Thought I would sign off with this. Forgot I have to wait a bit before being able to post on Fanfic and so I was slightly dissapointed I couldn't post it, therefore it is going somewhere, that somewhere being here.
The previous version is
here. I plan to steer away from closely following the games events, with the next chapter being about the adaptation from waking up and gaining this knowledge to setting on her task. Will take place on the Normandy and have various flashbacks to scenes like Horizon.
Anyway good night. And enjoy.
[quote]The light. The light came back.
Vision returned to Kiara, eyes fluttering open, squinting as if not used to light. Voices invaded the quiet, although nothing distinct could be made out. Everything seemed blurred; her vision, her hearing and her thoughts. She only remembered encroaching darkness and nothing more. And now this.
A face appeared in her vision. A female face, black hair cascading down to frame a beautiful face. The woman’s mouth moved, speaking words that Kiara could not hear. Another mumble sounded yet the woman had not opened her mouth. Kiara rocked her head to the side, even that movement sending shoots of pain through her, and saw someone else standing there. A man, bald, well built. He was saying something but again Kiara could not hear was uttered.
She raised a hand, feebly and with effort, only for it to be pushed back down. Kiara looked back at the woman, trying to look puzzled but not sure if she had pulled it off. The woman mumbled again and shot up, face set with worry. She moved around the table talking to the man. Her strides took her to the right side of Kiara as her vision faded. The concern seemed etched across her face as Kiara slipped back into the darkness.
*****************************************
“Got out of the bed commander!” Once again her peace was destroyed, voices cutting into her solitude. Eyelids flickering Kiara rose to conciseness once again. Only this time the sounds were all too prevalent; gunfire, explosions and the intrusive voice shouting at her.
“Shepard do you hear me? Get out of bed, this facility is under attack!” For a moment Kiara flicked back to another time, another moment when similar words had been uttered and she had been vented into space. Groggily she awoke, clicking her jaw into place.
“Shepard, your scars aren’t healed but I need you to get moving. The facility is under attack.”
‘Wonderful. I’m going to love the day when I don’t wake up to shooting.’ Flicking her legs off the bed upon which she lay a sudden burst of pain ripped through her side causing Kiara to drop her to her side. Flinching she rose before shouting at the voice. “Who the hell are you anyway?”
“There’s a pistol and your armour in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!” Conceding that this was the only reply she was going to be offered, she stood before moving to the locker. It slid open at her touch, revealing her armour that lay beneath, the crimson plates lined with white. Smiling she attached it on as the building around her shook. At least one thing was constant.
She pulled out the pistol when she was clad in her armour, frowning when she noticed it was devoid of a thermal clip. “New technology is better my arse” wishing once again for the old model of guns, even if they did fire slower. She looked up, noticing the door across from her emitting a nice trial of smoke through its gaps. ‘Never a good sign.’ Running, pain shooting up her side as she did, she slipped into cover as the voice came over the com again.
“Keep your head down Shepard! Shield yourself from the blast!”
“Genius you are! Did you get a degree in pointing out the obvious or was it part of some lovely parents who thought it might come in useful? Who the hell are you?” She directed her anger at the voice, the only target that she could vent all this pent up frustration on at present. She didn’t know what was going on and so this currently disembodied voice was the only thing that could have answer. And damn did she want some.
“Just keep moving. We need to get you to the shuttles. I’ll meet you there. And the name is Miranda,” the voice replied before being replaced by a burst of static. Lovely. Time to find these shuttles. And then ring the answers out of this Miranda once she was out of it.
Sprinting through the hole where the door used to be, Kiara stooped and picked up a discharged thermal clip from a body lying on the floor, shot wounds present on his torso. He glanced down, noticing a symbol on the shoulder of his attire. It looked familiar be she couldn’t quite place it. Shrugging she vaulted a barricade, slotting the thermal clip into place in the same motion. Leaping up some steps she turned into a large room with a window showing an adjacent room.
A figure ran through the adjacent room, casting fearful glances backward. Seeing Kiara standing there watching his he stopped and stared before banging on the window and shouting at her.
“Shepard! Help! There’s...” His protests were cut off by a hail of bullets punching into him, blood spewing across the window from the high calibre shells. Striding into view a mech, larger than the standard ones Kiara had seen deployed as security for some corporations, ceased its fire into his hapless corpse before turning to Kiara, the display that passed for eyes flashing from amber to red and it acknowledge a threat.
“Oh... ****” she cursed, as the mech changed its stance, legs bent as it braced itself. Kiara rolled toward the nearby door as the window shattered, explosives deployed by the mech shattering the window. Rolling through the door, Kiara span around on one knee before loading a shot into the control panel, causing the door to slam shut between her and the mech. Slightly panting she stood again, cautiously moving back from the door. When she was sure it would hold, she turned and leapt up the next flight of stairs, taking them two steps at a time.
She emerged into a corridor with several doors and room branching off. It seemed the station had gone into lockdown and only one way was open. Either that or this Miranda had laid out her path to the shuttles. Gunfire came from the unlocked door but something caught Kiara’s eye. Another of the doors, this one leading to some sort of office space, was open. Striding inside the office, movement caused her to raise her pistol as a mech, this one the size of a human but devoid of a leg, crawled its way to her. Take a step across she brought her foot swiftly down on its head, crushing it beneath her heel it an act built of pure frustration. Feeling she looked around the room.
Like the rest of the station she had seen the walls were white, reminding her of a medical facility, which made sense considering the last thing she remembered was running out of oxygen. ‘Guess the Alliance got to us after all’. Crossing to the desk, she loaded up a computer, curious to the data it held, the winking light telling her that something was recorded on it.
A face popped up, the same face she remembered seeing; the beautiful woman who had shown such concern for her the moment Kiara had felt so weak. Frowning a voice recording broke out from the speakers “Progress is slow, but subject show signs of recovery. Major organs...” Kiara paused the playback at this point, her face twisted in confusion. For one the voice matched that of Miranda, the woman who had woke her, but her tone now and the concern on her face back then seemed to conflict completely.
Shaking her head Kiara loaded up the recording, and that of others loaded onto the computer, to a nearby OSD, before slipping the disk into a compartment meant for thermal clips on her armour. Still frowning she turned from the room before moving towards the sounds of gunfire.
Pressing the interface the door slid open. Gunfire spat across what looked like a conference room. Slamming her back into a wall Kiara dared a peak around the corner to glimpse a man crouched behind a low barrier, trading fire with a group of mechs across from him.
“Shepard? What the hell..?” Disbelief evident in his voice, Kiara didn’t have time to question this. Dropping to cover next to him, she snapped a shot of, dropping a mech with a gunshot to its torso.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were a work in progress?”
“Hey look pal. I don’t know where I am or how I got here. All I know if that my head feels like the morning after shore leave and, according to you, I’m not quite complete. Whatever the hell that means. So how about you fill me in a little?”
“Ah yeah, forgot you were new to this” he replied in an apologetic tone. “Sorry about that.” I’m Jacob Taylor. Not long ago those mechs started shooting at us and that’s about the end of it.”
Kiara frowned, “Still doesn’t tell me where the hell I am! Rather like that information if you don’t mind” she added sarcastically.
“How about this? We clear out these mechs and get to the shuttle and I’ll fill you in with everything.”
Before she could reply he rose to his feet, unloading a burst into the mechs before flinging one across the gap with a movement of his. An aura of blue cascaded around him, evidence that he was a biotic, before he dropped back in to avoid return fire.
Kiara sighed. “Fine. You’ve got yourself a deal. Oh and you missed two.” Smirking, and not waiting for a reply, she quickly rose out of cover, drew a bead and dropped the remaining two mechs without a second glance. She watched as one tumbled over the barrier before turning towards Jacob, flicking her black hair out of eyes. She frowned at this; it never used to be this long. ‘Just how much time has passed’ you thought.
“They said you were good.” Jacob’s tone was strangely neutral, as though he was trying to keep any form of impressed edge out of it. “They say a lot of things about me” Kiara replied, smirk still evident on her face “Some of it has got to be true. What’s the fastest way to the shuttles?” she added, changing topics, noticing he was not rising to her bait.
“Depends which way the mechs are. The best way is...”
“Check, check” another voice cut across the com “is anyone on this frequency? Anyone still alive out there?
“Wilson? Is that you? I’m here with Commander Shepard, where are you?”
“Shepard? How the...” an odd quality floated into Wilson’s voice, a mixture of surprise a worry that was quickly dispelled in his next words, “Never mind. You need to get her out of there. Get to the service tunnels and head for the network control room.”
“Woo. Tunnels and robots. No longer a novelty to be honest.” Kiara sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time today before moving in the direction Jacob indicated. It seemed her answers would have to wait.
*****************************************
“Bastards got me in the leg!” The voice issued from a figure on the ground, huddled up against a wall, hands clutching at his leg. After being greeted by a wave of heat and, as rightly pointed out, more robots, Kiara and Jacob had found their way to Wilson. “Well, looks like we need to get you out of here” Kiara muttered before bending down to administer a fresh application of medi-gel to wound, rolling her eyes as he winced in pain.
Slowly, Wilson pushed himself to his feet, voice laden with pain as he did. “Shepard. Never thought you would be the one saving my life. Guess that makes us even.”
“Even for what? Am I meant to know you” now she looked Kiara did know this Wilson.
“You were there when I first woke from... whatever I was in. Anyway does it matter?” Anger crept into her voice, frustration and knowing nothing while everyone else held all the cards. “Either we get the hell of this station or any life saving is worth crap all anyway.”
“We need to find Miranda first” Jacob interjected “We can’t just leave her behind.”
“She’s dead, let’s face it. Either that or she’s a traitor”.
Anger rose once more in Kiara, as she watched these two men argue in front of her, clearly oblivious to the situation they were in. Something about Wilson’s denial, something about his insistence to move quickly and the way he worriedly glanced in her direction set Kiara on edge. There was something that she didn’t trust.
“With you both shut the hell up!” The shout echoed around the room, the note of command sitting so obvious in those words. “She’s alive or dead, doesn’t matter she can’t help us now. So we either get to those shuttles or end up the same. So anyone got a plan or do I have to beat it out of one of you?”
Wilson grimaced at the threat, some form of fear creeping into his eyes even though it did not show on his face. “The shuttles are only a few minutes that way” he said, hiking his thumb towards a door behind him. As in on cue the door opened, revealing more mechs.
Kiara sighed again. It was not often that she missed the darkness.
*****************************************
“The Lazarus Project, the one that rebuilt you... It’s funded and controlled by Cerberus.” The words echoed around the room with a note of finality. Cerberus. She’d hunted down several of their operations, operations based on sick experiments and unethical boundaries. They had even brought about the death of Admiral Kahoku, his body left to rot in a cell before recovered by Kiara. Distrust mixed with confusion, a whirlwind of emotions.
The name Lazarus also stood out, adding to her confusion. If she was right that meant this project was for bringing someone back from the dead, at least if the reference was intended. Which meant that person was her.
“I wiped out my fair share of Cerberus projects back when I was a Spectre. Why would they want to work with me? And you” she directed this at Wilson, her tone almost accusing “what did you mean, saved my life? Rebuilt me? Are you saying I was dying?”
“Not dying” Jacob answered. “You were dead. Dead as dead can be when they brought you in. This project’s aim was to rebuild you and make you who you were. Seems your memory is working. And the answers you want. They’re way above my pay grade. You’ll have to talk to The Illusive Man for those.”
“Ok.” Kiara stammered, the words almost chocking in her throat. She wanted answers and she wanted them now, but it was obviously that Jacob was being sincere. “If I’m not going to get any answers here, we better head to those shuttles.”
*****************************************
“Dead?” The word was almost snarled, directed at the corpse that now lay at Kiara’s feet. The door had slid open to reveal the woman from the video logs, the woman from her waking, the woman called Miranda. And there, dead by her hand lay Wilson.
The progress to the shuttle had been almost uneventful, interrupted only by brief battles with mechs, giving Kiara time to ply her trade, the only thing she was sure about anymore. The only constant in this world. Once again her world was shaken by the newest surprise as the revealing of Miranda had seen to the death of one of her party.
“What the hell are you doing?” Disbelief was obvious in Jacob’s voice as he looked from Wilson’s body to Miranda.
“My job” she replied matter-of-factly. “Wilson betrayed us all.
Kiara smiled, only slightly but it still showed. “I had a feeling Wilson was waiting for a chance to shoot me in the back.” While her voice was neutral she felt almost sanguine, content in the knowledge that her instincts had been right. Her mind seemed her own, even if her body felt strange and familiar at the same time.
“Good instincts. Come on, let’s grab this shuttle and get out of here. My boss wants to speak to you.”
“You mean The Illusive Man? I know you work for Cerberus.” If Kiara sought to get any reaction from Miranda she was mistaken, as the black haired woman merely turned to Jacob, voice pitched as if scolding a child. “Ah Jacob I should have knew your conscience would get the better of you one day.”
“Lying isn’t the way to get Shepard to join our cause.” He retorted.
“Well seeing as we’re getting everything out in the open”, her attention now focused on Kiara “is there anything else you want to know?”
Questions tumbled around her mind, doubt mixing with frustration freely, but Kiara kept that to herself. She didn’t know what was going on and so she saw no need to let her emotions be given reign. “Let’s just get the hell out of here. I’ve had enough of this station to last me a lifetime.”
“Or two, in your case.” Miranda’s reply was in the same tone as before, as if this was just another normal fact to be thrown about. But once again it threw Kiara into turmoil, common sense vying with the apparent fact that she had died and had been brought back.
Falling in step with Miranda, Kiara slumped into the shuttle’s seat, head resting on the wall behind her. She closed her eyes, hoping the darkness would take her. At least there, she knew what awaited her.
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