Mass Effect: After the Smoke Falls

Interrogation

Shepard ran out of the elevator as soon as it hit the ground floor. He rushed into the Imfirmary and saw Tali standing up, but shakily. She looked at Shepard and a smile appeared on her face.

“Shepard! Keelah I thought I’d never see you again!” She limped to him and  fell in his warm embrace. She cried into his chest and he smoothed her hair with her hand.

“I’m here Tali, you don’t need to worry anymore.” Shepard said as he kissed her forehead. She looked up and kissed him full on the mouth.

When they pulled away she beamed. “The thought of kissing you was the only thing that kept me going. The thought of being with you kept me alive.” She nuzzled into his chest.

“I have no idea what would happen if I would’ve lost you.” Shepard said through a choked voice.

“Hey what about me?” said a voice. They turned and saw Jack sitting up, looking at them with a smirk.

“Jack!” Shepard and Tali said. Chakwas appeared out of the AI core.

She smiled at them. “Tali you are free to go whenever you wish.” She looked over and was surprised to see that Jack was awake. “You made a faster recovery than I thought, Ms. Jaqueline.”

Jack growled. “I told you to call me Jack.”

Chakwas chuckled. “You seem like your good old self already. Let me take a look at that arm and see if you are in need of prosthetics.”

While the doctor tended to Jack, Shepard and Tali both walked out of the infirmary.

“How are you feeling?” asked Shepard.

Tali shrugged. “Fever is gone, though I might need help walking up inclines.”

“I’ll help you.” Shepard said as he wrapped his arms around her and picked her up. She giggled and they both walked into the elevator.

“Commander.” Said Kaidan’s voice. “Would you like to talk to your”sister?” She’s under guard in the cargo hold.

Shepard sighed. “Be there as soon as possible.” He looked at Tali. “Meet me in my quarters, I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

She nodded and kissed him. They reached his quarters and he helped Tali to the room, then he went to the elevator to visit Elena Shepard, his clone.

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He reached the cargo bay and saw Elena guarded by two soldiers. She sat on a crate with her Omni-tool turned into handcuffs. Kaiden stood by the elevator door.

“Can’t believe she’s you’re clone.” He said to Shepard. “I mean it’s like I was dating you for a while, which in itself is creepy.”

Shepard shrugged. “I never figured out she was. With Robert it was easy  because he looked like me, I would never guess what I would look like as a female.”

“Well now you know.” Kaidan gestured to the figure at the boxes. “She might have something hidden that we may need to know about.”

They walked over to Elena, who looked up at Kaidan with a smirk. “You tell Shepard that I was his clone? Or how Vega, Wrex, and you got the jump on me?”

Shepard crossed his arms. “I was already informed that you were my clone, Elena. How about you tell me how you got your ass kicked.”

Elena chuckled. “Huh, I see this conflict with Cerberus has gotten you all roiled up, just like me. Before I tell you how about my back-story? Not the one that you lived of course, but of after that N7 team woke me and the rest of the Shepards up. After I was awakened I was brought to an Alliance lab. Since I was programmed to be a saboteur I made it look like I was brain dead and they disposed of me. That’s when I took a shuttle and escaped. I spent a few months hunting geth as a gun for hire. Made a pretty penny on it too. Then Mao caught me. He tortured me, told me of my true purpose. I didn’t like it. In my VI world I did in fact hand the Collector base to the Illusive man Willingly, but the bastard screwed me over. Knowing that Mao was the brother of Kai Leng, I guessed he had orders to dispose of me so when I was ordered to destroy the Normandy on Rannoch I merely crippled it.”

“That’s a load of crap.” Kaidan said.

“Don’t believe me sweetheart?” Elena smirked. “Let me show you the recording on.” Her Omni-tool’s recorder turned on.

“YOUR INSTRUCTIONS ARE CLEAR, ONCE I CAPTURE SHEPARD’S QUARIAN FRIEND YOU ARE TO SET NEUTRONION BOMB ON THE NORMANDY’S REACTOR AND BLOW IT TO HELL. I WANT HIM TO SUFFER ON THIS PLANET.”

“UNDERSTOOD, CHANCELLOR MAO LENG.”

“Chancellor?” Shepard asked with a scoff.

Kaidan was more interested in the recording itself. “But you didn’t blow up the ship. You defied direct orders.”

“Mao never expected me to actually blow up the Normandy, knowing  that you may or may not be on there. I didn’t want to kill you, love. So I set up some charges on some non-essential programs, just enough to cripple the ship. Anyways back to the story. On the flagship, Mao had me set up to heart monitor so the heat in the room you sent Kaidan in would get so hot they would burn to death. The only way to stop the heat was for them to kill me.”

“So how did you and my team survive?” Shepard asked.

Elena smiled. “That’s the million credit question. You can thank Vega’s concussion blast. It managed to make the heart monitor go haywire. I was able to be rendered unconscious, the heart monitor destroyed, and your team survived. Then they brought me on board yada yada yada and we’re here.”

Shepard sighed. “So I’m supposed to believe that you are still with not Cerberus?”

“I’m not with them. I only joined so I could be with Kaidan again.” She looked down. “Not the best way I know, but I was already declared dead when I escaped so I couldn’t go to the Alliance.”

“What?” Kaidan exclaimed, a mixture of surprise and anger in his voice.

Shepard had enough. “I’m going to med-bay; I think my scars are getting worse.” He went to the lift and left Kaidan and Elena to each other.