A/N: A big thank you to HeidiM2574, Emerald's Vengeance, a Guest reviewer, Zephyros-Phoenix, Bluumberry, and CommanderHawke667 for your reviews, and those who have favorited or followed this crazy experiment of a story! I'm excited to be back working on it after focusing on my Omega one and I'm just as excited to see where it goes from here.
-2-
The Archives wasn't far from her apartment, conveniently enough, but the floodgates of traffic hell themselves seemed to have opened on the way there. She was by nature a patient woman, but patience seemed to depart from her without so much as a farewell when she went behind the wheel of any vehicle, as past and current squadmates could attest to. She thought about zooming around cars, possibly going the wrong way just to pass them, but her friends and mate would kill her themselves if she got in an accident (assuming she wasn't killed in the process). So there she crawled, inch by inch, to get to the exit she needed for the Archives.
She tried occupying her time fiddling around with the radio to pass the time, but she couldn't really settle on a station she was dying to listen to. In the end, she left it on a station which played human classical music from centuries past. She remembered her father had listened to a station similar to that on Mindoir (not that they had many options beyond a few feeds the colony broadcasted) on a frequent basis and could tell who the composer was just by the style of the composition. The only one she ever remembered him getting wrong was one by Mendelssohn, though she couldn't remember for the life of her what the name of the piece was. Suppose it didn't really matter now.
She tapped her finger against the wheel, breathing a sigh of relief when she was finally able to turn and could go at a much faster velocity. This was already taking her a lot longer than she had wanted. She now had about less than an hour until she was to meet up with Joker. For all she knew, Brooks's intel could turn out to be nothing more than a wild goose chase, but after what she saw on Horizon, those experiments the Illusive Man ordered on all those vulnerable people, they could not afford to be caught off guard. Any clue they had on Cerberus's plans was a boon for them.
From the turnoff, it didn't take much longer until she reached the Archives, which didn't look like an imposing building on the outside or even large enough to hold the records of all the species from thousands upon thousands of years of history. It wasn't really anything more than a grey and square-shaped building. Still, Shepard parked the skycar in front with the few others there in the lot, the engine spouting out a final hum at her as it shut down. She released the hatch to the door, hopping out of the seat and closing the door behind her.
She first had to pass through a security scanning system, establishing her biometric id. Once completed, the synthetic voice emitting from the machine droned at her to proceed to the front desk to sign in and remind her that no firearms were allowed on the premise at any time.
She was dumped into a long hallway, one that seemed to stretch on for miles. Just as she reached the door, she noticed the lock on the door sporadically switching from light orangish to green, like it couldn't make up its mind what it wanted the state of the door to be. She raised her omni-tool to keep it green, not thinking much of it, that it was just a malfunction.
"Alert. The Citadel Archives is currently under lock-down. All personnel should not attempt to engage and remain in a secure location until the lock-down has been lifted."
Why couldn't she go anywhere without there being an incident? Was it really too much to ask for things to go simply for once? Meet with anyone without bullets being involved?
Shepard waited until she activated tactical cloak to open the door, in case any enemy mercs were standing guard inside. The door opened to an open space, stuffed with many desks at its center, all completely empty. The floor was scattered with discarded papers and datapads and overturned coffee mugs on a few desks, the remaining liquid flowing to the floor in droplets. An alarm was going off in a synchronized rhythm like a church bell ringing in the hour. She quickly scanned the room and saw no signs of mercs anywhere, no sound from other doors of their approach, nothing on her radar.
The cloak dissipated and she stepped into the center of the room cautiously with light steps, so if someone was nearby and completely undetectable, they would be less likely of her presence. Her heart sunk at the sight of two bodies lying on the ground at desks close by, but at least it hadn't been a total bloodbath. Whoever had come here hadn't been interested in that.
"Commander. Over…here," a weak voice whispered to her right. She looked down to see a lone figure struggling to crawl out from under a desk, clutching at her bleeding side. Shepard went over and helped her, gently propping her up against the desk and applying medi-gel to the wound.
"Are you Brooks?"
Brooks gave a shaky nod, hissing when she tried to shift to a more comfortable position. "They came out of the nowhere, Commander. They locked the building down before people could leave. I think a lot of the archivists went into safe rooms. Tried to hide, but wasn't fast enough."
Shepard finished applying the first wave of medi-gel and started on the second, her last batch. "Who? Who did this? Was it Cerberus?"
"I…I don't know… they didn't dress like Cerberus. They wore darker armor, kind of camouflagey, nothing with the Cerberus emblem on them, but maybe they were, to avoid being detected, with the coup and everything," Brooks said, able to talk more steadily than before.
Shepard stood up, finished with the med-gel dispensation. "Does it have anything to do with that intel you were telling me about?"
"I-It must, don't know what else it could be…" Brooks's head fell into her hands, smearing the blood from the hand she had at her wound all on her forehead. "God, I can't believe I was…how could I be so stupid? I knew your files were compromised, I shouldn't have contacted you, I should have realized your comms …"
"Wait, Brooks, slow down, what are you talking about?" Shepard demanded firmly but as gently as she could manage to break Brooks out of her ramblings.
"Two days ago, we had a security breach on numerous personnel files, including yours. At first, my superiors dismissed it as the work of some random hacker who's had a record of hacking Alliance databases in the past just for kicks, but I wasn't as convinced. So I did my own digging."
"So how did you go from finding out about me to this intel?"
"I was able to trace back to the device that purloined your personnel records and reports. There was no name or address, and it was not an easy feat to bypass the firewalls. I couldn't get far before I was pushed out, but I was able to extract a file. No audio, no video or anything, just a small note, mentioning something about how no one suspected "the package" at a base in the Artemis Tau cluster had been removed.
"On the face, it could have meant nothing, but there was just a feeling. You know that feeling you get, that tingling sensation in the back of your head..." Her face fell slightly then. "I probably sound like a weirdo or worse, like I was being indoctrinated."
"No, I understand what you mean." That unexplainable feeling you got, when you knew something was wrong, but you had no logical reason to feel that way. "So what did you find?"
"Alliance intel picked up on some raid on a Cerberus base in the Artemis Tau cluster less than a year ago by asari commandos from Thessia. I don't know what they thought they found, but it was enough for Cerberus to kill all the commandos. When reinforcements arrived, the entire facility was torched. The only other thing the Alliance intel stated was that whatever Cerberus had been working on was destroyed. No trace recovered."
"But you think they had it stowed away?"
Brooks nodded, her face giving off a soft glow, looking like she hoped with every fiber of her being Shepard believed her.
"So why come here? What did you hope to find?"
"Classified files are constantly sent to the Archives to be processed and stored. What better place to keep them? I was hoping maybe there was a separate report created, maybe not just the official one, just something to back up my gut feeling. And whoever came here, they're here for the same thing, I'm sure of it now. I don't know if it's Cerberus or defectors, but whoever it is, they're very interested in this. And you. They want to keep this a secret."
Cerberus had committed pretty much every possible crime one could against a person. What would they possibly deem so important to hide this badly? Especially after the coup, as Brooks pointed out. Shepard knew the Illusive Man wasn't in his right mind, but was he even this suicidal?
Unless…unless they were defectors. It could be possible. Jacob, Miranda, Brynn, Archer, all those scientists were proof of those breaking away from Cerberus. Who was to say that someone who agreed with the Illusive Man's ideology but not his methodology wouldn't cut ties? Staff disappearing and people being turned into husks really wasn't the greatest business model to prevent turnover. But why go to all this trouble, make their activities so obvious? Why bring the mercs, cause this senseless destruction and violence if all they wanted was intel? Unless that wasn't the only thing they were after.
Questions that Brooks didn't have the answer to. Questions that would have to be answered by finding the record herself, at least as a start.
Shepard had her omni-tool out and active again. "We need to contact Commander Bailey, let him know what's going on."
Brooks shook her head, her long ponytail going back and forth between slapping her shoulders. "I tried contacting C-Sec. Nothing is going through. All external communications have been shut down or blocked. Whoever did this has been planning this for months. This wasn't a rushed job. Maybe…maybe they had inside help!"
A tiny ping from the direction Shepard had come had her attention turned towards the door, the circle a deep taunting red.
"Damn it, the door's finally locked behind us." She turned back to Brooks. "Were you able to find out where the record would be stored?"
"No. No sooner had I gotten off the call with you, the facility was being attacked and everything went to hell."
Guess she was on her own for the moment.
"Can you stand? Can you walk?"
Brooks used the desk corner to lift herself up on her feet, not before sweeping her cap from the floor and placing it securely back on her head. "Should be alright now with the medi-gel. Thanks for that, by the way. Hope I won't get too jumpy..." she trailed off.
"It was no problem. Listen, find a way out of here and contact C-Sec. Also, if you can, get in contact with the Normandy, tell them I sent you and that I need back-up at the Archives."
Brooks clutched the edge of the desk again to steady herself. "But…but I got shot just coming here. What if they are more of them outside? What if I get ambushed?"
Shepard laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You survived this long. The entrance isn't too far. And maybe you can find a way to get the door unlocked. You seem to be good at hacking. You can do this," she said, trying to reassure her.
The fear didn't completely disappear from Brooks's eyes, but it was a little dimmer and she released the desk from her death grip. "Ok. Contact C-Sec, then contact the Normandy. Contact C-Sec, then the Normandy." She wrung her hands. "Anyone in particular I should ask for?"
"Either Specialist Samantha Traynor or a turian named Garrus Vakarian. Those are the only two currently on the ship. Tell them to contact my pilot, that I won't be able to make that dinner afterall." No sense in letting Joker wonder where she was, though she doubted Joker would be crestfallen over a cancelled dinner when he found out where she was.
And Garrus…he had been so excited with whatever it was he was planning. Guess that would have to be put on hold for the moment too. She guessed Garrus would either strangle her for doing this alone or feel extremely guilty for not being with her in the first place. Actually, both possibilities were really bad.
"Ok. Ok, got it. I can do this." She took a deep breath, gulping down the air in a similar way as Mordin did. Her eyes then widened. "Wait, what about you? You don't have a weapon or anything."
"I'll be fine. I've faced worse." Usually not without a weapon, though. Least she had the ability to turn invisible at her beck and call. That tech power had gotten her out of a lot of hot situations more times than she could count.
A slow blush crept to her cheeks. "Of course you have, you're Commander Shep-sorry, Commander, I didn't mean to imply you weren't capable, course you are." She sounded close to hyperventilating again. It was true, then, that she didn't really interact with many people.
"It's fine, Brooks, but you need to stay calm and alert. Now tell me where I need to go."
"Just that way," Brooks pointed straight ahead. "To the front desk. Past security, you should be able to pull up an index of the records and where they're located. Look for raids on Cerberus bases by asari commandos in Dec 21…no, Feb-, January 2186. I think."
That was a pretty vague topic to type into a search engine. "What if I can't find it?"
Brooks tapped her pointer finger against her chin. "The records are either organized by subject or by year, can't remember which, but that should help give you a general idea of where to look."
Shepard's ears perked up at some raised voices she heard behind a door to her left. She grabbed Brooks by the arm and pushed her back under the desk. Brooks flinched presumably at the sudden movement to her wound and clutched at it, but she didn't let out a peep. After a moment, the voices died down, away from the room until nothing could be heard but the beeping of the computers and their own heavy breathing.
"Go now, while you can," Shepard urged her.
Brooks darted up, still holding onto her side. "I will, Commander. Good luck and please be careful."
Shepard went off in the direction Brooks had pointed her in, activating tactical cloak again so she wouldn't be caught off guard. Again, she was fortunate enough there were no guards around. Maybe they were too busy trying to find whatever it was they were looking for.
Shepard passed through the blue security field around the corner without tripping any alarms and dashed over to a nearby computer, expediently not locked down. She typed in the keywords "asari commando," "Cerberus raid," 2186" in the respective search fields. She came up with fifteen different results, but all seemed to be located in the same area. She clicked on the map icon near the record number to see where she needed to go.
Luck was on her side for once. It wasn't far once she passed through the security doors to her left. Some moving up and down between platforms, but she could handle that. She copied the location to her omni-tool to add to her radar
Least that's what she told herself until she unlocked the doors with her Spectre code and stepped into a room with vaults as far as the eye could see. Vaults that looked eerily similar to the stasis pods back on Ilos stacked on top of each other. There seemed to be no floor, only more and more vaults. How could only a handful of archivists maintain all of this?
"Okay, first I take a left up the stairs here," she reminded herself. "Then I go right...or was it down one flight of stairs first then right?" Guess she'd have to religiously check her radar.
She walked under the protection of her cloak as much as she could, keeping her eye out for movement. The cloak may have hidden her, but it didn't silence her footsteps on the metal catwalk by any means.
She tried to keep track of all the twists and turns so she'd know how to get back out, but she could only keep everything straight in her mind for so long without her brain overloading. She encountered two bands of mercs before she reached the door she needed to go through, but ducked behind nearby crates and waited until they passed. Maybe she should have tried to disable one, get ahold of his gun, but that wasn't the purpose. All she needed to do was get the intel and get out as quickly as possible. Then find out who was responsible for this.
It took some more twisting and turning once through the door, bypassing records thousands of years old on any subject imaginable until she was in the area the database claimed the record was located in. She found it strange there were no mercs around within range. With how simple it had been for Shepard to find this, she would have thought someone would have beaten her to it. But she had to file that concern away for later, once she checked to see if the terminal had been wiped clean.
She approached the nearby console, almost blinded by the aqua blue light in the circular area that contained the record, scrolling through until she located the file she needed. It hadn't been deleted.
There was no video, only audio, but an image of an asari commando materialized in the center of the room, just for the purpose of having a visual aid.
"Sure…saw a person…stasis?" The audio was clearly damaged and cut in and out frequently. Shepard still resolved to listen to it, determined to figure out why this file would be so important.
"Yes...no good look…Cerberus…files vague…some kind…super soldier…engage and extract…heavy resistance…need back-up," the commando explained over the roar of gunfire.
Super soldier? Not surprising, given the nature of Cerberus's experiments with perfecting their armies and implanting their soldiers with Reaper tech, but why did this feel different to Shepard? Why did she get a chill down her spine? What did this attack have to do with her files being hacked?
"Acknowledge…sending…within few hours…"
"No!" the commando cried. "Need now…any…area…not Cerberus…defectors…Goddess…!"
The feed violently cut off, with the other person on the end calling out to the commando and receiving nothing but static in response.
Shepard cycled to the next file in the cue, listening as another asari commando recited her report. She was one of the reinforcements that came too late. All the commandos had been killed in action and the entire facility was up in the flames, looked to be set by the unidentified hostiles themselves, killing themselves and wiping away any evidence of their experiments and this super-soldier. All the bodies were too badly burnt to be properly identified. The asari government claimed they would investigate the matter, but the asari commando seemed skeptical anything else would be done.
It still wasn't a lot to go on nor was it really much of anything to be of use against whoever was attacking the Archives. The trail had gone cold fast. Brooks would be disappointed to hear that, she really thought she had had something. But she had certainly laid some good groundwork. At least they now had some idea what Cerberus had been working on.
Shepard was even more convinced. This wasn't the only thing they were here for, but she had no earthly idea what else or where she could look. Maybe try to find evidence of another raid, maybe follow up with the asari councillor to see if she could find out anything? If she even wanted to face Shepard after the disaster that had been Thessia, not to mention the state of chaos Thessia itself was currently in. Getting any intel from there would be difficult.
The best thing for her to do now was wait for C-Sec or Garrus. Hopefully he'd bring the rest of the squad with him; he wouldn't rush off the Normandy just because she might be in trouble.
On the other hand…
Shepard began to attempt pulling the data off the console to her omni-tool when something bright flashed across the corner of her eye. She didn't have enough time to react. The plasma round hit her right on the omni-tool and her unprotected wrist and hand, searing the skin and frying the omni-tool in the process. Before she had time to clutch her hand or for the pain receptors to spark in her nervous system, she was struck in the back of the head, forced down on her back by an invisible weight to her chest.
"Did you honestly think you could get in and out without anyone noticing?" The person was a woman, that much was clear, despite its lower timbre. Yet why did it sound so familiar, so close to home? Where could Shepard have heard it before?
"Seemed as good a plan as any," Shepard threw out a retort, trying to roll around and get the weight off her to no avail. She was still too dazed and limp. She settled for giving a piercing stare at what she thought was the faint outline of the woman's body.
The woman gave a cold laugh. "You're good, but you're nowhere in the same league as me. You didn't even see me coming, did you?"
Shepard didn't rise to the taunt. "You got lucky. Don't think you can hide behind that fancy cloak of yours forever."
"Hide? Why?" The person's own tactical cloak faded away to reveal herself and Shepard's mouth fell open with a shocked gasp. She had to be hallucinating. She blinked once, twice, third, then a final fourth time. It was a trick of the light, her eyes were still trying to get their bearings after being hit in the back of the head.
It had to be. This wasn't possible…
The woman's facial expression morphed into a dark sneer, one that would never be seen on Shepard's own facial features. Seeing it on an exact replica of them was really freaking her out.
"I'm Commander Jane Shepard," the woman spoke with Shepard's same voice with a much rougher edge. "I never hide."
Definitely not how she was expecting this to play out.
She didn't know what she was expecting when she finally looked her counterpart in the face for the first time. She had heard over and over again the stories about Shepard, how larger than life she was, how strong, tough, resourceful she was. A colony kid who rose to become the first human Spectre. But without her armor, her weapons, even her omni-tool, Shepard was nothing more than an ordinary woman with a sharp tongue. She looked so much smaller, weaker…pathetic.
Her crew had to have seen Shepard like this, the woman behind the legend. Yet still, they followed her. Why? People followed those who exemplified power and strength. Not just on the battlefield, but off. In all situations, under any circumstance. Staring down in contempt at this woman, her biological twin, all she saw was vulnerability.
Her mercs rounded the corner, guns at the ready in case Shepard tried to escape. Fools. Shepard was beaten. She wouldn't try to escape, now that her omni-tool was useless.
She commanded two of the mercs to drag Shepard to her feet and questioned another on the whereabouts of the vault. The merc apologetically stated they were still looking for it (the Archives was a complete maze and that particular vault was on one of the lower levels, deep in the bowels of the Archives). She didn't want excuses. She wanted that file found. She had to change the biometric logs. She sent the merc on his way with a smack to the head as his reward. Next time it would be far worse than a hand slap to the head.
Her eyes met Shepard's as her mercs grabbed both her arms. Shepard's sapphire eyes a perfect match of hers, steely resolve resting firmly in them. She was spirited, she would give Shepard that, but it didn't matter.
She had seen a glimpse of the woman behind the legend and she was less than impressed.
She was more certain than ever before she would do more with Shepard's name than Shepard could ever possibly hope to.