If It Meant Living: Mass Effect 2

18: Through A Glass, Darkly

Zero days since Resurrection    ||    3 months, 5 days until activation of Omega 4 Relay

– she made one last desperate attempt to reach the O2 line – but it didn’t matter, the tank was empty – she gasped again – but there was nothing –

– I’m so sorry, Kaidan –

…I need you to do something for me, okay?  You survive.  Find a way to survive…

But I can't, Dad…there's no air…

…Live…

I can’t –  

 ____________________________________________________

There was no air – she couldn't breathe – she couldn't – 

She awoke with a gasp.

Alive?

She blinked a few times.  There was air.  But she wasn't where she had left herself.

Kaidan – he would be worried, anxious – he would be nearby – 

She lifted her head – Owwww – and looked around the room.  It was deserted.

Where the hell was she?

A female voice with a vaguely Australian accent came over a speaker.  "Wake up Commander.  Shepard, do you hear me?  You need to get up.  This facility is under attack.  Your scars aren't fully healed, but I need you to get moving."

Scars?  What? 

"Commander, you need to move!  There are mechs advancing on your position.  You need to get to the shuttle bay on the – "

She stumbled off the bed.  Every centimeter of her body hurt.  She looked around in puzzlement.  This didn't look like an Alliance medical facility; the styling was all wrong.  Too sleek.  Too shiny.  Too…yellow.

Where the hell was she?

The all-too-familiar sound of mechs and heavy weaponry broke through the fog in her mind.  In a flash her instincts, both natural and honed over years of experience, kicked back in and took control.

No matter.  Later.

She ran.

***

"Two Years?" 

Shepard shook her head roughly then frowned.  "But...I...I closed my eyes and I woke up.  How could it have been two years?"

The earnest and muscular young man who had identified himself as Jacob Taylor answered with a non-answer.  "Two years and 12 days to be precise."

My god....she felt dizzy, as if the world had just been revealed to be upside down, when all along she had thought it was right-side up.

A horrifying thought came to her.  "What am I?"

"As far as I know, you're you.  I don't think you're a clone or anything.  All along, the point of the project was to bring you back – exactly as you were.  If I heard Miranda say that once I heard it a hundred times.” 

He paused a moment.  “And – I saw how you came in, how you looked for a long time.  It wasn't pretty, but it could only have been the you that got spaced at Alchera."

Okay then.  She certainly felt like herself; remembered her entire life in a way that no one could duplicate; knew who, what, why – if not where or when – she was.  Though her body was...not quite right.  She could only assume she was part cyborg now.