Chapter 9

"Wake up Commander." Shepard stirred groggily. "Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now - this facility is under attack."

Not dead. That's... unexpected. Shepard thought as she fought to focus her thoughts.

"Shepard. Your scars aren't healed, but I need you to get moving. This facility is under attack." Shepard sat up slowly, trying to get her bearings.

Garrus and I were messaging each other...

Kaidan kept invading my personal space and I almost decked him...

We were attacked...

I died.

Apparently I only nearly died. Cool.

Once she had collected her thoughts she began to wonder where she was and how long she'd been out for. How had they found her? Who were they?

"There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!" Shepard groaned as she stood up. She hated pistols. They didn't have enough power to them. She might as well just keep to her hand-to-hand and biotics. "Grab the armour and pistol from the locker. We don't have time to wait around Shepard." Whoever this voice belonged to needed to chill out, she decided. The armour was nice, nicer than she was used to at any rate. The pistol on the other hand... she had seem schematics for a disposable heat sink system but she had never seen it actually applied to a weapon before. Again, she wondered how long she'd been out for.

"This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip." She pointed out to the voice.

"It's a med-bay Shepard." The voice countered and she sighed in response.

"By that logic there shouldn't even be a pistol here... I don't suppose by any chance you have my glasses around here?" There was a few moments of silence as Shepard finished putting on her armour and tied her hair up in a bobble she had found in one of the locker's drawers.

"I think we have more important things to worry about right now!" The voice exclaimed but Shepard shrugged.

"Just thought I'd ask." She was going to be so annoyed if she had to buy new frames and start from scratch.


Shepard fought her way through the mechs, pretty much ignoring her pistol in favour of her fists. Luckily for her, the mechs weren't fast enough to even dream of being a challenge. She was much happier once she picked up a grenade launcher but she still felt weird. Off. Something inside her was tugging at her, begging to be noticed but she couldn't decide what it was so she ignored it. She encountered files as she moved through the facility and they didn't paint a pretty picture. She had assumed that she had been retrieved just after she'd blacked out but by the look of things she'd been clinically dead for a while. Not that it really mattered, her brain had been preserved so it didn't really matter what had happened to the body. Although, she began to wonder more on the time frame of her 'reconstruction' as she saw more and more pieces of technology that seemed a little too advanced.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she ran into Jacob. He seemed alright but she still didn't know who these people were so she fell back into familiar territory; stay quiet, don't let on how much you know and observe. She stayed that way as they fought through the facility and met up with Miranda. Her tactics seemed even more appropriate once she learnt who exactly had gone to the trouble of rebuilding her. She was used to not trusting others and not letting them get close but the isolation only made the hole in her heart more apparent and she wondered where Garrus was now.


The Illusive Man pissed her off. Not that she was going to let him know that. He played her own game a little too well for her liking. They both said little, expecting the other to reveal everything in return. But she knew this game well, it only worked if you were telling at least a partial truth so she believed that he was telling the truth when it came to defeating the Reapers. Plus, his logic was sound and he seemed intelligent. Intelligent enough to not underestimate her, which she wasn't used to. So, with that in mind, she had agreed to go to Freedom's Progress.

She kept up her silent-unless-necessary act with Miranda and Jacob. They seemed a little disquieted by it but they followed her orders nonetheless. So, it had shocked both of them when they encountered Tali and Jane had started speaking excitedly. She hadn't really expected Tali to agree to join her but she'd had to ask. It had been nice to see her regardless and if Jane had had any doubts about their friendship post-rebuild, they were squashed when Tali had lowered her voice before she left to give her the information she'd been desperately craving without her even asking.

"None of the old gang have seen him since your funeral but I've been keeping track of his omni-tool, making sure he didn't kill himself. He keeps it too well encrypted for me to get a location but he's alive."

"Thank you, Tali." She choked a little as tears threatened her composure. She'd already known that he was alive but to hear it confirmed by someone else lifted her spirits. Although, she was careful to not let Cerberus see that.

Once again she and the Illusive Man had danced with their words but this time she wasn't just sizing him up. She needed information and he had it but she couldn't let him know exactly what information she was trying so hard to get. So, she told him she wanted her old team back, not a lie but she really only wanted back Tali, Wrex and Garrus. Kaidan was a good soldier but hardly unique and as much as she liked Liara, she wasn't the most skilled fighter. But she asked about all of them, carefully keeping her voice neutral when she asked about Garrus. But they'd moved on. It had been two years and the world had moved on without her, leaving her in an all too familiar position.

Since boarding the new Normandy Shepard had kept to her quarters. She was glad to have Joker and Chakwas aboard, Joker had even returned her glasses to her in an attempt to say sorry of getting her spaced (not that she had ever blamed him), but she still didn't trust Jacob and Miranda fully. Jacob seemed like a decent guy but decent guys didn't work for terrorist organisations. Miranda was one of those women that Jane could never quite figure out but she was tempted to give her the benefit of the doubt. She just couldn't bring herself to deal with them yet, she didn't trust her own judgement enough and both Joker and Chakwas were still forming opinions. EDI, on the other hand, Jane liked. People were difficult and confusing to read but AI? She didn't trust her exactly but she could predict what the AI would do much better than she could her human counterparts. Although, she had disabled all listening devices in her quarters. She figured she couldn't be too careful on a Cerberus ship.

They were headed to Omega and Jane figured that she should be sleeping but she couldn't. She was filled with nervous energy and every second spent without her mind being occupied was a second the tugging feeling was brought to the forefront of her mind. She decided to go and see Joker, just to talk to someone for a while but before she left her quarters she figured that if she was going to deal harshly with Cerberus, she'd have to dress the part...

AN: My chapters have been longer recently but this one was just about bringing Jane back so it's shorter again. Next chapter should be up soon. Hope you enjoyed!