CHAPTER ONE:

Cerberus.

Freedoms Progress.

The New Normandy.

CERBERUS

"Wake up, Shepard wake up!"

The stern voice brought the Commander to her waking senses. She winced in pain as she moved off the bed she had been laying on. She tried to focus her thoughts, where was she? Who was that ordering her about?

"Shepard, the base is under attack, I need you up and about!"

The voice was familiar, she had a vague memory of waking up to that same tone telling her to go back to sleep. She also had a very vivid memory of the Normandy exploding before her eyes. She managed to quell the nausea that threatened to overwhelm her. Sudden movements were not good it seemed. She wanted to tell the woman who was ordering her about to shut her god damned mouth but the sound of gunfire halted the words from erupting from her mouth.

She got to her feet, holding onto the side for support as she did so. That woman said there was a gun in the cabinet in front of her...so there was, looked like a standard Predator pistol. She made her way to the next room and found some ammo laying on the floor.

She tried to tune that annoying voice out, get some bearings on where she was, no such luck, she ducked down behind a glass barrier as a trio of mechs walked into the room, firing at her.

"Stay in cover Shepard."

Annoyed, disorientated and feeling as sick as hell the newly awakened Commander snapped, "I think that's fairly obvious, don't you!" She fired her pistol three times, neat shots, kill shots and waited for moment, then got to her feet "Now, tell me where to go then shut the hell up for five minutes, at least until I get my bearings."

The reply that came back were certainly caustic enough but, the voice did as Shepard demanded, she took out some more mechs on the way, with the woman telling her that this had been a medical facility, and now someone had hacked the mechs and sent them to kill the Commander. Shepard rolled her eyes at that one, someone was always trying to kill her, damn it was getting to be a way of life for her.

She reached the top of the stairs and found a grenade launcher. She readied and it and as soon as the doors opened, let loose with one. The voice was mildly surprised by the sounds of it, it showed when she said nice shot. She took the floor down to one level and ran through the fire bringing her outside to another office, this time the voice did shut up, but not because she wanted to, because someone, or more to be more exact, some things had closed in on her. Part of Calen was glad for the quiet, the other half wasn't. She shot the two crawling mechs and took a moment to look around her. There were a couple of consoles and pressing one, a male voice emitted from the speakers, explaining how the funding for the Lazarus Project had exceeded two and a half billion credits. Whomever funded this was very well connected and wealthy. She paused by another console and the face of the woman's voice she had been listening too a few moments ago appeared.

She looked to be an attractive woman, but that voice was...severe and Shepard wondered if she was actually a person or a school headmistress. She explained that the Lazarus Project had been a success and that Shepard was alive. Calen stepped back in shock, she was dead? How could she be dead, she was walking around. She looked at her hands, and her arms, then stopped by a piece of mirrored glass.

She was alive alright, her hair was longer than she remembered, but her face, there were a series of scars on her cheeks that glowed slightly. She touched her own face turning the jaw one way than another, she had so many questions but right now, she had to get off this base, the woman had said to meet her in the shuttle bay, god knows where that was but, that was where she was heading. With a last look back at her reflection she reloaded her pistol, grabbed some extra clips and made her way out of the room.

The raven haired woman unleashed a flurry of biotic attacks that might have given an Asari pause for a moment, for a human she was skilled and deadly. Her overload hit each of the five mechs in turn, giving her a moment to pick them off. With the last of the mechs falling and then exploding before her she turned and tried to clear her head to think straight.

Someone had hacked the mechs and overridden their programming, turning them from benevolent security and protection details to deadly killing machines. Even the big ones had been changed, someone inside had done this, there was no malfunction, and as she quickly read the computer readouts she began to realise just who had been responsible for this. They had been good, covered their arses but forgot that with the hidden security protocols Cerberus used, nothing was ever completely hidden. Everyone hid a trail and that was what the Illusive Man had known when he wrote the hidden security protocols.

She shook her head and wondered who had paid the man enough to betray one of the most powerful business men on Terra, if not the entirety of Alliance Space. There was only one answer to that, no other organisation had that kind of clout or pull, except Cerberus itself. The Shadowbroker.

There was a shadowy figure that seemed to have their hands in all the pies on the political scene, and just how did the Shadowbroker know about Shepard being here, and being the subject of Project Lazarus? And what information did he have on that cretin to make him betray his oaths after many years of exemplary service? Or did John Wilson suddenly get too greedy and looked for another career option.

She pushed her black hair back and took a deep breath, Shepard would be at the shuttle bay soon enough, if she hooked up with another operative. Miranda Lawson took a deep breath and made her way out of the room she had been cornered in. If John Wilson believed that he had just murdered her, then he was in for a rude awakening, if he was still alive and on the station. He had just murdered several hundred personnel, her personnel, her staff and for what? To kill Shepard? He had worked hard to bring her back from the dead so why kill her now?

Keeping her wits about her she made her way through the back corridors, ignoring the dead that lay strewn about the path she took. She recalled her mission to Omeaga two years previous. When they had recovered what had been left of Shepards body, he had voiced that there was not enough left to even grow a finger let alone repair an entire body. Miranda had told him to shut the hell up and just do as he was told. She knew what she was doing.

She was also aware that when the body was returned to Cerberus, there had been Shadowbroker agents after it too, no doubt to hand to the Collectors when the time came, although what they wanted with the body she couldn't even begin to guess at. All she knew was the Shadowbroker had a contract with the Collectors to get Shepards body back, anything beyond that was a mystery for another time.

Right now she had to get off this station with Shepard, the report she would have to make, was going to be a headache in itself.

"Come on over!"

Shepard pressed herself against a wall and peered round the corner, her gun in her hand ready, her body tingling as her biotics began to wake up. She saw a dark skinned man, darker skinned then Anderson, ducking behind a balcony and unleashing a pull shooting the mechs as they flew into the air.

She made her way in and ducking crouched beside the black and white uniformed man. He turned and the surprise on his face was evident enough. He had obviously not expected to see Commander Calen Shepard up and about.

"Damn things must be bad if Miranda's got you up and about" His voice held awe.

Shepard ran a cool gaze over him. He was handsome enough dark brown eyes, close cropped black hair and a goatee. He held himself like a military man. Even so she wasn't sure why he would be looking at her with a mix of awe and surprise.

"Miranda?"

"She's the head of this facility" He explained.

"Ah the woman who was ordering me about. Makes sense now, and you are?"

"Lieutenant Jacob Taylor, Alliance Marines retired" Taylor responded.

Calen nodded and ducked a little as more mechs entered the room and began firing. Their mechanical voices asking their targets to surrender.

"Where the hell am I?" She scowled.

"Tell you what Commander, you help me get rid of these mechs and I'll answer any questions you may have. Like you I am a biotic so lets get to work"

Shepard shrugged and timed her shots, she watched as he pulled another mech and then she hit it with a shockwave that sent it spinning into the wall, shattering as it did so. After a few moments the combined biotic team work paid off and silence filled the room once more.

"We better get off this base" Taylor got to his feet.

"I got one question Taylor" Calen sat for a moment, her side protesting, after so long being inactive so much energy in a short space of time was tiring her. "Where am I?"

"This is a facility built for one thing and one thing only. To bring you back" Jacob helped her stand.

"What was I injured or something?"

"Whets the last thing you remember Commander?"

Calen rubbed her brow and shrugged a little "The Normandy exploding, I remember my air running out then I woke up here."

"That was two and a half years ago" Jacob told her, his voice being sympathetic, more so when he saw the expression of shock that crossed the Commanders face. "The Alliance had declared you dead."

"How bad was I?"

"You were dead Commander, when they brought you here, you were nothing but frozen meat and tubes. There was not a lot left of you to be honest. Atmospheric burn up the frozen planet you were found on...and I don't know much else, to be honest Miranda will have the answers you need."

"So I'm a clone"

"No Ma'am, you are the real Commander Calen Hannah Shepard, born on Mindoir and one of the few survivors of a Batarian slave grab."

"What happened to my crew?" Her voice sounded distant, far away as if she was trying to digest what he had told her.

"When the Alliance found the survivors, there were twenty crew unaccounted for and they were mostly lower decks. Navigator Pressley was the most senior officer who had died. The crew were reassigned to other vessels. The non-human crew, well they went their separate ways, Liara, the Quarian Tali, the Turian and Krogan all went to other places. I couldn't tell you where they were now or what they were doing."

Calen was silent for a long time "So ex Lieutenant Taylor, what do you do here?" She asked.

"I am head of station security, amongst other things" He told her "I was getting ready for some shut eye when the alarms went off and the mechs started attacking the place. Love to know how that happened."

"Seeing as you know your way around, I'd be better off following you then."

"It's my honour Commander."

Again with the awed voice. Calen was in no mood to pander to any kind of hero worship. She ached, her face itched with whatever was under that facial scaring and she was trying to accept that she had been dead for two years. Her memories were hazy at the moment, fuzzy but one slipped into sharp focus, and she put her hand to her throat.

Jacob reached into his pocket and handed her the necklace. "This was found in your hand. I put it in my pocket before anyone else moved it. I figured it was important to you and well...you know" Shepard saw the Asari script shining like new "I cleaned it up, was a bit of a mess when I got it" Jacob explained. Calen nodded her thanks, unwilling to talk, her throat had constricted a little and she put it round her neck.

She followed Jacob staying behind him, still unsure of what or who he worked for, and still unable to comprehend that she had been a corpse that had been brought back from the dead. She wondered what technology that had used, as far as she had known, bringing the dead back to life was consigned to science fiction films, novels and horror stories, she clearly remembered how she died but the rest, was a blur.

They made their way through the corridors, more dead bodies. Some one called Wilson had contacted Jacob and told them he was trapped in a computer room. That name at least was familiar, although at the moment she wasn't sure where from.

The mechs were everywhere, and it had become more and more apparent that not only were they killing anything that was organic, but gunning for her, Taylor had muttered that they were certainly hunting her. Everyone else was more nor less collateral damage.

They found Wilson on the floor, sitting with his back against a barrier and nursing a gunshot wound to his leg. Taylor slapped some medi-gel on it but as Wilson began to explain that he had come to the server room to attempt to fix the problem with the mechs, Calen took a look at the wound, she had seen leg wounds before but this...this was not inflicted by a mech, for one thing there were no mech bodies about and yet there were plenty of human bodies.

"Thanks Shepard, didn't think you'd be saving my life, guess that makes us even."

"Not by a long shot" Calen muttered, still looking at the bodies around them.

"I came in here to fix things, try and put this right, but the damn mechs got in, killed everyone, if I hadn't been where I was, they would have killed me too."

"We didn't ask why you were here" Jacob frowned a little "What are you doing here anyway, you're not cleared for this wing, you're bio-wing"

"Didn't you listen to me Jacob? Or has working with the Ice Queen blocked your hearing? I was trying to put right what had happened here. Speaking of the Ice Queen, where is Miranda?"

"Shepard?" Jacob asked the silent Commander.

"There were gunshots and explosions, don't know where she was though" Calen explained.

"Well then, there are two explanations, Lawson is either a traitor or she's dead" Wilson sighed

"If she was a traitor, then why wake me up?" Shepard slightly arched her eyebrow "doesn't make sense to me"

"OK then, so she's not a traitor, but she was in lab 10 and that place swarmed with those things. She's dead" Wilson sounded a little too triumphant.

"Not Miranda" Jacob asserted "It'll take more then a few mechs to drop her."

"Look" Calen snapped "I don't know who any of you are and I don't care, I just want off this station and back to my life thanks"

"This is getting tense, Commander, if I tell you who we work for will you trust me?" Jacob asked.

"Jury's out on that one Taylor"

"If you wanna piss the boss off Jacob its your ass" Wilson shook his head "now is not the time."

Jacob shook his head "and getting the Commander to help us won't work if she's expecting a shot in the back. Commander, the people that brought you back, well we work for Cerberus"

Calen almost staggered under the weight of Jacobs words. Cerberus, those terrorist bastards? She felt like she was going to throw up, all those experiments, especially the ones with her Alliance squad and the Thresher Maws...Acuze shot into sharp focus in her mind and the broken tired features of Corporal Andreas Toombs. The death of an Alliance Admiral not to mention using Rachni, Thorians and other experiments.

Now those bastards had brought her back to life, and for what? To own her? Not a chance, not a chance in hell. She lashed out and caught Taylor under the jaw and sent him flying, Wilson stood straight.

"What the hell are you doing...omph"

She charged into him with a powerful vanguard charge that slowed time around her. She stood over the groaning Wilson and watched as Jacob got to his feet.

"I can't say I blame you for that Commander" he cracked his jaw a little, but inside he was hurt, his plan to smoothly ready Shepard for the news of her new boss had just flown out the window.

"If you think I am going to work for you or your demented sick boss think again" She warned "He should have made sure I was dead on Acuze"

"That wasn't us Commander."

"It was fucking Cerberus, don't lie to me Taylor!" She warned.

"Yes it was Cerberus, but it was a rogue cell, one that went too far, it was dealt with"

"How fucking convenient" Calens tone was snide, and disbelieving.

Taylor knew she didn't believe a damn thing he said about it, to be honest he hadn't believed all of it, but as Miranda once said, to maintain efficiency not all of Cerberus knew what the others were doing, only the Illusive Man, knew who did what and where.

Shepard pointed at the groaning Wilson "You might want to ask him which one of the dead humans over there shot him, cause it sure as hell wasn't a mech. No bodies? Just human bodies? His story has more holes than a Hanars feelers" She stalked off out the room leaving Jacob frowning at Wilson.

After fighting a string of mechs in the shuttle bay approach, and Calen finding another recording that detailed what had happened to her, they reached the shuttle bay, as the doors opened Miranda Lawson took one look at the shocked features of Wilson then with a snarl shot him in the face.

"Surprised to see me?" She asked the corpse viscously.

Calen lowered her gun as Jacob stared at the body "and there goes your chance to find out who he worked for" Her tone was dripping with sarcasm. "or do Cerberus have other methods?"

Miranda turned her gaze to Jacob, a little mocking in her tone "Your conscience pricked a little?"

"Come on Miri, lying to the Commander is not going to get her to help us."

"I said I wasn't going to work for you Taylor" Calen snarled.

"You wouldn't be working for us, but with us" Miranda looked at her "Unless you want me to leave you here, but I just spent two years bringing you back, be a shame for you to walk away without finding out why, wouldn't it"

Calen looked around her "What about the others?"

"That man had the mechs kill them all, my staff, and I just paid him back for it."

"Miranda, Wilson was one of us..who, what. Why?" Jacob was having trouble processing it all.

"He was paid by the Shadowbroker. Kill us all and Shepard and take her body back to them"

"What? Why?" Calen frowned.

"If you want the answer to that Commander, you will have to come with us" Miranda saw the pendant around Shepards neck "and maybe should you ever see Doctor T'Soni again you might want to ask her"

Calen grabbed Miranda's arm "What are you going on about? What's Liara got to do with all this? Don't you dare tar her with the same shit stain as your group"

Miranda removed Shepards hand from her arm "She's changed a lot Commander, she was the one who gave you to us"

"Liara...what?"

"Like I said, a lots changed and your precious Asari along with it. Shall we go? The Illusive Man does not like to be kept waiting."

For the second time that morning Calens world came crashing down.

Miranda watched as Shepard headed down towards the holographic hub. She took no victory in seeing Shepards crest fallen expression when she found out about Liara, in fact the little field test she had conducted on the shuttles had taken some of the fire out of the woman's demeanour. Having not bothered with things like romance or relationships except one night stands or...she glanced across to where Jacob stood looking out the window nursing a very bruised jaw...relationships that had only one thing in common, she had no idea how the Commander felt, but she was certain she was not jumping for joy at the news.

Cerberus had caused her no end of trouble in her hunt for Saren, not to mention before she had even become a Spectre. Of course it was Cerberus, they had reasoned that whatever put Humanity on top and in control was worth any sacrifice, but Miranda, whilst loyal to the ideals of Cerberus, knew that some of those Commanders had gone way over the top. Even so, she knew where her loyalties lie and she was able to disregard the more darker past of the organisation, especially now.

Hopefully the Commander would come to see that in the end.

Calen watched as the figure rose from his chair and came towards her. A cigarette in-between his fingers and a glass of Bourbon in the other hand.

"So tell me Shepard, how do you feel?"

"Don't even ask me things like that" Calen snarled "You don't have the right to those questions."

Her venom didn't even make the suited man flinch instead he chuckled a little "You sound just like your father."

"How do you know my father?" Calen snapped.

"We were friends Calen, although I must admit the last time I saw you, you were what eight years old. Your father and I went way back, what happened to him and your mother was atrocious I am sorry about that, I couldn't get there in time..."

"Shut the Fuck up and leave my parents out of this," She clenched her fists. "Why did you bring me back."

"Because we know what the truth is, the council and Alliance they don't want to believe anything except that Saren was a rogue operative operating under delusions of grandeur" The Illusive Man returned to his seat.

"And what is it 'we' know"

"That there is a war coming, and like most modern wars, its being fought in the shadows and out of the main spotlight, waiting for the chance to strike its apocalyptic blow."

"The Reapers" Calen sighed heavily.

She knew that they weren't done, she had argued with Udina and Anderson, wanting to know what she and her crew were being sent to chase Geth, when the real threat was still out there.

"The Reapers" The Illusive Man nodded and sat forward "The Council want to deny they existed, that Sovereign was the only one and there is no reaper threat, but, entire human colonies have vanished, thousands of humans simply vanished, something is attacking the colonies in the Terminus Systems and leaving them dead in the water, devoid of any sapient life."

"Reapers harvested entire worlds and all Organics, not just humans." Calen scoffed

"I would say that tens of thousands of humans is the definition of Harvesting and maybe, just maybe you killing Sovereign got humanity noticed."

Calen signed and rubbed her brow "If what you say is true then I might consider working alongside you."

"I would be very disappointed if you didn't want the proof for yourself. We had reports of a world, Freedoms Progress, it went dark twelve hours ago, I need you to go there and find whatever proof you can. If you don't find it then we can go our separate ways and no hard feelings."

Calen had the eerie feeling she was being manipulated here but at the end of the day it didn't sound like the Alliance or Council gave a toss about missing colonies, so what did she have to loose? She looked at him as a memory rose unbidden into her mind.

A casually suited man coming to her parents home on Mindoir, her father being happy to see him and her mother less so. In fact she recalled her mother had been positively frosty. Her father however had been over the moon.

"Jack Harper" Calen muttered and looked at the man before her, he smiled and bowed his head.

With that the connection closed and Calen was left with a ghost on her shoulder, and that ghost had her fathers voice.