The light burned her eyes, despite them being closed. Muffled voices came from somewhere around her.

"Something's wrong."

"She's reacting to outside stimuli, showing an awareness of her surroundings."

She gasped as she forced her eyes open, her breath echoing in her ears. Why is it so hard to breathe? Her chest burned with pain on each breath.

"Oh my God, Miranda, I think she's waking up."

She lifted her head as the fuzzy outline of a dark haired woman hovered over her. A pale, bald man soon appeared from the opposite side. When she turned her head, her neck screaming in agony with every small movement.

Where am I?

"Damn it, Wilson, she's not ready yet! Give her the sedative."

She forced her hands up, despite every muscle in her arms screaming in protest. The female blur moved to restrain her.

"Shepard - don't try to move. Just lie still, try to stay calm."

What's happening?

"Heart rate is still climbing. Brain activity is off the charts. She's pushing into the red zone - it's not working!"

"Another dose. Now!"

"Heart rate dropping, stats falling back into the normal range. That was too close, we almost lost her."

Her vision slowly began to fade, blocking out the overpowering light, as she slowly slipped back towards unconsciousness. But...

"I told you your estimates were off. Run the numbers again."

Black filled her vision, until finally, the world disappeared.

The Hazards of Dying

Chapter 25 - Who is Lazarus?

Something shook her, easing her out of her sleep.

"Shepard, can you hear me? Get up now! This facility is under attack."

Shepard's body screamed back at her in protest as she sat up on the bed. What's happening?

"Your scars aren't healed yet, but I need you to get moving." A female voice shouted through a PA system.

Gunfire and explosions were visible though a large window in the side of the room on the wall opposite the only door.

"Where am I? What happened?" Shepard asked, struggling to speak.

"There's a dead guard in the security checkpoint just outside the lab, you can take his gun and armour. Hurry!"

Definitely human, Australian accent. Shepard thought to herself as she slipped out from beneath the thin paper sheet covering her. Her bare feet met a cold metal floor, while a draft through the room from an air recycler made her incredibly aware of her nudity. Waking up naked in a strange lab with no idea how I got here... this can't be good.

"Hurry up, you need to get moving. Now!" The voiced ordered again.

She slipped off the bed, putting her weight onto her legs. Pain surged through them before she collapsed onto all fours with a scream. Realizing her hair hadn't moved, she raised her hands up, running them over her head to find it closely shaven. Did I get caught in a fire?

I know it hurts, but you need to move. Gunfights are happening throughout the station, and a dozen security mechs are converging on your location."

"Alright, I'm moving," Jane managed through gritted teeth as she pushed herself back onto her feet, starting to walk on unstable legs towards the door. She grabbed a bandage roll out of a drawer, tearing of the packaging to secure her chest as she walked through, into the security post. What kind of medical facility has armed guards? Moving quickly and efficiently, Jane finished with the bandage. Satisfied it was secure, she stripped the guard of his hard-suit and sidearm.

She moved to start putting on when she finally noticed the glowing, angry, red scars along her arms. Alarmed, and scared, she quickly began checking the rest of her body, finding them scattered across the rest of her body she could see, mostly located in the rough location of her bones.

"Shepard, I know it's alarming," the Australian woman said over the comm, making her jump. "I promise, I will explain everything when we get you to safety."

"Do you have to watch me the whole time through the cameras," Jane shouted at the nearest one in the corner. When no reply came, she muttered "guess you can't hear me after all," under her breath.

Once dressed, Shepard felt far more comfortable in a white and gold hard-suit, minus the helmet with a single bullet hole in the back. She finally powered the suit's systems back up, sighing in relied when the first aid system administered a dose of medi-gel for what it recognised as wounds, taking the edge off the constant pain they were causing her. Unsurprisingly, the thermal clip in the gun was empty when she checked, since the guard couldn't have seen his attacker.

"Someone's hacking security, trying to kill you. They have complete control of all of the station's security mechs, one is half way up the staircase in the next room. Be careful."

"I'll just have to shoot it then," she said to herself as she stepped through the next doorway. She spotted motion off to the right and quickly dived behind an overturned table in the middle of the room.

A burst of gunfire over the top of the table caught her attention. She looked out from cover, spotting the pistol in the mech's hand. Since when have they made SMG's that size? Using the guard's pistol, she fired two shots into the mech's head, easily disabling it.

"Head up the stairs and follow the corridor around into Lab C. It looks like it's full of incubators," the voice directed.

"You know, you haven't even been kind enough to tell me your name," Shepard moaned as she climbed the stairs, before she spotted a sign saying 'Lab C'.

True to the description, the room was lined with what appeared to be incubators, although each said 'stasis unit' on the side.

"There's five mechs trying to force their way through the doors on the far side of the room."

Shepard looked over at both doors, sparks clearly flying from each door as they were being cut through. Not sure I needed the heads up on this one, thanks. She quickly took cover behind one of the machines filling the middle of the room and waited for the doors to open. As soon as the cutter passed the lock, the door shot open, revealing a crowd of mechs moving into the room. A quick burst of fire from her pistol dropped two of the mechs, leaving only one standing, firing back at her. The other door opened, adding two more on the opposite side of the room. Why does a medical facility need such heavy security?

The three drones quickly fell into a pattern of fire, so that Shepard was constantly under fire from one of the mechs, forcing her to stay in cover while they advanced. Deciding she needed to act, she reached out from the opposite side of her cover to fire a burst of shots at the three mechs. The first grazed the head of one, while the firing drone shifted its target towards he head, forcing her head back into cover as her shield flared. What wouldn't I give for a grenade right now.

As soon as her shield had recharged, she fired another burst at the mechs, hitting one in the chest, and another in the arm, before she was forced back again. She ejected her now full thermal clip, and realized she didn't have any spares, just when she heard an explosion from the other side of the machine. Once she realized that the only gunfire she could hear was in the distance, she looked out to find that the mech she had hit in the torso had been blown apart, with little more than scorched metal and plastic remaining. The two others had been disabled by shrapnel. One was still struggling to reach for its pistol with only one working limb, while the other was slumped limply over a table.

"Who designed these pieces of crap?" She muttered, quickly grabbing any spare thermal clips off the mechs and hurried out of the lab.

The doorway led into a corridor covered in unpowered doors, and thick glass windows holding back flames and several larger mechs. Shepard finally emerged onto a balcony, overlooking what looked like a canteen.

"Shepard, there's a heavy weapons locker to your left, it should be open. Half a dozen mechs are in an elevator car heading towards you. They will arrive at the door on the far side of the room."

"Why the fuck do you people have heavy weapons in a canteen?" Jane asked, feeling utterly confused as she grabbed what looked like a grenade launcher. "Not to mention the mechs armed with machine guns and rocket launchers," she grunted as she lifted the launcher onto her shoulder and aimed it towards the doorway.

Shepard only waited long enough to check her targets for the red lights on their heads before she fired. The drones exploded in a compact fireball, sending fragments into every available surface.

"You need to take the elevator up four levels and-" The signal was cut off by static before the system fell silent.

Great, unknown location, and I'm on my own, Jane complained as she ran into the elevator. Fortunately, the controls and car still worked as it began a rapid ascent, although there was a gentle whistle from several holes where shrapnel had punctured the metal.

The doors slid open onto a walkway through the core of the station. Gunfire from a neighbouring walkway fired across the bridge along the station. Shepard quickly ran out towards the edge of the walled section from the walkway, towards where it opened up into what appeared to be a viewing area. A single man was pinned against the hand rail to her left, dodging fire from three mechs, while trying to take them out with the occasional shot from a pistol.

Shepard fired a volley off, knocking one of the mechs down with her first shot, and leaving a second with only one arm. The two then got pulled over the edge of the banister on their side when a wave of biotic energy from the human pulled them forwards, sending them down into the station's depths. Jane quickly ran to the rail, sliding into place beside the other human.

"Shepard! What are you doing here? I thought you were still a work in progress." The man exclaimed as Jane came to a rest next to him.

"You tell me, I just woke up," Shepard explained as another squad of mechs moved out onto the opposite walkway.

"Sorry, forgot this all has to be new to you," the man sighed. "I'm Jacob Taylor, nice to actually meet you, Commander. Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda woke you up."

"Miranda, the woman with the Australian accent?" Jane asked.

"Ye, that's the one. She was with you?"

"No, she was helping me over the comm, but we lost contact," Shepard explained. "For now though, would you mind filling in some blanks for me, I'm tired of running around with no idea what's happening."

"Fair enough, but we should get you to the escape shuttles," Jacob urged as he emptied his thermal clip into a mech.

"Answers, now!" Shepard insisted as she caused another mech to explode into a shower of scrap.

"I can understand that, but can you shoot and listen?" Jacob said as he dodged a volley of gunfire that was dangerously close to his dead. "Two years ago your ship was attacked and destroyed. You were killed, dead as dead can be when they brought you in here. Our scientists spent the last two years putting you back together. You've been comatose, or worse, that entire time. Welcome back to the world, Shepard."

"Wait... two years? I've been dead for two years?" Shepard asked, stunned. How could I possibly have been dead! "How is that possible?"

"I'm not one of this station's scientists," Jacob answered as Shepard destroyed the last mech. "You'd be better off asking Miranda if you want answers. All I can tell you is that it was cutting edge technology, we had some serious funding."

"Okay, but what happened to my crew during the attack?"

"They survived, most of them. A few crew members and your ExO didn't make it, but your team, all the alien crew members, got off just fine," he explained as he holstered his pistol, relieved to be able to stand up again.

"That should do me for now. Let's go find those shuttles," Shepard stated as she started along the walk way. "So how bad were my injuries?"

"I'm no doctor, but I don't think injuries is the right word. When I first saw you, you were nothing but meat and tubes," Jacob replied casually. "That was the whole point of project Lazarus, to bring you back."

"Okay, so what's the quickest way to those shuttles?"

"That depends where the mechs are the thickest."

"Check, check. Is anyone on this frequency? Anybody still alive out there?" a hushed voice asked over Jacob's omni-tool.

"Wilson, is that you? This is Jacob. I'm here with Commander Shepard. We're in the station's core, level twenty-three. Where are you?" he replied over his comm.

"Shepard's alive? How the hell... never mind. I'm one floor above you in the network control room. You guys need to get up here," the hushed voice said, beginning to sound panicked.

"Okay, we'll be right up there. Just hang tight," Jacob insisted as he started sprinting towards an open doorway. "Come on, Shepard."

"The service tunnels are you safest option," Wilson shouted before a gunshot echoed through the comm, followed by the link going dead.

"I think I remember a Wilson one time when I work up," Shepard panted as she followed Jacob.

"Ye, that's him. Chief medical tech, answers directly to Miranda," he answered as he punched a code into a door lock. The hatch slid open to reveal to some of the stations piping in a crawl way, dimly lit by over head lights. "Ladies first?"

"You'd better get moving then," Shepard stated without moving a muscle.

"Have it your way," Jacob shrugged as he lead the way into the tunnel.

"I'm surprised you've got maintenance access," Jane commented as she carefully eased herself over a pipe surrounded by a cloud of vapour.

"Chief of security. Apart from Miranda, I've got the most extensive access on the station. Even gets me into your room, and you were at the top of list of secure location."

"Nice to feel important," Shepard laughed as Jacob disappeared round a corner. "At least I didn't have too many people staring at me constantly while I was out."

"I wouldn't worry, you only started to look human for the last five or six months," Jacob shouted back at her, "before that, you looked like some sort of extreme burns victim."

"How very reassuring."

The two of them continued until the tunnel opened up in a junction. Jacob crawled out first until the sound of gunfire echoed through the tunnel along with a shout of pain and surprise from Jacob. Shepard hastened her pace, crawling out behind one of the station's main power lines. She quickly threw a medi-gel pack from the guard uniform at the other human and pulled her pistol out towards the source of the gunfire.

"I thought he said these tunnels were safe?" Jane complained as she fired off her first volley.

"I didn't even think the mechs could get into the service areas without direction," Jacob replied as he nursed an injury to his arm.

"You going to be okay?" Jane asked sounding concerned as she took down one of the drones.

"Barely a scratch, I'll get it looked at once we're out of here. For now, just point me at the mechs," Jacob stated before taking a shot over the cable into the head of one of the mechs.

"Who produces these things anyway?"

"Hahne-Kedar, they mostly supply them for basic security to colonies."

"You'd think they could afford to add some more armour," Shepard complained as she blew the last mech apart with a shot to the chest.

"Come on, we need to move," Jacob insisted as he pushed himself up towards a ladder. "They're just made for crowd control, the YMIR series carries more serious firepower, and has a lot heavier armour."

"I think I saw a few of them before I found you," Shepard lamented, thinking of the people she'd seen getting ripped in half by machine guns and missiles. "Why do you guys seem to have such heavy security?"

"Well, in case something like this happens. You got killed once, someone obviously wants you dead," Jacob shrugged as they came to a hatch in the wall. "Here's the server room."

The two of them crawled through the small hatch, finding a room filled with computer servers, finding Wilson clutching his foot against one of the servers.

"I thought you said the tunnels were safe, we ran into a squad of mechs," Jacob complained as he dusted himself off.

"This whole station is crawling with mechs, what are you blaming me for?" Wilson replied defensively.

"I recognize you, you were there the first time I woke up," Shepard commented casually.

"Ye, what of it?" Wilson snapped back. "How about we talk about it once we fix my foot."

"You can take care of it yourself," Shepard said coldly as she threw another pack of medi-gel at the injured man.

"Thanks, never thought you'd save my life. Guess that makes us even." Wilson said sounding relieved.

"It's just a foot, don't get over-excited," Jane groaned.

"I thought maybe I could shut down the security mechs, but whoever did this fried the whole system. Completely irreversible," Wilson explained.

"Why do you even have security mech access, you're a medical technician," Jacob asked sounding confused.

"Weren't you listening? I came here to try and stop this," Wilson snapped again. "Besides I was shot."

"In the foot!" Shepard amended. "Look, I don't trust any of you yet."

"Shepard, if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me?" Jacob ventured.

"Can't hurt," Jane shrugged.

"The Lazarus project, the program that rebuilt you, it's funded and managed by Cerberus," Jacob explained until he found himself staring at a gun barrel.

"I guess I was wrong, it did hurt," Shepard said forcefully through gritted teeth. "Hand over your pistols."

"This is ridiculous, we need to get off this station," Wilson protested as he moved towards the room's exit.

"Don't make me shoot you, Wilson. You complained enough at being shot in the foot."

"Fine," Wilson groaned before throwing his gun at Shepard's feet.

Shepard picked the weapon up after taking Jacob's offered gun from his out stretched hand.

"After you then, Shepard," Wilson offered as he gestured towards the door.

"I don't think so," Shepard stated as she aimed Jacob's gun at him. "After you."

"Just great," Wilson muttered.

"We should try and find Miranda," Jacob suggested.

"Forget about her, she was in D-Wing. The mechs were all over that sector, no way she survived," Wilson blurted.

"A few mechs won't take her down," Jacob protested. "She's alive, I'm sure of it."

"Well, then she's a traitor."

"You're alive, should I assume you're a traitor?" Shepard accused. "Besides, she made sure I survived."

"Fine, so she's not a traitor, but we need to save ourselves." Wilson complained. "The corridor to the right leads directly to the shuttle bay."

"Fine, let's go, but you two are staying in front," Shepard insisted with a pistol aimed at each of them.

Wilson reluctantly lead the way, closely followed by Jacob who at least seemed remotely confident without his gun. True to Wilson's word though, the corridor did go straight to the station's hanger, which was covered in mechs and several dead members of the station's crew.

"You stay here, and wait for me!" Shepard hissed at her two captives as she gave them a threatening glare. Once the two of them nodded she pulled the spare pistol off her hip. "Jacob, keep this, and keep it away from him," she ordered gesturing towards Wilson.

Ignoring the disgusted look on Wilson's face, she quickly ran off towards the nearest mech. Firing as she ran, sparks flew from the chassis as each shot impacted on the inadequate armour. Already firing on the second, she dropped behind a cargo container as the other mechs became aware of the disturbance. Taking advantage of both pistols, and the swarm tactics of the mechs, she kept firing, stopping only to reload when both weapons overheated, quickly destroying the robotic units. Determined to clear out the hanger, she began to advance, following them onto a cargo conveyer built into the hanger's upper walkway. She finally ran out of ammunition as the last mech in sight sent out a shower of sparks from its neck, before collapsing backwards to the deck.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned back towards the walkway, and the two Cerberus members. Before she got halfway, Wilson came into sight at the far end, trying to use a locked door. Without giving a second thought, she holstered one pistol and sprinted towards the suspicious man.

"Come on, the shuttle's just though here," Wilson shouted, waving her over as she neared him and Jacob. The door shot open as he finished hacking the lock, leaving him staring, shocked at the figure standing on the other side. "Miranda! But you're..."

"Dead?" the woman asked in a cold, calculated voice. She raised the pistol up to the man's forehead with a steady hand before putting a round into the man's skull.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jacob shouted as he looked down at the body in surprise.

"My job, Wilson betrayed us all," Miranda replied in a calculate [calculated] tone. "He even tried to kill Shepard... twice."

"So that's why I woke up before," Shepard said thoughtfully as she lowered her pistol. "I had a feeling he was just looking for a chance to shoot me in the back. You didn't have to kill him though, now we don't know why he did it."

"Hmm, good instincts," Miranda commented, her voice actually sounding like she approved. "Some people are far too trusting, but we already know why he did it. The same reason you were killed before." Miranda turned around and started walking towards the only shuttle in the small bay. "Come on, let's get out of here. My boss wants to speak to you."

"I'm not heading anywhere with Cerberus," Shepard stated. I'd rather shoot the lot of you.

"Ah, Jacob. I should have known you'd let your conscience get the better of you. Still, at least you managed to get her here," Miranda drawled.

"Lying to the Commander isn't the way to get her to join our cause," Jacob stated in his own defence.

"I see, well since we're getting everything out in the open, is there anything else you want to know, Commander?" Miranda asked.

"Why me? What could be so important about me that you need to bring me back from the dead?"

"Perhaps you should ask the Illusive Man that when you meet him. He poured practically unlimited resources into this project," Miranda replied, back to her cold even tone, "clearly he has a plan for you."

"I told you before, I've got no interest in dealing with Cerberus," Jane stated.

"Have it your way, but this is the only working shuttle left, and it can only fly to one destination. Manual controls are disabled I'm afraid. See you onboard," Miranda said smugly before walking up to the shuttle's hatch. "Oh, and the station is set to self destruct," she added as an afterthought.

The shuttle cruised away from the station with its three occupants as flames began to pour from the station. The airlocks and weak joints in the structure burst as explosions ripped through the structure, leaving it as burnt wreck when the shuttle jumped away.

"Can't say I'm going to miss that place. I've already had enough of it to last a lifetime," Shepard groaned as she adjusted in her seat.

"Or two in your case," Miranda amended from the opposite side of the passenger area. "Now, before you meet the Illusive Man, we need to ask you a few questions."

"I woke up naked on a weird ass operating table, and I'm the one that needs to answer your questions?!" Shepard snapped.

"We can answer anything you want to know, Commander," Miranda offered politely, "but protocol does say we need to get these answers before I submit you as... the er... finished product."

"Go ahead, but for the record, I am not a slave, or anyone's property. Anyone that tries to make me such is going to find themself with a broken neck," Shepard stated as she glared at Miranda.

"Is it really necessary under the circumstances, Miranda? Shepard took down those mechs like they were wet tissue paper," Jacob offered.

"It's been two years, Jacob. The Illusive Man needs to know that Shepard's memories and personality are still intact. Ask the questions!" Miranda ordered.

"I'm struggling to get my head around this, I was dead, for two years?" Jane asked out of disbelief.

"You were dead for a couple of months. One of our first and hardest tasks was getting you into a relatively stable coma," Miranda replied coldly. "Now will you please ask the questions, Jacob?"

"Fine," Jacob muttered as he turned back to Shepard. "What is your full name?" he asked half heartedly as he opened a file on his omni-tool.

"Jane Hannah Shepard," She yawned in response.

"Date and place of birth?"

"April the eleventh, twenty-one fifty-four. Earth orbit, on board the SSV Mercy," Shepard answered dryly again.

"You really were a true spacer kid," Jacob commented.

"Let's try some life events, what led to your induction into the Alliance N-Seven program?" Miranda asked.

"Killing a fuck load of batarians on Elysium to save a bunker full of civilians, I was twenty-two at the time. The then Commander Anderson put in a recommendation, along with a submission for my entry," Shepard explained.

"Very good," Miranda praised in an unintentional patronizing tone. "Let's try something more recent. When you were chasing Saren Arcturus, on Virmire you had to-"

"Virmire is off limits! Am I clear?" Shepard ground through gritted teeth.

"Absolutely, Commander," Jacob quickly answered. "And, for the record, everyone in Cerberus knows you only did what you had to do."

Miranda gave Jacob a begrudged glance before she looked back to Shepard. "Very well, after you killed Saren, and stopped Sovereign and the geth, the Council offered humanity a seat on the council. Who did you recommend for the position?"

"Captain Anderson, there was never any question on the matter."

"Yes, Captain Anderson is now Councillor Anderson, but from what I hear he preferred life in the military," Miranda commented. "We really should run some more tests."

"Come on Miranda, this is Shepard, and I can vouch for her combat skills personally," Jacob appealed.

"Fine, no more questions," Miranda conceded, "but I want to run a full physical when we get to the station. I want to make sure that the unexpected circumstances of your awakening haven't had any detrimental effects on your body. We weren't planning on waking you for another couple of weeks."

"What did you actually do to bring me back to life?" Jane asked.

"There's a detailed log of my work stored at the station we're going to. It's up to date apart from the last couple of days," Miranda offered." But if you're concerned, you are still you."

"So, I'm not some sort of clone or robot, or some sort of cyborg?" Shepard asked looking worried.

"You're entirely the original you, apart from a cloned lung. These is a significant number of implants now within your body, but they aren't controlling you, and nothing has any way of affecting your brain. I can explain this to you far better during your physical," Miranda offered. "Can you remember dying? The attack? Any of it?"

Shepard paused to think, trying her best to recall events, only able to draw up a blank. "I... can't remember anything about it. The last thing I remember is getting into bed with-one night, and... then waking up in agony in that lab of yours."

"Yes... I now suspect that little... accident of Wilson's, was more of an attempt to kill you. Fortunately, I spent a lot of time double checking his work after that, probably what forced him to create the attack," Miranda theorised.

"Ye... but why don't I remember how I died?" Jane asked sounding slightly withdrawn. "Why don't I remember what killed me?"

"You were dead for two years, and your body went through a lot of trauma after your death. You... suffocated. Our best guess was a damaged O two pipe in your suit. It's not surprising you can't remember what happened given the damage to your brain, just try not to let it bother you."

Miranda actually sounded reassuring for the first time since Shepard had met her. "It's not something to worry about. You might even recall what happened in time."

"How incredibly reassuring," Shepard muttered as she attempted to settle herself down. "How long is this flight anyway? And any chance of an omni-tool?"

"About an hour, and it's probably best if we keep you off the extranet," Miranda stated. "We're trying to avoid the rumours of you being alive and working with Cerberus."

"Not the worst idea I've heard all day," Shepard sighed.

A/N: Now, There's a lot of new and as far as I've been able to tell, one very original idea coming up in the story, so please let me know if you like it, or if I'm going in completely the wrong direction. I promise, I can take a little criticism, just don't expect flowers.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this first chapter, and with a bit of luck, I'll see you all again soon XD