Mass Effect Nirvana

The twins had finally been born, despite complications due Eezo exposure, they were both born healthy. There were times where Hanna Shepard felt she would not survive the birth of her children. At her husband's instance she had given natural birth without any medication to make it less painful. Her partner, John Shepard, believed it would alter the children, make them weaker. She had no idea why he was so obsessed with weakness. It was likely a result of generations of Shepard's being in the alliance. Also there were no females born into the Shepard lineage for decades. Not until now.

Hanna Shepard looked down at her daughter. She was beautiful with radiant green eyes that already reflected wisdom. She couldn't explain why she felt her new born baby girl already seemed like an old soul. It was truly an odd feeling.

"They are both so perfect Hanna. My strong little man and my beautiful daughter" John held his son in his arms. "My boy will grow up to be the very best of the Shepard's. A future leader in the alliance and hero to mankind. Little Osiris" He was beaming at the little bundle in his arms.

Hanna shook her head. She was happy John had gotten what he wanted but she wished he would be a little more interested in his daughter. Favouritism was a good way to create a wedge between siblings. "What shall we name our daughter John? Perhaps we should name her Jane after your mother?"

John seemed to consider it. Despite how rough and tough he acted, he was a mommies boy at heart.

The quiet woman who stood to the side cleared her throat. Helena Black, Hanna's younger sister, was a site to behold. She was the very definition of beauty and grace. Unlike her sister she never entered into the Alliance. Instead she chose to teach and she was beyond successful at her chosen career. "Jane doesn't really suit her in my opinion, just looking at her I can tell she will make both the Black and Shepard family proud." She walked to Hanna, gestured for her to hand over the new born and comfortably slipped her into her arms as if she were programmed to be a mother. "No, she will show everyone what it truly means to be a fighter." Her eyes twinkled as she looked from Hanna to John. "You should name her Athena."

John rolled his eyes. Helena had always been eccentric and in his opinion to…artsy? "Athena? Sounds distantly familiar" It was probably some reference to a poet or artist. His family were strong and wilful, not the hippy types to write about their feelings and protest silly things.

After explaining the origin of the name and the meaning to John he had happily accepted the name. Hanna couldn't help but smile at his eagerness to name his daughter after a goddess of war. He was a simple man and dedicated the alliance.

Osiris Shepard and Athena Alice Shepard, The two new additions to the family would indeed grow up to strongly influence the future

A few years later…

At the delicate age of six both children already displayed very unique personalities, Athena was gentle and Osiris a typical boy. They had many influences in their lives such as their military parents and there ever present Aunt Helena. It had been decided that they would live with their Aunt, living in Mindoir in the Attican Traverse, so that they would not have to constantly move with their Alliance member parents. Both John and Hanna visited as often as they could and the children grew up being very much loved.

At approximately the age of two they were introduced to their new cousins. Helena had gotten married to a man with two children, aged 5 and 8, called Lisa and Jason. A year later they had a baby together. A sweet girl named Bethany. Together with all the children they lived as one big family. The kids treated each other like siblings and the adults were good friends.

There were issues of course; Osiris was a temperamental child at times, he would play soldier and as he pretended to kill his enemies little Athena would run after him pretending to health the fallen. Athena would collect flowers and Osiris would destroy them. The most notable altercation was when both children were thirteen. Osiris had broken Bethany's arm in anger, the usually gentle Athena punched and broke his nose in retaliation. She cried afterwards at her own unusual outburst. That very moment would never be forgotten between the two.

Behavioural issues became more problematic as Osiris aged. He was caught torturing and killing animals at the age of fourteen. John had explained away his son's behaviour by simply saying he struggled with his temper like all the men in the Shepard Family. More incidents took place at the military school both children were enrolled in. Osiris was accused of being a bully, was constantly in fights but was a brilliant student. He showed a natural talent for military training as well as academics.

John however was somewhat disappointed to find out that Osiris showed no inclination towards Biotics where as his uninterested daughter showed tremendous talent for it.

Athena was enrolled with her brother to the local military school but was not interested in combat. Instead her interest lay with becoming a Doctor. She disliked violence intensely and instead wanted to help others, perhaps it was her Aunts influence, but Athena had no plan to join the alliance. Due to her ability as a biotic she was enrolled in special programs in school. Like others in her family she was a natural soldier. The alliance showed a lot of interest in the Shepard children's future.

Year 2170

It was a bright and sunny day in Mindoir. Schools had just finished for that day, Athena and Osirirs were walking home together in silence. The fields were growing well and the local farmers were happy with the progress. Oddly Athena noticed she couldn't hear any movement of animals or birds.

"Hey ozzy, have you… no never mind." Her brother was in one of those moods again. He looked at her with distaste but ignored her attempt at conversation. She was such a soft delicate little flower and he wanted nothing more than to crush that weakness out of her. It annoyed him to no end that she didn't have the heart to do what was necessary. How would she ever make their father proud with the hippy attitude that she had.

"What?" The annoyance in his voice was obvious

"Nothing" They continued to walk in silence. Athena spotted a beautiful flower growing on the edge of neighbour's farm. She went to pick but was interrupted by unknown ships overhead. She picked the flower quickly as Osiris snatched her arm and walked faster towards their home.

"Hurry up! Something is happening" His grip was tight and uncomfortable. There were never ships flying in this area. It was a large farming community. They sped up to a slight jog in order to get home quickly.

Approaching their residence they heard screaming. A quick exchange of concerned looks they ran towards the house. The door was wide open and there was a small trail of blood. The training they had received during school kicked in and they lined up against the wall. Osiris popped his head through the open doorway to have a quick look.

"What is it?" Athena whispered to her brother. She noticed the look of fear on his face. He didn't answer her quickly enough and she decided to look for herself. She leaned across his body and looked inside. The sight that greeted her was horrific.

There was blood everywhere. Young Bethany sat in the corner crying hysterically while her mother was bent over the kitchen table with a Batarian behind her. Aunt Helena was trying to scream for Bethany to run but it sounded more like gurgles. Clearly she was too terrified to do so. The more she tried to scream, the more blood was running out of her mouth. There was four more batarian's standing in the kitchen, they were laughing at the site.

Athena backed away, tears running down her cheeks and covered her mouth. She was going to get sick. There was just too much blood. She couldn't hold it down and vomited. The sound of her getting sick did not reach the batarians as they were laughing so loudly.

Osiris took another look into the room trying to formulate a plan to help his Aunt. His second look into the room was worse than the first. His aunt had stopped screaming, she wasn't moving or fighting back anymore. She was dead but that didn't stop the batarian from continuing to rape her. He thrust in and out of her eagerly. It seemed she had bled out from the obvious bullet wounds.

There was a shotgun on the counter right by the doorway. If he could reach it, maybe he could still help Bethany.

"Athena" He attempted to whisper to get his sisters attention. She didn't respond.

He tried again. "Athena" The second attempt worked. He had his sisters attention but also one of the batarians.

The batarian turned, spotted Athena bent over and looking backwards. He grinned to himself. Humans were pathetically easy and he would enjoy tainting this young human girl. He approached gun pointed unaware of the teenager hiding next to the door way. He didn't see it coming and barely felt his neck breaking. Osiris had snapped his neck as he moved past the young man.

The sound of a body dropping caught the attention of the other batarians. They turned simultaneously and pointed their guns at Athena. In a language unknown to Athena they were shouting something. Her instincts kicked in, she began to glow a slight blue and used her biotics to throw the group of invaders to the side. She began to laugh to herself, nothing like a life threatening situation will bring out the most of a person's biotic strength.

Osiris grabbed the gun the batarian dropped and walked inside the house cautiously. Trying to remember his training he swept through the room looking for any other threats. There seemed to be none.

"Athena grab the gun on the counter" Looking back to his sister he saw her lightly shaking his Aunt's body. "She's dead. There is nothing you can do for her now."

Athena felt like everything was happening in slow motion. Her aunt's body was riddled with bullet woods, covered in blood and black liquid between her legs. It took her awhile to click as to what the liquid was and what had been happening to her aunt. The realisation hit her hard. They were raping her beloved Aunt. Aunt Helena had always been so kind. She was always smiling, laughing and dancing.

"I'm going to check the rest of the house for the others. Grab the gun and get Bethany." Osiris said

Athena had forgotten the young girl was in the corner. Her sobbing had gotten so silent and she stopped moving. "Bethany come here" Bethany ran to her and hid her face in Athena's body. Athena lead her outside "Wait here, don't make any sounds and call if you see anyone coming" Her instructions were clear and she wanted the young girl outside for what she was about to do. "Whatever you do don't look inside, okay?"

Osiris came back to the room because he heard the gunshots. Athena was standing over the batarians shooting them. One shot to the head. "What are you doing? That's a waste of ammo. They were unconscious from the biotoc slam!"

"You know what they did to Aunt Helena. They don't deserve to live" She couldn't understand why he would be more concerned with ammunition rather than avenging his Aunt's life. He never did understand much of the human emotions he saw around him. She knew he was what therapists called a Psychopath. She knew her twin brother better than anyone.

He didn't respond. He was smart enough to notice when he didn't understand normal human emotion. Instead he simply made his way out the home, took Bethany's little hand and lead her away. "We need to hide in the forest. They are going to try to contact those batarians we killed. We need to get moving"

The rest of the day was full of bloodshed and violence. As they snuck around trying to find a way to hide they saw horrific sites. People were being held down and chips being placed inside their heads, women were being violated and children screaming for help. The Shepard siblings knew not to try save anyone. They were outnumbered, outgunned and had a young child to protect. There were instances where Athena wanted to help; to risk her life to stop the awful things that were happening but the pressure from Bethany's hand in her own stopped her. She had let her Aunt die, she wasn't going to let another person she loved died because of her actions, or rather her lack of action in her aunts case. Neither twin would speak of the moment they saw their cousins held in cage, with blood dripping down their forehead from the incision of control chips. What happened was unspeakable.

Athena had finally lost it, shot and killed the batarians guarding the cage. Although Osiris had helped once she opened fire he didn't have the stomach to do what she did next. She gained his respect with her actions, not that it was worth much at the time. Athena had shot the captured people one by one. They both knew it was too late to remove the chips. Once it was done there was no going back and repairing the damage. She hesitated when it came to Cousin Jason. The naked site and tell-tale sign of black liquid between Cousin Lisa's legs gave Athena the strength to end her life. Even if she were to recover from the control chip, she would remember what had happened to her. What life could a girl live once she had been raped and chipped.

It took approximately six hours for alliance ships to reach Mindoir. A few more hours to slowly push back the Batarians, eventually getting the Batarians to flee out of the Attican Traverse completely, and some time to reach the Shepard Siblings. They were covered in blood and sweat. They suffered minor physical injuries and unknown mental trauma. The young girl in their company was unscathed but refused to leave Athena Shepard's side for even a second.

Out of a population of 4793 people in the small farming town in Mindoir, they were the only three survivors.

Miranda Lawson had many talents and positive characteristics, not all because of her genetic modification, but very many gained through life experiences. Her perfect memory however was due to her genetic modifications thanks to her father, that bastard. There were very few people she would consider memorable but Commander Shepard, or as she simply knew her as Athena , was not one of them. The years had been kind to her or had they? Miranda couldn't tell if Shepard was supposed to look this young or if perhaps she had made a slight error when working on Shepard. That was a laugh! Miranda never made mistakes. Shepard just looked good for her age. They hadn't seen each other since they were sixteen but Shepard really hadn't changed all that much, well at least physically she hadn't.

Shepard still had stunning green eyes, long lush brown hair and cute button nose. She had lost her tan but that was likely because she had been nothing more than a chunk of meat on an operating table inside a laboratory for two years. The slight loss of muscle tone could also be explained away for the same reason. They did have a physiotherapist come in daily to move the body around to maintain a certain amount of muscle and of course the machines hooked up to Shepard sent signals to her muscle to contract. For a piece of meat Shepard still looked good.

Miranda had mixed feelings when it came to Shepard. Other than her father the only other person she hated was Shepard but when she was willing to admit it, which wasn't often, she felt more hurt by her rather than hatred towards her. They had a complicated history to say the least.

On days where she was working countless hours on reviving the commander she found herself speaking to Shepard. The topics varied between speaking about their past or even just about how her day had been. It was nice to have someone to speak to, someone just to listen to her. Sure Shepard couldn't respond but she had always been a good listener. Miranda could almost imagine how she would listen attentively; ask a few appropriate questions and then usually give a bit of good advice. Well that or crack a joke.

Today however was not one of the days where she had the opportunity to speak to Shepard because Wilson was present. She didn't trust Wilson as far as she could throw him. Smiling to herself she thought about just how far she could throw him using her biotics. He spotted her smiling, attempted to smile back and her smile dropped as if it had never graced her face. There was something off about the man. It could have been how he looked at Shepard or his skittish behaviour at times. Most likely it was the amount of times something had gone wrong while Shepard was on his watch. He wasn't allowed to work on her alone anymore. Shepard had crashed and flat lined a few to many times in his presence to be a coincidence. However, he was valuable asset to Cerberus and to the Lazarus Project. He was kept on only because it was necessary.

Sudden beeping caught Miranda's attention. Shepards vitals have started spiking. "Wilson what's the problem?"

"uuuuuuh….uh.. her brain activity is going…ah.. um berserk"

That stuttering idiot had messed up again. "Give her a higher dosage of sedatives" Miranda made her way to Shepard. Standing next to the woman she could see her eyes moving below her eyelids. "Wilson hurry up!" The beeping became louder and more prevalent.

In a second that seemed to last forever, Shepard's eyes shot open and made contact with Miranda's own. Her pupils were tiny and there was evident fear in her eyes. The commander could not be awake yet, there were minor tweaks that had to be done. Her body wasn't ready to respond to a fully responsive brain.

A slight blue hue surrounded Shepard's body and objects around the room began to lift. This should not have been possible. Shepard may have been a strong biotic but this was unfathomable. "Wilson give her more damn it!"

An arm outstretched towards her caught her attention. She quickly took Shepard's hand. Moving at this point could easily cause a muscle to sprain. "Shepard it's alright. Stay calm." Her mind may have been playing tricks on her but Shepard seemed to calm at the contact and more so at her words. It seemed almost as if she recognised Miranda. That was likely just wishful thinking. Gently stroking her thumb across the hand she held in her own, the beeping decreased and floating objects lowered and eventually fell to the ground. Once again Shepard was in a deep sleep.

Miranda directed the most hateful look she could conjure towards Wilson. She couldn't prove it but she had a feeling it was another attempt to sabotage the Lazarus Project. "Get out and do so quickly!" Wilson scurried out and directed one last look towards Miranda before stomping down the hallway. Shepard would have to wake up soon or she would likely not survive another attempt. Miranda knew she would have to work even harder on her current assignment in order for it to be successful.


End file.

Mass Effect, Romance, Sci-Fi