Unprompted: FShep/Kaidan, FShep/Garrus - Only Skin - Part 1/?
anonymous
September 2 2012, 04:02:46 UTC
While in the Cronos Station, Shepard finds out what she feared worst of all: that she wasn't just a reconstruction, but a clone of the original Commander Shepard. As she heads to the battle on Earth, she and those who know the truth must come to their own terms of what this revelation means to each of them.Like an animal, Shepard had the taste for blood in her mouth as they made their way through Cronos station. Whether it was Kai Leng or just the poor soul who emptied the litter bins they encountered next, there was a heat sink, primed and ready, with their name on it. But for all the adrenaline pumping through her veins, there was nothing to be done when encountered with locked doors impeding their way
( ... )
Only Skin - Part 2/?
anonymous
September 2 2012, 04:06:48 UTC
Annnd I forgot to post the prompt separately so I didn't clog up the page with the post. My apologies, anons.
Shepard’s words were loud as she made her accusation. “Did you know?”
“I have always known. I was originally bound by Cerberus’ shackles to not reveal to you all the details of Project Lazarus. Once they were removed…” The door blinked green, unlocked, but EDI didn’t open it, just lowered her hand as they conversed. “…I decided that it would be in your best interest that you did not know the truth.”
“The truth?” Kaidan interjected, looking between Shepard and EDI. “What’s going on?”
“Of course I needed to know!” Shepard shouted. “How could you ever think I didn’t deserve to know who-what-I really was
( ... )
Only Skin - Part 3/?
anonymous
September 2 2012, 04:11:31 UTC
By time they made it to the laboratory, Shepard was more exhausted from rebuffing Kaidan at every lull in fighting than each close call with a phantom. There was no stopping her as EDI nodded towards the doorway on the far side of the long hallway, and without missing a step or beat, Shepard holstered her weapon and armed her omni-blade. With a running start, she threw her weight into it, slamming the sharp point of the glowing knife between the two halves of the uniform doorway
( ... )
Only Skin - Part 4/?
anonymous
September 2 2012, 04:18:30 UTC
Kaidan focused on the image before them. In a pod not unlike that of the one he’d read her krogan, Grunt, had been grown in, or the colonists on Horizon had been put into by the Collectors, there was something that only barely resembled what had once been alive and human. The shape was right, a head down to shoulders, arms extending from there, though one side stopped halfway down the upper arm, the other missing most of the fingers on its hand
( ... )
Only Skin - Part 5/?
anonymous
September 2 2012, 04:24:27 UTC
Kaidan silently went first and Shepard followed behind, but not a few steps from the tank did she suddenly stop, turning around as she drew her pistol and fired it at the glass above the dead Shepard’s head. The tank shattered, cracking from the top on down to the bottom, and she returned, punching at the weakened glass with the elbow of her armor as the fluid began to drain out of the tank, alarms sounding within the room at the sensed intrusion and system’s compromised integrity
( ... )
Re: Only Skin - Part 5/?
anonymous
September 2 2012, 07:03:43 UTC
OMG, this is deep and dark and gut-wrenching! You're conveying the grief and confusion and feeling betrayed so well. Can't wait to see where you take this A!A, this is great!
Re: Only Skin - Part 5/?
anonymous
September 2 2012, 23:21:09 UTC
Hmm. What is it about a person that makes them, them? Personally, given that she has all the right memories and personality traits, I'd say that Shepard is still Shepard, just running on a new platform as it were.
Only Skin - Part 6/?
anonymous
September 3 2012, 06:20:23 UTC
The course was set for Earth by time they made it back to the Normandy with what little information the Prothean VI had for them. It would take a day to reach the Sol system and the planet of their destination, even burning the mass effect core at its full potential, and the mood onboard had turned somber. The end was in sight finally after all that time, and yet not a soul on the ship could make themselves believe they weren’t headed directly for the gallows. They would live or they wouldn’t, that was as simple as it was, and the circumstances of their impending deaths were most certainly out of their control. It was time to find comfort in the ones they loved, the friends they’d made, and leave their final messages should they not make it out in the end
( ... )
Only Skin - Part 7/?
anonymous
September 3 2012, 06:22:59 UTC
It was well into the middle of the night before Shepard disengaged the terminal. Her eyes burned from lack of sleep, and yet the rest of her body thrummed on, unwilling and unable to crawl into bed if it meant doing so alone.
Shepard pressed thumb and forefinger into her closed eyelids in a last ditch attempt at restoring proper vision and function, but as she blinked them open, it proved to be fruitless. All she saw, all she thought of, was the hollowness behind the other Shepard’s lids, where eyes had once been, the delicate tissue probably some of the first to go. Her own eyes, she knew, were organic but with implants, much like the rest of her. Enhancements, reinforcements, those were what littered through the rest of her body, meant to improve upon where the original Shepard’s body had failed and been vulnerable before.
While she hadn’t comprehended anywhere near even half of the data EDI had dumped onto her console, she’d understood enough. Enough to know that in addition to everything else, a number of her organs weren’t even
( ... )
Only Skin - Part 9/?
anonymous
September 3 2012, 06:33:27 UTC
Though he was willing at first, it didn’t take long for Kaidan to fight for his hand’s freedom, setting it to her shoulder to push her back. His head shook vigorously, combing his fingers through his hair. “Fuck, I can’t. I can’t do this anymore-not, not to her.”
Shepard shifted back in her seat, unable to move or do anything save watch him as he came apart. Kaidan leaned forward, elbows to his knees as he held his head in his hands.
“I keep wondering if there’s something after this life. I’m not religious, but I can’t stop thinking about it. What if I die and she’s there waiting for me? What if she asks me how I could forget about her so easily, fall into bed with her-” With each word, he grew more distraught, and Shepard felt helpless as she watched. “-Her copy? What do I say? That it was easier to pretend you were the same person when now I know you’re not? How do I face her after what I’ve done?”
“She…” would understand, she wanted to say. They were the same person, and yet, Shepard began to doubt herself. Would she really
( ... )
Only Skin - Part 10/?
anonymous
September 3 2012, 06:37:16 UTC
“I want you to know,” Shepard said softly, “that I may not be her in the way we thought, but every part of my body feels like it is. It’s like I fell asleep and woke up and now the world is upside down and I just have to deal with it even if I don’t know where I fit in, if I even have the right to be here at all. She never got to say it, Kaidan, but when I was-when she was-dying, suffocating after the Normandy exploded,” she choked, and to her shock, Kaidan stood, mimicking her action from earlier as he set his hand to her cheek. He sought the answer in her eyes, waiting. “She was thinking that she wished she had been able to tell you how much she loved you. I knew back then, but I,” intentional or not, she didn’t correct herself, “was too scared to say it out loud. She would want me to make sure you knew that now
( ... )
Only Skin - Part 11/?
anonymous
September 3 2012, 06:42:15 UTC
She didn’t turn, just pulled her hand back to herself and wiped away the tears from her cheeks and eyes, blinking rapidly in a desperate attempt to hurry away the redness she knew had to be there
( ... )
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Shepard’s words were loud as she made her accusation. “Did you know?”
“I have always known. I was originally bound by Cerberus’ shackles to not reveal to you all the details of Project Lazarus. Once they were removed…” The door blinked green, unlocked, but EDI didn’t open it, just lowered her hand as they conversed. “…I decided that it would be in your best interest that you did not know the truth.”
“The truth?” Kaidan interjected, looking between Shepard and EDI. “What’s going on?”
“Of course I needed to know!” Shepard shouted. “How could you ever think I didn’t deserve to know who-what-I really was ( ... )
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Shepard pressed thumb and forefinger into her closed eyelids in a last ditch attempt at restoring proper vision and function, but as she blinked them open, it proved to be fruitless. All she saw, all she thought of, was the hollowness behind the other Shepard’s lids, where eyes had once been, the delicate tissue probably some of the first to go. Her own eyes, she knew, were organic but with implants, much like the rest of her. Enhancements, reinforcements, those were what littered through the rest of her body, meant to improve upon where the original Shepard’s body had failed and been vulnerable before.
While she hadn’t comprehended anywhere near even half of the data EDI had dumped onto her console, she’d understood enough. Enough to know that in addition to everything else, a number of her organs weren’t even ( ... )
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Shepard shifted back in her seat, unable to move or do anything save watch him as he came apart. Kaidan leaned forward, elbows to his knees as he held his head in his hands.
“I keep wondering if there’s something after this life. I’m not religious, but I can’t stop thinking about it. What if I die and she’s there waiting for me? What if she asks me how I could forget about her so easily, fall into bed with her-” With each word, he grew more distraught, and Shepard felt helpless as she watched. “-Her copy? What do I say? That it was easier to pretend you were the same person when now I know you’re not? How do I face her after what I’ve done?”
“She…” would understand, she wanted to say. They were the same person, and yet, Shepard began to doubt herself. Would she really ( ... )
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