Service gantry, high above the Presidium, the Citadel
Shepard pulled out her pistol and didn't move any closer to the human who stood a few feet away. In her ear she heard Tash, "what's going on, do you want me to clip them."
"No, just stay ready."
Her double raised her arms out to the side and spoke softly, "if you let me tell you how I, what I am then you can decide what to do with me. I'm afraid my survival instinct is too strong to take my own life," she took what looked to be a steadying breath before continuing, "but if you decide I need to be removed I've found some peace with that."
"Talk and make it fast," Shepard kept the gun aimed in the other humans direction.
"Short version, I woke up in a tank a little over two months ago. Well not fully awake just became aware, it's hard to describe. But whoever was controlling the tank was pumping in a shit ton of propaganda… like they were trying to re-write what I believe or think rather than change too much underneath. If that makes sense? It was the usual Earth first, our destiny is to lead, Aliens bad type stuff."
Shepard just nodded and encouraged the women to go on, she still had her arms out to the side away from her body and was still close to the edge of the platform.
"So, when they completed whatever process I'd been under," she shrugged and a trace of sadness played around her eyes, "or maybe finished growing me they opened the tank and I… well… I was born.
"For a short time, I believed the story they told me. I was the real Commander Shepard who'd been found, healed and stored while a clone was living my life. They showed me pictures of you and… Liara," she went to rub the back of her neck and stopped but Shepard noticed gesture, "And I have to tell you I was pretty mad. They carried on talking the shit that had been pumped into my tank which felt off if these were the guys who didn't want a Cerberus clone running around as Shepard.
"I also didn't have access to anything outside the station we were in. They tried to spin some tale about them being Alliance Intelligence but that didn't ring true either. So, I went along with it. Until I didn't.
"I have the security vid recordings from a little before they took me from the tank to when I took them down and blew the shit out of the place. Do you want me to send them to EDI for verification and so you can watch them?"
"You got anything to drink in that shuttle, looks like you've been living in it," Shepard holstered her weapon as she asked.
The other women gave a small smile and lowered her arms, "I've got some asari brandy."
Shepard keyed up her connection to her overwatch, "Stand down Tash, it's all good here," she switched off her comms and followed her double to the smaller of the two shuttles.
Once inside Shepard sat opposite and watched while the clone brought out a bottle a glass and a cup.
"Send the vid files to EDI," she activated the scanner on her omni-tool and ran the orange light over the other women's body."
"EDI run the scan for genetic matches, age and anything else you can think of. And analyse the vid please," her ship's AI confirmed receipt and that she would work on them immediately.
She accepted the glass being offered and studied the other Shepard more intently. With cap and jacket removed she could see this version of herself had no tattoo's, no scars, was about four inches shorter and although muscular and lean it wasn't the enhanced body that she had emerged with after coming back from the dead.
"You'll find some residue of a DNA masking chemical, I had to use it to get through Citadel security without spiking any alarms."
Shepard heard EDI's voice in her ear, "this does seem to be a very high-quality clone of you Shepard. I am not aware of any technology available that could create such a complete copy. Of course, the body is only one element, I would like to carry out a full brain scan on the Normandy and compare it with yours."
"Copy that EDI." Shepard turned her focus back to the other women, "so how did you get away."
"I watched, waited, pretended to go along with them. The leader was an Earth born women. She seemed to know her way around Alliance Intelligence enough to hack a few systems, had a few ears on the inside. She was clever, had the plan all mapped out… ambush you on the Citadel. Swap us over, take the Normandy," the clone finished the brandy she'd been holding in one and topped up her cup. She offered the bottle to Shepard who declined.
"Problem was I needed surgery, for implants. My height was off and of course, scars," she raised her cup in Shepard's direction in toast and threw back her drink in one again. "Why did you keep them?"
The question took Shepard by surprise but she had no problem sharing the truth, "my captors took the decision for me. They wanted me to feel as at home in my new, improved, body as possible. They replaced all my ink as well."
Shepard was trying to get a sense of this person, this copy of her. Could she be trusted, or had she been corrupted by Cerberus. At the back of her mind she also worried that it was she that was the copy not this other version of herself.
"What name do you use."
"I've used a few different identities, mostly stolen from the group that woke me. But if you're asking what I call myself… well… that was much more problematic," she smiled but it was rueful and sad.
"Anyway, they were still trying to find someone they could trust to do the surgical bit and hone their plan. They sort of got used to me just working out and asking if I could help. They got sloppy, I only needed one chance. I tried to keep Brooks alive but she didn't go down easy. They were a tough crowd, ex Alliance, disgraced but still pretty well trained."
"Why didn't you want to take your life back," it was not a straightforward question but Shepard felt she needed to move the conversation and begin to test the clones' motivation.
They looked at each other and there was silence for more than a few moments before the other human spoke.
"I did… I still do… but it's not my life. No matter how much I screamed and raged and cried, I kept coming back to the same truth. I was a copy and you were, are, the original. For a while there I was pretty crazy after I'd killed the people who brought me into a world where I didn't exist. Where there was no place for me, where my place was already taken.
"And despite the knowledge that I'd been created in some sick process I still felt like me, was me… I know that won't make any sense to you," she reached for the bottle again then stopped.
"I spent a lot of time thinking before I blew that place to hell. I had to dig deep for the strength to accept my situation even if it made no emotional sense to me. So, I leaned on the moral compass that… well that my memories of your parents had instilled in me."
"So how far back do your memories go," Shepard finally threw back her own brandy and proffered her glass for a refill.
"I think my earliest memory is sitting in my mother's lap in the cockpit of a ship, watching the light waves play across the hull," there were tears in her eyes and she looked directly at Shepard, "did you get all the bastards that killed her."
Then Shepard sensed it, in that strange way that had been happening to her since the Normandy had been blown out from under her. This woman was no threat, there was no malice just pain and confusion. And a sense of connection, of knowing. She really hoped this shit was real and not some kind of delusion because she was going to lean on it hard.
"Yeah I got them. Made them pay, but the puppet master for all this shit is Harper. And I intend to end that bastard myself. Have you got a place to stay here?"
"No, I only just arrived this morning and I figured I might as well get this over. If it went a different way I wouldn't need a room for the night," she smiled then and Shepard caught a glimpse of who she used to be. Younger maybe? Less compromised perhaps.
"Here are the coordinates to my place. Follow me there and we'll get some food, you look like you haven't had a decent meal in…"
"A lifetime," the other woman dead panned.
Shepard smiled back and moved to her own shuttle wondering if she'd made the right decision, to trust this other self. And she knew exactly who would be able to know at a touch which of them was real. Fear clouded her mind for a moment then the spark of an idea, a new plan to make sure Liara and her children survived the darkness that was coming.
A little later, Shepard's apartment, Tiberius Tower, Silversun Strip
"This place is nice," the clone walked into the two-floor apartment behind Shepard carrying only a small back pack.
"Yeah, Anderson sort of gave it to me after the apartment on Illium was destroyed. He never wants to come back to work on the Citadel, he hated the politics. There's a bedroom, bathroom and a gym along there," she indicated a corridor off to the right behind the kitchen.
"Thanks, could I take a shower… it's been a while. I grabbed some new clothes on the way up here."
"Sure, I'll order in some food."
A little later
When clone Shepard walked through the kitchen the smell of her favorite colony take-away assailed her senses. The yellow grains had a spicy, nutty taste and almost melted before you could get the thick, rich Kanasha sauce onto them. A dish that always reminded her of the first ship she had lived on with her parents.
Then she remembered, not her parents, not her memory.
"Why the frown. You had to guess if this was available I'd order it," Shepard was standing at the end of the central island in the kitchen dishing the food onto her plate.
"Hell yeah, never not order Kanasha. I just have to pull myself up when I… well the memories aren't mine," she also piled her plate high and followed Shepard through to the large seating area.
"Ok let's get a couple of things squared away," Shepard said offering her clone a bottle of beer across the small coffee table between them. "you didn't ask for this and the evidence of your brain imprint shows it's a duplicate of mine and without any tampering," Shepard noted the questioning look, "yeah EDI compared the results."
Before her shower the clone had gone into the small medbay just off the gym and EDI carried out the process remotely.
"You are, for all intents and purposes, essentially me before the Normandy blew up. Before I had to have massive areas of my body replaced and Cerberus decided to upgrade me as much as possible. What you don't have are all my past injuries which makes sense as you were… grown new from my DNA. Though you still have all your Alliance genetically engineered stamina, strength and resilience to harsh conditions."
"I think I may have to work out a bit harder to keep my body in shape. The muscle regen doesn't seem to happen as quickly as before," the clone said taking a swig of beer.
"There probably will be some differences so I'd suggest EDI keeps an eye on your physicals. And… you need a name. I can't keep thinking of you as clone me. You are an individual in your own right, fucking crazy as this situation is."
"Would you be ok if I used Vega, it was the name…" she trailed off and looked at the beer in her hands.
"Mum chose… yeah of course," Shepard again sensed the loss and grief from her counterpart.
Vega just nodded her head and took another swig.
"Twice the badass, we will be unstoppable," Shepard mused.
But Vega spoke with such authority Shepard thought she was hearing a recording of herself, "no Shepard, you absolutely cannot allow me to become public knowledge. Apart from the fact I break about hundred Citadel and Human laws and could be seen as an illegal entity; it would start a whole panic about how many of you are out there, which one is the real Shepard, does Cerberus control all of us. You are the only Commander Shepard there is and it has to stay that way."
Shepard let the scenario play out in her mind and thinking it through could see it would be a mess for her to acknowledge her clone.
"Yeah you're right. So, the fact you're my clone stays secret but I don't want you to have to hide either."
"Well I'm not sure anyone who doesn't know you personally would necessarily see our resemblance. DNA scanners won't be fooled and I'd appreciate maybe some help with a longer-term solution than the temporary chemicals I've been using."
They had started eating and both women had leaned back in their seats and put their feet up on the coffee table between them.
"Pretty sure EDI can come up with something, I'd rather not get too many others involved at this stage," Shepard said in between forkfuls of food.
"And as for longer term identity, I wondered if you'd be ok with me passing as one of our many distant cousins on Mum's side of the family," Vega shook her head and sat up straight, "sorry I know its not my family and that she isn't, wasn't…"
Shepard interrupted the other human, "how about you stop trying to edit yourself all the time and we just accept that you're some kind of weird, previously unknown, younger sister."
Vega smiled, "younger."
"Fuck yeah, I've got over years on you after the Normandy."
"Thank you," Vega's tone was serious and Shepard gave her a questioning look, "for this, it feels almost normal, weird as fuck, but the most normal since I woke up."
"What makes you so certain you're the copy," Shepard knew she would have to confront Miranda about this but she somehow trusted her other self enough to give weight to the answer.
"The nightmares… you still get them?"
"Yeah, and they've gotten worse, sometimes they edge in even when I'm awake."
"I haven't had one since they brought me out of the tank. Took me a while to realise that but when I did I knew I was either a copy or they'd messed with my head so I couldn't trust myself even if I was me."
There was silence in the room for a long time as they finished their food and sat with their own thoughts.
Early next morning, Shepard's apartment
Shepard smelt the food as she walked down the stairs and towards the kitchen. Vega was just dishing up a typical Alliance Navy Earth breakfast.
"You have no idea how long I've craved an unhealthy, fat filled, carb loaded, old fashioned mess hall fry up."
"Fuck that smells great, and coffee. You can stay."
They sat at the kitchen island counter and ate in silence until Shepard spoke.
"EDI finished setting you up with a new ID complete with a credit account. I've transferred a decent amount of credits, and the account will get topped up automatically. There's a supply of armour, weapons, equipment in an attack shuttle waiting at a private dock. You should have the details of all that on you omni-tool shortly."
Vega stared at her doppelganger, "that's pretty efficient and generous."
Shepard just shrugged, "I have more credits than I need and Spectre supplies are just a request ticket and a signature."
"You didn't have to go to the trouble though."
"You keep forgetting you're my kid sister," Shepard said with a shit eating grin, "think I'm going to enjoy having someone to boss around."
"In your dreams Shepard," she laughed, "any luck with the DNA thing? It's not so much having my own imprint just not triggering yours is the issue."
"EDI do you want to tell Vega what you came up with."
EDI's voice sounded over the area comms in the apartment, "I have sourced a long acting DNA adjusting genetic programme. It will be effective for up to a year and the applicator is waiting on your shuttle. Just inject it and it will mask a few elements of your current DNA, enough to make it a familial match for the Skorsgaard clan but not identical to Shepard."
"Thank you, EDI, good job."
"Thank you, Vega Larson."
Both women stood and Shepard moved to stand in front of the younger looking version of herself, "you'll let me know when you have news of John or Harper's location?"
They had gone over what Vega had been doing and how far she had infiltrated the outer edges of the Cerberus network. And the next steps in her plan to find baby John and bring him home.
"Yeah and don't worry if I go dark. It'll be a good sign, means I've made it back on the inside."
Shepard moved forward and her actions were mirrored by Vega as they shared a warrior arm clasp.
"Goddess speed," Shepard said then moved to the exit.
"I will find him or die trying."
And with a short nod Shepard left.
Vega grabbed a coffee refill, picked up a data pad and searched for images of Liara T'Soni.
Looking through the most recent photographs and vids of Liara in her increasingly pregnant state tears blurred her vision.
"I will always love you Liara T'Soni and I'll show that be making sure you have your son back. And I'll do everything in my power, to my last breath, to keep you safe and make sure Shepard always comes back to you."
The reception she had received from Shepard was more than she could have hoped for and she wouldn't let her down. It helped both psychologically and emotionally to think of herself as family to Shepard. And that she was who her memories and personality made her but that her path now was different.
Her own story, her own life started when she woke from that tank and she'd make sure that the forces that created her would regret that decision. Because she was every bit as committed as Shepard to ending Jack Harper and his organisation of crazy fucks.
She stood, pulling on her leather jacket and picking up her rucksack, then made her way to the front door.
"Thank you for all your help EDI, take care of them."
"You are welcome Vega, good luck."
With a smile and a nod Vega Larson left the apartment and headed for the docks.
