well, I don't like how she smiles all the time. She's like one of those people who's all like: Hey, how're you doing? Nice to see you. Then the next thing you know, she's sticking a freaking knife to your neck while smiling all creepy like."

"You watch too many movies, Joker," laughed Shepard.

"Maybe you don't watch enough, Commander," said Joker sarcastically.

Shepard then asked about James and Joker replied. "Remember what I said about Jacob the first time? Well, I'd like to take it back. James is way too nice a guy for all the ways he knows how to kill people. Just a few hours ago I was at the mess hall and I saw him talking to Jack. He was telling her twelve ways to kill people with a fork. A fork. And she seemed to take it to heart too."

"Good to know he's making friends," joked Shepard.

"Great. My own superior officer is now putting jokes to me. Now my life's complete," said Joker sarcastically.

Joker turned his chair around and went back to work while Shepard decided talk to Kelly to see if there's anything going on. As Shepard approached Kelly, she noticed that Kelly was watching a vid from her terminal. Shepard peeked over Kelly's shoulder and noticed it was footage of James taking a shower.

Shepard then spoke to Kelly in serious tone. "What you are watching, Kelly?"

Kelly jumped in surprise and hastily put away the footage. She turned around nervously responding. "Hi Commander! W-what can I do for you today? No new messages? Yes! No new messages Commander. A-and the crew's doing fine."

Shepard crossed her arms and stared at Kelly who, in turn, was putting on a forced smile and sweat drops were sliding down her forehead.

After a long stare down, Kelly finally gave in. "Am I in trouble?"

"Depends on you," responded Shepard.

Kelly began to rub her hands nervously and said hesitantly. "I got it from Kasumi."

Shepard kept staring at Kelly while she continued. "Apparently she sneaked into the men's shower while being invisible and recorded James while he was cleaning himself."

"Anything else I should know?" Asked Shepard sternly.

Kelly gave her an update on the crew. "James and Thane are sparring together at the hangar deck. Moira is at Mordin's lab going through that toaster of hers."

Shepard nodded. "I'll be expecting you to delete that footage the next time we talk."

"But I paid 500 credits for it!" Said Kelly in disagreement then covered her mouth. She then reluctantly said. "I mean, understood Commander."

"As you were Kelly," said Shepard and went to the elevator. Shepard wondered on how a wastelander fought so she made her way to the hangar deck to watch Thane and James spar. She arrived and noticed Garrus, Jack, Grunt and Kasumi were there as well.

Garrus saw Shepard. "Shepard. Did you come to watch these two spar, or what?"

Shepard smiled and patted Garrus' back. "I'm just here to make sure no one gets hurt."

Garrus then added. "Then you'll want to know this. We all agreed that this will be full-contact, so don't be surprised if it gets rough. And don't worry, I'll be the referee just in case."

Shepard took her place and watched with the others. James took a boxing stance while Thane took his stance that resembled a some form of martial art. James threw the first punch and Thane blocked it easily. James threw a second one but this time Thane pushed it to the side, quickly spinned behind James and used his elbow to strike James' back. James stumbled a bit but quickly gained his stance. He gestured Thane to attack him and he humored him. At first it seemed Thane was going to strike with his fist, but it was a feint. Thane turned, attempting to perform a spin kick, but James managed to grab Thane's leg, put his hand on his hip, and threw Thane behind him.

Thane was able to land safely by doing a few flips and landed on his feet. Thane turned around and noticed that James was charging towards him. James threw few punches at Thane who easily blocked them. Thane managed to land a hit to James that caused his sunglasses fly off his head. James quickly grabbed the glasses in mid-air, swiftly blocked Thane's attacks with one hand and put the back of his fist in front of Thane's face.

"Your form lacks finesse and discipline. But your strikes shout with experience," said Thane who was very impressed.

James placed his glasses back on and complimented Thane. "You're not bad yourself."

Garrus walked out and said loudly. "OK, that's a tie!"

Jack cursed and gave Kasumi a few credits who was smirking.

As James and Thane walked back to Shepard and the others, Jack asked James. "What's up with those shades you carry anyway? You seem to like them quite a lot."

"Try them yourself," replied James while giving his sunglasses to Jack.

Jack took the glasses and put them on. After having them on for a while, Jack then said. "Strange. I can't put my finger on it but there's something weird with these shades."

"Do you see dead people?" Joked Kasumi.

"No, but it would be cool in its own way," replied Jack with slightly amused tone. "There's some positive vibe I get with these shades. It's subtle, but it's there when you stop and feel it."

"Lucky?" James offered.

Jack snapped her fingers. "Yeah, that's it! I feel lucky when I'm wearing these."

Jack took the glasses off and gave them back to James. "I call them Lucky Shades." James told her as he put them back on.

"Those were pretty nice moves you pulled off over there," complimented Shepard.

"Thank you, Commander," replied James. "The Wasteland can be unforgiving to the unprepared and careless."

"Just like Tuchanka," said Grunt with small sympathy.

James then added. "Where's Moira by the way? I need to find her."

"She's at Mordin's lab at deck two." Shepard told him. "Why do you ask?"

James replied. "While Moira is fairly smart, she has a good share of dumb ideas. I especially don't want her to do anything stupid with that toaster of her's."

Suddenly the elevator door opened, revealing Moira carrying the toaster. Moira then began to walk slowly to the others.

"Looks like Moira has something to show you, James," said Shepard.

James observed Moira and noticed that something was wrong. James knows that Moira would have normally been loudly calling him and then make a mad dash towards him. As Moira got closer, James also noticed that she had very blank expression on her face which was not like her.

"Something is not right here," said James with great worry and approached Moira. When he got close enough, he saw that Moira's eyes were glazed, like she was in a trance. Moira stopped in front of James and spoke to him in monotone voice.

"Prepare for unforeseen consequences..."

She did not know why but Shepard began to have strange feeling of terror that she's never experienced before. Her legs gave up and Garrus managed to grab her as rest of the crew worried about Shepard's well being.

"Shepard, you okay?" Said Garrus with concern.

"I'm fine, Garrus," assured Shepard.

James grabbed Moira and shouted. "Moira, what's wrong with you?! Snap out of it!"

Moira dropped the toaster to the floor, blinked once, her eyes returning back normal. She looked around and said. "How did I get here?"

When the toaster hit the floor and it began to hum, releasing orange colored sparks. James told the others to get as far away as possible from it. The sparks began to wrap around James and Moira then slowly moving across the floor towards Shepard and her crew. Kasumi and Jack were the first to get caught by the sparks and they started to grunt in pain.

Thane was the next to get caught and Grunt attempted to help him only to get himself trapped in it. Garrus tried to get Shepard to safety but couldn't get away because the sparks blocked the way to the elevator. The sparks finally reached them and began to wrap around them. As the sparks covered their bodies, Garrus and Shepard felt that as if their bodies were being torn apart.

Finally the toaster let off a bright flash and everything went dark. Shepard woke up and found herself inside a store. She got up and began walk around the place while calling for her crew. Shepard saw a sign that said "Seon's Food & Stuff" at least she now knew she was in a store.

As she passed one of the aisles, Shepard noticed a food can rolled past her from behind. She turn around and was surprised to see a man with a shopping cart with knifes and cleavers strapped to it and a pitchfork on the front. Shepard also noticed that there was a woman in the cart who was unconscious.

The man had a very angry expression on his face and a crazy look in his eyes. He straightened his tie and shouted at the top of his lungs. "THIS IS MY STOOOOOOOORE!"

The man started to slowly push the cart towards Shepard while saying. "You... came to vandalize... my store! Huh?!"

Shepard spoke to him while slowly moving away from him. "Look buddy, I'm not..."

"NOT ON MY WAAAAATCH!" Interrupted the man.

Shepard attempted to reason with him. "Okay, calm down and take deep breath. No one needs to get hurt here."

"HURT?!" shouted the man and grabbed the woman's head, violently shaking it. "That's just what this bitch said when she came to vandalize my store!"

He then let go of her and then continued. "I don't take kindly to vandalism! I WON'T ALLOW IT!"

"You've made that pretty crystal clear," said Shepard who was starting to have a bad feeling about the whole thing.

The man said with a threatening tone. "Listen to me and listen good, partner." He then shouted loudly. "I DON'T ALLOW VANDALISM IN MY STOOOOOOOOOOREEEEE!"

He charged with his cart and Shepard avoided it by quickly climbing on top of one the store shelves.

"Hah! You missed!" Said Shepard victoriously to the man. Suddenly he pulled out a shotgun and began fire at Shepard. She dodged few shots until dropping down to the floor.

"Okay, he's not completely helpless." Said Shepard to herself while getting back up on her feet. The man came out the corner and was ready to attack again. Shepard saw a green bar above his head and with the word "Steven" on it. While Shepard would have wanted use her biotics against him but she didn't want to risk hurting the woman that was in the cart.

Steven charged towards Shepard and Shepard jumped on top the shelves again. This time she jumped to other shelves and managed to find a seafood stall. Shepard didn't know why, but she instinctively grabbed one of the cardboard boxes and smashed it open.

A sledgehammer came out the box and Shepard took it. "Yeah, this will work nicely."

Steven appeared again and charged at Shepard full speed. Shepard jumped to the side and swung the sledgehammer to Steven's head. Much to Shepard's surprise, Steven mostly flinched and didn't die from it, but did saw that the green bar went down a little. That's when Shepard decided to risk it and used her pull power on him. Steven began to float in the air and Shepard swung with all her might at him, sending him flying across the store.

His green bar went completely down, got up and fell on one of the registers. He then started to talk.

"My store... My... store..." He caressed the register and continued with sorrowful voice.

"Who will run my store when I'm gone? My store... My food... My sales... My... customers..." He was silent for a bit then finally said. "Have a nice day..." and collapsed to the floor.

"At least he was dedicated to his job." Said Shepard with respect and approached his body.

As Shepard was going to close his eyes, Steven's head jumped up and shouted. "CLEAN UP! REGISTER 6!" Then slumped back on the floor.

Shepard was startled by the action and felt her heart skip a beat as she was used to her enemies often staying dead. She then noticed the woman that was in the cart was gone and was nowhere in sight. Shepard looked at the sledgehammer and realized that the box where it came from was small so it couldn't have fit in completely inside it. And why is there a sledgehammer in a store in the first place? Shepard decided to ignore those details for now and wanted to focus on getting her bearings. She made her out of the store while avoiding Steven's body.

"Oh my god." Said Shepard not quite believing what she was seeing with her own eyes. A massive horde of zombies. Shepard was in complete disbelief. She has faced husks and Collectors but had never seen an actual zombie just only in the movies. She observed her surroundings and saw large sign that said "Willamette Mall."

"Holy shit. Where am I?"