Shepard opened her green eyes and came back to life. Medical lab. Surgery tools and implements. Klaxons. Some kind of emergency, then. Perfect timing. She rolled over, fell off her slab, landing crouched on the floor. She closed her eyes and looked around, extending her senses. Nothing in her immediate vicinity. She stood, and opened her now gray eyes.
Then she turned her sight inwards, and screamed. Wires. Circuits. Metals and ceramics. A red glow from beneath her skin. Corruption. She could feel the Wyrm whispering to her.
Her scream turned to despair.
Not again. Not after so much. She reached for a scalpel on a nearby table. She would die again before she turned.
A hand dripping molten lead gripped her arm, holding her still.
"Shepard!" A woman's voice over the intercom. "Are you awake? Get up, you have to...Shepard? Shepard! What's wrong?"
Shepard realized she was still screaming. A keening cry. Horror and despair in her voice. She closed her mouth, and swallowed. She lifted her hands to her face. The voice over the intercom kept talking but Shepard didn't hear. She could see machines within her – underneath her skin. A pulsing red glow spread beneath her flesh, grinding metal and humming power as it chewed into her bones and remade her body.
Small arms clung to her. Burning wings encircled her. Reflexively she hugged her Avatar back. As they hugged, she felt herself catch fire. Pain blazed as fires spread across her and into the glowing scars covering her body. Heat. Agony. Cleansing. Suffering. Purifying. Her flesh sizzles and chars as the machines inside her start to slag, melt, and drip out her body and down her flesh in rivulets. Acidic smoke poured from her mouth and eyes.
Locked in their embrace, Shepard and her Avatar knelt. Wings of fire and molten lead cover them. Drops of liquid metal patter onto the floor.
Emergency fire suppressant systems turn on, showering them with water and fire-resistant foam. A cloud of steam. The hiss of cooling metal.
Jane Shepard stands. She is calm. Tracks of liquid iron lie frozen on her cheeks like war paint. She wrenches her feet out of the hardening puddle of metal beneath her. A deep breath, then she moved to the door. Something is coming and Jane will be ready. Death hovers; a familiar presence. People have died nearby, and recently. Silently, she ghosted out of the medical bay, deeper into the station.
When the HIT marks burst into the room, Jane is gone. All that is left is a circular depression in the floor where a bonfire made of two women blazed. The shape of their knees and feet are molded into the ground. Only one set of footprints can be seen leaving the pyre; bare feet impressed into the partially melted floor. The prints gradually disappear, leaving no trail for the searching machines to follow.
The Shepard of death has arisen once more.
When Jacob sees Commander Shepard alive for the first time, he is pinned down between his own hacked security mechs, and the assault mechs. He was fine until just a few minutes ago; he had good cover against the hacked security mechs, and was methodically picking them off. That's when the doors to his right burst open and half a dozen heavy assault mechs walked in. His wonderful cover was now a cul-de-sac and he was wedged into the small scrap of space that barely kept him out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, his precious cover was slowly disintegrating under the withering fire coming from both directions. He has already resigned himself to being overrun, but is still calm. Jacob is good at that. Every moment he can keep them occupied is more time for Miranda to escape, and he intends to sell his life dearly.
Shepard appears like a lightning bolt. Suddenly, one of the assault mech's head explodes in sparks. Most of it is hacked off by some sort of barely sharp blade, most likely cobbled out of a metal table leg. Holding the blade in one hand, Shepard is shooting the rest of the mechs from behind at point blank range with a pistol. Miranda told him Shepard was alive but he remembered Miranda say they weren't able to wake Shepard from her coma.
He glances up at the ceiling, and sees the ventilation shaft she dropped down from.
Pretty nimble for someone who hasn't been mobile for the last two years.
Between the two of them, they make short work of the mechs; the tables have turned, and now he is once again in an optimal position to provide enfilading fire if their foes turn to engage the new threat devastating their flank. Devastating is the correct word; Jacob knew Shepard made a name for herself in the Alliance N7 ranks for her precision with guns, but she is unstoppable in close quarter combat. A few shots, and three thrusting chops are enough to wipe out that flank, and now they are ones pincering the last of the security mechs.
After they finish dealing with the mechs, he steps out from cover to greet her, but before he can speak he takes a good look at her.
Her face radiates fury. Tracks of metal run down her face like tears from her eyes. The smell of fire and baking ceramic seems to be coming off her in waves. He knows she isn't a biotic, but he imagines he can almost see a hazy field surround her. He has never seen someone look so angry. She is magnificent.
She drives her blade down into each of the heads of the mechs before she turns to him.
"Commander Shepard. I thought you were still on ice." Despite all the internal turmoil Jacob experiences, his voice is always calm. Cool and smooth. He's quite proud of that, actually.
She looks at him, but he has the strange feeling that she is looking through him instead of at him. She blinks, and then her gaze sharpens on his face. Her voice is cold, quick.
"Are there any more survivors? We have to get out of here before they decide to destroy the station instead of letting us get away. These people are ruthless."
Shepard knew the attackers? How depressing. In a coma for the last 2 years, and she's already figured out more in a few minutes than Jacob was able to discover. Some chief of security he was. Ah well. Jacob shrugged. Questions for later.
"Miranda should still be alive; she's too smart to get caught easily but those assault mechs are no joke. However we have to get you to the shuttles; my top priority is to see you make it out alive."
"Miranda? I think I remember hearing her voice on the intercom."
"She's the one in charge of this station, and project Lazarus."
Shepard stilled.
"Lazarus? She's the one that brought me back from the dead?" She asked quietly.
Jacob nodded then quirked an eyebrow. How did she know Project Lazarus was about her? How did she know she was dead instead of just incapacitated? Did someone tell her, or was it merely something else she figured out herself while crawling through ventilation shafts, discovering the attacker's identities, and making jury-rigged bladed weapons? Jacob eyed the blade she held. That thing didn't look too sharp, but up close he could see how purposefully deadly it looked. Piercing? Slicing? No, it was a hacking implement. That was the right word.
Shepard bared her teeth. "I definitely want words with her."
Suddenly, Shepard stood. "Let's go; more mechs are on the way and we need to move now."
As they headed out, Jacob figured things were looking up. All he had to do was make sure Shepard got out alive. How hard could that be? She was a Spectre, and he knew exactly where to go. No problem. But of course they couldn't just flee to the escape shuttles; that would be too easy. Not three minutes later they were sidetracked to rescue Wilson; the last person alive on the station besides them and Miranda.
"Shepard, the service tunnels are this way. It's our only shot at getting to Wilson in time." Jacob pointed right at a t-intersection.
"The service tunnels are crawling with mechs. This way's faster." Shepard pointed left. The entire hallway to the left was on fire; chemical lines had ruptured, and Jacob could feel the heat from where he was standing. How did she know the service tunnels were full of mechs?
"Shepard, we have to go around, the entire corridor is on fire! You can't make it through to the shutdown values in time. You don't even know where they are! You'll burn to death."
She looked at him calmly. Without taking her eyes off him, she lifted her pistol and shot the broken fire suppressant system above her. Water and fire retardant foam sprayed down on her from the shattered mechanism for a moment, then she turned and walked into the inferno. Jacob stared at the flames. If he chased after her, would it do anything? Probably not. Running in blind, he'd stumble and trip over her, stop her from pulling the emergency shut-off switches, and they'd both burn to death rolling on the ground. It's not like he had experience walking blind through fire hitting small buttons when he wasn't sure of their exact locations.
After a few minutes, the flames died down, and Shepard appeared at the end of the hallway. Smoke was steaming off her, and she was calmly putting out the small fires that had sprung up over her armor.
Obviously Shepard had that kind of experience.
"Hurry up, Jacob."
No wonder the boss wanted her brought back.
When they got to Wilson, Shepard immediately knew he was her foe. Everything about him screamed his guilt. The turn of his body, the play of his words. He was against her, and this made her smile. She would make sure he stayed safe and secure… until she had a chance to interrogate him.
Jacob did not like the look on Shepard's face, not at all. Her mouth was entirely too full of teeth. Jacob made a snap decision. He did not want to see her smile like that in his direction, and she was gripping her hacking bludgeon far too tightly for his liking.
"Commander, if I tell you who we're working for, will you trust me?"
Shepard's face smoothed into a blank mask. She silently stared at Jacob. Her whole body stilled. "Tell me."
Shepard and Jacob stood looking at each other. Wilson sputtered and mouthed words, but both of them ignored him. After a few moments, Jacob continued. "The Lazarus project… this station… is run by Cerberus."
"Wait. What?" Shepard's face twisted in confusion and disbelief. "You guys are Cerberus?" She pointed at the broken mechs. "I thought they were Cerberus; the attackers. I figured you got through by disguising yourself in Cerberus uniforms. So… you guys are really Cerberus? Who are they then?" She poked her gun at the mech again, prodding the Cerberus logo on the mech.
"We don't know. I thought you knew."
"I thought they were you guys! Stop a moment. Let me get this straight." Shepard was still incredulous. She took a breath. "This is a Cerberus facility."
Jacob nods.
"Cerberus found my body, and spent the last two years plus piles of money trying to bring me back to life."
Jacob nods.
"You work for Cerberus. All of you."
Jacob nods again.
"Meanwhile, someone else wants me dead enough to find out you have me, find the location of this hidden terrorist base, infiltrate it, and launch their own attack while hacking your own security forces against you? While keeping you from seeing it coming?"
Jacob shrugged.
Shepard twisted her shoulders back and forth. "Ok then. Let's grab Miranda, and finally get out of here." Shepard's face was full of teeth again. "I most definitely want words with her."
It was easy for Shepard to be angry at Miranda. After all, first impressions make a large impact on how we judge people, and the first thing Miranda did on seeing Shepard was shoot treacherous Wilson in the throat. Under other circumstances, she could admire Miranda's decisiveness, but not in this case. Miranda had just made Shepard very unhappy. After all, she wanted to shoot Wilson herself, but that was incidental; she needed to figure out who was trying to find her, and Wilson knew something. Was it the technocracy? Or had more personal enemies finally found her? Wilson had information, and Miranda was making it harder for Shepard to get that information.
Miranda was talking at Shepard, but Shepard ignored her, and knelt by Wilson's corpse. She had to do this quickly, before his spirit left his physical soma completely. She drew her knife, and raised it into the air. She gripped Wilson's neck with her other hand, firmly holding it in place.
"What… what are you doing, Shepard?" Miranda
Shepard drove the knife down, driving between the vertebrae and severing Wilson's spine. She began to saw the knife back and forth, slicing through Wilson's neck.
"Shepard!" Miranda's voice was strained.
Shepard turned her head, and coldly looked at Miranda. She kept sawing at Wilson's neck.
"Miranda. We all knew Wilson was a traitor. You didn't have to shoot him. Now I need to take his head with us."
"Why do you need his head?"
"Well, it's not like I want to drag his whole body along with us. Head'll do just fine."
Shepard finished separating the head from the body, then used her knife to quickly cut Wilson's shirt off. Grabbing the severed head by the back of the neck, she placed into the fabric, folded the cloth over, and tied the bundle off. Grabbing the knot, she stood.
"Done. Let's get out of here."
Shepard brushed past Miranda, and walked to their escape shuttle.
Miranda studied Shepard as she walked past Miranda to the shuttle. As first impressions go, Miranda didn't like Shepard either.
Jacob and Miranda followed Shepard into the shuttle, and they quickly fled.
The HIT marks following their trail found Wilson's decapitated corpse just before the self destruction charges detonated the station.
After a quick stopover at Minuteman station, they were now en route to meet the Illusive Man face to face on Cronos station.
Miranda frowned at her new orders. The whole situation was backwards. Why would the Illusive Man spend so much money creating a quantum-entanglement communicator, and just not use it? Why would he insist on meeting Shepard in person?
This was just the last in a list of things that did not make sense. Why ensure Shepard was brought back unchanged, as much as possible? It just made it harder, trying to rebuild her broken body than replacing parts, but orders were orders, and Miranda was not one to balk at difficulty. The most ridiculous orders she had to deal with was for the new SR-2 ship; what reason could he have for insisting they use the original Normandy's broken keel? For the costs to locate it amidst the rest of the wreckage on Alchera, transport it out of atmosphere, and fix its damages, she could have manufactured four brand new plates. At least the crew was all Cerberus. Why did they even need Shepard? She was just one person. What could one person do?
But now, sitting across the shuttle from Shepard, she could begin to see why Shepard was important to the Illusive Man. Miranda was special, important. But she was made that way. Shepard seemed to draw greatness to herself. Nothing about Shepard seemed to explain this but somehow the Illusive Man had seen it, and knew it would be important to their goals.
Nothing about Shepard was making sense; Miranda had studied everything there was on Shepard, had become an expert on her. But still, Shepard had surprised her several times since she woke, and even now she was defying expectations. Miranda didn't even know how Shepard woke from her coma. Did something go wrong, or was her data at fault? Miranda let her original plans go; more testing must be done.
Once they were settled into the shuttle, and en route, Miranda turned to face Jacob and Shepard. Shepard was slumped over; gazing at the severed head she had bundled and taken with them. The bundle was in her lap, and was slightly leaking.
"Shepard, before you meet with the Illusive Man, we need to ask you a few questions to evaluate your condition."
Jacob looked at Miranda. "Come on Miranda, more tests? Shepard was impeccable back there. Tactics, threat evaluations, and battlefield adaptation. She's still got it all. I can vouch for that personally."
"It's been two years. We have to make sure her personality and memories are intact."
Shepard raised her head, and looked at Miranda. She didn't say anything. Her eyes glittered in the dim lights. After a few moments, she bent her head, and gazed down once again at the bloody bundle she held in her lap.
Silence.
After a few minutes, the silence stretched on. Shepard kept her gaze fixed on the covered head, mouth moving slightly, but speaking no words. Miranda and Jacob shared a concerned glance.
"Shepard?" Jacob asked gently.
Silence.
Miranda and Jacob settled into an uneasy quiet.
Twenty minutes later, Shepard sighed and raised her head. She pushed the bundle onto the seat beside her.
"Worthless."
Jacob and Miranda started, and shared another concerned glance.
Jacob licked his lips. "What are you talking about, Shepard?"
Shepard shrugged. "Wilson was a tool." She turned to look out the window.
Silence.
Miranda awkwardly cleared her throat. "Shepard, we want you to answer some questions."
Shepard kept looking out at the stars. "Miranda. You have questions for me, and I have questions I want to ask you. Looks like we're both going to be disappointed. I'll meet your boss. Based on how that goes, either we'll try to kill each other, or we walk away. Right now, not only does it not make sense to give information to my potential enemies, but I am also not in any mood to answer you. Coming back from the dead is tiring."
"Will you at least clean up beforehand? Those smears on your face don't look so good. Do you need any medical attention?"
"No."
The rest of the ride to Cronos station was full of silence.
When they finally arrived at Cronos station and were exiting the shuttle, Shepard once again grasped the bundled head in her hand as she rose.
"Why are you still carrying around that head? Leave it in the shuttle and we will take care of it."
Shepard gave a dry chuckle. "As we enter the mouth of Cronus, I figured I should bring my own omphalos."
Jacob looked at Miranda. She seemed to get the reference. Jacob would ask her later; time to meet the Illusive Man.
Omake:
"It's not the dying that's hard. It's coming back to life that's such a pain."
Shepard groaned as she slowly wedged herself out of the body locker in the morgue.
"At least it's not a coffin this time."
More twisting and grumbling.
"Dammit, I'm stuck."