A/N: Thank you SerenityFalconNormandy, Vorcha Girl, skywalker-hiddleston, Impslave, Vicky, jediserenity82 and Kirabaros for your reviews on the last chapter. I'm pretty nervous about this chapter. I know many of you were hoping for a filler chapter showing Kaidan on a N-School mission, or possibly practicing how to Reave, and I would have loved to give you that, but I have to apologize right here for not being able to deliver. This chapter is a Nick chapter.
I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
Chapter 37. Lazarus Station, 2185
Pain was the first thing Shepard felt.
Throbbing red-hot pain.
Stabbing needles of agony.
She heard people calling her name, their tone panicked, and she opened her eyes to bright neon lights and the image of a woman bending over her.
Blackness took her again just as she started to push through the pain.
Some time later she heard her name being called again, and again, and could almost have sworn it was the husky voice of her lieutenant.
"Wake up, Commander!"
The call was repeated and slowly she realized it was not Kaidan, but the voice of a woman. An unknown woman. The air smelled of strongly of antiseptics, sharp and slightly unpleasant. Confused, she opened her eyes to bright neon lights and found herself in a sterile lab, the distant sound of explosions peppering the air.
Where the hell am I?
Shepard winced. Her face ached as if it were raw and bruised, and a sharp pain stabbed at her side. She cursed quietly, rolling into a sitting position, and a wave of nausea hit her as she stumbled to her feet. Her gaze slid around the unfamiliar room, searching for a surveillance camera, and landed on a symbol she couldn't place.
"Commander Shepard, do you hear me?" the woman's voice called over the intercom again. "You must get out of that bed, the facility is under attack! There's a locker with armor and a pistol on the opposite side of the room. You have to get moving!"
No, she had heard that voice before. She had heard that voice the last time she woke up; before unconsciousness had taken her again.
Nick stumbled across the room on legs that shook like jelly, her muscles aching and stiff. With fumbling hands she opened the locker and found the promised N7 armor within. And a pistol. She stripped out of the hospital gown she was wearing,pulled on the under armo,r, then dressed in the armor itself. More than once she wished Kaidan were there to help her suit up as her fingers struggled with the release catches.
It fit perfectly.
A frown spread on her face as she took the sidearm; she had little love for pistols and it felt almost foreign in her hands.
Kaidan, this is more your thing. Where the hell are you?
The voice interrupted her thoughts again. " …Somebody's hacking security trying to kill you. You need to find a thermal clip. There aren't any in the medbay."
"What the hell is a thermal clip?" Nick mumbled under her breath, her voice sounding hoarse and rusty. Irritation flooded through her.
What was this place, and where was her team?
Bit by bit memories drifted to her consciousness. She remembered being back on the Normandy after a very memorable shore leave. She remembered waking up in Kaidan's arms after a passionate night and kissing each other good morning before he left her cabin. After that … she wasn't sure. An attack?
She spotted something on the floor that looked almost like an old-fashion magazine, and inserted it into the slot of her pistol. There was a satisfying click as it snapped into place.
The door opened to a large foyer, and she ducked into cover when she heard movement. Peaking carefully over the crate Nick realized there was only one other door, and she had to get to it; there was no other exit. A security mech stood at the top of the stairs leading to the door, scanning the room vigilantly.
She gripped the pistol firmly with both hands and took a deep breath before popping out of cover to take out the hostile. The first shot went wide and the recoil was stronger than expected, costing her a precious second as the mech advanced on her. She fired several rapid shots and finally it collapsed.
"Bloody hell," Nick muttered as she advanced to the next room, rolling her shoulders. The unknown voice warned her of incoming tangos, and Nick dove into cover just in time as several hostile security mechs entered through the opposing door.
After she dispatched the hostile mechs and their pieces lay scattered on the floor, Nick advanced again, checking every corner and nook for unpleasant surprises. Following the bodiless voice's advice she took an elevator to a lower deck. The air was acrid, smelling of smouldering circuits and burnt rubber, and breathing was made difficult by the smoke and heat of multiple fires.
A cloud of pungent fumes filled the air, and she gagged.
Catching her breath, she listen to several voice logs on active terminals; one was the same voice leading her through the station.
"Progress is slow, but subject shows signs of recovery. Major organs are again functional, and there are signs of rudimentary neurological activity."
Contemplating what she had heard on the voice logs, Nick entered a passage with two balconies. A human male surrounded by a flickering corona of biotic blue was busy shooting at mechs on the farther balcony. At the sound of the door the man ducked into cover, and turned around to see who was coming.
"Shepard? What the hell … ? I thought you were still a work in progress," he exclaimed, his jaw dropping.
Work in progress?
"Things must be pretty bad if Miranda's got you running around," the man continued.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Nick growled.
The man blinked. "Right … you probably don't remember what happened. But listen, this isn't the greatest time. I'll explain more once we reach the shuttle. I'm Jacob Taylor, by the way."
"No!" Nick shook her head. She wanted to know what was going on, and she wanted to know now.
Jacob glanced at the far side of the room. "Alright. I'll give you the quick version. The Normandy was attacked and destroyed, and you were killed. When they brought you here you were as dead as dead can be. Our scientists spent the last two years putting you back together. You've been comatose, or worse, the entire time."
The blood drained from Nick's face, and she held onto the banister to steady herself as the words registered in her mind and her thoughts reeled.
Two years? She had been gone for two years?
She was going to be sick.
"Two years?" she whispered hoarsely.
"Two years and twelve days, to be exact, and you were on the operating table most of the time." Jacob clarified.
Nick swallowed. "Were there any other survivors?" she asked, her heart hammering in her throat.
Visions fleeted through her head in a split second, and her stomach rolled as more memories returned.
Explosions shook the Normandy as she readied the distress beacon and the sound of somebody running up behind her caught her attention.
"Shepard!" Kaidan's voice reached her ears, sounding relieved to see her. "Do you think the Alliance will get here in time?"
She remembered ordering him to get the crew to the EVAC shuttles, and then going to get Joker.
She remembered hauling the helmsman to the escape pod by the cockpit when the next attack hit, causing the Normandy to break apart.
Taylor began to reply when more mechs entered the chamber. He looked at the hostiles, and back at Shepard. "Help me finish off these mechs, and I'll play Twenty Questions with you all day. I'm a biotic, so it doesn't matter how many thermal clips we have." He grinned confidently. "I can hit them with the good stuff anytime."
Grinding her teeth, Nick joined him, and a few moments later the hostile mechs were smoking piles of electronic scrap. She turned to face him as soon as the last tango crumpled.
"Now answer my question. Who made it off the Normandy?"
"Just about everybody survived," came the answer. "A few servicemen from the lower decks didn't make it out, and of the officers only Navigator Pressley was killed in a blast. Everyone else made it out alive."
Shepard took a deep breath, and nodded. Looking around she considered her next steps. As much as she wanted to know more about what happened to her crew - to Kaidan - , and where they were now, it was paramount to get off this station. Nodding her head towards the exit she told Taylor to lead the way to the shuttles.
There would be more time for questions later. For now she knew most of her crew had survived; she knew that Kaidan was alive. Until they were in safety that had to suffice.
They had barely reached the door when another voice called over the comm system. The man on the com - Jacob called him Wilson - sounded surprised when Taylor mentioned she was with him, and then quickly told them to head for the network control room.
When they reached Wilson he was sitting on the ground clutching his leg. Shepard grabbed some medigel from a first aid station on the opposite wall and administered the medigel. Wilson explained that he had tried to shut down the security mechs after they attacked. She couldn't help but notice that Jacob seemed confused about this, and she frowned when he asked Wilson why he such security mech clearance, and then suggested they find Miranda.
"Forget about Miranda," Wilson said. "She was over in D wing, and that sector was swarmed by mechs. No way she made it out of there."
Jacob Taylor scoffed. "Miranda won't be stopped by a few mechs."
"Where is she then?" Wilson demanded. "I say there are only two possibilities. Either she's dead, or she's a traitor."
Shepard wiped all discussions aside.
"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. All I know is that she helped me. I assume she was the one to warn me of the attack." Shepard looked from one man to the other, her eyes cold. "I don't know either of you, and I don't trust either of you. But for now I don't have a choice, so I suggest we just get moving. The sooner I get off this station, the better." This whole place rubbed her the wrong way.
Without another word she turned towards the far door just as a number of mechs entered the room. Cursing she dropped to cover as the first shots fell. An explosion shook the room as Wilson overloaded a number of crates stacked at the center of the room, taking out the mechs.
They waited for the smoke to clear before moving on, but had only taken a few steps when Jacob Taylor spoke again.
"Shepard, if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me?"
The other man rounded on the biotic for bringing the subject up, but Taylor countered they wouldn't have a chance otherwise. Shepard watched the exchange warily.
Taylor turned to face her again and began explaining. "The Lazarus Project, the project that rebuilt you, is funded and controlled by Cerberus."
Cerberus.
Her thoughts immediately turned to the marines on Edolus, to finding Admiral Kahoku's body at a research facility on Binthu, to all the experiments that had been done with the Thorian and with Rachni, to finding Toombs on Ontarom.
To Akuze.
She gripped the pistol tightly to keep her hands from shaking and forced herself to take a deep breath. Her nostrils flared as she exhaled slowly.
"Look," Taylor's demeanor was placating, "I'd be suspicious too, but first let's get off this station. I'll take you to the Illusive Man, he'll explain everything."
"I'm not working with the terrorists responsible for luring Alliance marines into thresher nests or for using hapless civilians for their experiments," Shepard spat, raw anger coursing through her veins.
Taylor held up his hands. "Tell that to the boss. I'm sure he'll explain everything to you. The shuttle bay isn't far off anymore. Just through the hall, down a flight of stairs and through a cargo room."
Wilson began hacking the door, assuring her they were almost there. The door slid open, revealing a dark-haired woman. Her eyes narrowed as soon as she spotted them.
"Miranda!" Wilson exclaimed. "But you were -"
A shot sounded and Wilson slumped to the ground. The woman, Shepard assumed it was Miranda, stood over him. "Dead?" she finished.
Shepard instantly trained her pistol on Miranda as she informed them that Wilson was the traitor that had hacked security, killed the staff, and surely would have tried to kill Shepard if left alive.
"And I've spent too much time bringing you back to let that happen," the Cerberus officer stated clearly. "Now let's get to the shuttle."
"Yeah," Shepard muttered. "I've had enough of this station to last a lifetime."
"Or two, in your case," Miranda countered. "Come on."
Shepard stopped again before getting into the shuttle and turned to Miranda. "You're the director of Lazarus Project aren't you?"
"Yes," she answered. "I put two years of my life into it. Into you. And Cerberus spent a virtually unlimited amount of credits to make it possible."
"Why? And what does Cerberus want from me?" Shepard made no attempt to hide the venom in her voice when she named the human-centric organization.
"You'll have to ask the Illusive Man when you talk to him," Miranda told her as she boarded the shuttle.
"And where are we going?" Shepard asked, one foot on the threshold.
"Another Cerberus Station, Commander. The Illusive Man wants to talk to you."
Nick hesitated a fraction of a second before climbing aboard. She didn't like it, but she had little other choice. Sitting down opposite from Miranda she leaned back and looked out of the window while Jacob started the shuttle. The sound of Jacob sitting down next to Miranda pulled her out of her thoughts, and she turned to face the Cerberus operatives when Miranda insisted she answer questions about her past. The questions ranged from her childhood to her military career, including the Blitz and Akuze.
Shepard answered them warily, but her temper rose when Miranda asked about Akuze.
"You have no right - no right, you hear me? - to ask about Akuze!" she hissed. "Fifty marines gave their life that day thanks to your precious organisation, and you have the gall to ask me questions about it?! I think not!"
To her surprise they relented, asking only one more question about whom she had appointed as human councilor.
"Captain Anderson," Shepard answered curtly.
Obviously satisfied Miranda nodded. "Yes, Captain Anderson is now Councilor Anderson, but I hear he favored military life."
A pang of guilt stirred in Shepard. She knew Anderson would always prefer military life to that of a politician. She sighed quietly, and returned her gaze back out of the window.
Standing in the doorway, Nick stared into the windowless room and wondered where she was supposed to meet the Illusive Man. Miranda had sent her down this way, and this had been the only open door. The room wasn't very large, and it was empty. The only noticeable thing was the circle on the ground almost at the center of the room, and the same structure just above it on the ceiling. She stepped into the circle.
When the connection to the Illusive Man was established Shepard crossed her arms in front of her, and her lips pulled into a sneer.
"Illusive Man." Disdain dripped from every syllable. "I thought I'd be meeting you face to face."
He took an infuriatingly slow drag from his cigarette. "A necessary precaution."
Shepard shifted her stance and listened while the Illusive Man told her of whole human colonies vanishing and the indication that it was somehow linked to the Reapers. She didn't like that she had to work with Cerberus, but for now she saw no alternative. For now she had an assignment and a destination.
"What was the other thing you wanted to tell me?" she inquired.
Another slow drag which made her want to swat the cigarette out of his hand. "I've found you a pilot. Someone you can trust." He severed the connection and she heard footsteps approaching.
"Hey Commander," a familiar voice said. "Just like old times, huh?"
She turned around and found herself face to face with Joker, momentarily lost for words. Then she said quietly, "Not quite."
The helmsman cast her an uncertain look as they walked out of the comm room.
"I'm surprised to see you here," she went on. Joker understood the unspoken question and explained how things had fallen apart after her death; how the Council and the brass continued ignoring all evidence they had about the Reapers.
"Then the Alliance grounded me, took away the thing I loved most," he continued as they walked to a large window. "Hell yeah, I joined Cerberus. They brought you back, they're letting me fly, and then there's this."
The lights outside the window turned on, one after the other, revealing a large hangar with a single vessel.
"Wow," Shepard whispered at the sight of the shiny, new frigate. She was larger than the Normandy - about half the size again, Nick noticed right away, but Cerberus had kept the turian design. For some reason she found that amusing.
A small smile played on her lips as she turned to her helmsman. "Guess we'll have to give her a name."
An hour later Shepard sat in the shuttle to Freedom's Progress together with Miranda and Jacob.
"We collect all data we can find," she reminded them as they got ready to disembark the shuttle. "And help any survivors we come across."
The colony seemed deserted at first, but as they stood outside the shuttle sounds of shots being fired reached their ears. Shepard pulled the shotgun she had picked out on the station earlier. It wasn't as good as her old HMWSG X, but it was better than nothing.
They passed through the first prefab to the yard below their landing place, and carefully approached the next door. It opened to reveal two hostile LOKI mechs on a balcony opposite of the door and a total of four more mechs on their side. The FENRIS mechs proved to be challenging, but at last all mechs were disabled, and Shepard turned to Miranda.
"You're a sentinel?"
The Cerberus officer gave her a strange look. "Is that a problem, Shepard?"
Nick shook her head, heading towards the next prefab. "Not at all, I like to have a sentinel along. It seems to suit me."
They continued along the balcony and entered a building - and stumbled upon several quarians huddled around an omnitool. The quarians pulled their weapons instantly when a familiar voice intervened.
"Prazza! You said you'd let me handle this!" Tali pushed the other quarian's weapon away and turned to face them. "Shepard?!" Disbelief colored her voice.
She seemed, perhaps rightfully so, skeptical until Shepard reminded her of the geth data she had let Tali give to the quarians. Tali let them know that there had been a quarian on pilgrimage here, and they were trying to get to him. He was injured, possibly delirious and probably responsible for all mechs acting hostile.
"Well, perfect," Shepard said. She glanced around. "He's the only one that witnessed what happened here. We should team up."
Tali agreed.
They set out for the warehouse where the quarian was hiding, but hadn't got very far before they were set upon by a number of assault called over the comm just as they finished them off to let them know Prazza and the others had rushed ahead against her orders to reach Veetor first and were now up against a heavy mech that he had reprogrammed.
"They did want to get to Veetor first," Miranda commented drily.
Shepard nodded and ducked behind a row of crates, waiting for Tali to open the loading bay doors. The sounds of the quarians came closer as the heavily armored YMIR mech drove them back. She shook her head at the scene before her. The quarians weren't using any tactic. They failed to get in cover, or to work as a team. Even if this was a tough opponent, they should have been able to take it down.
She ordered her team to move in. With satisfaction she saw that both Miranda and Jacob had taken cover already. Nevertheless, they were too late to save the quarians.
Served them right.
Miranda sent an Overload at the mech, but its shields were strong. Shepard peeked around her cover. She frowned, and considered switching weapons. The mech was still too far off to use her shotgun efficiently. A high, whistling sound caught her attention and she sprinted to behind a different box just as a grenade hit her prior hiding spot. The blast made her stumble.
That's what you get for not shooting anyway, Shepard, she admonished herself as she scrambled into cover, firing as rapidly as she could at the advancing mech.
Once they got the mech's shields and armor down, finishing it off went quickly. They stayed in cover as it crumpled together until it exploded. When they dust and smoke cleared they emerged from cover and entered the warehouse.
Inside a quarian was sitting in front of a surveillance console watching the monitors and muttering incoherently to himself about monsters and having to hide. He didn't react when Shepard hailed him by name, but kept mumbling. Injured and possibly delirious. She frowned. Her patience was running low and she was tempted to shoot at the monitors to get his attention, but she also felt sorry for the young quarian and wondered what he had seen. Nick took a deep breath and activated her omnitool, hoping she remembered a jamming sequence Kaidan had taught her correctly.
The screens went dark.
Veetor stood up and quickly turned to face them, babbling confusedly when he saw they were human. Her brow furrowed with annoyance as she listened to him. The young quarian stopped talking for a brief moment, and activated his omnitool. "I can show you."
They watched the footage he had captured showing humans being brought away by Collectors after being stung by what Veetor called seekers. Shepard knew she needed this data; it was important. She agreed to send Veetor back to the quarians with Tali in exchange for the data, and returned to the shuttle.