Chapter 3 - Dreams

Date : 1.22.2183

Location : SSV Normandy

Jane

She opened her eyes and saw a dim landscape stretching out around her. Dunes rose and fell like waves in an ocean, their grains formed from a billion shrieking thoughts and ideas. Cyclopean mountains rose into the sky on the horizon, each of them housing a throne fit for the colossal statues of strange and unknown lifeforms seated within. The howl of the wind scouring the great thoughtform-dunes around her was constant, as if something was screaming for her attention from far away.

Jane slowly pushed off the void black ground beneath her, groaning in pain as a migraine started drilling away at her brain. Looking up, she saw two lights lazily spinning around above the dais she was on. "Here?" She mumbled to herself. "Why? What happened?"

Her memories were scattered. All that would come to mind was the sight of a great black hand in the heavens and an eldritch howl dredged up from her oldest nightmares. Trying to center herself, Jane screwed her eyes shut and whispered an old meditative mantra she'd learned as a child. Slowly, the howl of the wind died down and small flashes of what happened began to race through her mind.

A world under siege. Bodies riddled with wounds. The hills on fire. Mechanical chittering. Her oldest nightmare, the dark hand made real. "It's time..." The realization made her blood boil as much as it turned her stomach. It hadn't been a hallucination or a trick of the light, no matter how much she'd hoped to be wrong. The shadow she'd been haunted by since her earliest memories had truly come.

"Yes… it is." A voice echoed from behind her. Jane slowly turned to find a shade standing behind her, hidden almost entirely by the shadows and dust of the mindscape. She knew the shade well. Her predecessor, the one that fell before her.

Jane scowled at it. "Why are you here? Why now? I haven't found an archive. I'm not even totally sure what happened…"

"You were run through by a piece of titanium thrown by a primitive A.I. construct. Not an entirely unprecedented occurrence." The shade's eyes narrowed in annoyance.

Jane shook her head, gritting her teeth as the migraine grew worse. "So what? I'm not dead. At least, I don't think so. I sure as hell hope this isn't what the afterlife is like." She looked back over the dunes, trying to ignore the screaming faces that periodically rose from the morass of thoughts. "So, how are you here?"

The shade watched her silently for a moment before taking a step forward, rapidly solidifying. It changed from a living shadow to a dark humanoid form. It was still somewhat indistinct, but had become more real than ever before. "The beacon has given your mind a powerful point of reference for the prothean people. Which, in turn, has allowed me to remember something of what I was."

Jane nodded. "The beacon, right. I'd just accessed it before-" a rush of numbing cold shot through her chest and Jane looked down to see the gaping hole right below her ribcage. "Right. Well… shit. That's probably not good."

"Indeed." The shade reached out, its fingers brushing against the ragged edges of the wound. It quickly sealed itself, leaving behind nothing but a dull ache. "There is little time, Jane. Events are in motion that cannot be ignored. The culmination of the cycle is at hand."

"How long do I have?" Jane asked.

"Not long." The shade's voice was a whisper, barely audible over the wind. "A year, perhaps a bit more, likely much less. If one of the enemy has revealed itself, then it believes that the time has come. Soon, it will seek to unleash the rest of its kindred and drown this galaxy in blood once again."

Jane sighed. "I don't suppose the beacon actually had anything helpful in it. I don't even remember what I saw."

"Yes, you do. It is simply too scrambled to make sense of, for now." The shade reached out again, this time placing a single finger to Jane's forehead. The vision from the beacon came back to her, loud and clear. Too loud, in fact.

It was nothing but a cacophonous mechanical roar and visions of machines joining with flesh in an unholy fusion as the galaxy was drowned in darkness. For a brief moment, she saw a world hanging in the abyss, far from anything else, but nothing to tell her which world it was and why it was important. Words in an ancient language, one long dead, roared through her mind. Ideas and concepts that should have been familiar were rendered utterly useless as she fought to understand a mindset that was alien to her own. The vision ended as suddenly as before, leaving Jane no closer to understanding.

"None of that made any damn sense!" She shouted at the shade. The light above grew bright for an instant and the ground around the dias cracked, letting loose a blast of fire before settling back down.

"No, the message has been damaged by the ravages of time." The shade murmured. "You will need to find more information, possibly even another beacon to make sense of it. I can assist, but only so much."

Jane scowled, "But, you're a prothean, aren't you? Wasn't there something in that mess that made sense to you? The words were prothean, weren't they?"

"I was a prothean, Jane. Now, I am nothing more than a ghost, a shade of the being I was. I can help arrange the visions, but I cannot understand them for you. Already, I've done as much as I can with what you have, adapting tiny portions of your psyche to render alien thought forms to be at least somewhat compatible with you. More is needed, and I cannot-" There was a roar from the sky, blasting the shade away as Jane's migraine grew in intensity to the point where all thought was pushed aside and she was left gasping for breath.

She looked up. The dark hand was descending from the sky, reaching out to destroy everything. She shouted, screamed, raged in defiance as it fell towards her.

Then, she woke up.

Anderson

He hadn't known what to expect. Grogginess, maybe? Slurred speech or perhaps a few dozen obscenities as they tried to talk her through what happened. Captain Anderson was waiting for word from Dr. Chakwas, idly flipping through after action reports when it happened. The scream.

The entire ship heard it, they had to. A soulshaking, ear splitting scream coming from medbay. It went on, and on, and on, shaking the entire vessel as it slowly morphed into an ungodly howl.

He was out his quarters and sprinting to medbay before it ended, despite the pain in his ears. By the time the door was open and he could get inside, Shepard was finally losing volume as she slowly sank back down to the bed. Her eyes were jet black and all but one of the straps Dr. Chakwas had been forced to use to keep her still during surgery had been torn from their mounts. The commander's chest was heaving as she shuddered and growled like an animal.

"What the hell happened?!" The captain demanded.

The doctor grimaced at him and said, "There was a sudden, immense spike in her neural activity, right before the screaming began. She started tearing herself free, but stopped for some reason. I don't know why." She turned back to Shepard and leaned in close to examine her eyes. "I'm not sure if she's actually conscious or not. I've seen her in trances before and they look quite similar to this. We don't know how long-"

She jumped in surprise when Shepard's hand suddenly shot forward and grabbed the front of her uniform. She was yanked down, inches away from Shepard as the commander snarled at her in feral rage. Anderson tried to move in and help, but the doctor stopped him with a gesture.

When she spoke it was quiet, but firm, "Jane Shepard, you will let go of me, now." The fist holding her slowly unclenched and Dr. Chakwas stood back up. "Now, breathe. Just breathe and try to come back to us." Dr. Chakwas took a deep breath, slow and steady. Shepard did the same. In sync, the two of them spent several moments breathing in and out. Slowly, Shepard's eyes returned to normal. Their violet glow was more pronounced in the low light of the medbay.

Her head fell back onto the infirmary bed and she whispered, "Fuck…" under her breath. She screwed her eyes shut again, taking a deep breath before letting it out in a low hiss. "Did I hurt anyone?"

Doctor Chakwas ran a scan with her omnitool as she talked. "No, though I do believe you owe Corporal Jenkins a bit of an apology." The doctor finished her scan and pointed to another bed, where Jenkins was watching Shepard with eyes the size of saucers. "He was sleeping quite peacefully until you decided to cause a ruckus."

Jane gave a halfhearted chuckle before coughing and clutching her chest in pain. As she tried to stop, her hand reached the sole remaining strap still holding her down. "What the hell?"

Doctor Chakwas started undoing the strap. "Apologies, but you were thrashing about while I was trying to patch the hole in your chest." The doctor removed the last strap and helped Jane sit up straight.

The volatile redhead looked over at Jenkins and said, "Sorry about waking you."

To his credit, the corporal managed to shake off his shock quickly enough. "Oh, umm, no problem commander. Just caught me by surprise."

"How are the ribs?"

Jenkins' hand drifted down to his torso without thought. "Okay, I guess. That zombie thing didn't help though."

"I'm gonna need an explanation for that, corporal." They both turned to look at Anderson. Jenkins tried to salute but winced in pain at the sudden movement. The captain gestured for him to stop. "At ease, son. I think the salute can wait. Now, the zombie thing?"

Jenkins coughed once and said, "Right, um, I'm not really sure how to explain it. It looked like a human, except all the skin was burned off and there were blue lines of light running through what was left of it."

From the corner of his eye, Anderson saw Shepard nod along with the description as Jenkins continued. "And it kept screaming and groaning. I kicked it off a cliff and the damn thing just tried to get back up until I popped its head with a couple shots."

"Yeah, they do that sometimes." Shepard shook her head. "Never wanted to see those things again."

Anderson raised a brow. "Again? You've encountered these zombies before?"

Jane shrugged. "Something like them, at least. On Torfan and a few other places. Do you remember the day you took me to meet Hackett for the first time?" Anderson nodded. "Well, the creatures are similar to the ones that attacked me on Arcturus. Except, there was something wrong with them. The things I've fought before were more… substantial, I guess. These creatures were nothing but mindless cannon fodder. Inferior models, maybe?" She wondered to herself.

Anderson grimaced at the idea before asking, "Well, how are you feeling?"

"Like someone is driving an iron spike into my brain while I'm being burned alive." Jane sighed bitterly. "So, pretty normal, all things considered. How long was I out?"

"About fifteen hours," Dr. Chakwas said, "I would have been worried if this was the first time something like this had happened, though I admit I was concerned when they brought you to me with nothing but a small hole in your chest. If you'd been conscious, I'd have expected you to argue against medical care."

Jane managed a weak smile. "I would have, especially since the others needed help more than me. Jenkins and- oh shit! Nihilus! Is he-".

The captain gestured for her to stop as he said, "He's alive, but in a bad way. Tell her doctor."

Dr. Chakwas nodded. "He was nearly dead but it seems his people's spirits were with him. One of his lungs was punctured, but the other two shots failed to hit anything critical. He's in stasis now, along with one of Sergeant Horst's men." The doctor brought up an image on a nearby screen, showing a pair of occupied medical stasis pods. "So long as he's given proper treatment, he'll survive, though I'm not sure if he'll be able to return to combat anytime soon."

With a frown, Jane turned back to the captain. "The beacon?"

Anderson scowled at her before saying, "I'd like to talk to you about that… in private." Dr. Chakwas took the hint and left the room, helping Jenkins out as well. Once they were gone, he asked, "What happened Shepard? Lieutenant Alenko said you accessed it."

Jane

Jane shook her head and instantly regretted it as the thumping behind her eyes got worse. With a hiss of pain she spoke, "I got close enough for it to grab me in a mass effect field. It… it started pouring information into my mind."

The captain raised an eyebrow. "What kind of information?"

"Mostly gibberish. Images and sounds that were so jumbled together that it didn't make any sense. The beacon wasn't in great shape, even before the enemy tampered with it. But, I was still able to get something from it. An overwhelming sense of doom. The beacon contains a warning and part of a record of the Protheans' fall."

"A warning?" The captain was suddenly tense.

Jane eyed him curiously. She knew she sounded nuts, so why was he treating it as anything other than a hallucination at this point? "Yeah. There's…" She frowned and shook her head, ignoring the growing pain. "There's something out there, waiting. When the time is right, it will come and we'll meet the same fate as the protheans."

She slowly slipped off the bed onto her feet, taking a brief moment to steady herself. Her legs felt like jello and her equilibrium was wildly off kilter. As her head spun, Anderson asked, "Is there anything else you can tell us? Something more substantial?"

"No. The beacon's message was badly degraded. We'll need to find more data, maybe even another beacon for it to make more sense." Jane growled to herself. "Heh, the council's gonna love this. One of their hounds nearly dead. A geth attack. A starship the size of two dreadnoughts landing in atmosphere like it was nothing. The best part? All we have in return is a barely intact beacon pumping bad dreams into my head. Can't wait to hear what they have to say." As she stood there trying to still the swirl in her head, Spits woke up from his spot in the corner of the room and came trotting over to rub his flank against her leg.

"What about the other turian?" The captain asked. "Alenko and Jenkins mentioned a second turian on the planet."

"Yeah, he tried to kill Nihlus." Jane said.

"Can you describe him? Anything to help identify him? The footage we have isn't very clear."

Jane nodded, "Yeah. Dull grey plates, not exactly unique but not overly common. He didn't have any colonia civitas either."

The captain's brows shot up. "Bare-faced?"

She nodded at him. "Yes, and he had two long spines running back from the sides of his head. Those are extremely rare."

She thought for a moment before saying, "There's something else too. His left arm was artificial and his eyes glowed blue, like cybernetics." Jane involuntarily flexed her left arm as old memories began to bubble up. "I think we've met before."

"Really?" The captain asked, "When?"

Jane lifted up her left arm. "The day I lost the original."

Anderson put a hand to his chin and thought for a moment, a scowl forming on his face. "That turian claimed to be a Spectre, didn't he?"

She nodded. "I never could confirm it, but I don't think he was lying." Jane watched Anderson for a bit as his scowl got deeper. "What is it? People trying to kill me is nothing new."

He sighed. "Yes, but if this turian is who I think it is, then we've got a major problem."

Jane raised a brow. "You know who that asshole was?"

"Maybe." Anderson paced back and forth for a moment. "Have you ever heard of Saren?"

"Arterius?" The captain nodded. "I'm familiar with the name. He's the longest serving turian in the Spectre's. He's got a huge list of commendations and honors from the council, along with a reputation for being an ends justify the means type of operative."

The captain scoffed. "That's putting it mildly. Saren's got a hell of a non-combatant body count and he hates humans with a passion. Thinks we're expanding too fast, that we're taking over the galaxy… A lot of aliens think that way. Most of them don't do anything about it, but Saren?"

Jane smirked. "Still blames us for what happened to big brother, does he?" She chuckled. "I'd love to meet him again, have a little chat about history, trade war stories, disembowel him and strangle him with-"

Anderson held up a hand to stop her. "This is serious Shepard. If he's responsible for this in any way, we've got a hell of a job ahead of us."

She grimaced. "He's the council's go to for black ops, right?" The captain nodded. "Figures. So, they won't be taking our word for it."

"Right." The captain sighed heavily. He leaned against the far wall and shook his head. "We've got one hell of a mess to work through. Once we reach the Citadel we're going to have to convince the Council that their top agent might be a traitor."

Jane rolled her eyes. "And right after that we'll work on getting them to relax the restrictions on AI. Then we can cure the Genophage and help the geth establish an embassy on the Presidium." The captain glared daggers at her as she chuckled. "Sorry, but you know there's no real point. All we have to go on are glimpses that Jenkins and I got, along with an old story of an encounter that may or may not have been him. He's their top operative and is considered a hero to people that haven't actually looked into his past. Without something real, something concrete, there's no hope of getting them on our side."

After a moment of standing and grousing, the captain stood up straight. "We have to find some way, no matter what. Somehow, he's allied with the geth. This attack wasn't just a random act of violence. There's a deeper plan in the works and it has to do with what was in that beacon, I'd bet my life on it. This was an act of war and he's not going to stop until he wipes us out."

Jane nodded. "Then we'll just have to find something else. I've always been 'lucky'. Maybe something will turn up."

They both shared a moment of grim silence until the captain cleared his throat. "I'll contact the ambassador, see if he can get us an audience with the council. He'll want to see us as soon as we get there anyway. We should be there in a couple hours. Check in with your team. Suit up once we get close and head to the bridge."

After the captain left, Jane took a moment to steady herself. Her head was still spinning from the beacon's effect. Despite the slight wobble in her steps, she made her way out of the medbay, stopping briefly to thank Dr. Chakwas for patching her up again, just like the old days. She found Williams and Jenkins waiting outside, quietly talking about the mission. They both turned and saluted.

Jane waved them off and said, "Unless there's some kind of formal function going on, you don't ever need to do that around me." Jenkins relaxed, though Williams was a bit slower to ease off. "Now, how are you two doing?"

Jenkins did his best not to wince as he stood up a bit straighter. "Just fine, commander. Doc says I can come with you when we arrive, so long as we're not expecting combat. Not sure why she added that last part though. We're going to the Citadel…"

Jane gave him a level stare. "Corporal, around me, combat is always a possibility. The Citadel is no different. I've been attacked there before, by a rogue Spectre no less."

Jenkins blinked a few times. "Woah. Really?" Jane nodded and his eyes widened as he whispered, "I thought LT was just joking about that."

"He wasn't." Jane turned to Williams. "And you? How are you holding up?"

There was a brief moment of hesitation before she said, "Good to go commander. A few minor scrapes and bruises, nothing serious." She let out a shallow sigh. "I'm glad you're okay commander. Almost losing the Spectre and the beacon had some of the crew spooked. They needed some good news."

Jane nodded her thanks. "It was pretty bad down there."

Williams looked at the floor for a moment and said, "I've seen friends die before. It's part of being a marine, but losing my entire unit… and you never get used to seeing dead civilians. Still, it would've been a lot worse if you hadn't shown up." She hesitated before asking, "Um, Commander? I don't wanna seem pushy, but I was wondering about what comes next. Captain Anderson mentioned something about getting me assigned to the Normandy. Is that set or what?"

"I don't know, but we'll sort everything out soon. For now, you're with my team. Stick with us when we get to the Citadel. You were there for the entire attack, so they'll probably have questions for you too. We'll be there in just a few hours, so both of you need to get ready." They nodded to her and she left them. Kaidan was at a duty station nearby, so she walked over. "So, what happened?"

He sighed and leaned against a panel behind him. "A damaged geth juggernaut threw a piece of its arm into your chest. Karen was pretty annoyed." They both chuckled. "Was the beacon any good?"

"Not really. A bunch of jumbled odds and ends. We need more information, but I did get a sense of impending doom from it… so that's nice." That both stood in knowing silence. Jane broke it with a whisper, "They're coming, Kaidan."

He stiffened and looked around to make sure no one would hear them. "The shadows? The ones from the nightmares?" She nodded and he cursed under his breath. "Well, there goes my vacation. And I was looking forward to taking a couple weeks off."

Jane gave him a half smile. "Aww, come on. Would really rather be relaxing on a beach somewhere than with me, running off into another do or die mission against somebody that wants to violently murder us?"

He tilted his head up in faux contemplation, tapping a finger on his chin. "You know what? Yes… yes I would." They both laughed before he said, "How bad is it? I mean, compared to what we've done before?"

She wished she could tell him not to worry, but it didn't seem right to lie to him. "Bad. The worst, actually. Everything else was dangerous, almost suicidal in a few cases. But this? I…" Her voice trailed off.

Kaidan sighed. "Well, I guess I should get back to it then. We'll be there soon. I'll see you once we dock."

Jane left him to his work and made her way up to the bridge. After checking in with Joker in the cockpit and Navigator Pressly, she went to the comm room. It took a while to get her call routed through the proper channels, masking it against eavesdroppers and any official recording devices. She activated a series of ghosting programs on her omnitool just to be safe as the final set of encryptions went through. Once it was done, the battle-scarred face of a turian appeared on the projection. "Shepard? I wasn't expecting contact for a few months."

"I know, Tiberius, but something has come up. Something bad."

The older turian's mandibles drifted apart in sigh. "You know, just once, I'd like a call that didn't come with bad news."

She gave a bitter laugh. "Preaching to the choir, but that's not the way things work for people like us. No rest for the wicked and whatnot."

The turian sighed, the weight of years of stress and hardship causing him to slump slightly in his armor. "Spirits, that's the truth." After a moment to gather himself, Tiberius stood up straight, banishing the exhausted look from before. "Well, no point in self pity. Go ahead, Shepard. Let's hear it."

Jane hesitated before saying it. It was something she'd hoped would never be necessary. "Tiberius, the time has finally come. The Long Shadow has finally begun to show its hand." She could see the color drain out of his plates and a hint of fear entered his eyes. "Mobilize the Coalition military. Initiate emergency measures and prepare for offensive activities outside of Coalition space. The Broken Dream Contingency is now in effect."

Bit short this one, but I've been extremely busy. Here it is though, hopefully I can move a little faster going forward.

For anyone interested in my non-Mass Effect work, I have a story available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo. Its called Bastion: The Priestess. It's the first part of a series and its only $0.99. Every little bit of support is deeply appreciated and helps give me the kick in the ass I sometimes need to get going.

I'm happy to hear from readers. If you have suggestions, ideas, criticisms, or corrections, feel free to PM me or leave a review.

I have a discord channel, if you're interested. You can find the way in my profile.