Cass groaned. Her face was pressed against a cold, metal floor; and her head felt like shit. Reaching back to rub the bump on her skull, the teen staggered to her feet. She was still clad in her red and black armor, but all of her weapons and omnitool had been removed.
As her vision stopped swirling, the girl looked around. She was in one of the cargo holds on the Normandy. Rushing to the door, the girl found it was locked. Perfect.
"Hey, assholes!" Cass smashed her fist against the door repeatedly. "I'm awake! And I know everything! You won't get away with this you twat! I'm fucking going to tear out your spine! With my teeth! I'm going to kill you! All of you!"
"Would you shut up." A gruff, low voice thundered on the other side of the door.
"Why don't you come in and make me!" Cass countered.
"Don't think I won't!"
"Then come, dickbag! Let's go!" Cass banged on the door.
"I'm not going to fight some little girl, so just shut up." The voice grumbled lowly.
Cass continued to smash her fist against the door. "Only because you know you'll lose!"
"Shut up, kid." The low voice muttered, his words barely heard through the heavy metal of the door.
"No fucking way!" Cass screamed, still pounding.
"Goddamn it, kid. Just shut up. You're going to get me in trouble."
"Good!" Cass retorted. "Let the bitch come down here herself!"
"What's going on down here?" A familiar voice could be heard through the door.
"It's nothing." Cass' guard responded nervously. "The kid is awake-"
"Great." The voice spoke, deadpan.
"I can hear you!" Cass yelled.
"Clearly."
The door swished open and Cass was ready to charge until a biotic wave of energy threw her to the other side of the storage compartment; her body crashing into various crates and containers, easily knocking the breath out of her.
Cass managed to her feet and glared at the perpetrator. Her cloned mother.
"You know," Cass stood, stretching her back and shoulder. "I've never really enjoyed killing with my bare hands, but for I think this will be the exception."
Cass charged at the clone, biotics flaring up in her hands. The clone dodged the teen's wild attack easily and brought up a shield of her own to counteract the teen's violence; offsetting the girl once more. The clone then biotically knocked Cass back into the remnants of already toppled cargo. The teen jumped back to her feet, but maintained distance.
"I don't want to fight you." Thee fake Shepard spoke flatly.
"Then you shouldn't have locked me in a fucking closet."
"Well, I needed somewhere to keep you until we could take care of that memory of yours, but we're now all set up in the med bay." The clone's tone altered, becoming somewhat cheerful and mischievous.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Cass growled. "Are you going to try to freaking brainwash me?"
"Try?" No. We have the correct equipment to brainwash you. Once the ship is moving, we're going to go right ahead and take care of it."
"You're insane."
"No. Your Shepard is the one who was insane-"
"No. Pretty sure it's you." Cass interrupted.
"I'm not going to argue with you." The clone folded her arms. "Well, soon I won't have to anyways."
"You're not going to get away with this." Cass' hands curled into fists. "My mom and my friends will find a way out of those archives and then they're going to catch you and your little mercenary buddies and kill you. It's that simple."
The clone's lips pursed momentarily, ready for a rebuttal, but instead she turned on a heel and glided out of the room; the door panel turning red once more.
Cass sat on a crate and rested her elbows against her knees; if she was going to escape, it would have to happen before they try to brainwash her…
Sometime later, the girl was still sitting amongst the freight when she could feel the ship begin to move. The hum of the engines could be heard, and she shifted amongst the unsecured, battered cargo.
Well, there went her chances of escaping while they were landed- she was going to have to Rambo this… She would need weapons, firstly, and then all she would have to do is take on an entire ship full of mercenaries- a Cerberus agent- and her fake-clone mom- easy right?
The girl groaned loudly, and pressed her hands against her face. It was like the Shadow Broker's lair all over again- why was she always the freaking target!?
And so, Cass pouted- until she heard gunfire- not that gunfire should be a sign of hope- but in her case, anything would do.
After banging on the door for a incomprehensible amount of time, Cass gave up. There was no smart-mouthed merc outside the door to answer her, nor had anyone shown up to let her out- or brainwash her. And the gunfire had subsided a long while ago. And she was still locked away in a freaking closet- like harry freaking potter in the cupboard under the stairs, and at this rate no unfathomable amount of Hogwarts letters- or a half giant were going to rescue her.
And there was the possibility that maybe everyone had died- like they all killed each other off in some horrible bloody battle and the ship was on like autopilot and she was going to die in here, and the some creepy nerd scientists were going to discover her body floating around in space with what's left of the ship-
"Cass?" Shepard's or fake Shepard's voice came from the open door.
Cass stood and narrowed her eyes at the commander or fake commander and charged toward the woman, fist crashing into the commander's jaw causing Shepard to fall to the floor on her back.
"Ow, what the hell, Cassandra!?" Shepard cradled her jaw and cheek, eyes watering.
Cass straddled the woman's midsection, a hand pressed to the floor next to the commander's head and her other hand curled in a fist ready to strike the downed woman.
"I'm not going to let you brainwash me, you dumb fuc-"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence, young lady." Shepard scolded. Oh shit, the mom tone. She was real. Real Shepard. She had almost called her mom a very long list of profane words. And she punched her. She punched her mother in the face...
"Oh fuck." Cass gaped as she scrambled off her mother- her actual mother. "Oh shit, I'm sorry- I just- well- you know- sorry!"
Shepard stood with a hand from the girl and then frowned at her daughter, one hand still cradling the now bruising cheek.
"It's fine, Cass." Shepard sighed, before pulling her daughter into a hug. "Are you alright?"
"Well, other than being locked in a closet with the imminent threat of brainwashing and the panicked planning to Rambo with shit out of everyone on this ship- I'm fine." The teen rambled, somewhat nervously- because she literally just punched her mom in the face.
"So you're not hurt then?"
"Not really." Cass took a deep breath, calming down while pausing briefly. "Well, I might have a concussion from when Brooks smashed my skull, but otherwise I'm just peachy."
"We'll have Chakwas take a look at that for you-"
"Maybe we should have her look at your face first- it's swelling- a bit, er a lot- sorry." Cass grimaced.
Shepard grunted with mirth, before wrapping an arm around her girl and leading them down the hall.
"So, like are you going to tell me what happened exactly? And like why it took so freaking long for you guys to get me out of the stupid closet-"
"Well, maybe I would have left you in there if I knew your were going to try to punch my lights out." Shepard joked.
"Well, you can't tell me that you wouldn't have done it either- clone you was going to brainwash me- I think you would've punched you too."