I'd had this scene floating around in my head for months before I finally got around to typing it out. I'm excited to see how it goes over!
I hope you enjoy!
Soft footsteps awoke the Argonian. Judging from the darkness that still crowded her room and the lack of the usual sounds that accompanied the daytime bustle of the castle, she guessed it was still late into the night. That's why the sounds of movement had awoken her; they were a stark contrast to the standard of what should be.
She slowly rose from her bed and pulled her sword off the side table. She paused and thought for a moment that perhaps she should put on some armor, but she knew it would be much too loud if she wanted to sneak up on the intruders. Crouching, she crept silently to the door of her room and lightly pushed it open. Hushed whispers flowed in through the crack.
"Well, where would she be?"
"I don't know! We don't have maps of this place!"
"Hm, perhaps this was not the best way to go about this…"
"Hey, this is the only way I could think of to get in since the guards have some weird vendetta against us. Maybe you should have come up with a better idea!"
"Now is not the time to get hostile!"
She couldn't quite place it, but the voices seemed familiar. As Analyn continued to listen to their conversation, she slowly moved closer to where it originated from; a few feet down the hallway past her door. Turning a corner, she saw three figures hunched down in the shadows: the source of the voices.
"We might as well leave before we get caught."
"You're right, we can regroup and-"
Raising her sword, she threw a Mage Light in front of her, over the heads of the intruders. Standing tall, and pointing her blade directly at where she estimated their heads should be, she yelled, "If you wish to keep your lives, surrender now!"
Shocked faces and drawn weapons greeted her statement. Wait, what kind of weapons were those...
Analyn's eyes connected with those of the person closest to her. Green eyes. Ones she had seen before.
"What the fuck?!" The Dragonborn exclaimed.
"Good to see you, Analyn" Shepard stood and holstered her gun.
"What the actual fuck?" Analyn backed up until she hit the wall behind her, sword arm now slightly shaking, but still pointed defiantly at the people before her.
"I have a lot to-"
"No shit! You were dead! I mean, I saw-"
"Me die? Yeah, that's part of what I have to say."
The distant sound of guards shouting broke the moment.
Analyn quickly sheathed her sword and grabbed Shepard by the arm. "We need to go; you don't want to be found here." She sprinted back through the hall to her room, practically dragging the Commander, with the heavy treading behind her indicating that the others were following.
After they were all inside her chambers, the Argonian slammed the door shut behind them. "Ok, you better tell me EXACTLY what the FUCK is going on right this goddamn second!" She screamed quietly. Her head was a mess of roiling thoughts and emotions; she had spent the last two years dealing with the fallout this woman had caused to her life.
"Ok, ok, I understand you're upset, you have every right to be." The Commander took a deep breath, and looked the Argonian in the eyes. "A group named Cerberus revived me, rebuilt me, after the destruction of the Normandy. That's why I'm here, alive."
Analyn took in a breath and slowly let it back out. "Ok, don't really know who that is or how they even managed that, but I'll ignore that for the sake of… well for the sake of not needing to know, I guess."
"You'd know what dying and coming back is like huh?" Analyn noticed that one of the others was Garrus, the Turian, for the first time in all of the commotion when he spoke.
"Yes, but that was for ten minutes." Analyn replied to his remark, then redirected her attention on the previously deceased woman, "Shepard, you've been dead for two years; there's a big difference." Analyn narrowed her eyes. "Speaking of which, I doubt you're here on a courtesy call; Alliance wouldn't really appreciate that, now would they? What's the real reason for you coming here?"
"Actually, about that, I'm not with the Alliance anymore" Shepard admitted.
To be fair, those words shocked Analyn more than those about coming back from the dead. "What? I thought they were your life! You are a military woman, through and through."
"I'm still dead to them. Besides, for what I need to do, it's better this way."
"And what is it you need to do? I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the Alliance, but I knew how important that was to you, and for you to drop that, whatever is going on must be Saren-levels of serious."
"That's an interesting way to put it, but in a way you're right. Human colonies have been vanishing, presumably at the hands of a mysterious race called the 'Collectors', and I need to find out some way to stop them."
"Vanishing like attacked? Doesn't that sort of stuff happen all the time living on the frontier?"
"No, vanishing like all of the inhabitants are gone. Taken away by something no one knows. All the structures remain intact, and there are no signs of conflict at all. There's never anyone left, either."
"Huh, sounds like quite the mystery. I have many talents, but I readily admit solving mysteries isn't really one of them."
"I could still use you on my team. You're an asset, no matter what anyone else says, and whenever I end up confronting the cause of all this, I want you by my side." Shepard extended her hand. "What do you say?"
Hope viciously tore its way through the walls Analyn had built up in her heart. The temptation of running back off into the stars was ridiculously enticing. She could have the life she dreamed of back; she could live some of the best times in her life over again.
The Argonian barely managed to tie down this train of thought, frantically shutting herself down. No matter how enticing the stars were, she knew her place. No matter what happened, she would end up right back here, right back in the same position she was in two years ago, and it would just hurt even more. "I-I'm sorry, Shepard, but I can't. I'm the Jarl now; I have responsibilities. I can't just go gallivanting around like before, as much as I really want to."
The Commander's shoulders sagged slightly. "I understand. You can't just drop your duties at a moment's notice."
Analyn placed a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to come all the way out here just to be rejected."
"No, no it's ok. Worth it just to see the scenery again." She managed a smile; the Argonian could tell it was a forced one.
A knock came at the door. "Hold on a moment," Analyn called out and gestured for the others to be silent and get against the wall near the door.
When she opened the door, three of her yellow-clad guards greeted her. "Jarl Analyn!" They briskly saluted. "We heard a commotion and found signs that someone broke into the palace. Are you alright?"
"Yes, yes, I'm fine."
"You wouldn't happen to have seen or heard anything?"
"I'm afraid not, men. Have you checked to see if anything was stolen?"
"No ma'am, we'll get right on that." They saluted again, and walked away to most likely make similar inquiries to the others living in the palace.
With a small sigh of relief, Analyn turned back to the aliens in her room.
Garrus crossed his arms and commented, "it looks like it'll be harder for us to get out than it was to get in."
Analyn absentmindedly scratched the base of one of her horns. "Yeah, you're probably right." She got her thoughts in order for a moment, then spoke again, "You're definitely going to need my help."
"What's the plan?" Shepard asked.
A mischievous grin formed on the Argonian's face. "You can use my tried and true method I like to call 'wait for people to calm their shit then turn invisible and quickly run away'!"
"Quite the title." Garrus chuckled.
Shepard smiled at the joke, but her face quickly returned to its naturally serious form, "That sounds great, but how do you expect us to handle the 'turn invisible' part? We don't have-"
"Ah, ah, ah! I've got you covered!" Analyn cut her off and jogged over to her alchemy table and dug around in the box of potions she kept next to it.
She turned back around with three large, off-white bottles in her arms. "Now that I've got a more… settled lifestyle, I have a lot of unused potions lying around." She gave each squad member one of the bottles. "Drink these and you'll be completely invisible for about a minute and a half as long as you don't touch anything or attack anyone."
"Those seem like slightly arbitrary rules." Garrus remarked. "And is a minute and a half going to be long enough?"
"It should be, if you go quickly. As long as you can make it to some back alley, you'll be fine." Analyn's brow furrowed as a thought came to her. "Wait a minute, why did you have to sneak in here in the first place? The guards can be jerks, but they should've let you in. I hold open audiences with anyone who wishes to speak to me."
Shepard made a face. "I'm not sure, they said we looked like some people who had come before us and caused trouble."
"Specifically pointing out the logo of the Cerberus group." The unfamiliar Salarian added. In the whirlwind of events she had hardly even noticed he was there, let alone be introduced to him.
The dragonborn furrowed her brow. "What logo?"
Shepard gestured to a small black and orange symbol on her clothing. "This one. Has Cerberus come here before?"
It made the Argonian's stomach shrivel, and her blood start wildly flooding her veins. "Yeah you're goddamn right I know that logo. That exact symbol was on the outfits of these two humans who came here a few months ago."
Shepard's expression turned to one of concern. "What did they do? They better not-"
"I'd rather not talk about it. Suffice to say, they have been permanently banned from my hold and if I see their faces here again, if I see their faces anywhere again, you can be damn sure they won't get away from me again."
The questions still obviously burned inside the Commander's mouth, but she refrained from asking them. "I see, I'm sorry. I'm going to have a conversation with a few people when I get back."
"You're actually working for them?" Analyn's brief hope that Shepard was just undercover flitted away.
"Well, yes, but not because I want to. I don't agree with their methods, but they're my only option right now for-"
"Don't trust them. You'd better not trust them."
"I-"
"Promise me you won't let them change you." Analyn's golden eyes directly met Shepard's emerald green ones.
"I promise." The Commander extended her hand, which Analyn took, then pulled the other woman into a tight, friendly hug.
When they stepped apart, Shepard spoke again, "before I forget, I have something to give you." She reached behind her, and handed a slim, black bracelet to Analyn. "This is an omni tool, you can use it to contact us if anything happens, or if Cerberus returns."
Analyn took it and snapped it onto her wrist. "Thank you!" She rotated her arm, admiring her new gear. "To be honest, I've always kinda wanted one." She smiled as the translucent orange interface formed around her forearm.
"It sounds like the guards have settled." The Salarian commented.
"If you want to get out before the daytime routine starts, you'd best get going." Analyn replied.
Shepard nodded. "You're right. Thank you, for everything."
"You too, be safe while you're out there saving the galaxy."
"I will."
…
2 Years Ago
Most of them had scattered when they got aboard; the Commander saying that she would be back shortly, the Lieutenant giving a curt nod and handshake, followed by a brisk, but not unkind, welcome, the Krogan gruffly slapping an affable farewell to the back with a promise for a fight later, and the Turian asking about some lessons later with the bow.
The Quarian and the Asari had stayed with Analyn as the others left to go check on things.
"Are you excited to meet the rest of the crew?" A slightly robotic, accented voice inquired, desperate to break the terse silence that had flooded in to fill the absence of the other crew members.
"If that Pressley person is any standard to judge by, not really."
A sigh hissed through the glowing output. "I'm afraid that you might get that reaction a bit more than wanted, but not everyone will think that."
"She's right! They were all extremely welcoming to me!" The soft, kind voice was quick to try and bolster her friend's words. "Well, mostly," was added meekly to the end.
"Don't worry about it; I don't care. Trust me, as a non-human in Skyrim, I've faced my fair share of prejudice. I can handle whatever anyone aboard this 'ship' has to offer."
"Besides, they'll answer to me if they cause any trouble." The Commander had returned, and her stern affect put aside any inhibitions. "Now, let's go to the Comm Room; we need to regroup after that little 'detour'."
Fun fact, the original version of this is written in broken chunks throughout my U.S. History notes (So that my teacher would think I was taking notes but in reality I was writing fanfiction).
Please review and tell me what you think! I always appreciate it!