When he opened his eyes Shepard saw a white ceiling above him and felt pain all over his body.

"There. On the monitor," said a female voice. "Something's wrong."

"He's reacting to outside the stimuli," said a gruff voice. "Showing an awareness of his surroundings." He then began to move his head get a better view and saw that equipment. "Oh my God Miranda. I think he's waking up."

Shepard's eyes then fell upon a black haired woman in a tight white outfit. He turned his head again and saw a blind middle-aged man looking over him.

"Damn it, Wilson! He's not ready yet," said one known as Miranda. "Give him the sedative!" She then looked down at him and he felt his heart rate beating twice as fast. "Shepard—don't try to move. Just lie still. Try to stay calm."

"Heart rate still climbing," said Wilson's voice. "Brain activities of the charts." He then heard beeping sound. "Stats pushing into the red zone. It's not working!"

"Another dose. Now!"

He saw Wilson operating some sort of machine and felt needles entering into his arm and suddenly he began to feel sleepy.

"Heart rate dropping. Stats falling back into normal range. That was too close. We almost lost him."

Miranda then looked over him. "I told your estimates were off. Run the numbers again."

Then everything went black again.

He heard alarms pounding his eardrums. "Wake up, Commander," said Miranda's voice. "Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now—this facility is under attack."

Shepard's eyes snapped open. The facility shook again. They were under fire. And he felt as if krogan had danced on top of him. Parts of him just felt weird. He rubbed his jaw, and felt a cut sting beneath his fingers. "Your scars aren't healed, but I need you to get moving. This facility is under attack."

He sat up, ribs aching, and caught sight of a window. Beyond it he could see weapon fire. He was in a hospital. Shepard swung around and put his feet on the floor. "There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!"

A moment later he was moving. "Grab the pistol and armour from the locker."

Shepard moved as fast as he could and made his way over to locker. As he placed on his army began to wonder whether he was and what was going on. This was not an Alliance hospital. So where the hell was he? Was the voice even real? He spoke aloud. "This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip."

"It's a med bay. We'll get you a clip from…" Her voice trailed off. "Damn it! Those canisters by the door are going to blow! Get behind cover!"

Some kind of medical equipment shielded him from the blast that conveniently blew the doors open. "Someone's hacking security trying to kill you. Look for a thermal clip for your pistol."

His crew must be here somewhere, probably in the thick of the fighting. He kept moving, grabbing a thermal clip as he went. He moved through a barricade. "Looks like they set up a barricade to try holding the mechs off. Shepard! Security mechs are closing in on your position. Take cover."

He dove behind a low wall as the mechs came in. Armour and a pistol, but little else. Fortunately, that should be enough. Except the pistol took three shots to put each mech down.

The crew of the station was fighting and dying, and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't even get to them. For a moment, he considered trying to shoot through the window. "Don't waste time. I can't keep the mechs distracted for long."

Shepard out of the pistol could break through the window and it was already too late to save the people on the other side. The dead wore some sort of marking he didn't recognise. No familiar faces. No Alliance uniforms.

Ah, a grenade launcher. Well, that could solve a lot of problems. He applied rule seven to a group of mechs. "Take the elevator down one floor."

He kept moving, following the instructions of the voice. "You're doing…" Static interrupted the transmission. "—Shepard. Head to the…" More static. "Meet you…" The tone of the voice changed slightly as the message continued breaking up. "Read me? I've got… closing in… position."

An office, with computer logs. He played a few, and saw the voice connect to the woman. She spoke of reconstruction and bio-synthetic fusion and promising results. Shepard felt a slight chill as he realized she was talking about him. He shook his head, and caught sight of his reflection in a shiny surface. Well, no shit his scars weren't healed.

Another log, this one a male voice complaining about budgets. Enough credits to buy a frigate or two.

A civilian called for help. There was no way to get to the man in time, and Michael saw the heavy mech close in. He was no closer to figuring out what the conflict was. Another log, and the male voice spoke of Miranda. She was the project director. And it seemed he was the project. Shepard merely shook his head. What was going on?

There was someone. Under fire from the mechs, of course. Shepard moved in, giving the man some backup fire. The man gave him a startled look when Shepard moved into cover next to him. "What are you doing here? I thought you were still a work in progress."

"I just woke up. You probably know more than I do."

"Right. Sorry about that. I'm Jacob Taylor…" He paused to shoot a mech. "I've been stationed here for—"

"Hostiles detected." More mechs came in through the door on the opposite side of the opening.

"Damn it!" Jacob shot another mech. "Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda's got you running around. I'll fill you in, but we better get you to the shuttle first."

He was getting really tired of taking orders from people he didn't know. "I know this isn't the best time, but I'm sick of somebody around here when I don't know what's going on."

"Fair enough. I'll give you the quick version. You and your ship were attacked and destroyed. You were killed. Dead is dead can be when they brought you here. Our scientists have spent the last two years putting you back together. You've been comatose, or worse, that whole time. Welcome back to your life."

Two years? "That's… I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that."

Jacob nodded. "Yeah. I can imagine. The alliance officially declared you killed in action. The whole galaxy think you're dead. And if we don't go to those shuttles, they'll be right."

"Were there any other survivors from the Normandy?" Shepard asked shooting down the mechs.

"I'll what—you help me finish off these mechs, and I'll play Twenty Questions with you all day." Jacob fired a shot of his own. "Let's finish off these metal bastards. We're low on thermal clips, but I'm a biotic. Just give the order when you want me to hit them with the good stuff."

Jacob then used his biotic support one of the mechs towards him and released it so they would fall down to the next floor. Shepard then rose from his cover and shot the last few mechs with his pistols.

"Okay. I promised identity your questions. What you want to know?" Jacob put his pistol back into the holster.

Shepard asked about him and Miranda discover that Jacob had one serve the Alliance for about five years and was placed in charge of security. He also discovered that his injuries were very severe and that the Lazarus Project was designed to bring him back, but was sure that he was still him just with a few extra bits.

"The last thing I remember in the Normandy blowing up. Did anyone else make it?" Shepard asked.

"Just about everyone survived. A few servicemen from the lower decks can get out. Navigator Pressley was killed by an explosion. But everyone else, including non-Alliance crew—the asari Liara, and the quarrian—they made it out alive."

"Do you know what any of them are doing right now?" Shepard asked.

"I don't know, Commander," said Jacob honestly. "They've moved on. Left the Alliance. Could be anywhere."

"They were my team. If they knew I was alive, they'd come back."

"Maybe track them down after we get off the station. If we get off the station."

"When I first woke up someone named Miranda was talking to me over the radio. We lost contact just before I ran into you."

"Miranda Lawson is the station's ranking officer. She led the Lazarus team. It was her job to bring you back to life, no matter what. Should have guessed she'd try to save you. She's not about to give up on you now. You said you lost contact—could you tell me what happened?"

Shepard shrugged. "There was some gunfire and an explosion right before I lost her."

Jacob didn't look too concerned. "She knows how to take care of herself, but I hope she's okay."

"What's the quickest way to those shuttles?"

"Depends where the mechs are thickest. It's probably best if we—" Jacob was cut off by his comm unit crackling into life.

"Check. Check. Anyone on this frequency? Anybody still alive out there? Hello?"

"Wilson? This is Jacob. I'm here with Commander Shepard. Just took out a wave of mechs over in D Wing."

"Shepard's alive? How the hell…" Wilson's voice trailed off. "Never mind. You need to get him out of there. Get to the service tunnels and head for the network control room."

"Roger that, Wilson. Stay on this frequency." Jacob turned towards him.

Something about this all was off. "I think I remember a Wilson checking on me one time when I woke up…" Shepard frowned.

"That's him. He's the chief medical tech. Answers directly to Miranda. C'mon." Jacob gestured. "The service tunnels are this way."

Another log. Wilson's voice, confirmed what Jacob said about his recovery. He still couldn't believe it wonder what happened to Ashley and the others.

Their new guide led them right into a group of mechs. Shepard finished off the last one as Jacob got back on the comm unit. "Wilson? Find us another route out of here. Preferably one that doesn't lead into an enemy squad!"

"Just keep moving towards the control room. Don't get pinned down. I'll see what I can do."

Jacob led them to server room B and a wounded man on the floor. Shepard looked him over. It was the man with the needle, from the time he'd woken before. And the man had been shot in the leg.

Shepard got med gel from a nearby emergency kit and applied it. From what Jacob told him his crew wasn't on the station and now he was fairly confident that this was an Alliance Station.

Wilson got back to his feet. "Thanks, Shepard. Never thought you'd save my life. Guess that makes us even now." He looked around. "I thought maybe I could shut down the security mechs. But whoever did this fried the whole system. Completely irreversible."

"We didn't ask what you were doing." Jacob narrowed his eyes. "Why do you even have security mech clearance? You were in the bio wing."

"Weren't you listening? I came here to try to fix this. Besides, I was shot! How do you explain that?" Wilson set his jaw defensively.

"You're all strangers to me," Shepard spoke up. It was already pretty obvious Wilson was up to no good. "Let's get somewhere safe, then we'll sort out whose fault it is."

"Right, Shepard." Jacob nodded. "We need to find Miranda first. We can't just leave her behind."

"Forget about Miranda." Wilson shook his head. "She was over in D wing. The mechs were all over that sector. There's no way she survived."

"A bunch of mechs won't drop Miranda. She's alive."

"Then where is she? Why haven't we heard from her?" Wilson raised an eyebrow. "There are only two possible explanations: she's either dead…" Wilson waved a hand. "Or she's a traitor!"

Shepard found that hard to believe. "Then why did she wake me up and warn me about the attack?"

"Okay, maybe she's not a traitor. But that doesn't change the facts. We're here, she's not. We need to save ourselves." Wilson nodded before turning to point. "The shuttle bay is only a few—" He was cut off by more mechs entering.

"Ok. We took'em down, but this is getting tense." Jacob put his pistol away again. "Shepard, if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me?"

"This isn't really the time, Jacob." Wilson immediately protested.

"We won't make it if he's expecting a shot in the back."

"If you want to piss off the boss, it's your ass, Jacob."

Jacob turned towards him. "The Lazurus Project, the program that rebuilt you…" Jacob took a deep breath. "It's funded and controlled by Cerberus."

Shepard glared at him. "You told me you were with the Alliance. I don't like being played for a sucker."

"I didn't lie to you, Commander. I was with the Alliance." Jacob hesitated a moment. "Before I joined Cerberus. The Alliance declared you dead. They gave up. Cerberus spent a fortune to bring you back." He took a couple steps towards Michael. "Look, I'd be suspicious too. But right now, we have to work together. I thought you deserved to know what's what. Once we're off the station, I'll take you to the Illusive Man. He'll explain everything. I promise."

Shepard frowned. "Illusive Man? Is he in charge of all this?"

"Yeah." Wilson nodded. "That's not his real name, of course. Nobody knows who he really is."

"It's a code name the Alliance used for him. It kinda stuck."

"I don't care what they did or what you say—I'm not working with terrorists!"

"You can tell it to the boss. But after we've saved our butts. We're almost at the shuttle."

Another log went over how much damage he'd sustained. He may not have been a full medic, but he had gone through N7 training. From the sound of things, he belonged in a coffin, not fighting his way through a station. Michael shook his head. Maybe Dr. Chakwas could explain it to him.

Wilson rushed forward to the shuttle bay door and started tapping the controls to get it open. "C'mon, through here. We're almost at the…" He blinked when he saw the woman waiting on the other side of the door. "Miranda! But, you were…"

Miranda shot him in the throat. "Dead?"

Shepard aimed his pistol at her as Jacob rushed over to Wilson's body. "What the hell are you doing?" Jacob asked.

"My job. Wilson betrayed us all."

"You should have taken him alive." Shepard kept his pistol trained on her. "See what he knew."

"Too risky." Miranda shook her head. "I've put too much time and effort into bringing you back to life to let you get killed now."

"You really think Wilson's capable of that?" Jacob turned towards her.

Miranda gave the corpse a pointed look. "Not anymore."

She made a good point. He lowered the pistol. "If you say so. What's our next step?"

"We get onto the shuttle and go. My boss wants to speak to you."

"You mean the Illusive Man? I know you work for Cerberus."

"Ah, Jacob. I should've known your conscience would get the better of you."

"Lying to the commander isn't the way to get him to join our cause."

"Well, since we're getting everything out in the open, is there anything else you want to ask before we go, Commander?"

"I've had enough of this station to last me a lifetime," said Shepard.

"Or two, in your case. Come on."