Yeah, the first step is the one you believe in,
The second one might be profound…
Reapers… Catalyst… Dark… Indoctrination… Being… Lazarus… Cerberus… Light… Energy…These were not her thoughts… She didn't know where they came from, but they sounded as if they were from the mind of a mad man.
She knew she was strapped to a table. She could feel her bare skin against the cold, hard metal and the shackles around her wrists, ankles and torso, but she couldn't bring herself to lift even just a finger or crack her eyelids.
For only the third time in her life, she was terrified beyond comprehension. The first was the during the Skyllian Blitz, after she watched the last of the civilians helping her hold off the batarian pirates fall beside her. The second was the night before the attack on the Cerberus station and the final assault on Earth. She had been so unsure if they had done everything necessary to defeat the Reapers.
Hell, as it stood, she still didn't know if they had won…
She had slowly gained consciousness over the last several… hours?... days?... She was uncertain of how much time had actually passed. With every fleeting moment, she remembered a bit more of who she was and of the events that had come to pass, bringing her to her current predicament. Her thoughts raced as she tried to separate fiction from reality and sift through these notions she was convinced were not her own.
Reapers… Catalyst… Dark… Indoctrination… Being… Lazarus… Cerberus… Light… Energy…They repeated themselves over in her mind again and again, like an old, broken record. They became a chant... a litany that would soon drive her mad if she couldn't escape her own head.
Aside from them… Reapers… Indoctrination… Light… she could hear voices around her… Doctors? Nurses? Scientists? They didn't belong to anyone she could recall, and it didn't help she was unable to comprehend their mutterings. She could feel them probing nearly every fragment of her body with tools and sharp objects.
She was aware she had sustained a massive number of injuries, every inch of her augmented body screaming in agony. And not for the first time, she wondered why her cybernetics hadn't, at the very least, numbed the pain.
Light… Dark… Catalyst…The repetition was maddening…
She began to question if anyone would find her before she would become a shell of her former self, driven mad by her inane ramblings.
Her thoughts drifted to a number of people as her memories came back. Her father disappeared when she was five. Ashley stayed behind on Virmire. Mordin… Thane… Legion… Anderson… herself…
She had to muster what resolution she had left and figure a way out of this situation… She was supposed to meet someone… someone…
Reapers… Catalyst… Dark… Indoctrination…
I want something to go right. Just once, just…
May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead…
If this thing goes sideways and we both end up there, meet me at the bar…
Retire somewhere warm and tropical and live off the royalties…
Come back alive… It'd be an awfully empty galaxy without you…
Being… Lazarus… Cerberus… Light… Energy…
Oh god- Garrus!
The hangar itself was massive. It could have easily held five Normandy SR-2s and a hundred engineers for each one. Currently there were three Alliance dreadnoughts in the last stages of construction. There were no hangar doors, though an enormous mass effect field held the vacuum of space at bay. If this was only a fraction of the station, Garrus had a difficult time trying to imagine how large the rest of it was, or how many people it was able to house. The station was teeming with life.
From the traffic room, through glass windows overlooking the bay, he watched the engineers perform stress tests on the ships, maintenance workers check and recheck systems. When they had arrived at Aurora Station, Admiral Hackett had swiftly briefed them and asked Garrus to take a second look at the vid in an attempt to find anything that may give them a lead. Hackett left shortly after, saying he would be back in a bit, where they would convene with whoever else the Admiral was waiting for.
When the Admiral returned several hours later, Garrus, Tychus and Liara had watched the vid another half dozen times and compiled a laundry list of possible leads, none of which were completely solid, but better than what they previously had.
Hackett entered the traffic room followed by a number of people Garrus knew, some of whom he was startled to see. Jeff "Joker" Moreau, James Vega, Tali'Zorah, Urdnot Wrex, Samantha Traynor, Kaidan Alenko, and Miranda Lawson greeted him and Liara with friendly smiles, handshakes and in some cases even hugs. Garrus introduced each to his father as they passed through.
Before Hackett could lock the door, Javik sidled in to the surprise of nearly everyone present. The prothean looked around, eyebrows turned inward.
"The asari insisted I be present for this," he said, folding his arms and leaning casually against a console.
"What in the spirits' names is that?" Tychus asked, bending close to Garrus' ear.
"Prothean," Garrus hissed as Hackett began to pace around the room.
"Time is of the essence, so I'll get right to it. I have summoned all of you here because you are either the best or knew Shepard on a personal level,"
Garrus cleared his throat loudly, causing Hackett to pause, "Know her… Sir,"
"We'll get to that Vakarian. Several days ago, we received intelligence from the Shadow Broker," Hackett said as he eyed Liara. "A vid feed more precisely. It shows what we believe to be… Well let's just watch and you can judge for yourself… Liara, if you would please."
Nodding, Liara opened her omni-tool, tapped a couple of windows, and brought the feed onto the large screen on the back wall. Before she could hit 'play', there was a knock on the door, and a final woman entered.
"About time Admiral. I was starting to think you weren't going to show," Hackett said.
The woman crossed the room and shook Hackett's hand. She was light skinned, with a number of freckles dotting her face and bare shoulders. Gun oil and resin permanently stained her fingers and hands. She wore a white sleeveless shirt, military fatigues and combat boots, her Admiral's jacket slung casually over her shoulder. Her hair was a light red, with several streaks of white jutting from her scalp. It was tied in a tight military knot at the back of her head, several strands falling into her face. Age lines and at least two scars marred her features.
"Steven, you know me better than that. My daughter's life hangs in the balance," she said.
The newcomer turned to face every one present. Garrus felt a sharp intake of breath throughout the room. Despite her age, Garrus recognized those blazing blue eyes instantaneously before Hackett could even make a proper introduction. She was a bit rougher looking than Garrus had imagined.
"Everyone, this is Admiral Hannah Shepard. She will be helping with this operation."
Liara was still standing next to the screen with her omni-tool opened. "Shall I continue?" she asked, finger hovering above "play".
Admiral Shepard nodded, "Please."
As the vid began, the entire room fell into silence, every person seemed to be holding their breath as one as they watched.
The surveillance feed was somewhat grainy and no audio was available. The camera the feed had come from was mounted above head height in a corner. It was able to move about to take in every angle of the small, sterile room and to track the movements of all within.
Medical supplies were laid out on a cart at the foot of a metal slab. A body was sprawled out on the slab, bound at the wrists, ankles and midsection. Though the face was blocked from camera view by a salarian doctor, Garrus was able to recognize several identifying marks. A number of people in lab coats shifted about, tapping notes into omni-tools. The salarian doctor at the head of the table wiped his brow, tossed a glistening scalpel onto another cart and pulled away his face mask. Looking quite pleased with himself, he took a step back from the table, signaling the others in the room to do the same. He drew a small box resembling some sort of transmitter from the depths of his lab coat and pressed a button.
The body reeled from side to side, back arching, causing the doctor and scientists to take another step back, fear crossing their faces. Camera focusing in on the body, the face was revealed. It was a woman, mouth opened in a silent scream, face etched in agony. She appeared to have sustained countless injuries either from the events of the Crucible or those that followed. She looked as if she had been tortured and put through a number of horrific medical procedures Garrus dared not to think about. She was also much thinner than he remembered, obviously malnourished, a skeleton and a shadow of the woman he loved, though in his heart he knew this had to be the real Shepard.
Her entire body began to glow in a brilliant light, flooding the entire room. Restraints broke free and her hands lit up as she thrust a devastating Reave at the salarian doctor. He was forced into a standing position, features twisted and writhed in torment, before he crumbled to the floor, twitching from the neurological effects the biotic power had on him. She wreaked havoc on the remaining scientists and even managed to grab a pistol from a guard lying in a corner.
Quite suddenly, she threw her head back in pain, clawing at her face before she herself collapsed to the floor. A shade shifted from underneath the camera, and moved into the light of the room, glancing down at the shuddering woman at his feet. He turned around, faced the camera, revealing his face and switched off the feed.
The vid ended with static fuzz.
Hannah Shepard was the first to speak, "That son of a bitch-" Her voice shook with rage, as she overturned the table sitting in the middle of the room.
Garrus approached her carefully, "Admiral?"
She ignored him, and turned to walk out of the room. Upon reaching the door, she whipped around and looked at the small group, fury darkening her face, "That man at the end of the vid there? None of you know who he is, do you?' she spat vehemently, her eyes wet with tears. "That's my estranged husband, Cyrus Shepard, and Aurora's fucking father!"
Hannah Shepard slammed the door behind her as she left, leaving the room in a stunned silence.
Updated 6/7/14