Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendrix

"You are weak. You are helpless."

Sovereign loomed before her, his voice so loud and deep that her entire body shook. She was stripped of all armour and weapons and stood helpless and alone before him.

"We are the vessel of your destruction. We will destroy everything that you love."

The enormous Reaper lifted one of its arms and effortlessly flicked it upwards, sending an incredibly destructive beam to Shepard's left. She heard a blood curdling scream and ran towards it, fear and adrenaline pumping through her. She found Kaiden's dead body at the source of the scream. She picked him up in her arms, her entire body shaking with fear, holding him tight to her.

"I'm sorry, Kaiden..." she muttered into his hair."I'm sorry I couldn't save you..."

"This is just the beginning," Sovereign interrupted, the volume of its voice causing her to jump and almost drop Kaiden. Sovereign was looming closer, his shadow casting over the form of the commander and her dead crew member. "You tried to stop us. You cannot stop us." She stood, still holding Kaiden's limp form in her arms, and began to run away from the massive form of the Reaper as it glided closer and closer. "We will take away everything you love."

Shepard gasped and sat up quickly from her bed, her sheets soaked in sweat. She threw the sheets carelessly off of her body and swung her legs over the side of her bed, holding her head between her legs with her hands behind her neck as she gasped for air, the fear from the night terror seizing her body.

"Kaiden..." she whispered to her knees."I'm so sorry."

Zoey Shepard never cried. Crying was a sign of weakness, and she was the commander of a ship on a vital mission. To her crew she could never show weakness, only strength. Although grief attempted to overtake her, she closed her eyes and took a series of deep breaths to keep her from succumbing to tears.

After several minutes of attempting to clear her mind and body of the pain that was caused by the night terror, she grumbled at EDI, "What time is it?"

"0742 hours, Commander."

She let out an exasperated sigh. This morning had been one of the strangest in recent memory. After waking early for Mordin's news, she had retreated to her quarters for some time to think Mordin's discovery over. Exhaustion had won, however, and she had fallen asleep before being rudely woken by the vision of Sovereign.

To her frustration her stomach grumbled again, and she found herself longing for a session with her treadmill. So she threw her sheets into her laundry chute, sent a message to Kelly Chambers requesting fresh sheets, changed into sweat-proof workout civvies, splashed her face with water, brushed her teeth, and headed into the elevator.

The fridge in the mess was once again frustratingly empty, so she settled on a frozen nutrient-fortified meal of a 'sausage and egg breakfast sandwich' with 'hashbrowns', although she knew everything in the meal had been prepared in a lab. She made small talk with a few members of the navigational crew as she devoured the meal, washing down the sickening aftertaste with a glass of vegetable juice while bidding goodbye to the crew.

When she reached the cargo bay, she was surprised to see Jacob on the treadmill, distracted by a vid playing on the large screen in front of him. "Taylor," she said, nodding to him as she took a seat on the mats.

"Commander, surprised to see you down here so early in the day."

"No rest for the wicked. I hope you don't mind if I listen to music."

"Not at all, Commander, I'm almost finished here."

She slipped in her ear buds and browsed through her music collection, settling on Jimi Hendrix before beginning her stretches.

Her eyes wandered over to Jacob as she began her sit-ups, her glance immediately jerking away when she saw that he was returning her gaze. She realized that he had been sizing her up. Was he evaluating her strength? Or, even more bizarre, checking her out?

She hoped at that moment that he would leave shortly. The last thing she needed was scrutiny from one of her ground crew.

After completing her sit-ups she began her push-ups, her breath moving in rhythm with her up-and-down motions. She was beginning to feel her mind slip into her music when she watched Jacob's running slow down, and he... removed his shirt?!

Shepard gulped, sending her gaze quickly to a point at the mat directly between her hands. She heard him bid her good night in the distance, but she acted as if she couldn't hear him over the music and she simply continued working.

She pondered to herself how strange his actions were as she sat for a moment, sending a message to Miranda to request for her to join her. Shepard had spent her whole life respecting strict rules against fraternization, knowing that it could negatively impact the crew and the mission. She had also grown used to being one of the least attractive women on the ship, so men had often been as interested in her as they were in last week's tuna sandwich. Regardless of whether Jacob had been sizing her up out of mission or romantic interest, rarely had a man looked at her that way before.

Frankly, she wasn't sure if she liked it or not.

Romance was never her primary goal. Friendship and a supportive crew had proven to be all that she needed, not a clingy boyfriend or girlfriend who would demand her attention and who would never understand her absolute focus on her missions.

Often when she was with a group of crew members or friends, relationships or sex lives would come up in conversation. Not wanting to appear to be an outcast, when the question of her love life came up she would mutter about 'one-night stands' and 'men at home'. The truth was, there wasno one. Sex had happened on a few unmemorable shore leaves, but Zoey Shepard never had a relationship.

Not that she would admit that to anyone. Relationships, she found, were a point of pride among groups. She was more proud of her kill count, or an impressive mechanical repair. Her personal life had never been a source of pride, and never would be.

She had been jogging for about ten minutes, her attention absorbed in her thoughts and her music, when Miranda stepped in front of her.

Now that was a woman with pride.

"Shepard," she said, smiling softly and cocking her hip. "You wanted company?"

Shepard paused her music on her omni-tool and pulled out her earbuds. "I'd love some. I was hoping that we'd have a chance to speak in private, actually."

Miranda took a seat at the stationary bike next to Shepard. "Of course, Shepard. What do you need?"

"I'll cut to the point, Miranda. Neither you or I are the type to beat around the bush."

"I can appreciate that." Miranda set a program into the bike and began pedaling.

"Is the bike the secret to your glutes?"

Miranda threw back her head and laughed. "The bike helps, and plenty of squats. But I'm sure we aren't here to discuss my workout routine."

"No, we're not," Shepard conceded with a sigh. "It's about our discussion with the Illusive Man a couple of days ago. I wanted to check with you that you're absolutely certain that you had no idea what was going on with this regeneration matter."

"As I'm sure you can understand, Commander, the Illusive Man is very influential. So when he told me that there was a portion of the project that he wished to oversee personally, I didn't argue. When he insisted that I didn't get involved or ask questions, once again I didn't argue. I respect him and I know that he was just doing what he believed to be best."

"So he told you there was a portion of the project he wished to personally oversee, but you had no idea what it was or how it affected my development?"

"Exactly. I had an idea it was something programmed into your implants, but when it's the Illusive Man, you don't ask questions."

The two women remained in a comfortable silence, and the only sounds in the cargo bay were Shepard's heavy footfalls and Miranda's laboured breathing.

"Miranda, there's something you need to know. I'm telling you this out of respect, but I'm also trusting you with some information of an extremely sensitive nature."

"You can trust me, Shepard."

"I'll have no hesitations about sending you back to the Illusive Man in pieces if word of this gets out without my consent."

"Operative Lawson," EDI interrupted, "Shepard has expressed the same threat to me on several occasions. I would recommend cooperating."

Miranda and Shepard laughed, the somber situation momentarily forgotten. "In all seriousness, Miranda, this is very important to me and I'll be personally offended if word of it gets out."

"If it's important to you, it's important to me."

"Good. After we picked up Mordin, I had him run a few tests on me. Whatever the Illusive Man did, it's created a new type of cell that can repair any cell that is damaged, infected, or aging."

Miranda's eyes went wide as the implications hit her. Shepard heard her let out an uncharacteristic curse.

"I'm glad you understand the gravity of the situation."

Miranda covered her mouth with her hand, shock expressed in her eyes. "God, Shepard, this is... this is huge. How did he hide it from me? And why?"

"I don't know, Miranda, but I'm going to speak to him tomorrow. I just wanted to speak to you first, see if you can give me more information before I confront him."

"I wish I could do more, Commander, but I've already told you everything I know."

Once again the room lapsed into a comfortable silence, both of them lost in their own thoughts. Shepard had a great urge to listen to music again, but she didn't want to be rude to her XO.

"I'm going to leave you to think this one over, Shepard. But any time you need someone to talk to about this, you know where to find me. I assure you this will remain strictly confidential between you and me."

"...And Mordin."

Miranda stood and cocked her hip at Shepard, a sly smile on her face. "Well now I don't feel special anymore." She laughed lightly, giving the Commander a breezy wave as she walked towards the elevator. "Don't work yourself too hard, you'll need your energy when we pick up that krogan."

"You haven't dealt with as many krogans as I have, Miranda. I'm well aware of the energy required to deal with them."

Shepard stood in the comm room, her arms crossed over her chest. Anticipation filled her at the thought of having her questions finally answered.

The Illusive Man accepted her comm wave and she stepped into the holographic imager. Now instead of facing the Normandy's communications room, she was in the Illusive Man's unfamiliar territory. His dark form was silhouetted against a blazing planet, the only distinguishable feature being a white trail of smoke emitting from the cigarette in his hand. There was a flash as he closed the computer in front of him and he turned to face Shepard, his expression masked in shadow.

"To what do I owe you the pleasure, Commander?"

"You owe me an explanation."

He laughed harshly. "I owe you nothing. But go on."

"Mordin performed tests on me." At this, the Illusive Man let out a soft 'ahh'. "He has informed me that there is a new type of blood cell in my body. A type of cell that can repair any damaged cell." She cocked her head to the side, exasperation clear in her tone. "Care to explain?"

He turned away from her, facing the planet again. "So you've discovered Pluvia. Mordin is a smart man."

"Can't argue with that."

"I didn't think he'd figure everything out so quickly."

"You're avoiding my question."

He stood and began slowly pacing around the room, taking a sip of his amber liquid. He stepped out of the shadows, analyzing her with his eerily blue cybernetic eyes. "Do you really think we would have spent billions to bring you back to life without ensuring that we kept you that way?"

"But this cell... It can be a gift! We can re-engineer it for all the alien races, this can be the end of the Collector threat and the Reaper threat, it-"

He held his hand up to silence her. "This is only for you, Shepard."

She took an affronted step back, her eyes growing wide with shock. "Excuse me?"

"You're the only one who won't be dying."

Shock was replaced with disgust. "Why?"

He faced the planet and held his arms wide. "Do you really think any of these people are important? Do you think anyone other than you and I will be humanity's salvation? You're the only one who matters, Shepard, the populus are lemmings following your lead. The only thing we need to save humanity is you, alive. We brought you back knowing that humanity needs you. We're keeping you alive knowing that you're the only one who can save them."

"But if we have this technology, why can't we mass produce it? You won't need me if people can stay alive of their own accord."

He turned to face her, his eyes blazing fiercely. "You think these pathetic lemmings can stand for themselves? Of course they can't. Can you even fathom what the world would turn into if every being - every single one - would be incapable of dying? It would be utter chaos!"

The two of them stared each other down. "Besides," the Illusive Man continued. "This technology is part of your implants. Implants which required billions of credits and for you to be dead. It would be impossible to mass produce this technology, unless you suggest killing every human one-by-one and bringing them back from the dead just like we did with you.

"So for one second, Shepard, instead of complaining that Cerberus didn't do enough for the galaxy, be grateful that we did more than enough for you."

She leaned forward so she could be as close to him as possible. "Then why the secrecy? Why hide it from Miranda?"

"You really think I trust her with something this important? You're so naive, Shepard. The only person you can trust is yourself."

"My mother once told me that I should not be quick to judge if someone deserves life or death. What gives you the right to change the course of the rest of my life?"

He walked up to her hologram, his face almost rabid with anger. "This isn't about you, this is about humanity!"

Shepard saw that his breathing was heavy from exertion and he walked over to his chair, resuming his normal position. "I thought you'd be here to thank me, Commander. If you aren't going to do that, get out of my sight."

"I'll gladly oblige to that."

Fuming, she stepped out of the holographic imager.

This mission just got a lot more interesting.