Darkness, being thrown into the back of a vehicle, being restrained and unable to move, some of it was a new experience. Not all, but this time there was no Kasumi to bail me out. Out there it had been only Tela and myself, Kasumi was off in a fact-finding "holiday", the details of which I hadn't inquired about, Maybe I should have. I wondered whether Tela had noticed, or was just wondering where the fuck I was. Or maybe she was laying in the back of a different vehicle.
Fat chance.
I hadn't said a word, mostly because I couldn't. The gag in my mouth was really starting to get old, and so were the bindings holding me in place. They had really tightened the knots hard, the pricks. Good thing was, they probably didn't want to kill me. They could have done that at any time. But I had no idea what they wanted. And it took a long time before we got anywhere. I didn't even know how long it was, but eventually the vehicle - which had to be some kind of shuttle - ended up docking with another ship, and I was transferred aboard. Restraints were removed, and I was thrown inside a small room. I pulled the hood off my head and looked around, and saw that it was a sort of cell. Brig, probably.
I could finally see who it was that had taken me. On the other side of the kinetic barrier was a batarian, looking at me, an ugly smile on his face. I rubbed my wrists and stood, looking around. Really spartan accommodations, that's for sure. I didn't say anything to the batarian either, and he didn't seem like he was there to do anything. He just gave out a sort of low rumbling chuckle and left me on my own.
Again, for hours. This did feel familiar, kind of like being picked up by C-Sec for no reason and thrown into a cell. I sat back and tried to relax, thinking. They had taken my omni-tool, which meant bugger all since it was Broker-encrypted to hell and back, and I had nothing in hand I could use. I tried to look as relaxed as possible. I wasn't. I was almost literally shitting my pants. Which might sound weird considering all I had faced so far, but the situation was extremely shitty. I could face Sovereign with the hopes that Shepard would arrive soon and save my ass. Right there and then, there was nobody coming to the rescue.
But more importantly, I had no freaking clue what they wanted.
"Mister Morgan."
A cold, hard voice. I looked from the place on the floor where I was laying, and saw a human looking at me through the kinetic curtain. I could barely make his features. I saw a beard, a square face, and a tall, well-built frame. I didn't answer.
"You're a hard man to find, we spent a lot of money tracking you down," he said. "I hope you will help us recover our investment."
Okay, that was a bit strange. I sat up, back against the wall, and looked at him, a good long look.
"You have me at a disadvantage," I said. "You are..."
"Nobody you need to know about," he replied. How lovely. "You can make this easy, or you can make this fun, either way we'll get what we want."
Nope, not going to ask you what you want, you dick.
"And staying silent is not going to help. As I said, you're an investment. We're after a bounty, one that pays exceptionally well. We could have invited you in and offered a cut, but our information says you might need some persuasion to give us what we want."
Still baiting me, and still not asking. I didn't have a clue what he wanted though. I mean, there's so many pies I had stuck a finger in it could be anything.
"So, Mister Morgan. Make life easy on yourself and tell us. I'd even be willing to throw a nice bonus in." He paused, looking at me I presumed, through I couldn't see his face with the light behind him. "Where is the body of Commander Shepard?"
Well, shit.
I wasn't sure whether they'd jump straight to torture me or not. I am a bad liar. I am also not a good poker player. All I could do was keep my mouth shut. They started by simply asking questions. Over and over. I didn't speak. They did it for hours, leaving me alone, coming back again. They fed me once in a blue moon, which meant I was always hungry. Then, they started getting more forceful. The first time they got in the cell I tried to fight back, but that didn't get me very far. After a rather thorough beating, I was tied down to a chair, where the questions continued.
"Let's go over it again, shall we?" the bearded man said.
He kept walking around me, and I couldn't see him particularly well. Partly because of the harsh light, partly because my left eye was starting to get swollen.
"Commander Shepard went missing in action near the Alchera system during what, by all accounts, was a routine mission looking for rogue Geth remnants," he continued. "In fact, the whole crew went missing, all except for one life pod. Yours."
He stopped behind me. I braced for impact, but nothing came. Then I realized that's probably what he was testing, whether I'd flinch. To be perfectly honest, I was in pain, I was tired, I was having trouble thinking straight in fact.
"Shortly afterwards, a Cerberus cell was activated. Picked you up, picked a mothballed Alliance scout ship, and started putting together a crew. Their objective, the rescue of Commander Shepard."
Now there was a crack as everything went spinning and I was hit square on the face. The pain was almost blinding for a moment, and I could feel the warm, slick touch of blood running down my face. Blood was dripping over my swollen eye. I kept both eyes closed, trying very hard not to scream. I managed a very loud, and very obvious grunt of pain instead.
"And not too long afterwards, most of the crew of the Normandy shows up, claiming they were rescued by Cerberus, and that Shepard was dead, the body given a space burial. But a bit of digging and we find out, that some of the crew is still working for Cerberus. And that Cerberus is working on Shepard's body."
He stood in front of me, and leaned forward, getting eye level with me. I recoiled before I could react to hold myself in place.
"Loose lips sink ships, as the saying goes. And we didn't even need to be that forceful. A good pile of credits and we got all the info we wanted. I guess loyalty truly is hard to find these days, huh?" He grabbed me by the neck and pulled my head up. "Where. Is. Shepard. We haven't wasted all this time and money to walk out empty handed. Where are they keeping the body!"
His demand was followed by a punch to the stomach. I'd have puked my guts out if I had had anything in there, but I didn't, so I didn't. He grabbed me by the hair and pulled my head back. I could smell his breath as he spoke right in front of my face, and it smelled quite disgusting too.
"I'm being careful because I don't want to break you just yet. But I can use more forceful methods if I have to."
No please no, god please stop.
I didn't say anything. I didn't want to say anything. I also didn't know how much longer I could manage to not say anything. In my head, I was already bargaining with myself. Miranda could take care of these clowns if they came to the station. Surely she could. She rescued a badly put together Shepard with just an intercom in the games, didn't she?
Who the fuck had a bounty on Shepard's body?
And who had babbled about her?
I winced as the bearded man raised his hand, but he only gave me a couple of gentle slaps. Progress, I supposed.
"Have it your way."
I was given a once over and had some medigel sloppily slapped on me before I was injected with... something. I was familiar enough with the future-tech injectors, having been pumped with all sorts of stuff by Chakwas during my misadventures aboard the Normandy. After being injected, I was thrown into my cell and left alone. And it was easily one of the worst times I had ever had in my life. As whatever drugs they injected in me took hold, I started having hallucinations.
Only I didn't know they were hallucinations at the time.
The first thing I noticed were the noises. It never crossed my mind that it might be my captors trying to fuck with me. I went straight to thinking there was something tearing through the ship. The wall blew open and swear to anything that I thought I saw the mouth of Nazara, and out of it came Saren. Looking like his own half machine self I saw before Shepard dropped a Mako on him.
And I felt terrified like I hadn't in a long fucking time.
"Look at you," Saren said. He walked as if nothing was wrong in the world, while the ship slowly fell apart around me. "Quaking on your boots. What a disappointment."
"You... you're dead. It can't be. You're dead!" I yelled, pressing myself against the surviving corner of the room.
"Am I? Well, maybe I am. Or maybe I cannot be killed," Saren said. "Maybe Shepard was not quite as capable as you gave her credit for. Maybe reality isn't quite what you expected, after all."
"How..."
"You know how," Saren said. "You've known it in your gut since the very beginning. You are the only one who knows about the reapers. Truly knows about them."
"Bullshit!" I yelled. I wasn't even answering what he was saying. I was answering what he was thinking. I knew what it was. I felt it through the buzzing of the reaper's thoughts. The incessant buzzing of static.
"The catalyst won't stop them," Saren continued. "Or have you forgotten? That's the reason you're here. And what have you accomplished?"
"I'll fucking stop them!"
"You can't! Nobody can!" Saren yelled, coming to stand right in front of me. He towered several feet above me, his voice booming in my ears.
"Shepard will!" I yelled.
"Where is Shepard?!" an unbearably loud voice called.
The booming voice cracked through the air, as the ship shook and I fell on my ass. The mouth of Nazara loomed closer, and so did Saren.
"W͏h̛͢҉è̛̕r̷e̷͠ ̸̷͢įś̛͢ ̕͟Sḩ̨e̡͡p҉̴͜ard̨̨?!" the voice insisted. IT was Nazara, had to be.
I opened my mouth, but I couldn't speak. I wanted to. But I didn't want to. I couldn't make a coherent thought, I didn't understand any of it. All I could do was sit there and brace myself as everything around me turned to madness. Then, I saw her. A pale ghost of some kind. It appeared for but a moment, then disappeared. For a moment I thought I had recognized the ghost.
"Shepard?" I muttered.
"What a disappointment," Saren said. "Still waiting for Shepard to come to the rescue. Is that the only reason you stood up to us?"
He knew it was true. I didn't need to say it. Did what I did expecting Shepard to take care of things. And she didn't. Not as long as I was in the way.
"-nvoy," a whispy, almost distorted voice spoke. I caught a glimpse of that pale ghost again, before it disappeared.
"Standing up to the Reapers cannot be done," Saren said. "You saw it. You saw more than I ever did. There is no way to achieve conventional victory. Fleets will be sacrificed just to slow them down. Earth will see the worst of it, and it will fall."
"How do you know that," I muttered.
"Envoy," the same whispy voice again. I couldn't catch it, the ghost would disappear the moment I saw her.
"I know it all, Morgan. You never understood that. I saw the Reaper's final victory. I saw all the paths. I saw it all. You will fail."
"Wh̀͟é̵r̵̀͡e̶̢ ͢i̛͝s͡ ͢͝Sh͏͢͏e̸͝͡pa̴͢r͡d̛͜?̛͡!" Nazara screamed. I covered my ears, but the echo of the voice shook me to my core even then.
"Envoy!"
Even through my covered ears, I heard that voice. Even as reality distorted. Saren, Nazara, they were still there, and so was the pale ghost. The ghost of the AI.
"You're dead," I said. "You're dead!"
"Don't answer the questions," the ghost said.
"What the fuck..." I muttered. "You fucking came back just to tell me the same thing you always tell me."
"We need you. We ne- *krzz* -pard. Your timeli- *krzz* -bout to end."
"Every time, don't tell Shepard, don't tell Shepard!"
"W͍̱̱̣͎͎̪͛ͥͣ̔ͮh͉͔͈̼̀͛͗͋͗ͧ̒̕ͅe͍̥̫͉̼ͯ̌ͥr̩̻͖̖͎̖ͯ́̉͌̽͘ͅe̶̪̠͕̬̳̓̏̿̊ ̼̯͕̪̦͋̅ͦ̋̿̃i̖̊́̈́̃̌ͧ̚͜s͍̭̫͉̹͚͗ͪͮͦ̇ ̦̎̄ͩ̾Ṣ̈h͈͓̗̰̼͚̬̓͊ͣ͛͘e̝̗ṕ͈̝̩̰̱̟̟̓̆̓͒͜a̷͉͔̜̙̳̺̜ͥ̏ͯ̀͂͐ͥř̙͓̙͉̝̓̈́ͤ̃̐͘d̟͍̪ͨ́?̵̹͙̰̅ͣ̒̃̑!" Nazara screamed in my mind.
"Shepard is-!"
I felt my voice lose volume as reality around me distorted, my head swimming and my body feeling as if it was being stretched. I screamed. I wasn't in pain, or maybe I was, I felt like I was becoming undone.
"This is the *kzrr* -y way we c- *kzrr* -lp you."
As reality twisted more and more around me, I felt myself losing my sense of direction, and that was all I remembered.
"Where is Shepard!" Wolf yelled.
It looked like Morgan was having a very, very bad trip. Which was quite fortunate from his point of view. He had expected that he'd need a few doses before he started to break down. After the first three, the cravings would have had him begging for more and offering literally anything back. Or so he had thought. Instead, Panther had suggested they start him on a double dose. And it was doing the trick quite well.
"Give him a moment," Panther said. "He's just ramping up. In about twenty minutes he won't even know where he is."
Wolf nodded and kept his eyes glued on Morgan. He had gone quiet again. He was surprisingly resilient, that bastard. Judging by the state of his body, scars included, he had seen some shit. But he knew how to break a man. The problem was, he was their only real clue to the location of Shepard's body, so they had to play it cautiously. The rest of the Normandy crew truly had no idea where she was. Cerberus, sure, but Cerberus were damn secretive bastards. And information networks were no longer what they used to be. Not since the Broker had started to leverage its information to reshape power balance where he pleased.
"... came back just to tell me the same thing you always tell me." Morgan said.
"New one?" Panther said.
"Looks like it," Wolf replied. Dammit all, this was going nowhere. "Where is Shepard?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, slamming his crowbar on the metallic wall by the cell.
"Shepard is-!"
He stopped. He was about to talk, but he stopped.
"Goddammit, is he still resisting?" Wolf said.
"I... don't think so," Panther replied. "This is odd."
After a moment of having a lost look in his face, suddenly Morgan started screaming, twisting in place, until his scream stopped and he fell limp on the ground.
"Oh shit," Panther said, springing into action. He passed his omni-tool over the lock and rushed inside the room. Morgan didn't move at all. Wolf followed him in, but didn't intervene. He wasn't medically trained, after all.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm not sure," Panther replied. He was running his scanner over Morgan, taking vitals. "I don't think it's the drugs."
"Really," Wolf deadpanned. "Just a coincidence."
"I mean I don't think it's a reaction to the drugs. Look," he said, and swiped his omni-tool. A projection of what looked to be a brain appeared. "He's got activity all over. He should be conscious." He slapped Morgan across the face, hard, but got no response.
"Take him to the medbay," Wolf said. "Goddammit," he added, muttering unhappily as he walked out. This wasn't going well at all. He hoped they hadn't caused permanent damage to Morgan just yet. Or at least not enough that he wouldn't be able to tell them what they wanted. He considered for a second whether they should try getting some asari to go prodding into his head, but he discarded that. At least for now. All that did was displace the question of whether they were hearing the truth or not to someone else.
Well, they'd have some time to think about it. If Morgan needed medical attention, he might not be able to keep putting the screws on him for a while. He hit the comms.
"Wildcat," he called.
"Right here," the pilot answered.
"Let's head home, looks like it's going to be a while."
"It's a... ten hour trip to Omega, boss."
"Make it so," he replied.
There were things in the galaxy that never got old. And one of those things was the thumping of bass when a good fucking band was playing. The place wasn't as packed as it could be, but she liked it that way. She hadn't even named the fucking bar. It was a hole in the ground that people knew about. Taleken kept giving her shit about it, saying they could get more clients if they spent some money with promotion. Screw that, she liked the place just like it was.
She made eye contact with a batarian as he entered the bar. Easy to recognize. They made eye contact, he gave her a nod, and quietly headed for his usual corner. One of Aria's people. They had shown up shorty after she set up, which she had expected, but had more demands than she was willing to comply with. She knew damn well it was just the head bitch of Omega marking the territory. Pay her a cut? Sure. Pushing drugs? No. If someone wanted them, they could buy them. If they wanted to sell, they better sell the good shit. And she sure as hell wasn't going to agree to any shitty quota that Aria demanded.
Things didn't escalate much, at least after she put the head enforcer in his place down in the pit. Liselle, that asari bitch, had found it amusing. There had been a veiled threat not to get too fresh with Aria or she might deal with them personally. There had been a much less veiled invitation from Jack for Aria to come down to the pit any time she wanted.
So far, the queen bitch hadn't obliged.
"Hey boss!"
She turned to see Taleken coming towards her. And the turian had that stick-up-his-ass expression that he meant business.
"What now?" Jack yelled over the music.
"I need a minute!"
She contemplated telling him to fuck off right then and there, but she had to admit he usually knew not to bother her unless something was important enough. Usually. She felt her face twist slightly in annoyance, but gestured towards the back with her head before standing up and heading to her office, turian in tow. Once they were inside and the door was closed, they could finally speak without yelling.
"What is it?" she said, not even bothering to sit down.
"Got something from my other boss," the turian said. His other boss being the Shadow Broker. The shit she had to put up with...
"And?"
"Apparently there's a search order for one Roy Morgan," he said, and brought up his omni-tool. A picture of the one and only dumbass came up immediately. "Went missing a few weeks ago."
"So?" Jack prompted.
"So I just heard a rustling that he's been seen in Omega. Some merc group brought him in and are keeping him down on the thirteenth level." He switched the picture off and looked at Jack. "He's your Morgan, isn't he?"
"He's not my anything, he's a fucking dumbass and I don't- why the hell are you asking me this?"
The question was not without an edge, and Taleken noticed immediately. Smart asshole.
"Just figured you might want the first crack at him," he said, raising his hands defensively. "That's all, guess I was wrong."
"Damn right you guessed wrong," Jack said.
"Fine, fine, I'll go tell the other boss about it," he said, taking a step back and heading for the door.
That dumbass. First crack? Why the hell should she? He should have known better than to get involved in whatever shit he kept getting involved that was clearly way above his head. It's a shit galaxy. Everyone knew that. Except, apparently, that dumbass. But it bothered her. It bothered her that she was giving it any thought. It bothered her that Taleken had come to her about it first. What exactly gave him the idea that she might have cared? She didn't care.
But it was fucking bothering her.
"Wait!" she yelled. The turian stopped by the door and looked back at her.
With a huff of annoyance, she headed for the back, where the gun rack was. A wave of the omni-tool unlocked it, and she grabbed a pistol and a shotgun. Without saying a word, she headed for the door and into the bar itself. Dammit, she couldn't leave this place running while she was out. She stomped onto the small stage, and as the music came to a stop, she grabbed the microphone and yelled at the top of her lungs.
"All right, everyone get the fuck out! OUT!" For a moment nobody moved, or said anything. "Are you deaf! OUT! Turn the fucking lights on!"
Now they finally complied. Lights on, a rumble of complaints, but one thing that the crowd really knew was not to fuck with her. She hadn't cleared the place like that before, but she had kicked more than one of them out when they got too fucking rowdy. They knew not to fuck with her.
She contemplated for a moment that it seemed like her one objective in life was for people to know not to fuck with her.
Once the place was empty, Taleken came to find her. She had gone to her seat to watch the proceeds, and now it was just her and the bar personnel.
"What's the plan, boss?" the turian said. The rest of her muscle had also come to join them. She wondered for a moment what Taleken had told them, but found that she didn't actually care that much.
"You two," Jack said, pointing at Taleken and at Wurdak. The krogan rumbled in acknowledgement, but didn't say a word. "Let's go get the dumbass. The rest of you stay here and keep your eyes open. I don't know who these people are, but I don't want any assholes doubling back on us and burning my place down."
Omega. It definitely seemed to live up to its reputation. She had never been there, not that she could remember at least. That wasn't exactly comforting, she didn't remember a lot of things. Damage due to the Collector implants, or so Cerberus claimed. She had seen the reports and the video, it seemed real enough, but it didn't change the fact that she couldn't trust them. Not just because of Cerberus, but because not knowing things made her suspicious of what, exactly, they might actually been planning.
The Illusive man had been convincing. The reapers were out there, that was true, and whether she liked them or not, Cerberus wasn't going to thrive in a galaxy headed for extinction. The fact that they had held nothing back bothered her, too. More than it should. The Collectors were working for the reapers, and that was the reason they had gone after Shepard. Trying to turn her into... whatever it was the reaper had turned Saren into.
The Collectors had killed her.
She didn't remember most of it. She remembered the pod. She remembered it being picked up by the Collectors. She had been ready to fight, together with the few crew members that had shared her escape vessel. Then it had cracked open, that swarm of insects had rushed in, and that was all she wrote. She remembered that large hand covering her face, and that was it. That was the end.
That was her death. Or should have been. Perhaps not, if the story Miranda had given her about the implants was to be believed. Regardless, whatever might have woken up after all that would have definitely not been her.
But no. Now she was back. She did not know what to do about that. Two years had passed. She hadn't tried to contact anyone - and in truth, she wasn't sure she'd have been able to while under Cerberus' lock and key. She was in enemy territory. For now, she went along with them. Shuttle to Omega. There was a new Normandy that would be put at her disposal soon, but not yet. Right now a shitty shuttle was all they had. And no team.
She needed a team that wasn't on Cerberus' payroll. Well, so to speak. They were bankrolling the operation, but she wanted them under her command and her command alone.
And the first potential member was standing right there in front of her. The look of a seasoned professional, with a large scar across his face and an obviously artificial eye.
"Shepard," the man said. "I'll be damned. I thought we buried you after dragging your corpse off the Collector ship."
"I got better," Shepard replied, forcing a humorless smile on her face. "Zaeed Massani I presume."
"That's me," the mercenary replied. "That your ship? What happened to that stealth ship we zipped in last time?"
"This is temporary," Miranda said. "We have a better ship available."
"Better be if you're thinking about going against those bastards again," Zaeed said. "Just remember our deal."
"We did provide you with the information you wanted last time, didn't we?" Miranda said.
"That aside," Shepard interrupted, commanding everyone's attention, "deals with Cerberus or not, you're under my command, Massani, and no one else. Are we clear?"
"Clear as rain," he replied. He then pointed over his shoulder to the pile of crates he had been leaning against. "I better start packing then, wanna give me a hand?"
"I have a better idea," Shepard replied. "Miranda can take care of that. You're with Jacob and I."
She didn't look back to see Miranda's reaction. Didn't matter. She wanted to get this shit over with as soon as possible and leave Omega to never come back. The place stank to high heaven. Before any of them could say anything else, a batarian voice called from the opposite end of the dock corridor.
"Shepard?"
"Who's asking?" Shepard replied, hand casually stealing towards her pistol.
"Aria wants to see you," the batarian said, and turned to walk off without waiting for an answer.
"I'll get there when I get there," Shepard called out loud, getting no response.
This place was starting to get on her nerves.
Author's Notes: I've re-written this chapter like three times. The first thing I had in my head was something I kind of hinted about Roy and drugs, the idea of getting him hooked on something as a way to put pressure on him. Problem is, repeated bad drug trips didn't exactly work well as something entertaining to read. Then there was the AI, and how to introduce all the bits she's going to be part of, since the setup here kind of cascades into everything else. Then there's Shepard, which I decided to move straight into Omega (so you can easily see where this is going), and leave how things went on with her awakening and early days for later exposition. Mostly because of pacing. As I said, I didn't want the kidnapping to be a particularly long ordeal in writing, even if it is in the timeline. And, thus, we've arrived to this point.
Shepard... is not dead!
But... how stable is our favourite unstable Commander? We shall find out! So far, we know one thing. Miranda? Not a fan!
I blame myself for that.
Anyway! Back on track and I'm reasonably happy with the chapter. If you'd like to give me a bit of support, I'd appreciate it greatly!
tinyurl (period) com (slash) y2q9cop6
(Still think FFnet sucks at hyperlinks).
Reviews! Let's check'em out:
maesde; Thanks man! Nope, just a bunch of money-hungry bastards. This'll tie up with other bits soon, but I'm sure you can imagine haha!
Uemei: I love this review because you're going to love some of the moments I have planned. I hope. Yeah, I'm a terrible tease.
Rainsfere: I'm a lil' scared of all my messing with Garrus since he's the real ME bro for Shepard all the way through. I didn't show much of it during ME1 timeline, but it's likely to become more of a thing during ME2. Definitely off the reservation here. And yeah, Gee and his stuff has a real Shadow Wars feel, a little more than I expected at first to be honest but it made sense so I went with it. Also Joab is one of the planets that opens in the systems where Jacob's loyalty mission is, but the actual planet is 2175 Aeia.
O pior: I am a very cruel bastard indeed! And I'm not even done haha! Thanks for the feedback, and glad to hear you're enjoying it.
RIOSHO, SpecterXCove, JohnAxios, thanks for the support!
Next time on My Effect: Convergence: A rescue, a gun, a revelation, and two for the price of one. Look forward to it!