I thought of all the events that were going to unfold around Shepard, and hopefully me in the near future. The collectors and the reapers, Christ I was going to be facing them in reality. That was a scary thought to say the least. I set my jaw and narrowed my eyes slightly, resolving to become the best possible version of myself so that I could help Shepard save as many lives as possible in the coming struggle. I don't know how I got here, but I am going to make the best of it.

Chapter 2

My father always told me that you could tell a lot about a person by their hands. As I grew up I found it to be a solid piece of wisdom, and took his words to heart. I was sitting on the edge of my new bed in the room Cerberus had given me for the duration of my stay here, wherever here was that is. I mulled over those exact words as I looked down at my hands. My hands used to be covered in the scars I had accumulated from the many blunders I had made in my youth while playing and working with my father. Now, however, my hands were covered in flawless skin that looked as though it had never been put to work. Gone were my callouses, my scars, my identity.

Once Miranda had dropped me off at my new room and left me to get settled in, the reality of what was happening finally sank in to my head, hitting me like a freight train. I been taken from my home in Texas back in the year 2014. Everyone I knew and held dear was dead and gone, for all I knew I would never get to see them again. My heart clenched painfully with that thought. I never even got to say goodbye to my family, and if I was really gone from my world my mother, father, and younger sister were likely completely devastated by my disappearance. I fought hard against the tear that threatened to slip down my cheek, pushing the thoughts aside with a frustrated sigh.

I looked down at my left wrist at the slim metallic band that was clamped snugly around it. Before Miranda had left me alone to my thoughts she had handed it to me. I recognized it as an omni tool almost immediately and had thanked her. I knew these tools were basically essential to surviving in this universe. It was a wallet, a computer, and a phone. I grinned; I had always wanted one of these. My country upbringing aside I had always been a bit of a techie, as well as a gamer, and the idea of having everything I could ever want with me at all times made me a bit giddy. I had spent a little bit messing around with the tool, familiarizing myself with its functions and abilities. It was actually pretty simple, all things considered, and I was able to pick up how to work it without much trouble at all.

I had managed to customize its interface to my liking, even managing to change the entire color of the holographic display to a deep purple, which just happened to be my favorite color. I wondered absently why Bioware never let us customize them in the games.

Speaking of my omni-tool, it beeped once before coming to life revealing a real time image of Miranda's perfect face. "Lawson." I acknowledged.

"Mr. Taylor," She replied in turn before speaking once again, "I am sending you a nav-point, It is time for you to begin your training."

Right one queue another, albeit smaller screen appeared next to the vid call, displaying a map of the facility with a highlighted point as well as a light green arrow that I assumed was to represent myself as well as my direction. I nod, before standing, "Sure thing, I will be right there." I tell her.

"I will meet you there." She says before ending the call abruptly. I chuckle lightly. All business as usual Miss Lawson. Heading towards the door I swipe my left hand as I approach the door, and it opens with a quiet 'whoosh' of air, allowing me to head down the hall. I pass many Cerberus Guards and doctors alike, all wearing the same black and grey themed outfits that Cerberus was famous for. As I follow the directions of the omni-tool's GPS my thoughts drift to the background story I had to come up with to keep interested parties off my ass during my stay in this Universe. I already knew that I couldn't just tell the truth. I would end up locked up somewhere, and who knows what people would go through to get more information out of me. I have to keep my knowledge to myself, and do what I can to help out at the same time. This is going to be harder than I thought. I frown slightly as I continue to move throughout the facility towards my destination. Shaking my head to rid myself of the troublesome thoughts I arrive at what I guessed was the training room. The door opened without trouble, allowing me access.

My eyes widened slightly as I took in my surroundings. On one wall there was what looked like an entire armory, complete with weapons and armor. The collection ranged from pistols to sniper rifles, as well as many different types of armor ranging from heavier to lighter pieces. Next to the wall was what appeared to be a firing range, which had holographic targets ranging from 10 meters all the way to 100 meters. I suspected they could be moved at will to accommodate for any distance. In the center of the massive room was what looked to be a large black mat, like something you would see at a dojo, and looked like an ideal place to practice hand to hand combat. Opposite the firing range and armory, across the room there were many lockers that each had a number on them, as well as the trademark Cerberus logo. The ceiling was quite high, which gave it an extremely open and welcoming atmosphere.

"I could get used to this place." I say aloud, not hearing the door open behind me.

"Glad it meets your approval." I spin on my heel, looking at Miranda with a raised brow. She was quiet. Not surprising honestly. I grin at her, "I take it I'll be spending quite a lot of time in this place?"

She nods walking towards the weapon wall. "Yes and I will personally be overseeing your training, Mr. Taylor." What she said surprised me greatly; I figured she would be needed elsewhere. I could also detect a bit of resentment in her voice.

"You don't sound too happy with this arrangement." I state the obvious; if I was going to be working with her I wanted to get any bad blood out from between us right off the bat. I knew she would be vital to Shepard's mission in the near future. Better to have her trust up front.

"My employer sees you as a valuable asset for some reason, despite your lack of military training and lack of background information." She states. There it is. I knew they had already looked into my files, or lack thereof.

"Lack of background information?" I queried, feigning ignorance, keeping my face twisted into an expression of curiosity. She stops near the armory wall and looks over her shoulder, raising an elegant eyebrow at me. "Whoever you are, or where, there is no record of you anywhere in the registry. You don't exist." She frowns at that.

"There are a lot of people who don't exist in the citadel registry, Miss Lawson. Especially colonists from the Terminus system." It was true, people were born outside of the system all the time. I figured I could use that as an excuse. I still had no idea how to explain my appearance in the reactor room. I could think of that later.

She regarded me for a long moment before nodding. "You're right. But you are still an unknown and I don't understand why my employer wants me specifically to train you. There are so many more useful things I could be doing." She vents, which surprises me. She was slightly different from the Cerberus operative I knew she was in the games. Her devotion to Cerberus in the games was borderline fanatic.

"For what it's worth I appreciate it. I need the best training I can receive in order to be helpful on the mission I will be helping Shepard with. I get the feeling you're one of the best." My tone was genuine; I knew honesty was the best course of action here.

She grins a little, highlighting her features in a beautiful way. "I am one of the best. Don't you worry Mr. Taylor, I'll have you whipped into shape before you realize it." Her voice had a devious edge to it, and I knew I was in for some seriously rigorous training. "Let's get started. Ever handled a weapon before?"

I nod, grinning. "Once or twice." I respond vaguely. I wasn't really worried about my ability to handle the weapons from this universe. I had grown up in Texas, and grown up around all sorts of guns, learning to use them from an early age. I was a pretty damned good shot, from skeet shooting to hunting.

She picks up a standard pistol, it looked like an m-3 predator pistol. I was actually surprised I remembered that. I hardly ever used the thing. I preferred heavier hitting weapons. Heading over to the range she messes with the console for a moment before two targeting dummies appeared at the 15 meter marker. "Let's see if once or twice can produce some results. Grab a pistol and come on over." Her tone was challenging.

I narrow my eyes at the challenge, having never been one to back down from a competition. "Sure thing, just hope you can keep up." I say, although I knew her familiarity with the thermal weapons would likely trump my own skills. I grabbed another m-3 predator pistol, looking it over before heading over to take my place a foot to her right. She flicked the safety off of her pistol with her thumb in a casual manner before motioning towards my targeting dummy.

Flicking my safety off I brought the gun up, holding it out in front of me with my right arm bent slightly, and my left arm steadying my aim. I pull the trigger and the gun fires, the mass accelerated round pinging the target right in the eye. I grinned; these things didn't kick at all in comparison to the guns from my time. Or maybe I was just that much stronger than I used to be. Only time would tell.

She raises an eyebrow at me as I smirk at her. "How's that for results?" I ask, goading her into showing me what she could do. She didn't disappoint in the slightest, holding her left arm out towards her target dummy, she fired three rounds, each one pinging the forehead to form a small upside down triangle pointing down at the nose.

I laugh aloud, despite her obviously superior shooting. Her lip twitched in what I assumed was amusement before she responded, "Not bad for a rookie, Mr. Taylor. You still have a lot to learn, but not bad." She had me put a few more rounds down range at increasing distances, my aim barely faltering, even managing to hit the target in its head at 50 meters at least once.

After a bit more of analyzing my skills with the pistol, she showed me how to shut off the targeting dummies and we put away our pistols, before she led me out onto the open floor mat.

"Sometimes guns won't be enough to keep you alive, and you need to be ready for any situation that you don't have your guns and need to rely on your hand to hand skills." Her expression was serious as she said this, I knew I had better pay attention to her teachings here, she was supposedly really skilled at hand to hand combat.

I nod to her, barely keeping my excitement at bay. I had always wanted to know how to really fight. Not just the rough street brawling that most people called fighting. "Alright, where do we start?"

She just smirked at me in a cocky fashion, "I want you to try and hit me. Anywhere is fine." She says before dropping into a fighting stance. My eyes trailed over her body quickly. She's posed to strike in a quick retaliation to any attack I throw at her. I thought to myself before mentally adding, and damn does she look good.

I crouched slightly, bringing my hands up to guard my face and upper body. "Alright let's see what you've got Mr. Taylor." She challenged once again.

I narrowed my eyes at her slightly, "I suppose these challenges are going to become a common occurrence?" I questioned her before lashing out with my right leg much faster than I knew I was capable of and with much more force than I intended to put behind it. My large combat boot covered foot connected with her side with a satisfying thud, before the momentum of the kick carried through, sending her flying across the mat in a heap. I blinked in surprise as the momentum of the kick carried me in a complete circle, before stopping. "I just roundhouse kicked the shit out of Miranda Lawson. Shit!"I mutter darkly to myself before rushing over to where she was picking herself up off the ground, holding her left side gingerly.

She looks at me with shock written over her face. "Christ you pack a lot of power. I think you broke a rib." She winces as she finishes.

I shake my head, "I didn't know I had that much power, I really wasn't intending to hurt you." I say hurriedly, my steel grey eyes surely giving away my worry. I didn't like hurting people.

She waves her hand in dismissal, "I needed to know what you were capable of; I wasn't expecting you to attack so quickly." She grins at me, "Don't worry about it, I'll have this fixed in no time and we'll have ourselves a serious match. I know what to expect this time." She assures me.

She grips her side as another lance of pain shoots through her body. "Mind helping me to the med bay?" She asks after a moment of hesitation. I knew she disliked having to ask for help. I must have hit her harder than she is willing to admit.

"Sure thing," I say before reaching down and hefting her light body into my arms bridal style, and she clings to my neck in surprise, "Which way to the med bay?" I ask as I head towards the door, not really knowing my way around the facility.

I can tell she has to fight to keep from rolling her eyes at me. "Take a left, third door on the right." She says simply before cringing as she shifts in my arms. I look at her in concern, "Sorry." I mutter, feeling pretty bad about breaking one of her ribs. She looks at me for a moment as if trying to decide of my concern is genuine before she sighs. "It's alright. Like I said I wasn't expecting that."

I grin, cheekily at her, "Guess I passed inspection then?" she narrows her eyes at me, though I can tell she's fighting back a smile. "Yes, we will be working on more advanced counter techniques and the like tomorrow." She says as we arrive at the med bay.

The door opens revealing a white miniature hospital with several beds and a couple of doctors and nurses walking around tending to the few patients in their care. One of the nurses approaches me and directs me to a bed. I set Miranda down on one of the tables, and she sits up, her legs hanging over the edge. "Thanks." She mutters before the doctors and nurses hurry me out of the room. I nod, smiling as I leave.

I return to the training room, and look over the selection of weapons on the wall. "Guess I should go ahead and familiarize myself with all the weapons, going to have to use them eventually." I say to no-one in particular.

Grabbing a large looking rifle from the wall I head to the firing range, setting the targeting dummy to max distance, which was only a hundred meters away. I look over the rifle in my hands, recognizing it as an m-13 Raptor sniper rifle, semi-automatic with a thermal clip capacity of 15.

Should do for now, though I really do prefer bolt action rifles. Well… in this case single shot rifles. I think to myself. I had always preferred the mindset behind bolt action sniper rifles, one shot one kill. Hoisting the rifle up, I realized that it was remarkably light and almost felt like an assault rifle, if a bit larger. I look down the scope, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly and sending a round down the range, hitting the target directly in the forehead. These guns really don't kick at all. I think, wondering how anyone could miss with these weapons. I empty the clip, each round hitting the target's head. I grinned in victory, this really was going to be a bit easier than I expected. I'm going to have to request a single shot sniper rifle.

I return the rifle to the wall and pick up an assault rifle, testing out and then returning it to the wall of weapons. I repeated this process for a while, going through most of the guns, before I became bored, and decided to see if I could figure out how to do something with the biotic abilities that I evidently possess. Moving out onto the sparring mat I stand in the middle, closing my eyes in concentration, trying to find something that felt different in my body. It took me roughly 10 minutes before I found what I was looking for. It felt strange to me, but also natural at the same time. Now how do I bring it out? I wonder to myself before 'reaching' out to it, trying to draw it out. Whatever it was reacts more than I expected it to and I open my eyes, realizing that my hands were glowing, dark blue, which was the signature color of a biotic. I stare at my hands in awe, turning them over and admiring the way the biotic power washed over my hands without qualms, flickering like fire.

"Well this is awesome." I say aloud, grinning wickedly at my new discovery. I rear back my fist and swing forward with as much force as I can muster, thinking about a biotic punch and how it looked in the games. As I complete the punch the dark energy explodes outwards creating a shockwave that moved across the room almost instantly and smashed into the wall, exploding. I gape as the reinforced wall buckles in shaking the entire room, leaving the metal panel in ruin. "Right. Gotta be extremely careful with that shit." I mutter to myself before laughing. This was awesome!

I shake my hands, ridding it of the biotic flames, willing them to go away with a thought. These things were controlled a lot easier than I thought they would be. I spend a little while longer testing out the biotic punch, doing my best to not destroy anything else and quickly learning I could put different amounts of force behind the attack with little more than a simple thought. It was definitely a handy technique that would no doubt save my life someday.

After a while I retire to my room, having memorized the path on my way to the training room earlier. Entering my room I strip off my shirt and head over to the body length mirror next to my bed, looking over my new body. I still had mostly the same face, the same strong jawline and piercing grey eyes, but the stubble that covered my chin was a lot thicker than I remember, and my face seemed to have filled out more, and the small traces of acne I used to have were gone. Convenient. It was my only thought as I looked over my face. I still had the same short brown hair that I was accustomed to looking at in my reflection.

Moving down my body I flexed different muscles. Every muscle was hyper responsive in comparison to what I was used to, and it looked like I had been chiseled out of stone. It was quite impressive honestly, but definitely something I would have to get used to. I shook my head, before flopping down on the bed and opening my omni-tool. I pulled up the extranet and started browsing, reviewing the happenings of the past 150 years, including information that I already knew about such as the Prothean ruins discovered on mars and the attack on the citadel a year prior to now.

I was tempted to search for information on my family but resisted. Cerberus is likely monitoring everything I do, including my browsing on the extranet. I have to be careful. I reasoned to myself.

My omni-tool beeped, before displaying a message from Miranda. I opened it and looked over it quickly.

Mr Taylor the Doctors have fixed my broken ribs. Yeah, Ribs. Plural. You kick really hard in case you didn't already realize that. Anyways, I expect to see you in the training room at 0700 hours tomorrow morning. Don't be late.

Miranda Lawson.

I chuckled quietly to myself, before stripping down into my boxers and flopping back down on the bed again. I figured I would get some extra sleep. I had a feeling I would need it in the coming months of training.

Thanks for the positive feedback on the last chapter. I decided to go ahead and push the next chapter out and forgot studying for a few hours as I wrote this. Hope you all enjoy!

Slaud