Trygerisch Corporate Headquarters
Commander Shepard, Abigail Shepard, was alone in the middle of a dark hallway, stretching out into the infinite. Black mists swirled around her and she could hear whispering and the echo of a Reaper around her...but in the distance…there was something else…a sound of battle…the dull thud of explosions caused by heavy weapons.
She began to walk, run, down the corridor and the whispers grew louder, more distinct, the mists seemed to fling out at her and she felt like coughing but that would be ridiculous.
A door appeared before her, the hallway ended, as if by magic, as if by a sudden change. She stopped up short and her mouth worked in surprise, she realized she was wearing her combat armor...where did that come from?
The door flashed at her, a light slamming into it from behind as it rattled, she tried to run and stumbled back, but…
Fell back onto the floor of a forest.
She got up and looked around to familiarize herself with her new surroundings. It was the forest…the same forests from her dreams…was that a dream?
But it was different; the black shadows were not as thick, and flash.
She spun around in her place and watched the distance.
Lightning flashes lit the sky, but the small thud of explosives followed in its wake instead of the sharp crack of thunder.
She felt compelled to run towards it, to move towards it, heading for it, walking, running, slow motion. Heading towards what she thought was her doom, but at least it was towards something. Maybe even a way out?
Before she could get what must've been twenty steps, she was trying to count, to keep her mind occupied, to not give into this headache that was boring into the back of her skull…
She found herself floating, flying, over a make shift city with make shift homes and a few high rises rising out of the ground.
Tracers flew into the air trying to touch at the starships that were floating over the city, pounding fire into it.
"Batarians?" She asked her eyes darting along the contours of the Batarian starships.
"Elysium" A voice boomed out of the darkness causing her to cry out, "The so called Skyllian Blitz."
Feeling a presence behind her she turned around, and saw Kaidan.
She gasped, but it wasn't Kaidan, his eyes were pitch black and it seemed as though the shadows were pouring off of him, rolling off of his body.
No not Kaidan...Harbinger.
"So what? You are trying to indoctrinate me into hating all Batarians?" She teased the Reaper.
And the Reaper arched back his head and positively laughed at her. A rough, crass sounding note. Very sour.
"Oh no Shepard, this is just a preview of what is to come. Seeing a burning city, one of Humanity's defining moments. What led you….here."
She was now running through dirt and rock, trying not to stumble. A jet of dirt appeared in front of her as an artillery shell plowed its way into the ground, her eyes widened but her barriers held, it did knock her over though.
"Why am I here?" She yelled out, knowing the Reaper presence was listening. "What's the point? I've moved on!"
"Have you really Shepard?" Harbinger asked his voice booming out. "After all you still remember you still think."
"Remembering where I've come from is a perfect reminder of how far I have come, and where I still have to go!"
"Oh no, it's guilt." Harbinger challenged. "You are ashamed of the mistakes of your past, of the person you were… I wonder why though when you had many of the things you seem to long for now."
Abigail arched an eyebrow but she began to sweat profusely at the notion, at the idea, something was very wrong here. There was a bit of her that knew what the Reaper was implying even though she consciously couldn't put her finger on it.
"Your people put so much responsibility on your shoulder; almost more than one woman can take. Don't you want to just let it go sometimes Shepard? Aren't you tired?"
"Go back to Illos! Talk to Vigil examine the Conduit!" she heard her own voice say, eons ago.
"So much responsibility and they didn't even believe you!" Harbinger yelled, chuckling. "And yet when they were proved wrong it was all Shepard save us…oh Shepard unite us…oh Shepard we won't unite until we can secure our own boarders. The same song… for a billion years! And while you were sacrificing, you were dying; you were sending people to their deaths…for what? For what?"
And with that note Harbinger descended into silence for a brief second and let his words try and sink in. And Abby was trying to not let him, but she couldn't help but think there is truth to this, I have been given a lot of responsibility but yet when they need me most they shut me down.
"And then there was Anderson!" The voice boomed.
"On Earth, you wanted to save him, wanted to stick with him, but he wouldn't let you. In fact he wanted you to gather the fleet to save them all…."
"Talk to the Council, convince them to help us." Anderson said as she watched her and his talk from the start of the Reaper invasion.
"What if they won't listen?" She heard herself ask a mixture of defiance and fear caking her voice.
"Then make them listen! Now go! That's an order!" Anderson said to her.
"I don't take orders from you anymore remember?" She asked.
He reached down into his pocket, "Consider yourself reinstated, Commander." He saw him toss her a new set of dog tags.
She caught them and looked down on them, Abby remembered, the feelings of guilt and awe that were ripping through her as she studied the pieces of metal.
She looked up. "I'll be back for you, and I'll bring every ship I can!..." She began to walk away, but something compelled her to turn back, "Good luck." She whispered.
Then she saw it, it all, again, echoing her out of the past.
The Normandy began to move, to drift slowly upwards its engines powering up, Ashley leaving. But she stayed to watch, staring at the city below her. The kid she saw in the vents, the one that she had failed to save, looked up, and made eye contact with her.
But then winced from a Reaper scream. The huge leviathan towering over the small dock, people were fleeing, the kid bolted for a shuttle, and scrambled up into the cargo compartment. The shuttle began to power up and slowly lift into the sky. The Reaper was right on top of the swiveling its gun port around.
Go, go, go. She remembered thinking with dread, somehow knowing that the shuttle wasn't going to make it.
And it didn't as the Reaper fired, skimming across the engines of one shuttle, and then firing again causing the other shuttle to explode. She could've sworn that she heard screams.
"And then there was Rannoch…the Reaper base…you saving the Geth and the Quarians working so hard. The Quarian Admiralty demanded your help, asked for it; Legion wanted you to save his people. Now you were responsible for ending a war that two child races had started before yours had even cracked the atom."
Another flash, this time she was standing over to the side, observing her, Tali, and Legion talking considering, the Reaper code was being uploaded on the desert plains to the rest of the Geth. Freeing them once and for all, giving them sentience, giving them a chance for life and peace.
"Legion I beg you…don't do this." Tali pleaded, she didn't want to die for the sins of her fathers and her father's fathers.
"Ah hell. Legion keep going."
"Shepard?"
"Everyone listen up this is Shepard if you don't want to be blown out of the sky in a minute then stand down."
"This is Admiral Tali Zorah Shepard speaks with my authority."
"And mine as well." Korris concurred.
"Negative we can win this war now keep firing." Han'Gerral countered.
"Sixty Percent." Legion reported simply.
"The Geth are about to return to full strength, if you keep attacking, they'll wipe you out. A few years ago I saved you at the Citadel, just recently I helped you take out that Dreadnaught, but I'm through saving you, if you keep attacking then I'll stand and watch as the Geth lay you to waste….Keelah se'lai."
"All units…hold fire."
The image before her began to dissolve again.
"You got them to listen to you, by yelling at them. What an odd turn of events. And you were willing to throw them away…you had enough you said…it was time for them to take responsibility for their own actions."
"It was the only way" She whispered.
"Of course it was," Harbinger soothed. "But that is it isn't it? You did not want to take responsibility and you were sick and tired of watching the children bicker over who started what or who caused the mess in the living room. It had to end somehow and that they had to end it. You could not take all the responsibility and you were sick of people forcing it on you."
Harbinger stopped talking for just a second, letting that sink in.
"But yet it was still your responsibility, through your actions, you got the Geth and Quarians to make peace…and you gave them confidence…sentience even…they are now a fully evolved life form."
"Yeah, but what of it?" She challenged.
"What If you are wrong, what if the Geth just decide that organics are a mistake? What would happen then? They would launch an attack, on a broken Galaxy. And it would be all your fault!"
"No!" Abby cried out at the darkness, running through the forest suddenly, looking for an escape, raging out. "The Geth have made peace with the Quarians. It was only because of you in the first place, you and Sovereign! That they were a threat." She cried out belligerently.
"Yes because they were not fully evolved, they were easily manipulated…believing us to be gods…but now they have free will. And they could now reach the same conclusions that a million AIs in the past have reached before, that Organics are a flaw."
"No!" Abby screamed out twirling to face the specter of Kaidan. "The Geth made peace, the Quarians made peace; we prove you and the need of you wrong! That is why the Catalyst threw you all into the sun!" She jabbed her finger in his face
"But what if you're wrong Abigail," Harbinger didn't even flinch. "What if they reach the conclusion? Javik said it himself that to AIs time is an illusion, that they are infinite and immortal, while you organics are trapped by their limitations. Even EDI said that the Geth view things as a collective, so if they collectively come to a decision about organics then they will collectively think that about all organics. And recognize your flaws."
"No I can't be wrong." She whispered turning away from the face.
"That is why we were created; the cycle always ends in death. And the Geth wouldn't be gentle about it, they will kill you all."
"But that doesn't make sense. You have to have another reason based on logic! It is not a given that synthetic life will destroy organic."
"It has happened before Shepard, it always happens." He reached out and touched her shoulder.
She flinched away. "No! The Geth left the Quarans alone…let them flee they didn't have to do that!"
Harbinger managed to snort at her. "Yes, they did. And how nice was that? Only a slow genocide because they hadn't made up their minds yet. And it caused the Quarians to hate them, to resent them, to want to do…as a society…everything in their power to force the issue. Thus the Geth would have to retaliate by wiping them out in kind."
Silence greeted her but then she grabbed her head in pain as another explosion happened in her mind, this brought her down, caused her to curl up and stagger on her feet, noise was drowning out her thoughts, whispers, Reaper growling. I have to think!
Then more echos of battle, more sounds of jettisoning laser blasts and explosions, screaming inhabitants of a burning city tried to drown out the battle of noises.
She looked up staggering to her full height and blinking her eyes open.
And she saw it, same as before, Elysium's capitol burning, the people dying in the streets below her feet.
She looked closer, it was different this time. Instead of Batarians there was now the distinct wasp like profile of Geth starships. Now they were pounding the city, killing millions of people, not the Reapers, not the Batarians.
Rage boiled up within her. How dare they betray my trust…I helped them!...but no this didn't happen…did it?
"Behold your works Abigail Shepard." The Reaper boomed as if mimicking her thoughts.
"This didn't happen!" She screamed looking around for the specter of Kaidan, that kid, anyone, to turn her rage on, her head was pounding though and made it hard to think.
"But it could happen; through your lack of foresight the Geth could easily decide that this is the final sanction. All things end in death Abigail Shepard, even the cycles. And if we do not do it, in our wisdom, then the Geth could do it in their ignorance."
Her shoulders slumped, she bit down on her lip until it started to bleed and emit a sharp pain. At least that's still real.
"And this could happen…" Harbinger spoke.
She was now face to face with a city street, rubble covering it; a gray sky greeted her as she looked up.
She heard a whistling as something slammed into the ground next to her, it exploded and she was flung against the side of a broken building.
This almost knocked her senseless as her head was beginning to feel numb, to shut down from all the pain that it had been subjected to in the last hour or so. But it didn't so she began to pick herself up, groaning, and then stumbled into the center of the street, looking skyward.
Tracers and heavy weapons screamed up and down through it, the gunners trying to shoot down he incoming ships. Where was she? Los Angeles…London…who knows?
Nothing looked familiar about her surroundings.
A shriek of engines over her head attracted her notice and she looked skyward. A trident was pursuing a fleeing Geth fighter which in turn was being pursued by two of the enemy's, she watched until they were out of her eyesight, a collapsing building replacing them in her attention.
Tearing her eyes away from the sight she continued to observe her surroundings. There were more shadows there, watching her, whispering at her, indistinctly.
Spinning her head around suddenly, her hair prickling on the back of her neck she saw…herself…and Vega.
They looked calm as they were going through the destruction strewn about them, like they didn't have a care in the world, like this was just some Sunday jaunt. She wanted to scream to them, warn them, get them to move out….
But they noticed her first.
James turned to face her first and then he got the attention of the 'Other Shepard' who turned.
And Abby gasped.
The sides of…her…ghosts…body was covered by metal bindings…sticking through her armor, must've even gone down to the flesh, and spreading up the right side of her cheek and head.
"Well, well." James observed.
Her duplicate grinned down at her before draping her arms around James's side, his shoulder, and doing that she kissed him on the cheek, and then as they separated she licked him, placing her tongue and running up to his ear.
Abby's stomach lurched at the sight.
But she distinctly heard the other Shepard whisper in James's ear, "James, make her explode."
The Lieutenant nodded swinging his Geth Plasma Rifle up and bringing it to bear on Abby.
She flinched, flinging her arms out, "No!"
But it did no good as James fired, unleashing a Carnage on her.
The high energy blast caught her full in the stomach laying her out on her back; her armor sizzled, and cracked around her.
But she was looking up at blackness now.
Her body crackled with energy and she felt tingly, her stomach was twitching slightly as she felt herself losing control of her bodily functions, her eyes were wide.
"All of this is your fault Shepard, or it could be if you are wrong, if you gambled wrong."
"How is this possible?!" She wailed out.
"We've always been connected Shepard, ever since Object Rho, you spent two days in my presence. That has connected you to us…made you sensitive to our pulses….like on Omega."
She saw a flash to the room on Omega, Paul asking her what voices.
"Or in your room…"
Now a flash to her waking up with a cold sweat just before she went crawling through the Normandy.
"And of course when you were younger you didn't have any family, any responsibility, just to yourself and anyone you deemed would help you."
Flash.
Now she saw herself as a ten year old punk kid, running through the streets, now they weren't crowded with the invention of the air car. She was such a dirty kid with dirty elbows and a dirtier face.
"I was sick back then." She whimpered, "Alone…didn't have a purpose."
"But you also didn't have the weight of the Galaxy pushing down on you."
That's true... she thought …maybe he does have a point…no wait he doesn't…ah! She cried out as a sharp pain shot through her head.
"Wouldn't it be nice to just let go? To lay down your burdens and enjoy life again? To not serve and not worry about everyone' petty problems but simply to lay back? To let someone else worry about the problems and for someone else to serve you?"
She nodded slowly, almost against her will, but with the pain it was hard to tell what her will was anymore.
"Give in Shepard…to our will…our wisdom…you do not want control…you do not want synthesis…but you just want to be left alone…and to leave others alone."
Abby felt a presence, an indiscernible fog pressing down on her, like literally pressing down on her mind and her will power, she wanted to choke and gag on it but it was also comforting and warm.
"It is your destiny…your mind will belong to us…it's been so long since you have just laid down and slept hasn't it…not since you were a kid…everyone expecting so much from you."
She felt herself nod eagerly and disjointed, her mind agreed but didn't, reality was becoming fragmented as if she was intentionally isolating herself, receding back into herself as her mind was torn up by indoctrination.
"You will serve us!" Harbinger raged.
The fog was almost on top of her, almost covering her body, it was black an oily, a fine film to cover her body in.
But it receded rapidly and suddenly lifting up and the small part of her mind struggling could've sworn she heard a growl.
The room rocked about her and she tipped over and fell….fell right out of the table and onto the floor of the examination room.
She looked around and it seemed foggy, everything was highlighted in shades of green and yellow, her perception could just make out what was in front of her.
There was a figure there, it turned to her, and she struck out, one strike to its stomach and another across the jaw, flaying him out.
Going to the body she scrambled around looking for what had to be there, given the circumstances.
Ah ha! She cackled internally hefting the Phalanx pistol, it felt cool, secure, safe.
And with that she made her way to the bay door and out into the corridor.
Somewhere else in the facility.
James Vega rolled a grenade down the corridor which exploded, bursting into flames, catching on fire the two guards that were coming up it trying to get them. He nodded to Paul who nodded back satisfied.
"Hope we find her soon." James observed, "I don't know how much longer before they call a general alert."
And with that note alarms started to blare above them.
"I would say right then." Paul shrugged.
"Double time it people!" Ashley said over the Omni-tool com link as she stayed behind to let him and Paul search.
"You heard her come on." James nodded down the corridor, trying to make their way to the second floor.
…
Abigail Shepard moved along with one hand on the wall, her feet felt unsteady and her vision was still a jumbled mess so she used the wall as a balancing board, trying to slowly make her way through the facility and hopefully to safety…she just had to keep moving…even though some impulse was pulling her back.
She saw it, up ahead, appearing suddenly were two Collectors, at least they looked like Collectors with their same bulbous heads and general body shape, but they were colored yellow.
Screaming she began to bring her gun to bear and the Collectors in front of her reacted automatically, neither side shot at first though. Instead the one on the left cocked his head to one side.
"Shepard?" It asked.
James…that sounds like James. She decided.
A surge of adrenaline shot to her arm as she brought the Phalanx to bear the rest of the way. NO! She screamed, but the weapon jerked in her hand firing on its own.
The Collector with the voice of James reacted as if it had been hit but recovered enough to rip a weapon out of its holster; Shepard for her part used her mental will to keep the pistol from emptying the Magazine into him.
He fired at her; the electronic scream of a Scorpion drowned her out.
She could feel the grenades tear through her clothing a stick to her skin, and then she felt her body go limp with a tingling sensation spreading through it before she went into darkness….
…
James Vega looked at the Commander below him. He was crouching and cradling her head in on his legs.
"You ok?" Paul asked.
"Yeah…fine…the shots didn't even get through my barriers." James replied evenly.
"What's she saying?" Paul asked, gesturing at her.
James paid extra attention peering down on the woman he called a Commander, and a sister in arms, and her mouth was definitely moving forming barely audible words.
"I have to go back, I have to go back, I have to go back." She was saying over and over again.
"'I have to go back'?" James mimicked. "What the hell?" He glanced up at the infiltrator who shrugged back down.
"Ah screw it." James said getting up.
"Where are you going?" Paul asked.
"To try and see what the hell could make Shepard want to go back to his place." He said beginning to stalk off.
"And what am I going to do?" Paul yelled after him as he was beginning to retreat out of ear shot.
"Admire her Goddess like beauty?" James shot back.
"I heard that!"
"You were supposed to!"
"And if you run into any trouble?"
"Then don't wait for me and make sure they remember me at all the picnics."
And with that he rushed off down the corridor running slightly, his Revenant cradled in his arms as he moved to the room that they were supposed to find Shepard in, and maybe the answer to this mystery once and for all.
He got there quickly and slid the door open while simultaneously covering the room with his Revenant. Pivoting left and right he cleared the room and…nothing in here…that's a good sign…so what could cause Shepard to go all goo goo?
"Vega!"
The young Special Forces trainee dove behind an operating chair with restraints on it as he aimed down the sights of his weapon trying to see what had called out to him….and what could've made that voice….that voice sounds like recordings of…no it can't be.
"You come for your friend, but she is already ours now!" The voice said.
Son of a…a Reaper…you have got to be…
Something slammed into him causing him to grunt as he tried to roll with the impact, his weapon falling away. He reached for his Scorpion trying to get that out of its holster but then that was kicked out of his grip the instant he brought it to hand.
He ducked under a swing only to be back handed, which knocked him over slamming him into the chair, it rattled.
Looking up at his sudden assailant his mouth had to drop…Miranda…first a Reaper and now…Miranda?
She moved to kick him swinging her foot up to slam it down on his face, it started to glow from a blue biotic field, he moved to cover his face to protect it for whatever good that would've done, but the blow never came.
Moving his hands slowly he peeked out between them. Miranda's body was jolting with electricity.
Wrenching his head around he saw Paul aiming down the Vindicator, it was still smoking from the burst of firepower.
James groaned and went over to Miranda, checking her pulse, "Still alive…thanks." He grunted the last.
"No problem, now what should we do?"
"Take them both out of here."
Paul shot him a 'you're nuts' look.
"Yeah. We get them both back to the Kodiak landing zone, slowly, but surely."
"And how are we supposed to defend ourselves if we run into problems?"
"Hopefully Ashley and the gang got us covered."
"Alright," Paul nodded. Then glanced at Miranda, then back at his compatriot.
Vega chuckled, "no way, you're carrying her, I got Lola."
"Do you really have to sound so gleeful about the fact?" Paul groaned.
"Well sure saving the lives of two beautiful women from certain death, that makes sense… at least to me." James grinned.
"Not the damsel I was lookin for." Paul muttered.
Picking his way over to her he picked her up.
James began walking out taking the lead after getting his Crusader Shotgun off of his back.
"Ashley," he called into his Omni-tool, "we have two bodies coming out, and we need the extra stretcher."
"Roger that!" Ash called over a heavy thrum of gun fire.
The Landing bay.
James Vega carrying Abigail Shepard, and Paul carrying Miranda, sprinted down the last flight of steps into the loading bay that faced the south side of the facility, a pitched battle was just beyond the perimeter.
"Where the hell have you two been?" Ashley asked before firing off a mag from her Revenant strafing, and then getting down onto one knee, aiming carefully, and putting a burst right into a Disciple/ Trygerisch soldier. "Miranda…where the hell did she come from?" Ashley asked glaring at Paul.
"I don't know but I recognize her as the woman who attacked me on Earth." Paul commented over the din.
"And it gets better Commander, they have a Reaper here, or at least part of one." James explained.
"A Reaper? Well that's just great." Ash groaned as she installed a new thermal clip into her weapon.
"And think about it…Shepard has been here at least three days…alone with that thing…." James let his words hang in the air.
"You think she's been indoctrinated?" Ashley glared right into his eyes.
He nodded grimly, slowly.
"OK I don't think we really have the time to wait around and find out…Cortez we need you down here!"
"On the way." Cortez's voice crackled over the Omni-tool.
Just seconds later the shuttle slammed into view almost colliding with the ground right next to the loading bay, this gave them plenty of cover as they were about to be hit by a large wave of tracers, instead the shuttle's Kinetic Barriers held.
"Come on my shields won't hold for long!" Cortez yelled as he popped the hatch.
Ashley helped Paul and James get their two charges down onto the stretchers, and the entire squad placed them onto the bed of the shuttle carefully, not rushing, leaving it to the fates to let the barriers hold.
"Ok Steve we're on board!" Ashley yelped, James placed a steadying hand on her shoulder, she nodded gratefully.
"About time."
The shuttle throttled up and they rocketed away from the battlefield, back to the Normandy who broke orbit in a hurry before their stealth drive would have to be vented, heading for the relay, and Earth.
AC/AN: Ack! That was a lot longer then I wanted but if I split it into two chapters one of them would have been REALLY short and a lot had to be covere in this one.
Anyways Darren has brought it to my attention and I myself had the feeling that a lot of spelling mistakes cropped up in the last chapter. So I redoubled my efforts with this one.
But I am still human. So any criticism and any pointing out of errors would still be greatly appreciated, hopefully with things you like too, but I am in this to lear and improve so if you spot an error, either specifically or generally, kindly point it out an I will try and keep up with it in future chapters, thank you and have a nice day.