AN: Fought through a tough writer's block, but alas, Chapter 3 is here, and 4 is under way. Should be getting it up in under a week!

Chapter 3

Shepard busied herself inside the war room with checking up on her effective military strength, waiting until the next inevitable battle. She felt like she hadn't slept in days. Stress and exhaustion sunk their claws deep into her mind, more and more she had to force herself to stay active so that she wouldn't pass out. She kept reminding herself that every life in the galaxy rested in her hands, she wouldn't rest until she knew it was all over. The first step forward was with the new Cerberus agent they had acquired. Perhaps his knowledge and access to their system could give her the upper hand.
There was a light pinch in her mind as the curiosity took over. She wanted to be the first person to talk to the Cerberus agent. She headed out of her room and into the elevator.

As the door hissed open she headed directly towards the medical bay.
"Commander." Chakwas greeted as she walked past studying her information pad.

"How's he doing?" Shepard said, following her stride and into the medical bay. Three doctors worked around a bed obscured by multiple curtains.

"Not too well." Chakwas said, "We haven't gotten too far. The extreme amount of electricity that coursed through him caused some parts of his armor to melt and adhere to his skin. We're doing our best to work around that."

"That doesn't sound too good." Shepard remarked.

"You'd better see for yourself." Chakwas said stepping aside for Shepard to get a clearer view.
She stood there stunned; the man lay there with only the bottom half of his armor removed the upper half was badly burned and melted. Everything looked like it could be repaired without any permanent damage. The other doctors around the man busied themselves with trying to remove the last pieces of the armor before they could proceed with the recuperation of the man's body.

"Have you gotten the helmet off?" Shepard asked pointing to the towel that draped over the man's head.

"Almost there." One of the doctors said as she slowly pulled a pair of scissors across the mesh armor that covered the neck. A light hiss was heard as the helmet was slowly removed.

Shepard's eyes grew wide as she recognized the man's face. "Sean?" She whispered astounded as his head came into view. It was the same oval face, the same square chin, the same dirty-blond hair. No. It can't possible. This was just another of Cerberus' schemes. They made one of their operatives look like Sean to infiltrate the Normandy without her noticing. But it was so familiar. She would be risking killing one of her former squad mates, but she couldn't be sure. She wasn't used to seeing him like this, lying on a table, almost completely devoid of life. He was missing something; perhaps it was his wavery demeanor. She needed to talk to him just to be sure, but she knew it wouldn't be any time soon. She wouldn't let her guard down, not quite yet.

"Commander?" Chakwas said appearing at her side.
Brought back to reality, Shepard turned to the doctor, "What is it?"

"I just got the scans…" There was a momentary pause as Chakwas tried to form a sentence in her mind, "There appears to be something different."

"Different how?" Shepard asked.

Chakwas tapped on the holographic picture on her pad, magnifying the image. Shepard's brow furrowed as her eyes locked onto a metal object grafted to the spine. "We're not entirely sure what this is. Some of the doctors believed this could be a control chip, but there hasn't been any signal going to it or coming from it."

"There's a possibility it may have been overloaded when he was attacked by the assassin." Shepard said, "Is there a way you can remove it, just incase it is reactivated?"

"No. It would be extremely risky. It has been bonded directly to the spine. The only way to remove it would be killing him."

"Doctor. It appears that the chip is trying to reactivate itself." A nurse said from the operating table.

"What is it trying to do?" Chakwas said slowly looking through their medical supplies.

"It looks like it's sending a signal to his heart." the nurse said pointing to the scans.

"Doctor! His heart rate is climbing." One of the doctors yelled frantically moving around the table.

Chakwas quickly sprinted towards the table as Shepard heard the beeping of the heart monitor rapidly increase, like his heart believed he was running a marathon. Blood began to rise under the skin and pour out of his wounds as his heart began to unnaturally beat faster and faster. Blood began to pour off the table and onto the floor, causing Shepard's stomach to turn. She had seen gruesome scenes like this in battle, but seeing someone being killed by their own heart that they couldn't control just rubbed her the wrong way.

"For god's sake, find a way to short out the chip! He won't be able to last much longer!" Chakwas yelled from over the commotion. "Try another dose of the sedative, something to buy us more time."

"Prepping for overload." One of the nurses said. A strong electrical jolt went through Sean's body. His body tensed and jumped up, causing blood to spatter on the curtains and the doctors surrounding him.

"The chip is offline." One of the doctors reported, "and his heart rate is returning to normal."

"Alright, let's clean this place up and keep him under twenty-four hour surveillance, just incase Cerberus tries to pull off another stunt like this."

Shepard took her leave and exited the room. If that person under the mask really was Sean, he wouldn't give up without a fight.

"What's going on in there?" James said nodding towards the Medical bay.

"The Cerberus engineer almost died on us." Shepard responded slowly. Trying to let all the thoughts in her mind settle.

"I don't know if I'm just paranoid, but isn't it a bad idea to have the enemy onboard?" James asked his eyes not leaving the window.

"He's not the enemy. Yet." Shepard said.
"Well how can we be sure?"
"I need to know that he is the same man I met on Omega six months ago." Shepard said pacing back and forth in front of James.

"Are you sure?" James said, a worried tone creeping into his voice, "I mean he did work for Cerberus."
"I will not have you second guessing every one of my decisions, understand Lieutenant." Shepard snapped.

"Yes ma'am." James said instinctively straightening his posture. He then walked off, returning to his cubby in the shuttle bay.

Garrus peaked his head out from the main batteries, "Anything I should know about?" he asked.

"We may be getting a new crew member." Shepard said collapsing onto one of the tables across from the med bay.

"The Cerberus agent?" Garrus said confused.

Shepard pursed her lips together as the thought about what she had just seen inside the med bay.

"Well, whatever decision you choose I'll be behind you." Garrus said resting an assuring hand on her shoulder, "But in the meantime you should get some rest. You've had a very long day and I don't think the Cerberus agent will wake up anytime soon."

Shepard nodded as she slowly returned to her cabin. She flopped onto her bed with a quiet poomf. She didn't bother disrobing; she just closed her eyes.
Within a matter of seconds she was out.

AN: Keep the comments coming! I take every critique into consideration when I'm writing (plus it keeps me in the writing mood for a tad longer)