"ENOUGH." The Clone tilts her chin upwards, bouncing her voice off the ceiling for maximum effect. "Drop your weapons or this won't end well for her." It's poetic really-she's gone from the one rescuing the hostage to the person taking one. She's never felt more powerful.
Brooks snarls as she pretends to struggle. "You bitch." The Clone squeezes her reassuringly. It's been far too long since she got to hold her.
"Alright." Shepard lays down her shotgun, and her lackeys follow. The Clone tosses Maya to the floor, maybe less gently than she should. She has to be convincing. Maya knows that. Hopefully.
"Whatever you think you're getting away with-There's nowhere you can run, nowhere you can hide where we won't find you."
"Hide? Why?" This is too fun. The Clone steps into the light, watching as the jaws of Shepard and her followers fall right open. "I'm Commander Shepard, I never hide."
It's the Krogan who speaks up first. "Huh? So that's how it's gonna be."
The Clone jumps to the floor. She feels the impact from her knees to her jaw. It would probably break a lesser person-but it's worth catching Shepard off guard again. Anything to give her clone an advantage.
Shepard, apparently, still can't put her composure together. "Who are you?" Some hard-nose commander she is.
"You weren't the only Shepard Cerberus brought back to life." Wait. How is Shepard taller than her? Is it her boots? "But at least one of us will finally do something with it." Or did Cerberus fuck up that bad when they cloned her?
"Where did you come from?" Shepard's within stabbing range-the Clone's implants are quite clear. But she knows better than to kill the Commander on the spot. Not when her and Maya are surrounded by Shepard's so-called friends. Not when her hands sweat just thinking of another lifeless body falling to the ground.
"The same DNA as you."
"A clone." Huh. Some Krogans have brains after all. Who knew.
"Cerberus spared no expense resurrecting you. With me-I was created for spare parts. In case you needed another arm, or a heart, or a lung."
"Where have you been this whole time?"
"In a coma. Until I woke up six months ago. While you were in a jail cell on earth, I was learning to be human." Bring up Shepard's failures. Turn her own weaknesses into strengths. "Amazing what a person can do with enough neural implants." Mostly, the implants drive the Clone crazy, but Shepard doesn't need to know that.
Shepard gives her that goddamn earnestness that saves her ass nearly every time. "If you're really me, then we're on the same team." As if it would work on her.
The Clone snaps back. "We're not even in the same league."
"Did the Illusive Man send you?"
"No. He abandoned me when he had what he wanted. You." She's so goddamn sick of living in Shepard's shadow. Just a little longer, and the Clone will be free.
"So what's your point in trying to kill us?" Major Kaidan Alenko, second human spectre, goddamn Alliance poster boy, glares at her.
The Clone stares at him, wondering what Shepard sees in him, what would make her risk her career over of some broken regs. "Because I don't have her memories. I'd never fool my supposed friends. The ones who abandoned their duty to join the Cult of Shepard." She quirks her head, eyeing him from head to toe. Maybe he is attractive, in a conventional way. Jane Shepard must prefer the boring types. "Like you Major Alenko. I would've picked the other one on Virmire. Ashley something?" The Clone forgets her name on purpose.
"You're just a pale imitation of the real thing." And her ploy works like a clock.
"I'm the real thing perfected. I'm you without the wear and tear, Shepard. The doubts the failures. I'm the lone wolf you were always meant to be. Without the emotional baggage holding me back."
"No one will ever believe you're Shepard."
"They will when I'm flying her ship." Or so the Clone hopes. She can't allow herself to think that far ahead.
Shepard pulls out her omni tool, raising her voice."This is Shepard! Initiate Normandy lockdown. Transmitting command codes now." It's all too obvious, hearing her in person-Shepard's voice isn't as deep as hers.
The Clone does the same, especially thankful for her hacking skills in this moment. "Good idea. Too bad the signal was blocked." She speaks again, with higher pitch. "Traynor. This is Shepard. Prep the Normandy for emergency departure. We're leaving. I'm sending the command codes now."
Traynor's voice carries over the lobby from the com's speaker. "Acknowledged. We'll get under way."
Shepard snarls at her. Snarls. Who's all virtuous and heroic now? "It'll be a cold day in hell before someone steals my ship."
"It's not stealing if I'm you." The Clone turns to her army. "Execute them. The Cult of Shepard ends today." If all goes well, she won't even have to lift a finger. She hears the Citadel sculpture explode just as the door closes behind her.