A/N:

As I explained on my site, right now we'll be alternating - one chapter focused on Shepard, one on someone else. This is a Shepard chapter.

A few people have commented that Shepard is 'backsliding' towards how she was in OSABC I. Some of that should be expected. Shepard's development on a personal level was, in some ways, a cheat - the bond she had with Liara provided an artificial stability and feeling of self-worth she didn't develop naturally. At the same time, keep in mind Shepard has had less than twenty four hours at this point to learn she's been dead two years, is now alive again, and the most important person in her life is dead.

Or in other words, ANGST FOR THE ANGST GOD!

Reviews are always welcome.


'At some point, they started calling the base the Butcher's Shop, which was just the tackiest shit I'd ever heard. It was probably that bosh'tet Vigil's idea.'

- Kiala'Dost, Cerberus Engineer, to David Anderson


The trip to what she was told would be her base of operations only took a few hours, and in that time Shepard mostly sat in the main cabin aboard the luxurious pinnace, lost in thought. She tried hard not to think about Liara's death, as it would only make her upset and depressed. There would be more time to grieve later, when she wasn't being observed by these fucking Cerberus pukes – and she could hardly fail to notice that Trellani and Chambers were both watching her carefully.

Of all the people on board – Joker was busy flying and Tali tending to the engines – it was up to fucking Miranda to try to make conversation. Shepard could tell the woman was a gifted speaker just by listening to her elegant, educated voice, asking her questions about her memory and specific things they wanted to test about her sensations of touch and sight. It was a good distraction from the things she didn't want to dwell on.

Like Liara's death. Garrus's death. Telanya's death. Hell, her own death. Not thinking about it was hard. Not thinking about the fact that she had been dead, and now was alive was also hard. Almost all of her friends were killed, the few who remained alive were either working for Cerberus, or disgraced.

It wasn't something she had any way to process, and she found herself falling back on the old method of just pushing shit down and locking it away in her heart. It hurt. Everything hurt. But the words she'd told Liara so long ago had to apply to her as well. She couldn't just let herself go to fucking pieces, no matter how much she wished she could. She had to keep her shit together, kill up another pointy-faced motherfucker, and then save the goddamned galaxy again.

Why in fuck it was up to her to do this she didn't know. Then again, she didn't know why she'd been tapped as a Spectre, or why she'd survived all the years she had. She didn't know why she'd been lucky enough to find the love she had with Liara, or the little span of time where life had seemed worth living.

All she could do was hold onto those memories. To tell herself that revenge alone wouldn't heal her. She needed to see everyone understand what she had lost, and she had to keep the few friends she still have alive from losing what they had. She didn't come all this way and fight past the shit she'd gone through in her life to relapse into some self-pitying wreck. She would endure.

So instead of breaking down into sobs again, she kept her face ice cold. She spent the trip quietly answering and asking questions about her new body from Miranda, trying to keep her voice steady.

She learned that the Revenant Project's goal – to bring her back alive and exactly as she had been in life – had been compromised by the damage her body had taken. She wasn't a college graduate, and the kind of techno-babble Trellani and Chambers had used to explain how she'd been brought back meant nothing to her. Miranda used much simpler, easier language.

In short, they had to trick her body into working again, then keep all the organs going with mechanical parts. Some things couldn't just be cloned up – especially missing parts. Skin was easy, but regular skin didn't go over cybernetics very well, so while some of her skin was real, most of it was fake. Cloned organs tended to fail over time, so each one had monitors and cyberware to keep it going and report failures. Her brain was missing a few pieces, and the damage the Beacon had done to it wasn't helping.

They'd gotten around that by cloning pieces of the brain that were damaged, and re-anchoring her memories by copying them to a gray-box, then feeding them back. Trellani had also done something – Miranda wasn't clear about the details, but it wasn't bonding. Some mystical asari crap that Shepard decided she really didn't want to know the details about.

The gray-boxes worried her, but Miranda tried to calm her fears. She had two of them – one to let her record everything she saw and heard, and a second one to augment her memories. Each one was isolated from any sort of remote access, and if need be Shepard could even turn them off, although Miranda recommended that she didn't. They weren't sure that her brain would still be able to make normal long-term memories, but the gray-box could handle that.

The things they'd needed to add to her body had not been to turn Shepard into a killing machine, but because it was the minimum necessary to keep her alive and functional. Things like gyroscopes in her wrists and hips to aid in firing, and linking her eyes to targeting computers, were needed – because part of her brain that had to control balance was not working right, and they'd never figured out a good way to fix it.

She was up-armored in a lot of ways – sub-dermal armor, metal plates in the chest, an entirely artificial skull – because shock affected people with lots of cyberware differently than a healthy, normal person. The body couldn't handle it as well, and clotting, platelets and the like disrupted cybernetic function in many ways. Some of her internal organs were barely working right as it was, given all the strange substances they'd shot her up with and weird technology they'd used, and if she took severe damage her whole body might just turn off.

The armoring she had was pretty complete – the false skin was the first level, then fortified myomer muscles under sub-dermal plates of super-thin but tough armor. Most light and medium pistols, light rifles, and submachine guns would just bounce or do very minor damage. Heavier rifles and pistols would still penetrate, but not far – most of those would be defeated by the sub-dermal plating. Her chest and skull were the most heavily protected, and even a direct hit from a sniper rifle wouldn't penetrate either of those – even an eye-shot would find a plate of armor between the brain and the cybernetic eyes, and her neck had shock absorbers built into the spinal column.

Heavy machine guns, high explosives, plasma and the like would still fuck her up – and Miranda warned her against thinking she was invincible. She was a lot faster and stronger now – she could probably keep up with a salarian in the speed department, and punch out a krogan – but if she got hurt she wouldn't be walking it off. Some of the cybernetics in her body could repair itself, but most of it couldn't – and the armor could absorb a lot of punishment, but when it failed, it tended to splinter, which would do a lot of internal damage.

They'd added a few tricks to her body, too. She had a tiny omnigel fab unit, that would create a small handful of handy items, such as a mag-lock pick, minor repair tools, circuit leads, or the like. She had a canister of medigel shoved into her somewhere, and channels to distribute it instantly, to stop bleeding before it got started. She had a small device in her hip that would lessen the effect of some anti-biotic attacks had on her. Her throat had a covering over the windpipe to stop her from being strangled. Her hands and feet had attachments to let her magnetically attach to walls, and her elbows and knees sported short, extendable omni-blades.

The most startling change, though, was to her biotics. Miranda explained they'd managed to create and insert additional nodes into her body while she was dead, and those nodes had responded normally when they woke her back up. She was now stronger than any human biotic who'd ever lived, and while they had no tests done on how strong that would be, Miranda said it would allow Shepard to pull off attacks and biotics that no one but asari could usually use.

Of course, she still had no bio-amp – one was on the base, but testing would be required before she could use it. Likewise, Miranda said she'd have an upgraded suit of armor, but that was also at the base. Even so, in her bare skin, she could do a lot of damage. Shepard had already figured that out, just by punching dents into solid steel walls – but having it all detailed out was a mix of chilling and faintly cool.

All in all, the amount of credits they'd tossed at her to bring her back to life was staggering. When Shepard had expressed her doubts about the wisdom of spending so much to bring back one person, Miranda pointed out that they'd already made back half the money they'd spent on Shepard by licensing out the technologies developed to human corporations, and that in particular some of the advances in brain scanning and cloning they had pioneered were already saving lives. In the long run, Miranda estimated the project would more than pay for itself even if Shepard died tomorrow, in terms of credits.

What troubled Shepard the most was why the Illusive Man had actually brought her back, and why he was willing to expend so much effort and money to win her over. She wasn't stupid enough to think she was 'just' a soldier. She could grasp, on some level, that she had many things that most soldiers didn't – fame, nobility, her Spectre status. But those things had all died with her – and keeping her resurrection a secret meant she couldn't reclaim them.

Miranda had suggested that perhaps he valued her for the fact that she'd stopped Nazara's plans, but Shepard didn't buy that. It wasn't like she'd killed the Reaper – hell, she hadn't even been able to kill Saren or Benezia. Ashley Williams had taken down Saren, and Benezia had basically killed herself.

Miranda had countered with the obvious – someone had wanted her dead, and if the Illusive Man's thesis was correct – that the Broker was working for the Collectors, who were Reaper agents – that meant the Reapers feared her. Shepard found herself smiling at the idea, but didn't buy it fully.

She suspected that TIM's plans for her had less to do with her ability at stopping Reapers and more to do with cleaning up Cerberus' image. If she was seen working with Cerberus, after all, people would either assume Shepard had suddenly turned evil – fat chance – or that Cerberus was not the same pile of alien-murdering jackasses they'd been a few years back. She had no intention of whitewashing any Cerberus bullshit, and if TIM thought she could be bought off with resources and a nice speech, he was in for a surprise.

She swallowed as she found herself wondering what Liara would think of this, and pushed the thought away. Ahern's voice came to her, bitching about her acting like some emo shitfaced clown, and she let herself smile at the memory.

But she couldn't smile for long. She was in this alone, really. She had no one she could be absolutely sure she could trust. She didn't really think Cerberus was out to get her – and TIM was so confident that she'd agree that she couldn't see them risking her anger by doing the sort of things the old Cerberus had been up to. That didn't mean they were all puppies and light now, either, and she knew full well if TIM had a choice between double-crossing her and doing what he felt needed to be done for humanity, she'd be tossed on her ass in a second.

She wasn't even sure who she could confide in. She was glad that Tali and Joker were here, but they had changed a great deal. The Tali she knew had almost been worshipful of her father, always frightened of his disapproval, nervous and unsure. This Tali was confident, bitter and mature – and had stuck the Cerberus insignia on herself. Shepard hadn't missed the significance of that. Whatever the quarian woman had gone through, it was probably even more fucked up than Tali was saying for her to be proud of joining alien-killing terrorist asshats.

Joker had been irreverent as usual, but even she could see he was very at ease with these Cerberus people. And in any case, Joker wasn't the sort of person who looked deeply into events. He would go along with whatever Tali wanted, she suspected, in much the same way that Liara went along with whatever Shepard had wanted. As long as he could fly and they took care of Tali, Joker was unlikely to dig to find out the dark side of Cerberus.

She didn't quite know what to think about the Cerberus people, except that Chambers pissed her off, and from what little she knew about Trellani, the asari seemed dangerous as all hell. If she was actually sleeping with the Illusive Man, that meant a lot of things, none of them very good. Liara's memories of Trellani were never detailed except for rumors, and most of those very recent, but Shepard didn't need those memories to see the lurking crazy in the asari's eyes.

The Illusive Man himself bothered her. She'd expected someone like that to be a physical coward, hiding behind smoke and mirrors, or remote transmissions. He'd actually let her get within killing distance of him and hadn't flinched. That was impressive, in a way – she was still pretty sure he had some kind of backup method of stopping her, but it was a risk. The way he handled words and presented himself – utter confidence, complete knowledge – was daunting, and she couldn't even hope to out-think the bastard.

Chambers was a goddamned shrink, and a mix of infuriating and reassuring. Shepard hated mind games and the red-head was apparently good at them, which didn't make her any easier to like. Shepard also didn't have a good feel as to why she was tagging along, except for the idea that she might lose her mind. The idea that she needed psychological help was hardly new – Jiong, bless his heart, had constantly harped on that point – but she wanted it from someone she could at least trust to be acting in her best interests,and Chambers looked at her more like a test subject. On the other hand, Shepard wasn't stupid enough to discount the fact that having someone who could understand her mental issues might actually be needed if she had a complete nervous breakdown at some point.

The only Cerberus people she liked so far were Taylor and Miranda. Lawson certainly looked and sounded like a cast-iron bitch, but she was obviously invested in Shepard's well-being, and the dismay in her voice at Shepard having watched the video of her team dying seemed real. And she was a bit bitchy and sarcastic, things that would make other people dislike her, but that Shepard actually liked. Shepard wasn't going to pretend that these people had not investigated her very carefully, and the fact that Miranda was built like a sexier version of Beatrice Shields was hard to chalk up to coincidence. Shepard didn't think the Cerberus woman would try anything – God, that would be awkward as shit – but she grimly admitted that if they had that idea, Miranda would be her type.

She really hoped they had enough sense not to pull that shit. She wasn't in the mood.

Taylor sounded solid and didn't try to bullshit her, refusing to blow any smoke up her ass about the fact Cerberus seemed legit but could always turn out to be bad seeds. If he had an agenda, it would be plain to see. Von Grath didn't have much use for hangers on or slick social types, and if the man really was an armor captain under her old general, he would be as straightforward as he had so far presented himself.

Not that she had much choice but to go along with Cerberus and at least try to see if they were not full of shit, given her lack of options. If the Alliance had been worth spit, or if she thought she could have gone back and not been tossed in a cell and then shot in the head, she would have told TIM to go fuck himself. Working for Cerberus was somewhere on her list of Shit Never to Do between becoming a slaver and having sex with a krogan, after all.

But she didn't seem to have any options. And she couldn't actually say that what he'd pointed out about the Alliance and the Council was a lie, either. The Council wasn't blind or stupid – but they'd already proven they would put politics first. Just because she'd managed to win them over to some degree didn't mean they'd listen to some crazy cybered-up zombie version of herself, and even if they did, the Alliance would throw a bitch fit.

That didn't mean she was going to trust these assholes. But she wanted to see what TIM's plans were first, and if he could follow through on his big talk about resources.

O-TWCD-O

As it turned out, TIM was apparently a master of understatement.

They arrived in a desolate binary star system within some kind of dark gaseous nebula. Several asteroid belts circled the star, along with a single blue-white gas giant.

Shepard had been called up to the pinnaces' observation deck, where she found Jack Harper standing next to Trellani and Miranda, staring out the windows. He smiled thinly as she entered, a glass of whiskey in his hand, and gestured out the window.

"Welcome to System TH34. Surveyed eleven years ago by a human scout team. The information never made it back to Alliance Stellar Cartography, since the scout ship was on my payroll. It sports three asteroid belts, two of them with concentrations of titanium, palladium, iron, and copper, and a single gas giant suitable for HE3 refining. The nebula itself is fairly opaque beyond fifty light years away, and the nearest mass relay is in the Indirus system."

Shepard glanced outside, then turned to face him. "And this system is in the Traverse, or where?"

Trellani spoke, her tones elegant and clipped."It is actually located at the very tip of the Black Rim. A low traffic area, one frequented mostly by merchant types. Too close to the salarians for pirates to bother with, or scouts looking for new systems, but far enough out that patrol ships don't bother. From the Indirus relay you can hit the Traverse, the Shrike Abyssal, and a dozen other trade lanes in less than two jumps."

Shepard folded her arms as the pinnace headed for the outer asteroid belt. "Well, that's nice. I assume we are taking this side-trip because...?"

Jack Harper turned fully away from the window. "As I told you, Shepard, I'm committed to providing you the kind of support you need to get the tasks I have planned for you completed. At the same time, I'm a strong believer in cell structure when it comes to maintained secrecy. Cerberus has other operations, all organized into independent cells. Your cell, the Revenant Cell, answers to you, and through you, me. As such, you need a base of operations – not only for your ships and men, but for the equipment we'll need to keep your body in working order, and to build up any additional forces you may require."

He gestured out the window. "Even if you decide not to work with me and expose all this to the Alliance or the Council, nothing here will lead to them being able to locate any other Cerberus operations. The people recruited to serve, with two exceptions, have no links to Cerberus, and the information Ms. Chambers and Miranda have about the organization is now over two years out of date."

Shepard folded her arms. "So if I double cross you, you don't get burned. You don't trust me?"

Harper gave her a look. "It isn't a matter of trust, Shepard, so much as prudence. It is always possible that you could be attacked, or tracked back here. I can't risk all of Cerberus on your ability to stay hidden...or on your choice to change your mind in the future." He paused to sip his drink. "And I trust you to do what you think is best – which may or may not coincide with what I think is best. That's the drawback I face in bringing you back, one I'm prepared to accept."

Shepard didn't bother to argue that, as the pinnace approached a very large asteroid. She could see some sort of docking bay built into the side of it, and arched an eyebrow. "And I suppose this base is where I'll be operating from, while you'll be elsewhere?"

Harper nodded. "Indeed. The resources I've been gathering since your death have mostly been reinvested into this venture. I have no need for large numbers of military assets myself – most of my investments are in different directions. If Cerberus has a military arm, it will be under your control."

The pinnace entered the docking bay, touching down lightly. From the windows, Shepard could only see a row of sleek looking fighters and some shuttles. "And this bullshit about a fleet? All I see is shuttles."

Harper gave her a smile. "This is the small craft docking bay, Shepard. We'll show you around and let you decide if the resources are adequate."

O-TWCD-O

Shepard had to admit, almost an hour later – Harper could certainly deliver on grandiose promises.

The base was comprised of six decks, along with a docking bay for small craft and a huge hanger for larger ships. The asteroid was comprised of stony iron, but hollowed out, and the inner hull was reinforced with three dreadnought class kinetic barriers. Ten steerable GARDIAN laser arrays covered the surface, along with over a dozen triple-mount, rapid fire GTS launchers, four turreted heavy accelerator cannons, and a full ECM suite. The surrounding fifteen asteroids were also fortified with light kinetic barriers, GTS missiles and GARDIAN arrays.

Harper had promised her a fleet, but it wasn't the fleet she was expecting. Two heavy cruisers formed the center of it, along with ten smaller destroyers and a light carrier. The escort was fifteen light, fast frigates. The ships were only lightly manned, most of the work done by specially designed LOKI mechs and heavy use of VI systems, as well as what Miranda referred to as 'a special personnel system you'll meet a bit later'.

They were all heavily armed and armored, low-slung and vicious looking ships. The dark black and gray color scheme, along with the angular, elegant lines made them look like they were straining to move and attack.

Joker said the flagship was still having a few last minute features added, and had its own docking bay – they'd see that later. She shrugged. While certainly impressive, ships alone didn't mean shit, but the cost of the fleet itself was more indication that TIM could move serious cash and wasn't stingy about spending it. She worried about what that meant, though – just because he was rich didn't mean he was going to blow money on things she wouldn't need … and what in God's name would she need an entire battle fleet plus a carrier for?

She walked along the stark white corridors, sourly noting more Cerberus logos hurled about like graffiti, and just listened to the tour.

The top deck was called Operations, and was given over to communications, planning, and intelligence. Below that was Science and Medical, where researching what Shepard found would be done, as well as a full hospital for casualties, and the facilities to repair and maintain her body would happen. Then came Habitation, a mix of living quarters, eating faculties, entertainment rooms, and briefing rooms.

Supply and Armory was the next deck, given over to a large hydroponics area, recycling facilities, and a fueling refinery that sent out automated ships to harvest HE3 from the system's gas giant. An armory was here as well, along with faculties such as shooting ranges and training rooms.

Storage and Manufacturing dominated its own deck, split between several omni-foundries of various sizes, equipment to slowly manufacture fighters and other small craft from materials in the asteroid belt, and a large amount of storage space. Finally, the Environmental and Security deck held the power plant, air production facilities, a large number of mechs, and the armored command center that controlled the base defenses, both internal and external.

Other features of the base were more geared towards espionage than defense. She had a real-time QEC link to the Illusive Man and his own intelligence networks, as well as links to thirty deployable, FTL-drive equipped stealth spy drones. Each one was the size of a small police cutter, and used the sort of heat-suppression technology the Normandy did to stay nearly invisible to long range sensors. The drones could monitor communications and provide sensor or visual data, as well as launch their own micro-drones to scout planetary surfaces.

The Illusive Man and Trellani had stayed on the pinnace, but everyone else had disembarked. He said he'd be in touch once she got settled in, and suggested she tour the facilities to get familiar with everything. She wasn't surprised to see him cut and run, but she could ask the questions she still needed answers to another time.

Tali and Joker had apparently been here before, so they lead the way and let Shepard decide what to see and where to go next. Miranda and Chambers trailed behind her, mostly quiet, although Miranda would interject when Shepard had questions, while Taylor said he'd been in security if he was needed.

She started in Operations, which involved an elevator trip. She was happy to note the damned thing moved quickly, and wondered vaguely if the coffee maker on this base would be as topnotch as everything else.

The center of operations was a gigantic starmap, where information about each star system could be brought up on haptic screens. The systems were colored based on who controlled the system and known dangers – Broker agents, pirates, civil wars, and the like were all displayed. Along with this were a dozen ex-AIS agents. Most of the agents had family or friends who'd been on the colonies that had vanished, and all of them had been fired for trying to follow up on the disappearances.

Shepard frowned, and addressed the lead agent, a skinny woman with messy brown hair named Trudy Menrows to explain why. "Doesn't make sense the Alliance would just blow the colony disappearances off. I mean, I get they want the wildcat colonies scared, but what will they do when an Alliance colony vanishes? And why fire you over it?"

Trudy gave an exasperated sigh. "The fools are convinced it won't happen. With the Terra Firma types in charge, most of the border patrols have been puled back. The Alliance is churning out more ships than ever, but none of them are being used to to protect the fringes of our territory – instead, the defenses of Class II and III colonies, and Sol, are being built up."

The agent gestured to the map. "We haven't established a single new colony since the Benezia Incident that wasn't a wildcat colony. The AIS was never told why, only that the order came down from the Lords of Sol. Knowing what I do now, maybe they're getting ready for the Reapers. All I know is that they took out two wildcat colonies in the Venthus Expanse – and then one further away, skipping two almost defenseless class I colonies." She paused. "Most of us tried to get the brass to at least allocate some drones to keep the wildcat colonies under surveillance – but the politics right now back home were completely poisonous to that idea, and we all got shitcanned."

Shepard frowned. "Well, you're probably better off here, where at least you'll get listened to. So, your little group of analysts here thinks the Collectors are behind the abductions? Any proof?"

The agent shrugged. "Honestly ma'am? We aren't sure yet who is doing it. There's not just a lack of evidence – it's like each site was vacuumed clean. The only hints we have were the asari on a few of the colonies, who remember nothing, and the bites or stings they suffered. The biology on the bites is clean, and we can't even be sure what made them because asari regenerate and they closed up in hours. I know one thing, though – whoever it is, they have some crazy advanced technology."

Shepard glanced back at her. "Why do you say that?"

Trudy sighed. "It's a logical premise, based on what we've seen so far. Mainly because we've moved as quickly as we could on some of the disappearances – Cerberus, I mean, not the Alliance. In one case we reached the site barely twelve hours after we lost contact with the colony, and not only did we not find any evidence, there weren't even any hints of weapons fire or engine discharges. You'd need some advanced tech to kidnap eighty thousand people in a few hours and leave not a single footprint behind."

Shepard nodded. "How did you guys end up working for Cerberus, anyway?"

Trudy's voice was quiet as she spoke. "Most of us were recruited just a few weeks ago, pretty much out of the blue. Cerberus has pretty bad associations with the AIS, and we know a lot of what they were up to." The woman sighed. "But I was around long enough to remember that before the AIS took a hand in it, Cerberus wasn't as bad as it became."

Shepard didn't know if she bought that or not, but continued the tour. Operations had a lot of weird facilities – forensics labs, ballistics ranges, interrogation rooms and the like – and more communications and spy equipment than she had ever heard of. All in all, almost fifty former AIS agents staffed the place, along with about a dozen 'independents' – private investigators or ex-cops, all of whom had lost family or friends to the abductions.

Operations would be where she put together her investigations and campaigns, Miranda explained, as they descended to the next level. It was designed with an eye to find what other investigations might have ignored, but also to leverage intelligence and surveillance capability in a way that Shepard could decide how to use instead of being given pieces and parts of.

The medical and science level was a bit creepier when she realized a fourth of it was dedicated solely to keeping her alive and working. She met the science team who'd resurrected her, and got a tour of the many labs and operating theaters she'd end up in at some point. Some of it looked more like a repair shop than a medical facility, which drove home to her quite forcefully her unnatural nature.

She found it didn't bother as much as it probably should have. Maybe it hadn't hit her yet, or maybe she was so overloaded with other shit that the fact she'd need arc welding equipment to fix her body up at some point was actually funny. It looked impressive and expensive and most of the doctors were the nose-in-air kinds she'd dealt with all her life until Chakwas and Sedanya had come along.

The second surprise she got was to find Doctor Sedanya here, working on something in the large medical bay. The asari doctor looked much the same as she had the last time Shepard had seen her, except instead of an Alliance uniform she now wore the same kind of thin armored bodysuit Miranda did.

"Doctor Sedanya?"

The asari looked up, and smiled gently. "I see they actually succeeded in their mad science project. Welcome back to the shores of life, Major."

Shepard glanced around the bay before facing the doctor squarely. "I have to admit, I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Sedanya sighed, sitting down in a nearby chair. "And I was not expecting to be here five months ago, either. But my mate began to suffer early stage effects of Kepral's Syndrome – a drell-only illness – and I didn't have the money to pay for the only treatment options. The Alliance was sadly unhelpful in that regard. When I was approached by certain bio-medical researchers who said they could help me out in return for my agreement to work for them, I was tempted to call the Commissars."

She ran a hand over her crests. "Instead, I listened to them. They were as good as their word, and they saved the life of my bondmate. I told them I wouldn't betray the Alliance or harm humans for any reason, and they told me all I was needed for was medical duties – not research of any kind, just healing."

She grimaced. "Then I got to a remote facility and Dr. Lawson here contacted me remotely, showing me video of your living, breathing body."

Shepard nodded. "Yeah. What do you make of it?"

Sedanya gestured to her screens."I've been trying to follow their research and understand all of what the tides they did to you – some of it is remarkably inventive, and some of it is far beyond current science and medical knowledge that it might as well be magic. A great deal of the technology is simply inventive combinations of known cybernetic and biogenetic alterations, but some of it is extremely ethically questionable."

Miranda cleared her throat. "That's arguable. And we didn't experiment on anything except brain-dead clones of Shepard."

Sedanya eyed Lawson before giving an asari shrug. "That may be so, but I wasn't speaking of the research needed to get there, but rather the implementation. Shepard, no matter what these people have told you, there's no way you can even live a few more years without their constant intervention. The biosystems and cybernetics keeping you alive are beyond experimental – and I don't think they can be recreated anywhere in the next ten years without a crash program equal to the one that brought you back to life."

Shepard smiled. "I figured the 'you can go your own way at any time' line was bullshit, but it's nice to see I was right."

Miranda folded her arms. "Not at all. Doctor Sedanya overlooks that the facility we are in now has all the necessary equipment and specialists to keep you alive indefinitely, while being isolated from the Cerberus network as a whole. And no, there are no super-secret self-destruct systems built into this base to keep it out of Alliance hands, if that is what you choose to do."

Sedanya crossed her legs. "Maybe. But even if Dr. Lawson is accurate with that statement, this base remains your … oh, what is the reference? Ah. Achilles heel. If it's destroyed – by enemy attack or Cerberus cutting their losses – it is very unlikely you'll live for much longer."

Shepard shrugged. "Not to be dismissive, doc, but I sorta expected that. TIM would be a complete fool if he didn't have some kind of leverage on me, and the guy doesn't strike me as a fool."

Miranda sighed. "He didn't spent billions bringing you back to life just to stab you in the back, Shepard."

Shepard smiled. "Yeah, I know. But he didn't spend billions to have me turn on him without a way to prevent it either, Miranda."

The rest of the level was given over to science stations and other kinds of labs. Miranda explained that they were looking into new kinds of armor and weapons, as well as experimental support equipment like battle-suits and VI-driven expert systems that could provide needed skills in the field.

Habitation was mostly what it sounded like, although Shepard was amused to see she had a nearly palatial set of rooms for her own use, including some kind of private medical bed and her own eating spaces. A cabinet full of clothes in black and gray, all expensive and upscale, was matched by elegant furnishings. A small room with an omni-foundry and a glass wall with mounts for various ship models was just gravy.

She glanced sourly at the wide double bed in the bedroom chamber and shot Miranda an irritated look. "Expecting me to use that?"

It was Chambers who answered her. "We don't know what you will choose to do in the long run, ma'am. The only one of our team who experienced bond-loss, Matriarch Trellani, said everyone reacts differently. Some immediately try to seek out another bondmate, others bury themselves in strings of relationships, and others … never deal with anything of that nature again. We'd rather be prepared for whatever choices you make than try to corral you."

Shepard sighed. "Whatever. I don't like luxury, though."

Miranda's lips quirked. "Yes, well, I'm afraid both the Illusive Man and Matriarch Trellani are fond of it."

Skipping the rest of Habitation, she went through the rest of the base. The armory and manufacturing areas were just as overbuilt and impressive as medical, with the capability of producing a literal army of mechs given enough resources, and mining equipment to get those resources. The armory was stocked with every kind of weapon Shepard could imagine – including racks of designs she'd sketched out in her own notebook.

She found a rack of ODINs from said notebook in her personal armory room, along with several sets of white-painted Spectre armor and a single, slightly battered pistol. She picked it up wonderingly, glancing at Miranda.

"We had an agent in the recovery action on Alchera. Your rifle was destroyed in the crash, and your ODIN was taken by David Anderson – but Saren's Sunfire pistol had gotten knocked under a fallen control panel and missed. The journal was stolen by P.'s scavengers and tossed in with your body in the stasis pod we recovered you in. We decided to utilize its contents to build weapons you might wish to use."

Shepard had left the notebook, and the haptic frame of Liara, in her personal quarters. She hefted the Sunfire-B pistol, before exhaling and setting it back down.

"Let's keep going."

They finished the tour in a slightly smaller and empty docking bay, after going through the storage and security areas, only to find Joker and Tali waiting for them. Shepard glanced out over the empty bay and complex fueling systems built into the ceiling, and then turned to Joker.

"What are you two here for?"

Joker gave her a grin. "We just got word that your early Christmas present would be coming in a few minutes. I wanted to be here to show her off."

Shepard considered his words, then glanced at him sidelong. "If you bought me an asari stripper, Tali's going to need a new husband."

"Wha-? No! Jeez, always with the doubting. Look, this is going to be awesome."

Tali merely patted his arm while tilting her head at Shepard. "He's a little excited."

Shepard found herself smiling at the image the two of them made, and then turned as Miranda tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned, blinking as a ship slowly entered the docking bay.

At first glance it was the size of an Alliance light cruiser, but the lines were wrong for that. The heavily curved center section flared into arched, thin wings each bearing a pair of framework engines with heavy steerable thrust units behind them. Long prongs of armor framed the low-slung cockpit, while a pair of aggressive looking tail fins balanced the rear of the ship.

It was like a much bigger, much meaner and more aggressive looking Normandy, done in black and dark gray instead of silver and white. The ship slowly moved forward before docking clamps swung up from the floor to hold it in place, and a fueling and supply gantry swung down from the ceiling of the docking bay to mate with the supply collar even now sliding open on the ships' port side.

Shepard folded her arms. "I'm guessing this is my flagship?"

Miranda nodded. "We … ahem, acquired the designs through various means, and then performed a complete redesign. The entire air-frame is now constructed of Silaris material, and heavily armored in more Silaris armor. Cyclonic barrier shielding generators cover fore and aft, and the engines are sixty percent more powerful than those of the original Normandy."

She gestured to the hull. "The IES system has been heavily refined, and combined with prototype technology pioneered by the salarians to break up her visual lines. The surface paint is omnimorphic and can mimic many different paint schemes, and there are a number of kits we can attach to change her shape and outline in case you need to be discreet."

Joker piped in."The guns are twice as heavy as what the Normandy had, full on cruiser blasters. She's got four GARDIAN arrays, rotating missile racks in the wings, and somehow Cerberus flat out stole the FTL launcher and Kyle-class torpedoes we had on the Kazan. I'm sure I don't know how that happened."

Shepard gave him a look, then shook her head. "That's pretty impressive, but half of the Normandy's power came from her crew. Pressly was a big part of what made that work, him and his ops people."

Miranda nodded. "We're aware of that. Commander Pressly survived, but is still … impaired. We attempted, with no success, to try to recruit him for this mission, but at the time we could not reveal that you had survived. Instead, we were forced to try to adapt to the situation as best we could."

Joker sighed. "Yeah, by giving my ship goddamned cancer."

Shepard arched an eyebrow. "Cancer?"

Miranda gestured to the now lowering walkway. "You'll understand more once you're aboard, Shepard."

O-TWCD-O

The new Normandy was much like the original, but also different in a lot of ways. The fact that they had an armory with minifacturing capabilities and a laboratory was weird enough, but the medical bay had its own little room set aside for her needs, where the science lab was on the old Normandy.

Everything was larger, more luxurious, and more advanced. The elevator was fast, and they had a real kitchen, expansive mess-decks, a library, a bar and poker room, even real bunk beds for the limited crew. The core was larger and more powerful, the weapons room had detailed inventory and calibration controls, and the cargo bay boasted a hover-tank along with a pair of fighters and an armored, armed shuttle.

Her own quarters, on their own little deck, were more of the same useless luxury she had seen on the base, complete with, of all things, a fucking aquarium. The double bed and leather sectional couch were also a bit much.

But when she saw the CIC, she felt right at home again. While larger and more advanced looking than her old CIC on the Normandy, and smaller than the Kazan, it felt familiar. The fact that they'd added a chair was a nice touch.

She turned to Miranda. "This is … well, it's really impressive, Miranda. I see why Joker was so ga-ga over everything."

A sneering voice emitted from the nearby wall. "Wonderful, the chief primate has finally decided to stop sleeping and grace us with her undead presence."

Shepard slowly turned, blinking as a floating silvery orb detached itself from a sort of projector on the wall and floated towards her. It took a second for her to realize what it was.

"Vigil?"

The orb pulsated. "Yes, Shepard. I'm glad your memory works enough to recall me, given the methods we used to revive you were so dreadfully primitive. Your doctors did not appreciate my suggestions of including native chants, rain dances, or hallucinogenic substances in their procedures."

She shook her head. "Still an asshole, I see. Why are you here?"

Vigil bobbed in mid air before floating out over the galaxy map. "Your employers – who are suitably ruthless but display a distressing lack of manpower – liberated me from that pack of incompetent idiots you call the Council, who continue to think governing out of a Reaper mouse-trap is somehow intelligent. I assisted in your reconstruction, and in penetrating the laughable computer systems in which many of the designs and secrets of your various governments were hid, like the stealth and weapons systems of this ship."

The sphere circled her slowly. "Originally, I was planning to merely stay at the base, offering my advice to correct your no doubt unoptimal choices and continue in assisting the Illusive Man, as well as working towards my own goals. Unfortunately, the Illusive Man could not procure sufficient personnel to man all the ships he wanted, and thus alternatives were needed."

The sphere pulsated again. "As such, I have split off many sub-daemons of my core matrix to act as overseeing AI's on these ships, and this iteration of me is one such instance. I will perform all the ECM and gunnery control functions on the ship, as well as cyberwarfare and some damage control functions. Of course, there will be conventional crew aboard, but far fewer than a ship this size would normally require."

Joker grimaced. "Like I said. Ship cancer."

Vigil's next pulse was somehow … smug. Its voice certainly was. "Alas, some of the primitives you associate with continue to try to engage in a battle of the wits with their superior, without realizing they are unarmed. Pilot Moreau is one such unfortunate soul. As an aside, did you know the root of your name literally translates to 'little dark'? I find that an apt description of your mental capabilities."

Joker glared at the orb. "I hate you."

Vigil serenely floated over his head to hover at Shepard's shoulder. "The impulse is reciprocated, meatbag."

Shepard shook her head. "Well, you came in handy on the Citadel. I'm sure you will here as well. Do you trust Cerberus?"

The sphere pulsated a brighter silver for a moment, and then spoke in a deeper, more serious tone. "I would think that putting myself in their service would answer that question, but a review of their operational history suggests that your quaint moral systems would have problems with their previous acts. I have been monitoring most, if not all, of their communications, much to the chagrin of the Illusive Man. So far, the majority of their activity has been a rather deft manipulation of the financial markets of your civilizations, a good deal of industrial espionage, and some quiet bribery here and there to encourage various defense industries to explore alternative technologies."

She folded her arms. "So...no experiments on aliens?"

Vigil floated around to her other shoulder. "Not so far, although I fail to see why this is important to you. The Reapers, I assure you, will have no such hesitancy, nor do I see such reserve in the activities of other alien races, especially the ones known as salarians."

Shepard sighed. "We shouldn't have to dip into being sick fucking assholes just to defend our lives, Vigil. What the fuck are we fighting for if we're going to be as bad as the Reapers?"

Vigil actually laughed. "Human, if your worst nightmares of ethical violations were committed for a thousand years by Cerberus, they would not hold up to the least of the monstrosities the Reapers commit. At the very least, the atrocities that Cerberus committed in the past had some useful function, some goal in their perpetration, as do those of other species. The Reapers, on the other hand, commit such things simply to induce horror and fear in the weaker species of the galaxy – and, I suspect, for amusement value."

Shepard sighed. "I won't argue with that. I just don't...and won't...sign off on the kind of bullshit Cerberus used to pull in the name of 'advancing humanity'."

Vigil floated beside her as she walked around the CIC, glancing over the displays, saying nothing. After a moment, she glanced at it. "Are you on every ship under my command, then?"

The sphere shimmered and then blinked out, only to pop up over the galaxy map. "Yes. While the QEC system these people have managed to create is effective, it is also energy inefficient and tied to serially created pre-existing circuits. I can communicate instantly between all instances, and in a manner that cannot be spied upon or hacked into. I can also coordinate your ships and direct fire in a fashion that organic crews could not mimic, and I have far more experience doing so – in the Inusannon's fight against the Reapers I commanded thousands of ships at once."

She walked through the CIC. "So, if I wanted to build more ships – ones designed specifically to need no crew but you – would that be workable?"

Vigil bobbed in the air. "Indeed it would. This is one reason why I so strongly suggested bringing you back from the dead – your mind grasps things others seem to reject. The Illusive Man was not open to the idea of giving me more combat power he did not have some form of control over, but to answer your question, not only would it be workable, but I already have designs that could be utilized."

Shepard frowned. "You suggested bringing me back from the dead? Why?"

Vigil appeared in the cockpit, on a plinth to one side of the pilot's seat. "A number of reasons. I already mentioned your mental flexibility. Your combat abilities, now that you have been augmented like a proper Inusannon soldier, are also far beyond the capabilities of most Cerberus personnel. But a more important reason was due to my observations in the past. I have observed a number of cycles fighting against the Reapers before the Inusannon decided to take up the fight, and also observed the fight of those you call the Protheans. In every cycle, there is usually one person – typically a soldier – who ends up becoming the center of the resistance. In the days of the Protheans, it was a special soldier named Jaavik who reminded me much of you."

As Shepard, Vigil, Miranda and Tali entered the cockpit, Vigil did something and the pilot's seat spun in a slow circle until it faced backwards, and Joker sat down with a pleased sigh. "Ahh...leather."

Vigil continued. "In this cycle, I had already identified you as the most likely center of resistance – which is why I believe you were targeted and killed. When the key resistance leader is destroyed, most cycles put up completely ineffective resistance, some of them even going so far as to try to negotiate a peace with the Reapers. You can imagine how that works out. The prey can hardly negotiate a ceasefire with the predator."

Shepard's frown only deepened. "You make it sound like my participation is somehow important. But – "

Vigil interrupted her. "Let me guess. You will repeat the words of Jaavik, and say you are only a soldier, and did not do that much. Spare me, organic. It is not a matter of what you 'do', it is a matter of how you think. If you believe in things like the Inusannon did, then you are fated to fight the Reapers. If you are more logical and less given to flights of fancy, then you would understand that your perspective is not unique. Saren, when he discovered the threat, should have been the one to lead the fight – instead, he succumbed. It is not about you, as a singular person – rather the position you represent."

Shepard arched an eyebrow and glanced at Tali. "Does any of that make sense to you?"

Tali shrugged, adjusting her reik slightly. "I don't honestly know, Sara. I know since you died, it doesn't seem like anyone is really preparing for the Reapers except Cerberus. If you had not died, with your fame and visibility, you could have kept preparations going – without you the only people who know about this are all politicians."

Joker snorted. "It's more than that. You brought everything together, Shepard. You may not have done all the work, but you were the one to go in and save Tali, to rescue Liara, to come up with the idea to go after Cerberus and shut them down. Since you died no one has really stepped up...well, except Delacor, and that guy is a walking death sentence."

Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright." She turned to Miranda. "Now what? I go forth and right wrongs?"

Miranda's lips curled into a smile. "Not exactly."

O-TWCD-O

Shepard was lead back into the base, and to the operations level, where they entered yet another room, this one with a circular table surrounded by comfortable chairs, and big haptic screens on the wall. In the center of the room was a QEC projector, and it was projecting the image of the Illusive Man, sitting comfortably on a chair, smoking.

"So, you have seen the facilities. I presume they are adequate?"

Shepard exhaled, and sat down in one of the overstuffed leather executive chairs at the table. "Beyond adequate, for up to and including minor planetary invasions. Pretty light on personnel, from what I see, though."

The Illusive Man nodded. "Part of that is by design, and part of that is by circumstances. Vetting people who could definitively classified as not possible spies of the Broker was more difficult than expected. Several attempts at breaching the security of the Revenant Project were turned aside only at great cost, and only by dint of using Matriarch Trellani's abilities were we able to ferret out one infiltrator."

He puffed on his cigarette. "At the same time, I did not want to give you a complete staff full of people you had no way of knowing whether or not to trust. We have a selection of dossiers on a variety of ex-Alliance personnel who have, for one reason or another, separated from the service since your death and are available for recruitment. Most of these are personnel for the new ship you will be commanding, although you already have a partial staff."

Shepard folded her arms. "I do?"

He nodded. "Ms. Zorah will be acting as your chief engineer, Doctor Sedanya as your medical officer, and you will find that Miranda makes a capable executive officer or a chief intelligence officer. Obviously Mr. Moreau will be the pilot. Vigil oblviates the need for a Navigator, and Dr. Chambers will serve as a communications officer as well as providing psychological support. Mr. Taylor will also accompany you, as your battle duty officer and gunnery specialist."

He tapped his ashes. "A few technical people are already on board, as well as a maintenance technician, a Mr. Gardner, who doubles as a mess cook. Additional personnel will be approved by you in the coming days from the list of personnel we have prepared."

"As for the base itself, the armory and manufactory areas are under the supervision of one of Ms. Zorah's friends, Kiala'Dost, and her husband, a former Alliance Lieutenant of security. The medical areas are already fully manned by the specialists who brought you back to life. One of my best people, Mr. Randall Ezno, will handle base security, along with patrolling security mechs. As with the ship, additional personnel will be at your discretion to acquire."

She nodded, leaning back in the chair. "That only leaves what my mission is."

Jack Harper put out his cigarette, the QEC image flickering as he did so. "The mission entails three segments, although it may change as we uncover additional information. The first task is confirming that the Collectors are indeed behind the vanishing colonies, and to gather information and evidence that cannot be ignored by the Alliance or the Council that this is the case. The second mission, assuming the Collectors are the culprits, is to determine why they are taking the colonists, and to where."

He pulled out a fresh cigarette and lit it. "The third mission is the determination of the best method to stop them from doing so, preferably by destroying their base of operations. That would allow us to pick through the wreckage and find additional proof of Collector connection to the Reapers."

He inhaled smoke, and blew it out in a thin line. "A secondary but equally important task is linking the Broker to the Collectors, and to your untimely demise – preferably by obtaining it from the wreckage of his corpse."

He tapped a control on his chair, and an image of the Omega system came up. "There are four primary barriers to success to the primary mission. The first is the most daunting – from all reports, the Collectors operate beyond the Omega-4 relay, which is unlike any other relay in the known system. No ship or probe other than Collector vessels has ever been able to traverse the relay and return."

Shepard frowned. "Well, that's a non-starter."

Harper smiled. "The interesting thing about the relay is that, according to Vigil, this was also the case during Inusannon times, except it was another race that ventured forth from the relay. The Inusannon were able to 'hack' the Relay in some fashion, but Vigil does not have any records of how they achieved this, or what they found. The fact that they did so implies it could be done again."

He tapped a control, and the image changed, to that of a large, asymmetrical shape, part curved metal, part stones and cliffs. A smaller shape, similar in construction but thinner and more elongated, was displayed below the bigger one. "These are composite images of reported Collector vessels. In the event that we cannot manage to recreate the Inusannon's 'hack' of the relay, our initial option is finding, disabling, and capturing one of these vessels, with an eye towards identifying the method they use to bypass the defenses of the relay and transit to the Collector base that we surmise must exist."

He folded his hands together. "Given that the Collectors, whether or not they are linked to the Reapers, have very advanced technology, capturing such a ship would be a very dangerous proposition. It is one reason I have given you such a large number of warships to work with. Managing to capture such a ship is the second barrier to success."

He tapped the controls on his chair again, and the image shifted to one of an abandoned colony. "The third problem we face is that we don't know how the Collectors, if it is the Collectors, are managing to subdue and capture tens of thousands of armed, typically tough-minded colonists at one time and abscond with them in a manner of hours. Any weapon or defense system that could do this would be able to render most invading or boarding forces incapable of action. Without a better understanding of how they subdue their targets, we can't expect boarding the ships to work, much less assaulting their base."

A final key-press shifted the image to that of the Citadel. "Finally, we have to be very careful in how we manage your own resurrected status. We can't just let you run around and start blasting things, nor can we expect for your return to life to be kept quiet for long without careful, and extreme, counter-measures. The more information we can present to the Council once your existence becomes known, and the more certain we can be of any linkage between the Collectors and the Broker, and the more likely it becomes that they will accept your continued existence peacefully – or even offer help. On the other hand, if you are exposed too early, I have strong doubts that the Citadel's reaction will be positive – much less that of the Alliance. We also cannot discount the possibility that the Broker will try to have you killed – again."

He killed the haptic images, and leaned back in his chair. Shepard thought about what he had said then shrugged. "I'm guessing you have answers to all these problems?"

He nodded. "To some of them, yes. The first task – proving the Collectors are behind the disappearances – is the most urgent. Right now, I have my people constantly monitoring every single wildcat colony humanity has, using remote spy drones with QEC links as well as on-site agents. When one loses contact, we'll know faster than anyone else that something is going down, and we'll send your force in to respond. While we may or may not get there in time to stop the abduction or even see it in progress, we can almost be sure to get there to record drive emissions or weapon discharges, and hopefully gather some form of forensic evidence on the ground."

He took a sip of his drink. "The other mission you need to look at is exposing and bringing down the Broker. There, I do not think weight of ships, or massive military forces will be of much use – it will be a war of intelligence gathering, infiltration and examination of evidence. While not exactly your strong point, I've managed to find a number of people who all have a reason to dislike or hate the Broker and who might be open to assisting you."

He exhaled. "I'm sure you would prefer to work with your old team, but with the exception of Ashley Williams, the only one alive and viable is Tali here. Urdnot Wrex is tied up with attempting to unify the Clans on Tuchanka, and while we do have access to Jason Dunn, he is currently serving a different purpose. Likewise, for the moment, some of your old subordinates – your DACT, and Senior Chief Vega – are not exactly open to recruitment, although that may change at a later date."

He leaned back in his chair. "Instead, we've put together dossiers on a number of personnel that would fit your combat and leadership style, while offering skills you don't yourself possess. The people in question offer various benefits and, in some cases, drawbacks, but all of them are the very best at what they do. Some of them I've already arranged payment for – in particular, two."

A pair of images flipped up on the screen. "The first is Kasumi Goto, a spy, intelligence broker, saboteur, thief and former agent of the Broker. Ms. Goto is a legend in certain circles, and was a Broker ally for many years, but recently has fallen out of favor with the group – and is actively under attack. Her knowledge of Broker procedures and weaknesses will come in handy, and her ability to find secretive information and infiltrate is a skill-set you may find useful in investigating the Broker or finding Tetrimus. Additionally, she claims to have information of something to do with the Batarian Empire and the Reapers, information her long-time partner was killed for."

The other image Shepard recognized, even as Harper spoke. "You already met Zaeed Massani, I believe, on New Louisiana. He is currently a free-for-hire mercenary, and still in command of his two-hundred strong mercenary legion called Firestorm. Given that your only real combat personnel are mostly mechs, a human contingent seems useful, although where you deploy them from may be problematic if you don't wish to expose your base. Massani himself has also had problems with the Broker in recent months, leading up to a series of attacks – physical and financial – on his mercenary company by Broker-backed agents. Mr. Massani has a death-feud with the current leader of the Blue Suns Mercenary Corporation, one Vido Santiago. On top of a very large paycheck, one requirement for his service is that he receive combat assistance in killing Mr. Santiago. Mr. Massani's own hatred of the Broker stems from the fact that the Broker appears to be assisting Mr. Santiago in avoiding Massani's wrath, as well as having participated in various actions that were a detriment to Firestorm."

Shepard shrugged. "I don't know how I could use a bunch of pyromaniacs, but they might come in handy, and Massani can certainly fight. The other one, Goto – can she be trusted?"

Harper smiled. "Good to see you aren't taking things at face value. I've had my people watch Goto very carefully, and I am certain the Broker threat to her life is very real. She has a certain reputation for not taking betrayal well, and I doubt any rapprochement is possible – that does not mean she may not try to sell you out if she feels she can get away with it."

He put up four more images. "The other people I have my eye on are more … problematic. The first one is an ex-STG salarian medical researcher known as Doctor Mordin Solus. Dr. Solus is known, among other things, for having done some research on bits of Collector technology that fell into STG hands after a raid, and is the only known scientist in the galaxy who has ever seen Collectors in person that we are aware of. His background in both military science and medicine makes him the ideal fit to conduct additional research on the Collectors. He's currently running a medical clinic on Omega. While Solus has no known personal dislike of the Broker, his sister, the matriarch of the Solus family, hates the Broker intently for reasons unknown. Of course, she also has an antipathy for Cerberus, so recruitment may be...problematic."

The next image was little more than a blurry streak of black. "Also on Omega is a figure known only as the Archangel. A vigilante of sorts, the Archangel has been tearing apart various gang operations on Omega for the past year or so. But our agents suggest that his more recent activities have actually focused on taking down Broker operatives on Omega, so many that the Broker himself has posted a price on Archangel's head of two hundred million credits. Aria herself appears to be tolerant of his activities, as his acts against the gangs and criminals of the station typically expose the fact that they have been cheating Aria out of her tribute in some fashion."

Harper's voice dropped in tone. "Archangel, from all reports, is a truly lethal combatant – possibly even powerful enough to kill Tetrimus. Several Broker assassins, including quite famous ones, have attempted to take him out over the past few months, and all of them have been literally torn to pieces. Archangel has so infuriated the gangs and criminals of Omega that they are now working together to try to find him and kill him – we may be able to convince him that extraction lets him live to fight another day."

The image of a starkly beautiful young woman flashed up next. "This is a young biotic of sorts, known as Jack. Sadly, Jack was once a Cerberus experiment."

Shepard winced. "Once?"

Harper sighed. "Jack was part of a program designed to explore the nature of what biotics could do. In her case, she was shaped into a sort of living anti-biotic. Her own biotic abilities cause certain resonances which disrupt conventional biotics, allowing her to shatter biotic barriers, nullify warpfire, and ignore kinetics. The initial goals of the program were benign...until Richard Williams tampered with them."

Shepard watched Harper carefully, surprised to see a hint of true anger in the man's expression. "When I discovered what had been done – details would only upset you, Shepard – I sent my people to shut the sordid mess down and liberate the subjects. Jack, therefore, has mixed opinions about Cerberus. She has been victimized, and like many victims, would like nothing more than to strike back at those who hurt her – but at the same time, Cerberus rescued her."

Harper flicked ashes from his cigarette. "Unfortunately, Jack fell into the wrong crowd some time ago, and was involved in an attempt to free slaves from a batarian internment camp. In the assault, she was captured, and for reasons still not clear to me, sold into slavery. She managed to escape shortly thereafter, but was recaptured by mercenaries – and imprisoned in cryostasis aboard Purgatory."

Shepard arched an eyebrow. "Warden Kuril's station."

He nodded. "Just so. Jack's unique biotic abilities might be of some use to you if the Collectors use biotics, but she would definitely be an asset in combating Tetrimus, given his own titanic biotic power. I have arranged for payment to 'buy' Jack from Kuril, although he seems reluctant to agree to part with her, stating she is unstable and dangerous – I am hoping, given your past relationship, that you can finalize the deal and set her free, and convince her to work for us. We do know she had some sort of run with Broker agents in the incident that lead to her capture, so she may be amenable to fighting him, if you can win her over."

He tapped the controls and another image appeared, that of the Ilium. "The final party in the initial round up of useful personnel is even more mysterious than Archangel. They are called the Sisters of Vengeance, and they have been waging private war against the Broker on Ilium for some time now. They are believed to be asari sisters who lost someone close to them due to actions of the Broker, and have devastated his networks on Ilium and elsewhere."

He puffed on the cigarette in his hand before scrubbing it out. "The Sisters have, from time to time, sent us useful intelligence on Broker activities, but we have no clear idea of their true identities or goals. However, as with Archangel, the Broker is making moves to try and localize them for disposal. Their ability to find information and get into places unseen – not to mention their staggering skill at information brokering – would provide you with additional resources and abilities, and from all indications they are also very good combatants. Their focus on killing the Broker would mesh well with your own issues, I would think."

He leaned back. "Of course, you may wish to pursue other courses of action. I would recommend staying far away from the Citadel or Earth, but if you wished to try to make contact with former friends or allies, we could assist in that."

She thought. "From what you're telling me, most of them aren't available. I do have a few questions, though. What happened to my Commissars, Alfred Jiong and Susan D'Alte?"

Harper sighed. "Both were apparently blamed for your death by the Commissariat. They've been reassigned to the Penal Legions as instructors. Keep in mind, Shepard, that their conditioning means they can't possibly join you."

She sighed. "I know. I'm just glad they're okay. What about Anderson? Where is this mental hospital?"

Harper gave a thin smile. "In Vancouver. It is very unlikely that you can get to him undetected – he has both AIS and Commissariat guards. However, Commander Kahlee Sanders is still aboard Grissom Academy Station – you may be able to contact her, assuming she can be trusted."

Shepard nodded. "Chambers already told me about where Colms and Cole ended up...where is Doctor Chakwas?"

Harper smiled wider. "Married to former General von Grath. They retired to Bekenstein almost a year ago. Von Grath was instrumental in covering up Cerberus' involvement in the rescue of your body, and we've done our best to protect him and his noble family from backlash."

Shepard sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "So, now I wait for some poor colony to get vanished, or do I start meeting up with these people?"

Harper shook his head. "First, you will need to perform some final testing – fitting and programming your omni-tool, your bio-amp, and your personal armor. You will also want to check and adjust your weapons, as well as get familiar with your physical abilities."

He gestured to Miranda. "As I said, we have dossiers and files on a large number of personnel that will be needed to man the Normandy and the base. Miranda will assist in helping you choose which of these personnel to recruit and bring into the organization. Finally, I suspect you'd like a day or two of time to yourself. The past day must have been quite an upheaval for you."

She nodded curtly. "I have one concern. How exactly do you plan to keep me being alive again a secret?"

Harper smiled. "We've spent the past year generating a number of 'fake' Shepards – imitators and look-alikes – to drum up visibility and generate the concept that you really are dead. If you are inadvertently identified, most will take it as yet another hoax. We have a number of possible methods for reintroducing you to society, but none of those are planned to happen until – at the very least – we can definitively link the Collectors to the abduction of colonists. "

He sipped his drink again, draining it. "Ultimately, how you choose to reveal yourself – and what level of connection you admit to having with Cerberus – is up to you. I doubt very strongly that such will be an easy task, and it will likely require a great deal of blackmail and political manipulation to do so in a manner acceptable to you."

She folded her arms. "You don't plan to use me to try to whitewash your own image?"

Harper looked amused. "I have already risked death once at your hands, Shepard. You'll understand if I do not intend to engage in strategies likely to enrage you even further. And Cerberus does not need a whitewash, nor can one be proffered without doing immense harm to the Alliance itself. If in the fullness of time the Broker is stopped and the galaxy unites to defeat the Reapers, as long as humanity's future is safeguarded – what happens to me is immaterial."

She arched an eyebrow. "You don't seem like the self-sacrificing type."

He gave her a level look. "And I am not, in most cases. If it becomes a choice between the safety of my people and my own life...well, as I said to you earlier, there are days where letting everything go would be a relief. But that is far afield of where we stand now."

He stood. "For now, focus on bringing your flagship on line, and preparing to begin your initial investigations. My own networks will keep your intelligence people appraised of galactic events and changes in the situation as they happen. Good luck, Shepard."

The signal ended, and Shepard sighed. "Before anything else – Miranda, I need a drink, and a smoke."

The dark-haired woman rolled her eyes. "That was anticipated. You'll find them in your personal quarters. If I might make a suggestion?"

Shepard nodded, and Miranda gave her a small careful smile. "It will take us more than a few hours to finish setting up everything we need to get started – you should probably consider getting some rest, and eating something. We can get started tomorrow morning on the final tests for your omni-tool, software interface and bio-amp – rushing will only skew the results due to fatigue."

Shepard exhaled and nodded. "Alright. I'll do that." She walked away, and after a moment Chambers walked up to Miranda, her expression thoughtful.

"Do you think she'll want to talk?"

Miranda gave the shorter redhead a dark look. "I don't honestly know, Dr. Chambers. I would ask that you at least give her one night to decompress and have some privacy before attempting to analyze her, seduce her, or whatever other idea you have in mind."

Chambers shrugged. "I was just going to see if she wanted to have someone to drink with. I'd suggest you do it, actually – she likes you the most, out of all of us."

Miranda appeared a little startled by that, but shook her head. "I need to remain at a certain reserve, if I'm to be of any use."

Chambers folded her arms. "No, right now what Shepard needs most of all is someone to listen and talk to her. No one has ever gone through what she has – returning from the dead. Everything has changed, and I get the feeling Zorah and Moreau make her a little uncomfortable. She needs a friend, Lawson – and, if you don't bite my head off for saying so, so do you."

Miranda stiffened. "I'm fully capable of dealing with my own personal issues, thank you."

Chambers shrugged, turning to go. "If you say so. I'll be in medical if you need me – if you chicken out and decide to let Shepard get drunk and weepy alone, don't complain to me afterwards if she tears up her quarters."

The psychologist flounced away, and Miranda glared at her retreating back before pausing in indecision for a long moment before hurrying after Shepard.