In the tech lab of the Normandy, Mordin was keeping hard at work by examining the energy capsule they had retrieved from the Cerberus research vessel, the Bermuda. He held the canister in his two hands. It was like nothing he had ever seen. The blue colored, fluid-like sparks in the capsule flowed in perfect order like ocean waves flowing in rhythm to a melody. He was eager to release it from the container and experiment with it in a controlled environment, but he wanted to be 110% sure of what he was dealing with before risking the crews lives just to satisfy his curiosity. Subtly he ran his omni-tool over it trying to get an accurate scan. The results were always inconclusive. How much power it could generate was off the scale, and as far as he could tell, it was not an engineered substance. He laid the canister back down on the desk and stared at it expectantly with his finger under his chin.

"Compound not Cerberus design. No data of similar energy source among known worlds. A genuine find perhaps? No, no, no, Cerberus always plans long term. Malevolent purpose, yes. A ruse made by Illusive man... Logical conclusion..." He walked around the desk and flipped his research terminal on to go through some more of the decrypted files from the Bermuda. As he was scrolling through the codes he heard someone faintly whisper his name.

"Yes EDI?" He asked.

"I did not call for you professor Solus." The AI replied. Mordin looked around the room carefully then shook his head.

"Auditory hallucination. Common with old age... Possible explanation..." He closed his terminal, deciding that a short break would ease his weary mind, and walked out of the room. When the door to the lab was firmly sealed the canister emitted a bright glow then returned to its normal brightness. Though no one was around to see it.

...

Meanwhile down in the med bay, Tali had been at Shepard's side the whole night. She kept falling in and out of sleep, struggling to keep herself awake to tend to Shepard. Chakwas would come in every hour to check on his condition as well as Tali's though every time she came by Tali was always either caressing his hand or fast asleep from the stress of the situation so she would leave her to her peace. Shepard's vital signs had improved slightly over night giving her a small glimmer of hope which was something no one else had at the moment. But she had hope, she wanted to. The more her hope grew the more it seemed like everything was going to work out just fine. She lost Shepard once, she would not lose him again. Suddenly the moment she had been waiting for happened. She heard a groan and noticed that Shepard began to stir. She immediately pressed a red button on the side of his bed paging Dr. Chakwas that his condition had changed. She leaned over him as he tried to open his eyes.

"Shepard!" she said. His eyes opened slowly; adjusting to the bright light above his head. His vision was blurry and his hearing muffled but that changed as he became more awake. When he was able to make out the purple figure leaning over him, Tali placed a hand on his neck to keep him from getting up.

"Don't try to move Shepard. You're injuries are not yet fully healed." She said with concern. To her surprise his eyes locked on her but did not show relief, or love. They showed fear.

"Where am I?" Shepard moaned. Chakwas came rushing in the med bay at that moment.

"Is he awake!" She rushed to Tali's side to examine him. Shepard's expression became overwhelmed with fear.

"Who are you people?" He lifted the blankets back to see the massive scar and the bruises that ran down his chest. "What the hell did you do to me!" He began to struggle as Tali and Chakwas held him down. What was going on? Garrus, Wrex, and Mordin stormed in through the door as did Legion from the AI core. Shepard continued to struggle; growling in pain as he tried to fight off his offenders.

"Commander you have to calm down!" Chakwas yelled.

"Get off me!" Shepard yelled back. The pain in his chest kept him from putting up any good attempt at throwing them off of him. Chakwas turned to Mordin.

"Sedative now!" Mordin rushed to the table on her command and grabbed a large syringe. He handed it to the her and she jabbed it into his arm. Shepard's struggles quickly became weaker as his eyes shut once again and he drifted off back into his state of unconsciousness.

Chakwas and Tali were both panting as the others watched in horror. "What happened?" She asked Tali.

"I don't know!" She replied. "When he woke up he acted like he didn't recognize me and just..." Tears began to well up in her eyes again but she managed keep her composure. Instead looking back down at Shepard. Chakwas didn't know what to think. Before any real diagnosis could be made, they had to talk to him.

"What do we do now?" Garrus asked. Chakwas appeared utterly exhausted from the stress of the situation as she walked over to her desk and sat down in her chair, bringing the palm of her hand up to her face. She signed heavily before speaking.

"I'm going to keep him sedated for the next 24 hours. After that, I'll need to wake him up. There could be brain damage that I might have overlooked and the only way I can determine that is by talking to him." She turned her attention to Tali. "Miss Zorah, you should get some rest. You've been here all day and I know its been difficult." Tali stared down at Shepard. Her brain agreed with the doctor, but her heart said she should remain by his side.

"He'll be fine, I'll call you the second I'm ready to wake him." Chakwas assured her. Tali nodded still staring down at Shepard and then turned around to walk out. Garrus followed behind with his arm around her back. Mordin returned to the tech lab and Legion to the AI core. Only Wrex remained. Chakwas then proceeded to drop her hand from her face to acknowledge his presence.

"Wrex, I didn't notice you there. Have you come to check on Shepard?" Wrex nodded and walked over to the side of the medical bed. He lifted up the blankets to examine the scar running down Shepard's chest and ran his hand along the bruises visible on his skin where his ribs had broken.

"Hmph." he chuckled. "Only you Shepard, the whelp could learn a thing or two from you..." He drew his hand back and smiled, remaining at Shepard's side and laughing in his mind at the situation.

...

Tali and Garrus sat in the elevator side by side. This time without her threatening to castrate him. She fiddled with her wrists the entire time with Garrus glancing over at her, keeping silent. The elevator came to stop at Deck 2 where Garrus got off.

"Try to get to some rest." The turian said before tapping to the controls and sending the elevator to Shepard's cabin. The doors sealed and Garrus folded his arms as he listened to the hum of the elevator ascending.

"Mister Vakarian." EDI chimed in. "I've managed to decrypt a large portion of the Cerberus research files. I've uploaded them to the briefing room terminal." Garrus relaxed his arms and looked up towards the ceiling.

"I'll check it out." He strolled through the armory to briefing room where the console was already active with the data waiting for him and tapped a few keys to examine the first bit of data. Apparently it was a video log. Information ran across the side of the screen.

'Video log 1: Dr. Julia Rennolds.' Garrus pushed the play button and a the log began to play. A human female, Cerberus scientist by her uniform, began to speak which he assumed to be Dr. Rennolds.

"Day 1 aboard the Cerberus research vessel, Bermuda. I'm tentatively excited to be working on Project Black-Heart with the legendary Doctor Kindeler. The man is incredibly passionate about the implications of our work. He says this new technology will change the Galaxy as we know it. I easily share his enthusiasm. People will come to revere Cerberus for all the work we've done for humanity once we're finished..." Garrus closed the first entry and brought up the second.

"Day 23, Doctor Kindeler certainly isn't what I thought he was from his profile. Throughout my time working on the project I've come to know that he's a very religious man. He says the complexity of the universe couldn't have been some accident. That everything is just too perfect for people not believe in something. I remain a skeptic myself. As long as his beliefs don't interfere with our work then I guess it doesn't matter what he or anyone else for that matter believes..." Garrus moved on to the third entry. His curiosity becoming overwhelmed.

"Day 105, the Doctor seems to have become paranoid for no apparent reason. He believes others are talking behind his back, plotting against him. He's becoming more hostile by the day. What's even stranger is...he believes that God has been talking to him. Even after our first test to replicate the energy failed, it was all he focused on. God this, God that, he spends most of his time just staring at the energy inside its canister. If it continues I won't hesitate to report him. We can't have a mentally unstable shmuck leading the project..." Garrus was now very interested in what he was seeing so he played the forth and final entry. This time the woman seemed distressed.

"Day 146, The Doctor has gone insane! He's reprogrammed the security mechs! They're slaughtering the crew! I locked and barricaded myself in my quarters. I can hear noises from outside, they're dying! I tried to send out a distress call but hes locked me out of all systems. Why-isn't the auto pilot returning us to base? The reactor seems to have shut down for no reason!" Garrus saw the woman look behind her as she heard someone banging on her door followed by a gunshot which silenced the screaming. The woman turned back to the monitor. "Oh God! This is all our fault! I believe his insanity is somehow related to the project. The energy! We've made a huge mistake! We never should have recovered-" The video log hissed and went blank surprising the turian.

"EDI?" Garrus asked hoping she would have an answer for the malfunction.

"Bits of the data are fragmented Mister Vakarian. It will take more time to reassemble them." Garrus played back the last few seconds of the recording. What did she mean? Recovered what? How was it their fault? What really happened on board Bermuda that day?

...

Back in Shepard's cabin, Tali had resigned herself to slumber in Shepard's bed. She fell asleep the instant she lay down due to her exhaustion. She slept soundly the entire night, not waking up nor dreaming in her deep sleep. She awoke the next morning hoping to find Shepard beside her but gaining her concentration, knew that was impossible at the moment. She slowly set her legs down on the cold floor and looked around the room before remembering what happened the night before.

"Keelah..." She whispered. "Why did he not recognize me? How could he not recognize me?" She signed heavily and walked over to Shepard's terminal. The picture frame which contained a picture of Liara had been replaced by one of her hugging him from behind. She held it up to her visor and stared at it, reminiscing those joyful memories as they flowed back into her mind. While still holding the picture she sat down in the chair beside her.

"Shepard..." she held the photo close to her chest as if it were the last thing she would ever hold. "What's happened to you..." A English accented voice then came from her comm link breaking her from her chain of thought.

"Miss Zorah..." Chakwas called. Tali's heart began to race at the suspense of waiting for the update on his condition.

"He's waking up... You should come down here."