PHOENIX RESURGENT
A Mass Effect Story by Vyrexuviel
Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
AN: The ^^^ symbol signals a beginning and end of a flashback
"Shepard… Shepard, it's really you!" Liara squealed joyfully as she burst to her feet. She hugged Shepard tightly, never wanting to let go again. After a few moments of the hug, Liara looked up into Shepard's eyes with hope and regret.
While Shepard and Liara were embracing each other, Councilor Tevos just stood there, wondering how she was going to control the situation, now that her operative seemed to have decided that this is the real Shepard, and not another doppelganger.
"Have Operative T'Soni sent to my office when she's done," was all she said to the cell guards before leaving behind the unknown and her operative.
"I told you that it was Shepard!" boasted Councilor Anderson while staring down the other three Councilors. He was incredibly angry over the fact that these ungrateful ingrates decided that he couldn't spot a fake Shepard. He was also pissed over the fact that the others had a secret operative no one saw fit to tell him about.
"We couldn't be sure of this Councilor Anderson. The story that she told and the abilities that she showed are clearly inhuman, so we can't presume that this is the same Shepard that was killed in action 2 years ago. For all we know this could be a Geth construct that was going to be used to attack the citadel, for all of the losses that they suffered at the hands of Spectre Shepard." Councilor Valern's diction was as clipped and precise as ever.
"There's not much we can be sure of concerning Shepard," replied Tevos in a distant voice. She had the look of a person that's a million miles away at the moment. She still couldn't get the images out of her head from her private talk with Shepard.
After Shepard and Liara had separated from their reunion, a cell guard had come in and told Liara that she has been summoned to Councilor Tevos' office. With a longing look that showed a burning desire to stay and never leave Shepard's side, Liara left the cell area to talk with the Councilor.
Once she was sure that Operative T'soni had left the cell block, the asari Councilor stepped out of the shadows to confront Shepard on her own. It was plain her best operative wouldn't be useful in the questioning of this Shepard lookalike. As she came into view, the guards that stood in front of the cell door snapped to attention, alerting Shepard instantly.
After the meeting with Liara, Shepard was in a good mood. Unfortunately, that vanished when she saw the indigo-skinned asari come into view by her door.
"You have some nerve." Shepard had to force the words out through clenched teeth, seething over their last meeting.
"I only did what I thought was in the best interest of the Council. For all I know you could have been another doppelganger."
"If it had been anyone else I would have chalked it up to you being a bitch, but using Liara just crosses so many lines!" Shepard practically roared. Once she had finished yelling, Shepard sat on the cot in the cell and watched the Councilor out of the corner of her eye. When she had gotten control of herself again, she spoke in a calmer voice. "So why did you come down here? Other than to trade barbs like old times?"
"I came down here to determine your real story, not the one that you told us in the council meeting." Tevos gestured to the cell guards to open the door. "Now, I won't be aggressive, but I won't be stopped by any barriers that you have in your mind." The asari approached the blue tinted human, her fingers flexing gently as she readied her mind for the meld.
"Are you going to believe what you see, or are you going to ignore anything that you don't agree with again?" Shepard's curt response was almost a snarl as she stood and watched the Asari Councilor. The guards had their guns up in case anything unexpected happened, but a glance at the back wall indicated how effective their guns might be. Shepard smirked, slowly shaking her head from side to side.
Tevos stopped as the sight of Shepard shaking her head, as if this human has an ace up her sleeve. "Want to say something before I find out the truth?" she asked with a stony look on her face.
At this comment Shepard stopped shaking her head and looked over at Tevos with a predatory glint in her eye. "No I'll just show you." That was all Shepard said before stepping forward at a remarkable speed and laying one of her hands on the side of Tevos' face. She spoke only two words, soft and low in the startled asari's ear. "Embrace Eternity..."
Councilor Tevos was lost in her memories of the events that transpired in the holding cells, and having Shepard moved to a cordoned off section of the C-Sec Academy gym. She requested access so she wouldn't get antsy in the cell and do something destructive.
"I still don't think that this is the real Shepard!"
That was all that was needed to bring Councilor Tevos out of her mussing and pay attention to the meeting, primarily the person that said it. "This is the real Spectre Shepard, Councilor Sparatus." Her voice was calm, almost serene, but broke through the shouts and venom like a laser through butter.
"What are you talking about? Last time I checked humans don't come back from the dead, and certainly aren't a different color!" Sparatus practically screamed.
Councilor Valern, having been surprisingly quiet during the argument finally spoke up. "From what I've read of human history, a human has come back from the dead before, and the color can be associated to extreme frostbite."
"That still doesn't explain where she's been and what she's been doing for the last two years!" Sparatus' reply barely concealed his startlement. He couldn't believe it. Couldn't the other Councilors realize that this had to be a hoax?
"She explained it when we talked with her earlier; you just chose to dismiss it. Just like everything else that she has said and then proven true." Anderson couldn't help boasting. His eyes glinted a little as he at last saw victory over the overbearing turian.
"Still doesn't prove that this is the real Shepard!" was Sparatus' response, as if it settled the argument.
Tevos spoke again with that quiet calm voice, cutting through whatever else the overbearing turian has been about to spew. "I melded with Shepard to discover the truth of who she is and where she has been. This is the real Shepard, and she has told us the whole truth over her whereabouts in the past two years." Tevos pointed out. "Considering that one of our Spectres has come back to us, we should reinstate her status. All for?"
To answer the both the human and Salarian raised their hands along with her own. Anderson's hand shot up so fast he seemed like an overexcited schoolchild.
"Opposed?" Only one hand was in the air. "Well then it's agreed then that Shepard shall be reinstated with her Spectre status and released from holding."
"Now that this has been settled ill have Shepard summoned so we can finish our talks with her." Councilor Anderson said, activating his omni-tool and placing a call.
After the mind meld with Councilor Tevos, Shepard was moved to the C-Sec Academy, a less politically ambiguous, but still secured location. Which was a good sign, meaning she wasn't still being considered a potential enemy agent.
Shepard flexed again, then rested, the two burly C-Sec guards looking relieved as she let the 400kg weight rest back into the holder and slipped off the bench. She gave a faint smile as one of them offered her a towel, but took it and draped it over her shoulder. "Thanks. Got a heavy bag I can use?"
"Sure, just over there." The guard nodded to that end of the C-Sec gym. Fully stocked with weight and boxing training equipment, it was used almost exclusively by C-Sec officers to keep in shape. Shepard nodded her thanks and strode over. Still clad only in a shirt and shorts, she had the eyes of most of the gym's occupants on her. Mostly human males, but a large helping of turians and a scattering of asari rounded out the mix. In fact, the first time Shep had talked with one of them, the asari had assumed she was another asari, due to her skintone, until she had gotten a good look at her eyes and hair.
Shepard squared off, then began mercilessly pounding the bag. Every. Fucking. Time. She had something important to say to the Councilors, they always. ALWAYS! Dismissed her claims. And she was SICK. OF. IT. Noise levels in here had dropped when she entered, but now it was almost silent. She didn't care. She had to work out this rage before she broke something, and didn't want it to be one of these poor people. They hadn't done anything to deserve her ire.
But just as she was punching a hole in the bag, now that it had rolled up against the wall and couldn't escape, a new officer came into the room. He hesitated and waited nearby until he had her attention. "They will see you now," was the only thing he said before turning around and exiting the room.
As she cleaned her hands with her towel, she murmured her thanks to her spotters. "Now I've got to see what they, in their ultimate wisdom, have decided."
As she left for the changing room, the off-duty C-Sec officers looked to one another and gulped at the fact that she benched more weight than both of them combined. And broken their training bag.
"We called her a half an hour ago, where is she?" commented Councilor Sparatus in an irritated tone, which didn't surprise anyone in the room.
"Captain Bailey said that she was on her way." Councilor Anderson pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
Councilor Tevos suddenly looked over at the door to the room right before a knock came. "Enter."
The door opened showing only one person standing in the doorway. As Shepard entered and the door closed, she headed to the only unoccupied chair at the table. As she sat she said in a laughing tone, "Sorry, the elevator was even slower than usual."
With a sly smile on his face Anderson said, "Well. Now that you're here, we can start this meeting."
After a few moments of silence, Councilor Sparatus spoke up, "We called you here to let you know that we have decided on how to handle the situation that has arisen concerning your...return."
With a look of growing anger on Shepard's face, she responded, "My coming back from the dead counts as a 'situation' now?"
In response to Shepard's raised voice, Councilor Tevos raised her hands placatingly. "No. We called you here to let you know that we have come to a decision about your future as a Spectre, and what your current objective is right now."
Councilor Valern continued with, "We have decided to reinstate you. We understand something has been taking colonies in the traverse, and we would like this unexpected line of communication with the Geth Collective to continue."
"With this reinstatement, you will have to follow certain rules." Councilor Sparatus spoke up, "First; you are to confine your activity to the traverse. Second; you are to notify us on any new developments with the Geth. We want to alerted if they are going to try and attack us again."
"As I said before, the main Geth faction wasn't responsible for the attacks on Eden Prime and the Citadel 2 years ago. It was a rogue faction that followed Sovereign. I can try to work in the Traverse, but if my search goes into other territories, then I'll try to cause as little damage as possible. I also want my former team mate Liara T'soni to join me." Shepard crossed her arms, leaning back and giving the turian a hard, challenging glare.
"I'm sorry Shepard but Operative T'soni has already been sent onto her next assignment for the Council." Anderson stated.
After a beat, Shepard sighed and nodded, "Fine. But I want to be notified when she is back so I can ask her myself. Now, if you excuse me, I have to call my ship and have my armor sent up here. No offense, but I can't very well walk around the Citadel wearing these clothes that don't fit if I'm a Spectre."
Garrus and Tali loitered outside the C-Sec entrance, chatting lightly about various aspects of how the Citadel had changed since the last time they were here. In truth, they were keeping an eye out for their other teammate, and trying not to panic over Shepard's cryptic message. "In C-Sec, fixed misunderstanding. Out shortly."
The door beside Tali hissed open, and two C-Sec men stepped out. One of them nodded to Garrus, who gave a slight turian smile to his former fellow officer. Then Tali straightened as she spotted the third person. She was an asari, complete with blue skin and scalp and dressed in C-Sec off-duty fatigues, but unmistakably Shepard. She smirked and winked at Tali's reaction, murmuring a soft "I'll explain later" as she moved past.
Garrus and the thunderstruck quarian girl (after the turian prodded her into motion) slipped off after the three C-Sec guards, following the asari as she split off from the two turians.
"Shepard, where among the stars did you get that...wig?" Garrus's look was quite comical, his mandibles spread quite wide for the normally stern turian.
She laughed. "The idea came to me while I was working out. One of the off-duty guards mistook me for an asari when all she saw was my arm, and greeted me in their language. Since the Councilors decided to keep my returned-from-the-dead status under wraps for the moment, I thought it would be better to appear asari than have questions about what species I am floating around."
She sipped her drink, savoring the look of utter delight on the turian infiltrator's face. Tali was hard to read without her helmet's light filters seeing under the quarian girl's faceplate. "Are you sure it's alright, Shepard? I mean... how'd they find something like that for you that fast...?"
"This?" she reached up to lightly stroke just under her 'scalp'. "They had it made from some hardened resin in an asari clinic on two hours notice. It's why there was that long wait after my message. Apparently, asari without their head-tentacles are about as noticeable as a human without an arm. Or a turian without one mandible." She smirked at Garrus. He gave her a buzzing snort in reply.
"Don't worry about it, Tali, I'll be back to my usual self back on board the Zero-Eight. We've got a bit of business to attend to out on Korlus."
AN: My humblest appologies for not having this out earlier, but my beta and I had a bit of confusion over whether or not he still -was- my beta. ^^ Fixed now, and I hope you enjoy! As aways, read & review!