Shepard felt her eyes flutter, and she heard a nagging voice in the back of her head that she couldn't seem to ignore. It kept demanding, "Wake up, Commander!" The bed rocked, hard, like someone was literally trying to shake her awake. Again, that damn insistent voice, "Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now! This facility is under attack." Shepard slowly came to full consciousness, stretching her tight limbs and rubbing a hand across the very tight skin of her face. She recognized the voice as the black-haired Australian woman who had been treating her, and she wondered how much time had passed. So many questions rolled through her mind. How had she survived? Where the hell was she? Her revelation at even being alive was cut short by Miranda speaking again, urgently. "Shepard! Your scars aren't healed, but you need to get moving! This facility is under attack!" The commander finally realized Miranda was not in the room...the voice came in over a loudspeaker.

As she sat up, the room continued to shake, and she caught a glimpse of heavy weapons fire through a huge window to the exterior of the station. Everything on her body ached with non-use. Her muscles protested the whole idea of motion, but she forced herself up off the bed. Miranda continued to provide direction, encouraging her, "There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!"

A quick glance, and she had her destination is sight. When she got there, there was not only the pistol, but also armor. If there was going to be a fight, Shepard was going to need that, so she grabbed everything and put it all on as quickly as she could, Miranda's voice still rattling on in the background. As Shepard did a weapons check, she realized she had a problem. "This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip!"

Miranda was exasperated. "It's a med bay! We'll get you a clip from...Damn it! Shepard! Duck! Keep your head down and shield yourself from the blast!" Shepard was operating in the blind, and just had to trust that Miranda saw something on a surveillance camera that Shepard couldn't see, so she quickly ducked behind a short room divider. Suddenly the door to the med bay blasted apart, and Miranda shouted, "Someone's hacking security, trying to kill you! You need to get moving!"

Shepard ran out into the hallway, every step she took her muscles loosened a bit, remembering what it was like to be in motion. Shepard saw a clip lying on the ground and scooped it up, inserting it into her pistol in a familiar motion. As she slapping it in, she called out, "Got a clip, Miranda!"

"Good! Looks like they set up barricades to try holding the mechs off. Look out! Mechs incoming!" Shepard only saw a single mech so she pulled on her biotics and charged the mech, shattering it into pieces without firing a single shot. Miranda directed her to a set of stairs, telling her she needed to keep moving and get to the shuttle bay. As Shepard ran up the stairs and through yet another doorway, Miranda called out another warning. "Security mechs are closing on your position. Take cover!" Shepard sprinted across the room toward a short dividing wall, and hit the ground on her hip, sliding the last couple of meters on the smooth tile floor as the mechs opened the door on the far side of the room. Miranda was unsure of Shepard's readiness, so was cautious, "Don't take any chances! Stay in cover while you take out those mechs!" Shepard took out three of the mechs that way, but they seemed to just keep coming. She felt the need to advance her position, so once again called on her biotic charge and threw herself right into the middle of the fray. The mech she hit shattered and exploded, and she quickly finished off a second with an up close head shot. The final mech was relatively close, so was an easy pistol shot. They had emerged from a storage room, so Shepard took the opportunity to grab up a new thermal clip for her pistol before advancing.

As she came around the next corner, she saw a huge Atlas mech in an adjacent hallway. Fortunately they were separated by a thick glass wall, and Shepard hooked a hard right to get away. She had no desire to take on an Atlas with only a pistol; she was good, but not suicidal. Miranda was still shouting directions for her, guiding her through the passages, and urging her to keep moving toward the shuttle bay. As she entered the next room, she found herself on a balcony with a dead security officer...

Shepard grinned, thinking of Wrex as she picked up the officer's grenade launcher. Another large group of mechs entered the room below, and she didn't waste time picking them off one at a time. She happily employed her new toy, blasting the entire group into oblivion in a single shot. Shepard whooped with joy, "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"

Miranda, the ever pushy project director, piped in again, "Commander! Move to your right and take the elevator down a level."

As she rolled out of the elevator on the lower level, Shepard realized there was a jet of fire blocking access to the door. Getting up to full speed, she ran at the wall of flame, hitting the floor and sliding completely underneath it on the end closest to the nozzle. As her feet hit the wall on the far side, she popped up and ran out into the next hallway, hardly even breaking stride. Miranda was still talking, but the transmission was now very broken and Shepard could hardly understand what she was saying. With no direction, Shepard started opening doors at random, trying to find her way. One door led to an office, where Shepard polished off two mechs, then checked out the computers. They contained the history of the Lazarus project, and Shepard got her first glimpse into what it took to put her back together. She now understood they had spent over four billion credits and had to use some synthetic parts to make her whole; she just prayed the synthetic pieces weren't anything important. A nearby explosion jerked her back to the present, and she got back on the move.

As she continued down the hallway, she started hearing gunfire and someone yelling. She hustled out into a room and saw a single male human biotic lifting a mech across the room, shouting as he did so. "Gravity's one mean mother, huh?" She ran up to take shelter behind the wall he was standing near, and he ducked down behind the wall with her in surprise. "Shepard? What the hell?" She helped him take out the last three mechs with her pistol. He looked at her in amazement. "What are you doing here? I thought you were still a work in progress."

Shepard grimaced. "You're asking me? I'm new to this party, running around following directions of some woman named Miranda, whom I never even really met."

"Miranda? She's alive? That's good to hear! I'm Jacob Taylor, been stationed here a couple of years...every since you arrived."

That stopped Shepard in her tracks. "Two years?"

Jacob looked apologetic as he spoke, "Yeah, sorry. Probably not the best way to break that to you. I can explain more later, but we have to get out of this mess first. If we can make it to the shuttles, we'll talk then. Help me finish off these mechs!"

Shepard was happy to help kill the mechs, but after that she wasn't budging without some answers. "I know this isn't the best time, but I'm sick of stumbling around when I don't know what's going on."

Jacob shook his head in understanding, "Fair enough, what do you want to know?"

Shepard referred back to her first question. "Two years? What the hell took so long?"

"Miranda can give you details, she was the Project Lazarus lead, but when they brought you in here your body was mangled. Burned almost beyond recognition. The only thing still fully intact was your head, but I guess that's all they really needed. As long as your brain still functioned they could clone parts and rebuild the rest. Even that proved a challenge though, and they ended up using a few implants and synthetic parts. From what I understand though, you're still you in all the important things. The whole point of the project was to bring Commander Shepard back; the real Shepard, not some clone or synthetic replacement."

Shepard shook her head. "Shit, I guess that's a good thing. I'm here, anyway. That's a start, but where exactly is here? Doesn't seem like an Alliance station..."

You're right, it's not. The Alliance officially declared you killed in action. The whole galaxy thinks you're dead. If we don't get to those shuttles, they'll be right!"

"Speaking of getting to the shuttles, what happened here? Any idea who's attacking?"

Jacob shrugged his shoulders. "Good question. I'm guessing it had to be an inside job. You'd need top security access to hack all the mechs."

Shepard dreaded her nest question, but she had to know. She had to know if Liara survived. "What about the rest of my crew? Did anyone make it?"

"Just a little over half of the fifty survived. A few servicemen from the lower decks didn't get out. Navigator Pressley was killed by an explosion. A total of twenty killed in action. But everyone else, including the non-Alliance crew... the Asari, the Quarian, the Turian...they all made it out alive."

As Jacob answered, relief washed over her and Shepard felt all the dread drain out of her body. Thank God! My beautiful Blue! The commander tried to sound nonchalant as she continued her query, "Do you know what any of them are doing now?"

Jacob had no more answers. It had been two years and Shepard had been the focus, not the Normandy crew. Some had left the Alliance and everyone else had been reassigned. The non-Alliance crew just drifted away and Jacob just assumed they all returned home. Shepard was now in a hurry to get moving; the faster they got off the station, the sooner Shepard could start the hunt for Liara. Just as they started moving again, Wilson contacted Jacob and directed them to a rendezvous point. After fighting their way through multiple mechs, they finally caught up to Wilson in one of the communications rooms. He claimed to have been injured by the mechs and even though they didn't question him about it, neither Shepard nor Jacob believed him; mechs don't leave behind injured, they kill them. When they questioned him about Miranda, Wilson was dismissive, "Forget about Miranda. She was over in D wing. The mechs were all over that sector. There's no way she survived."

Jacob glared at him. "Shepard was in the bio wing and it was crawling too, yet here she is. A bunch of mechs won't drop Miranda either. She's alive."

Shepard cut off the argument with a simple statement. "Miranda was directing me to the shuttle bay. If she's alive, she'll be there. Let's move."

As a twosome, Shepard and Jacob had made pretty good time; adding Wilson into the mix was a bonus, and they moved through the rest of the station fairly easily and soon found themselves at the shuttle bay door. Wilson stepped up and typed in the entry key for the door. "C'mon, through here. We're almost at the..." As the door opened, it revealed a battered, but very much alive, Miranda Lawson. Wilson appeared shocked, stuttering, "Miranda! But... you were..." Wilson's sentence was cut off, as Miranda whipped her pistol up and shot him at point blank range, finishing his sentence for him. "Dead?"

Jacob ran up, "What the hell are you doing?"

Miranda looked at Jacob and displayed no remorse. "My job. Wilson betrayed us all." Shepard agreed with Miranda's assessment. Since they had caught up to him in the communications room, something about his story just hadn't added up. Miranda looked at the commander appraisingly. "Good instincts. Some people are far too trusting to ever see that coming. Come on. Let's grab the shuttle and get out of here. My boss wants to speak to you."

Shepard didn't move. "Your boss? Just who might that be, by the way?"

Miranda shrugged her shoulders. "I guess now is as good a time as any. Most people just call him the Illusive Man. He runs an organization called Cerberus..."

Miranda didn't get any farther before Shepard jumped back and pulled her pistol, aiming it at Miranda's head. "Cerberus? What the fuck? Why would Cerberus spend four billion credits to save me?"

Jacob pulled his pistol and had it aimed at the commander, but Miranda was perfectly calm as she answered, "Because you're the best hope humanity has of surviving the Reapers, and the Alliance left you for dead. Somebody had to pick u p the pieces. That somebody was Cerberus."

Jacob added on, "You don't have a lot of options here, Commander. There's one shuttle, so you either go with us or not, but you won't survive alone on this station for long. Not with all the mechs running loose, and no communications with the outside world. You want to fight the Reapers? You want to find your crew? You holster your pistol and we talk about it."

Shepard grudgingly dropped her pistol, glaring back and forth between the two. "Fine. So what's next?"

Miranda answered plainly. "We get in the shuttle and take you to the Illusive Man. We'll see what happens after that." Once in the shuttle, Miranda informed the commander they needed to evaluate her condition with a number of questions.

Shepard shook her head in disgust. "Christ. Even Cerberus has to do psyche evals, huh? Don't worry, I'm actually ok with being dead... or nearly dead...and being brought back to life with some really awesome technology. Anger issues? Yea, I got anger issues. You assholes killed my father. I'll never trust you. I'll always be watching for the knife in the back. I might even look for opportunities to plant mine first, so I know you'll never trust me either."

Jacob chimed in. "Shepard took down all those mechs without any trouble; her performance won't be an issue."

Miranda just raised her eyebrows and waited for patiently for everyone to finish speaking. She looked first at the commander, "Yes, well, all of that is fairly obvious, and judging from your attitude your personality seems intact. What we need to check is memory. We need to make sure we actually have Commander Shepard, as she was when the attack occurred." Her attention then shifted, "Jacob. Ask the questions."

Jacob relented, and pulled up a questionnaire on his omnitool, proceeding through a number of both personal and service related questions. Shepard answered them flawlessly and Jacob spoke in her defense. "Come on, Miranda. Enough with the quizzes. The memories are there."

Miranda shrugged. "Fine. We'll just have to hope the Illusive Man accepts our little field tests as evidence enough." The rest of the shuttle trip was spent in silence; Shepard contemplating what her future would bring, and how long it would be before she'd be able to break away and go find Liara.

Shepard stepped into the room, expecting to see an office of some kind, instead finding a holographic communications terminal. She stepped into the circle and the scanner automatically turned on. She soon found herself in communication with the Illusive Man. As soon as her image rectified, he started speaking. "Commander Shepard."

The commander crossed her arms and took a casual pose, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Illusive Man. I thought we'd be meeting face-to-face."

The Illusive Man sat casually in a chair, legs crossed, smoking a cigarette. Most of the room around him was dark, but Shepard noted a red supergiant star visible through the viewport behind him. "A necessary precaution. Not unusual for people who know what you and I know."

Shepard was still fishing for why Cerberus really brought her back. "From what I hear, I cost you a small fortune. Why'd you do it?"

The Illusive Man put his cigarette down and got very serious. "For the defense and preservation of humanity. I didn't spend two years and billions of credits bringing you back to serve as a common soldier. Humanity is up against the greatest threat of our brief existence."

Without hesitation, Shepard inserted, "The Reapers."

The Illusive Man replied, "Good to see your memory's still intact. How are you feeling?"

Shepard took a slightly more aggressive posture as she responded. "Skip the pleasantries. You need to earn the right to ask me those kinds of questions."

The Illusive Man got slightly defensive. "Cerberus isn't as evil as you believe. You and I are on the same side; we just have different methods."

Shepard glared as she answered. "So the ends justify the means? Bullshit. There's a right way and a wrong way to do things. So what really made you bring me back? What are the Reapers doing that made you spend all that money on me?"

The Illusive Man explained how multiple human colonies had disappeared, and how the Council and the Alliance were doing nothing to stop it. He rose and walked closer to Shepard's holographic projection as he spoke. "We believe it's someone working for the Reapers, just as Saren and the Geth aided Sovereign. You've seen it yourself and you bested them in the first round. That's just one reason we chose you."

Shepard struggled to understand why they would target a specific race. "Sovereign was trying to harvest all life in the galaxy. Why would the Reapers now target a few human colonies?"

The Illusive Man grimaced as he responded, "It's hardly a few. Hundreds of thousands of colonists have vanished. They are remote and scattered, and nobody's paying attention because they seem random, like the work of slavers or pirates. We believe this is not the case; I think they have targeted humanity because you got their attention when you killed one of them."

Shepard wondered if what the Illusive Man said could be true. Was this all her doing? "So you're saying this is my fault. If you believe that why bring me back? You could have trained an entire army for what you spent on me."

The Illusive Man was happy to explain, feeling now that Shepard was hooked because she felt responsible. He could see the question in her eyes. "You're unique. Not just in ability or experience, but in what you represent. You stood for the galaxy at a key moment. You're more than a soldier, you're a symbol. I don't know if the Reapers understand fear, but you killed one of them. They have to respect that. One way or the other, we're going after the Reapers. You talk about the right way and the wrong way to do things. You don't like us, that's understandable, so if you want this done the right way, then join us and lead our cause. I have a shuttle ready to take you to Freedom's Progress, the latest colony to be abducted. Miranda and Jacob will brief you."

Shepard let out a grunt of displeasure. "Miranda killed Wilson in cold blood, and Jacob's just a gun for hire. I want my own team; a team I can trust."

"Miranda executed a traitor, and she saved your life in more ways than one. Jacob is prior Alliance. He doesn't trust me, but at least he's honest about it. He's dedicated to humanity, you can trust his motives. You'll be just fine with them for now. If after Freedom's Progress you agree to work with us, we'll talk about a team. If not, you'll be free to walk away."

Shepard was skeptical. "You spent four billion credits, and you'd just let me walk out the door?"

"Honestly? It would make me very angry." The Illusive Man continued, confident, "But you'll find the evidence. And we have the resources for you to do the mission. You can go to the Alliance, but what do you honestly think will happen? As far as they know, you've been dead for two years. You'll be tied up in red tape while another hundred thousand colonists disappear. You'll see for yourself and you'll work for us. It's a calculated risk I'm willing to take."

Shepard uncrossed her arms, annoyed that he was probably right about the Alliance. She pointed at the Illusive Man, "If you're after the Reapers, just point me in the right direction; but we do this my way."

The Illusive Man nodded and finished with a simple "Understood. Good luck, Shepard," as he terminated the call.

Shepard walked back out into the main room with Miranda and Jacob. As she approached, Miranda reported, "The Illusive Man is very impressed with you. I'm eager to see if you can live up to his expectations on this mission."

The commander looked directly at Miranda as she said, "I can't have anyone disobeying my commands when we get there."

Miranda took no offense, replying simply, "I know who I report to. As long as you don't do anything to betray Cerberus, I'll follow your orders."

The commander looked at her and Jacob and shrugged her shoulders. "I guess we have a shuttle waiting." The trip was relatively uneventful and Shepard took the time to try to get to know the two operatives a bit better. Miranda was Cerberus to the core, confident in the commander's abilities but concerned about her motivations. Jacob on the other hand was a disillusioned Alliance officer unhappy with their response to the abductions. He joined Cerberus because they were actually doing something about it instead of ignoring the problem and hoping it would go away. Shepard thought about her initial warnings about Saren and Sovereign and decided she could relate; Jacob was someone she could work with.

During transit, Jacob gave the commander a mission brief, informing her that all the other colonies that had been hit, not a single clue was left behind. It was as if they all just picked up and left. No signs of struggle, no dead bodies, nothing. As they approached Freedom's Progress, Miranda made it clear she was willing to work with Shepard, asking if she had any orders. Shepard kept it simple. "First priority is survivors. If there are any, we need to talk to them, if not, then we see what we can find. We're going to find out who did this and take them down. Nothing gets in our way."

As they touched down at the colony, it was surreal. A soft snow was falling, muffling all noise, not that there was much to muffle. Not a single person to be seen, just like all the other strikes Jacob had described. The team started to work their way through the colony, building by building searching for anything that may provide some clue as to what happened. As Shepard dropped a blast shield so they could enter another part of the colony, they came under fire from defense mechs. The three person team defeated them easily enough, but the disconcerting aspect of the attack was they should not have registered humans as hostiles. Miranda commented that someone had to have programmed them to attack on sight. Then she made a statement that was both chilling and promising at the same time, "We're not alone here." For the first time, they had the possibility of finding a survivor.

They continued fighting their way through the mechs, and made steady progress across the colony. They finally popped into a warehouse, and ran into a small group of Quarians. They immediately jumped up and trained their weapons on the team, shouting, "Stop right there!" Shepard couldn't believe her ears. She heard a voice she would recognize anywhere when a small Quarian ran up and pushed the weapon of the lead Quarian down, saying, "Prazza, you said you'd let me handle this."

Shepard immediately dropped the barrel of her weapon down and took a step forward, calling in surprise, "Tali?"

The little Quarian snapped around at the familiar voice, "Wait... Shepard?"

Prazza wasn't giving in, pulling his weapon back up and shouting, "I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus operatives!"

Tali was livid, shouting at her security detail. "Put those weapons down!" Tali turned back to the group that just barged in on them and hesitated. She really couldn't believe her eyes and ears. "Shepard? Is that... you're alive?"

Shepard laughed for the first time since she had reawakened. "Tali! God it's good to see you, but forgive me if I'm not real comfortable talking at gunpoint."

Tali turned back to her squad yet again, "Prazza! Tell your team to put their weapons away!" Prazza was still belligerent, but put his rifle way, asking why Shepard would be working for Cerberus. Tali turned back to the commander as she answered him. "I don't know. But if this is Shepard...I don't know. Shepard would have a reason." She was looking directly at Shepard, expecting an explanation.

Shepard understood Tali's need and provided her an answer. "Tali, it really is me. If you don't believe it, ask some obscure question from one of our private moments down in Engineering... or wherever. I can prove it's really me if you need me to. Truth is, the Alliance abandoned me for dead and Cerberus saved me, I've been in a coma for two years. They're giving me resources because we have the same goal, but I'm not taking their orders. I'm here to find out who's taking the human colonists. What about you?"

"No, Shepard, the offer alone would be enough to prove your sincerity, but everything about you is just so...you! I have no doubts. To answer your question, one of our people was here on Pilgrimage. He never liked large groups, so figured a small backwater colony would be perfect. His name is Veetor and we're here for the same reason...to find one of our people. We saw him when we landed, but he took off and hid. We suspect he is the one who reprogrammed the mechs."

Prazza added to the discussion, "He has damage to his suit's CO2 scrubbers, and combine that with an infection from an open-air exposure, and he's likely delirious."

Shepard thought about how to proceed and offered to partner up with the little Quarian. "Ok, Tali. Might as well team up. Who knows how many mechs this colony had for defense. Two teams stand a better chance at succeeding. Veetor is the only witness we've got, and we've lost hundreds of thousands of colonists. We just need to know what he saw; we need to know who's doing this so we can go after them. Deal?"

Tali agreed, and the teams split up, each taking a different path to the warehouse where they thought Veetor was hiding. The two teams progressed through the colony, fighting their way through mechs and security drones, while continuing to search for other clues. It wasn't long before Tali called out on the comm, "Shepard! Prazza and his squad rushed on ahead. I told them to wait but they wouldn't listen. I'm sure they want to find Veetor and take him away before you get here! Hurry!" Shepard's team sped up and worked their way though some more security drones as fast as they could. Tali called out again, "Veetor reprogrammed a heavy mech! It's tearing Prazza's squad apart!"

Shepard responded to Tali, "We're right outside the blast shield, if you can drop it, we can help!"

As the blast shield came down, Shepard's team saw the Quarian marine squad getting obliterated. The mech had heavy armor plating and heavy weapons; the Quarians were definitely overmatched. Shepard directed Miranda to try to overload its shields, and Shepard used her grenade launcher to start, but only had two grenades, so switched quickly to her heavy pistol. They eventually took the mech down, but not before the Quarian squad took a lot of damage. Shepard found Tali, and Tali told her to go find Veetor while she tended to the Quarian wounded. Shepard's team immediately headed to the warehouse and located Veetor.

The delirious Quarian was sitting at a computer terminal, with nine monitors open in front of him, all streaming data from all over the colony. Veetor was rambling, "Monsters coming back. Mechs will protect. Safe from swarms. Have to hide. No monsters. No swarms..." Shepard walked up behind him and called his name and he answered, "No Veetor. Not here. Swarms can't find. Monsters coming. Have to hide." He continued to type on the terminal, oblivious to the group standing behind him. Shepard shook her head and programmed her omnitool to override the monitors. With a single wave of her arm, all the monitors went blank, causing Veetor to look up, finally acknowledging them. He got out of the chair and turned to face them. "You're...not one of them. You're human. They...they didn't find you?"

Shepard was surprised by the gentleness in Miranda's voice as she asked Veetor, "Who didn't find us?"

Veetor answered, "The monsters. The swarms. They took everyone!"

Shepard explained to him they weren't at the colony when it happened, that they had just arrived, and that they needed him to tell them what he saw. Veetor surprised them when he answered, "You don't know. You didn't see. But I see everything." With that, he turned the monitors back on, and surveillance videos from the entire colony came on the screens.

The team watched in amazement when they realized Veetor had spliced it all together into a sequential picture of the entire attack. They all watched the video and finally got a good look at who was attacking the colonists. With shock in her voice, Miranda identified them, "My God. I think it's the Collectors."

She always seemed so cool; Shepard was surprised anything could alarm Miranda, so the tone of her voice had the commander concerned. "Why the hell would Collectors be involved?"

Miranda's voice had leveled out again and she stated, "If they're involved with the Reapers somehow, it could explain what happened to the colonies. They have very advanced technology, and could very easily have something that disables the entire colony at once."

Veetor spoke again and provided the clue they were missing. "Seeker swarms. No one can hide. They find you, freeze you. Then the monsters take you away."

Shepard asked Veetor why he wasn't taken, how he escaped. Veetor just shook his head and said, "Swarms didn't find me. Monsters didn't know I was here."

Miranda finished the explanation. "They're using technology specifically designed to detect humans! That's why only human colonies have been hit. The swarms must be using a type of nerve toxin or something."

Veetor kept on talking, "I studied them. The monsters. The swarms. I recorded them with my omnitool. Lots of readings. Electromagnetic. Dark energy."

Miranda stepped up. "We need to get this data to the Illusive Man. Grab the Quarian and call the shuttle to come pick us up."

Tali had walked in just in time to hear Miranda's last statement. "What!? Veetor is injured! He needs treatment, not an interrogation!"

Shepard held up her hand and said, "Just hold on a minute! We don't need Veetor, just his data. We can take a copy of all the security footage, and I trust Tali to give us a copy of Veetor's data." Shepard paused, and then looked directly at Tali. "Unless you can come with us? I would love to have you back at my side Tali, just like old times."

Tali sounded sad as she responded. "I'm still trying to accept that you're even alive...and with Cerberus! I have obligations, Shepard. I have a mission of my own. I can't walk away from that right now, not even for you."

Shepard looked from Tali to Miranda. "We get the omnitool data, but Veetor goes with Tali. He needs medical attention best provided by his own people."

Tali thanked Shepard and told her, "I'm glad you're the one giving the orders. I promise, if we turn up anything, I'll send it your way."

Shepard thanked Tali, and gave the Quarian a firm hug before they parted. Tali knew it was truly Shepard when she whispered quietly in her ear so she knew only Tali would hear. "I need you to get word to Blue...quietly." As she stepped back to take her leave, Shepard spoke out loud. "Take care of yourself out there, little sister. I hope to hear from you soon."

It took Tali an amazing amount of time to track down Dr Liara T'Soni. She wasn't on Thessia, and her normal contacts, Garrus and Ashley, had disappeared out of sight. It took a concerted effort and she eventually ended up calling in a favor from a friend with ties to Quarian intelligence to finally locate the Asari on Illium. Tali was nervous as she placed the call. On Illium, Liara was just finishing up a particularly grueling day of negotiations when her omnitool rang. With a sigh, she plopped back down at her desk and looked at the caller identification. Her heart made an unexpected leap when she realized it was her little Quarian friend. Goddess, I haven't talked to Tali since just after the accident. Liara picked up, with a tired smile on her face. "Tali! It's so good to hear from you! I'm so sorry I haven't kept in touch!" Liara paused for just a moment before continuing. "I have no excuses. I... I don't know what to say."

Tali tried to ease the Asari's guilt. "Don't worry about it, Liara. Not like I've called you either. It takes two to have a conversation and I haven't been any better." There was a long pause, and then Tali blurted out, "Can you talk right now? I mean really...talk?"

Liara caught the drift of the question and answered promptly. "Not really. I was just finishing up at work and getting ready to head home. Can I call you back in about twenty minutes... at this number?"

Tali laughed, "Absolutely. And get something to drink first! It's been ages, and I have a feeling we have a lot to talk about!"

Liara locked up the office and headed straight home, locking the doors behind her and setting the apartment into secure mode, blocking all communications except her secure network. She sat down and called Tali, who picked up immediately. Tali's first words were, "Are we secure?"

Liara answered to the affirmative, and questioned, "Tali, what's this about? Are you ok?" Tali assured her she was fine, and then asked Liara a very odd question, asking if she was alone, or if she had anyone she trusted with her. Liara told her she had her commando, Riana, there with her. "Do I need to send her out?"

Tali responded immediately, "Riana? No! Absolutely not! I actually think you should have her there with you...is she where she can hear?" Liara called Riana to come into the room, and while waiting for her to show up, told Tali the direction of the conversation was a little frightening. Tali apologized, tried to calm her fears, and told Liara she would understand soon enough. When Riana showed up standing behind Liara in the vid screen, Tali took a deep breath and started her story. "Liara, I ran into an old friend last week. It's taken me this long to find you, or I would have passed the news on sooner. They wanted me to contact you... the message was strange, I'm not sure exactly what you're supposed to do with it."

Liara was about to go crazy. "Tali! Just spit it out! What old friend, and what exactly did they say? Was it Garrus?"

Tali looked surprised. "Garrus? I thought he was with you?"

Liara groaned, "Ok, so not Garrus, he's on Omega, but we'll talk about him later! If not Garrus, then who?"

Tali took a deep breath, "The message was this...'I need you to get word to Blue...quietly.'"

Liara gasped and clutched at the dog tags under her jacket. There was only one person in the galaxy that had ever called her that. "By the Goddess, Tali'Zorah! You ran into her! You actually spoke with her?" Liara felt faint and grabbed onto the edge of her desk to steady herself. Riana gripped her shoulders to keep her upright in the chair.

"Yes, we were at Freedom's Progress..." Tali proceeded to tell Liara the whole story of their encounter, and what little information Shepard had been able to pass onto her, with two Cerberus agents watching her every move. Liara was glad she recorded everything, because when they finally hung up she couldn't remember more than half of the conversation, and ended up replaying it multiple times. Goddess, they actually did it and Sha'ira had known the truth of it. At that moment, in the world of Liara T'Soni, nothing else mattered. Once again, she had hope because Samantha Shepard was alive!

Note: Yay! Shepard lives! lol. Not that any of this was a surprise... of course we all know that Shepard comes back. This is, however, the end of my "2-year" interlude... next up will be 'Working With the Enemy,' the third in the series. It will be the full-up ME2 play through serialization, post Freedom's Progress, and the first chapter should be up by the time you've finished reading this. :-)

Thanks for sticking with me, appreciate the feedback and great reviews and comments I've been receiving. Also very happy to announce that earlier this week 'First Life' went over 10,000 hits! Thanks so much for the support!