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Location: Enroute to [redacted]
Shepard sat across from the two other turians in the shuttle, staring out the window at the empty atmosphere of space outside. Looking at the stars wasn't as comforting as it used to be and her side still hurt. Taana slathered an entire tube of dextro medi gel in the wound, but the dull pain was still there. She was lost in her thoughts, turning her gaze to the floor while not actually gazing at anything. She daydreamed a lot on the SR1 too. At least they didn't change that about her.
Shepard looked up and noticed the two other shuttle occupants looking at her. Taana hid her emotions behind a cold and calculated mask while Augumus remained neutral. The doctor straightened herself, focusing her gaze on her while Augumus pulled up a few files on his omnitool. "Before you meet with Control," she started, "we need to ask a few questions to evaluate your condition."
"Taana, are these tests required? The Commander cleared a path through the Cerberus soldiers with a pistol. It takes us years to train similar talent." His neutral face briefly turned up a grin after stating the compliment. Shepard was too focused on Taana to notice.
"She's been dead two years, Augumus," she said, looking at the Commander. Her stare was still cold, but Shepard could tell she was curious. "We need to confirm that her personality and memories are intact. Start with personal history."
Augumus faked an annoyed sigh, chuckling lightly afterwards as he pulled up a new file on his omnitool. "Let the testing commence; our records show you grew up on Earth. Files pertaining to your personal life before your military career are practically nonexistent, but we do know that you were orphaned at a young age. At the galactic standard age of eighteen, you enlisted in the Systems Alliance and won a medal fighting Batarians during the Skyllian Blitz. Do you remember this?"
Shepard quietly recollected the unpleasant memory. The Batarians were relentless savages and it had taken everything to hold her position. Soldiers were dragged away left and right, their enemies taunted them mercilessly, and supplies had dwindled far faster than she originally thought they would. Added to that, the panicking civilians didn't help. Mobilizing them was the best and only option. When the Alliance finally showed up, it had been a major victory.
"A lot of lives depended on me holding that position. I did what I had to."
The answer seemed to satisfy Augumus. "However you wish to put it, you were an excellent combatant. My regiment was impressed with the skills you demonstrated and I confess, they are not the easiest to please. Is this enough information to go on, Taana?" He turned to the doctor for a response.
She shook her head. "Not yet. Let's move to a more recent event." She turned to Shepard, visibly tensing before asking the next question. Once it left her mandibles, she immediately knew why. "On Virmire, where you destroyed Saren's cloning facility, you had to leave a member of your squad behind to die in the blast."
Shepard kept her face as neutral as possible. She didn't know these turians very well and had no intention of letting them see her squirm. Unfortunately for her, Augumus continued where Taana left off.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was killed in action. The reports say that it was your decision. Why did you leave her behind?" He gave her a look after visibly tensing, knowing full well how she felt about their line of questioning. Shepard wasn't fluid with turian facial expressions, but was mildly certain his gaze was one of sympathy. She understood. The questions were required, despite the pain they brought forth. He thought they were disrespectful to her, Taana was indifferent, and Shepard retained her silence. She would endure.
"I left a friend to die that day and I didn't do it casually. I had to save as many people as I could. Ash gave her life for the rest of the team. Without her, I couldn't stop Saren. She died a hero."
"I understand, Commander. I'm not judging your decision. Both my regiment and my superiors agreed that Saren's facility had to be destroyed. The man was a disgrace to the turian race." He turned to the doctor again. "Is this enough information, Taana?"
"There are other tests we should run—"
"Come on Taana. Please stop testing the Commander. I know from personal experience that these questions can be emotionally draining. She has the memories, and I can vouch for her combat skills."
After a short pause, she let out a sigh. "I suppose you're right. Let us hope that Control accepts our little field test as evidence enough."
—
Location: [redacted]
Shepard disembarked from the shuttle and walked into a large, open room with a massive window looking out into space. She restrained herself from glancing outside, instead focusing her attention on Taana. The doctor was typing away on a small terminal located in front of an unlocked door. Augumus stood to the side near the exit, leaning back on the railing while reading documents on his omnitool.
"Control will see you now, Commander. He's waiting for you on the other side of that door," she said, pointing to the door behind her. The button was shining a welcoming green, indicating that it was unlocked. She entered through the door and went down the stairs to find a large circular pad on the floor of what was otherwise an empty room. Not knowing what else to do and feeling rather skeptical of her upcoming meeting with Control, she stepped on the pad. The circular area lit up, lifting to surround her. Shepard understood now: she was standing in a QEC.
Her new surroundings revealed a tall male turian wearing a casual black suit. His arms were folded neatly behind his back in anticipation. The military posture conveyed authority that would've had any other turian saluting in a heartbeat. She wasn't in the mood to be a good turian and didn't have time for his games.
"Commander Shepard," he called, pacing slowly around the room he was in. The area was dark, so she couldn't see much despite her improved vision.
"Control," she said, her speech delivery coming off a little cold. She crossed her arms while her new sub harmonics sung of her irritation. "I thought we were meeting face to face."
The man kept his ground, standing tall as he turned to look at her. A smile spread across his mandibles. From what she gathered, he looked pleased to see her. "I apologize for the miscommunication then. The precaution was necessary, and is not unusual for people who know what we know."
Her brow plates furrowed and her frown intensified tenfold. "And what is it that you and I know?"
He started pacing again, walking around her projected holographic form on his end. "We're going up against the greatest threat of our brief existence."
"The Reapers." She growled lowly at the mention of the machine race. If Control's organization brought her back for this reason, the Reapers had to be up to something. Nothing good ever came from their meddling.
He smiled at her again, putting a stop to his pacing. The man stood up straight and directed his full attention at her. His gaze was unsettling, like being mentally dressed down by your immediate superior. "I'm pleased to see your memory is still intact. The doctors did a good job. How are you feeling? Are you fit for duty?"
While she was hesitant to give Control any information pertaining to herself, she surmised that he wasn't an enemy. The establishment she was being held in didn't match those of any turian supremacist groups, Facinus being the main contender, and the two turians she talked to before didn't seem overly hostile, despite her upbringing as a human. At that observation, she decided to ease up on her hostile tone. The man seemed important and she still wanted answers from him. There was no need to be aggressive to a possible ally, especially one that brought her back from the dead. She would hold back on her suspicions for now.
"I'm fit for duty," she said bluntly. "What are the Reapers doing that you decided to bring me back?"
His brow plates furrowed into a frown. "We're at war. No one wants to admit it, but the Council races are under attack. While you were unconscious, entire colonies have been disappearing. The perpetrators are targeting human and turian colonists. From what we pieced together with our intelligence, we think someone is working for the Reapers just as Saren and the geth aided Sovereign. You've seen it yourself and you defeated all of them. That's just one reason why we chose you."
Shepard inhaled. What he said was true and she agreed with his information, but that didn't tell her who he worked for or why they brought her back as a turian. "What organization decided that I was important enough to bring back?"
"Project Tarin, the project that brought you back to life, is a classified operation created and funded by Blackwatch." He raised his head up after the statement, standing tall and proud while he waited for her to soak up the information.
Shepard had heard a few things about the organization during her time as a Spectre. Blackwatch provided intelligence for the turian hierarchy and handled black ops. They were secretive and most operations conducted by the group were highly classified. In short, they made turian problems go away.
"We started the project after we found your corpse twenty three months ago. Blackwatch wanted your knowledge on the reapers and decided to bring you back in hopes that you would work with us. When the colonists started disappearing, our situation became more urgent and your cooperation was paramount."
She let out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding, her mandibles hugging tightly against her face. "If what you say about these disappearances is true, I would consider helping you. But before I do anything for you or Blackwatch, I want to know why I came back to life as a turian."
Control remained silent; he was quiet for longer than she would've liked. After a period of time that was too long to be considered comfortable, he spoke up again. "There were medical complications, commander. We could not regrow your body with what was left of your corpse. There was simply too little to work with. The doctors say that they could only recover your brain, but that was enough to transfer your memories into a new body. In hopes to avoid detection from Cerberus and other lethal organizations, we revived you as a turian."
Control's reasoning was lacking in context and proved to be more of a brief summary than any answer she had hoped for. Her mandibles twitched slightly as she thought it over. While it wasn't much information, it was more than she had a minute ago. She still didn't completely understand the circumstances that led to her revival as an entirely different species, but for now, she would go with it. Shepard turned her attention to Control again, staring directly at him.
She narrowed her eyes. "I want full access to the project files and a copy of the procedure report. It's my damn body and I want to know what exactly was done to bring me back. If you want my cooperation, those are my terms." Her sub harmonics dared him to challenge her as she bared her teeth, her mandibles close to her face. "Now, if it's like you said, colonists are going missing and we have no time to lose. I'll need a team, and a damn good one."
He pulled up his omnitool on his end, typing in a few commands before he looked at her again. "You'll get dossiers on our best operatives and some excellent specialists, should you convince them to work with you."
She shook her head. "I had an excellent team. I want the people who helped me stop Saren."
Control closed his omnitool interface, looking at her with a stern expression. "Commander, they moved on and are deeply entrenched in their lives. You may be alive, but as far as the galaxy is concerned, Jane Shepard is dead. No one will believe a lone female turian trying to convince the races that she is the first human Spectre."
Shepard's face softened slightly. She had never actually thought about that. When she woke up in the operating room of a turian space station, fighting her way through various Cerberus troopers, she hadn't considered that her friends moved on or that they might not actually recognize her. Given her current appearance, she figured her reunion with each wouldn't be pleasant. She had plates now, so Wrex might beat her up, Tali might be afraid of her, Liara might throw her through a wall, Kaiden wouldn't trust her, and Garrus… She had no idea what the sniper might do.
"Then what do you suggest?" She asked, her voice a little quieter than before. Shepard couldn't hide the sadness in her sub harmonics no matter how hard she tried.
He ignored the quiet whimpering emitting from her sub vocals as he pulled out a datapad, using it to authorize information pertinent to Shepard. "I suggest you forge a new path. Upon waking up, you were issued a new identity. One with a history detailing the actions of a brave turian soldier. As I stated previously, Systems Alliance Commander Jane Shepard is dead. Blackwatch Commander Novilea Dexilus, however, is very much alive."