Author's Note: I made Jeff a little unsure around women because I just chose to. He acts all tough and sarcastic over comm but is unsure how to act socially. To be honest, I will probably leave this unfinished forever because that is how I work, but you never know. Just don't get your hopes up if you like it. I feel like Joker needs more love because of the completely adorable jerk he is. Also, my character is not Czech, just has a Czech surname.

Cerys

It was freezing cold when Cerys opened her eyes. Her vision was distorted and everything was blurry. When she tried to take a step forward, everything in her view seemingly moved on its own. She lifted her foot to take a step but fell to the ground with a loud thud, her thin bones and aching flesh colliding with cold, hard metal. She had hit a sharp edge and a warm liquid was trickling down her brow. The sound that came from the drops of blood dripping down onto the ground reminded her of the rain hitting a gravel road.

Her vision slowly regained itself and she began to see contours of what seemed to be a big warehouse. Her eyes widened as she saw a large window at the end of the room that overlooked a whole galaxy. Stars were painted across the vast darkness. Shocked and confused, Cerys dropped to her knees. This was not possible.

A sound came from the other side. A door was being opened. It had a sound similar to an automatic sliding door, only that is sounded much heavier. Footsteps could be heard clanking down the metallic floor. Cerys had no time to hide before she was faced with the barrel of a gun. Panicked, she shuffled backward, struggling to get away from the stranger. A wrong placement of the hand sent her tumbling down a set of stairs. She screamed out as her head smashed into the railing. Then she laid unmoving at the end of the stairs.

There was a light; the sun. Her own sun, in her own milky way. Her house, messy as always with paper and books scattered all over. The plants were alive, green as she had left them. Her mother stood by the counter, complaining about the mess. The cat meowed and rubbed against Cerys's leg, demanding to be pet. There was a fire; a big fire with blue flames that seemed to reach all the way up to the sky. Her mother screamed and screamed as the fire melted her flesh as if she was a plastic doll. Cerys trembled as she watched her mother fall to the floor, reduced to nothing but burnt bones. She watched the flames rise around her, engulfing her whole body. Her flesh, her blood, the flames. Everything was red.

She jolted upwards trying to catch her breath. She was drenched in sweat and her whole body felt like it was on fire. It was only a nightmare. Examining the room she saw that it was small. It had the feeling of a hospital room but it looked like it was taken from a sci-fi movie scene with futuristic beds and advanced technology littering the white desks that were positioned against the wall opposite from where she was lying. Her head was hurting too much for her to think properly and summed it up to be a really bad hangover and that her friends were only playing a prank on her.

"You're awake and alive, I see."

Cerys gasped, frightened by the sudden and unknown voice. She did feel safer that it wasn't a man's voice, however.

The woman apologized and stepped into the room, "I didn't mean to scare you." The woman had a worn, wrinkled face that held authority. Her eyes spoke a different story as they were soft and kind. "I'm Doctor Chakwas. Karin Chakwas." The woman introduced herself, pulling up a chair beside the bed. She sat down and rested her hands in her lap. "Now, what do you remember?" She asked, an unsure smile forming on her lips.

Cerys' lips trembled as she tried to remember what had happened before she woke up. Everything was blank. "I... I don't remember anything at all. I don't know where I am or what happened. The only thing I remember was leaving my apartment and waking up here." Not being able to hold back her tears anymore, she let them fall freely. Covering her face with her hands, she sobbed uncontrollably. Chakwas listened to Cerys' attempt to explain how scared she was between her sobs. When Cerys couldn't cry anymore, she looked up to the doctor with red, puffy eyes and said, "My name is Cerys Procházková, I was born in San Francisco in 2012, and I need to know where the fuck I am."

Her sentence seemed to shut out all sounds. The room turned dead silent. Only the buzzing sounds from the machines could be heard.

Chakwas stared at the woman, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. "That's impossible..." Surely the woman had hit her head too hard and she was only rambling nonsense. But her clothes, her way of speech... it all made sense. "But then you would be almost two hundred years old! There is no technology even today that can make that possible."

Cerys' eyes narrowed. "Is this some sick joke? Did my friends put you up to this? Well, it's not fucking funny." She spat and got off from the bed. Looking at herself, she noticed that she wasn't wearing her own clothes, but rather a set of white hospital-like clothes.

Chakwas's eyes were blank, "I'm afraid this is not a joke. Follow me." She motioned toward the door opposite of her. You could almost see outside, but the windows were too tinted to get a good look at what was out there. Cerys hesitantly followed the doctor. They walked into a large room what seemed to act as a mess hall. In one corner there was a small kitchen area. The room went quiet and all the people who had previously eaten their food stopped to look at Cerys. Some looked scared, and others stared at her with suspicious eyes.

Cerys thought they all looked human, only that they had futuristic-looking clothes on. So far, Cerys didn't believe the doctor.

They stepped into an elevator. Cerys was going to ask how they were going to go anywhere since the elevator didn't have any buttons. Before she could ask though, the elevator started moving up at an insane speed. It stopped and the doors opened. A man was just about to step into the elevator when he noticed Cerys. A confused expression painted his face. "Uh, doctor, why is there a girl in pajamas here?" He asked and smirked. The man was taller than Cerys by at least one feet and had a stubble. Cerys noticed he was wearing a cap that said SR2.

Before Chakwas could answer, he entered and stood beside Cerys. Cerys felt her chest tighten at the sudden loss of personal space but said nothing. One thing she noticed was his way of walking; slouched with a slight limp. Chakwas was shooting mean glances at him and seemed to be mouthing something that Cerys couldn't hear.

Biting her lip, Cerys spoke, "Who are you?"

The man seemed surprised by her question. "Me? I'm the pilot here. I'm Joker."

"Joker?"

"That's what everyone calls me since I joke so much." He said with a smile. After that, he kept his eyes glued to the ground. He was clenching and unclenching his fists as if he was anxious.

Cerys raised a brow, "What's your real name then?"

Joker turned his attention to her. "Uh, it's Jeff. You can call me that instead if you want." He mumbled and scratched his neck.

Cerys smiled at him. "Okay, Jeff. Nice to meet you, I suppose." She paused for a moment. Should she introduce herself as well? "I'm Cerys." She decided to tell him after all.

The doors opened and they all stepped into what seemed to be both a bedroom and an office. A man was sitting at a white plastic desk and he was holding a transparent tablet in his hands. The way he was sitting with his back straight and eyes vigilant told Cerys he held some sort of authority. He might even have been military. He seemed surprised to see us all there, but stood up and greeted us nevertheless. "Chakwas, Joker..." He nodded at them before turning his attention to Cerys. "Who are you?"

Cerys was panicking a bit and straightened her back. "I uh... my name is Cerys Procházková... sir." In the last fifteen minutes, Cerys had started to doubt more and more about the prank theory. The situation she was in started to get more real as time went by and it was terrifying her to no end. Being trapped in a place full of strangers and having nowhere to go was frightening. "Can you please tell me what is going on?"

Having nothing to hide, the man answered truthfully, "We're not sure. You just appeared out of nowhere in the engine room. At first, we thought you were a saboteur or a spy. Your clothes and your reaction to being confronted was a dead giveaway that you weren't a spy." His voice had lowered drastically as he explained, a melancholic tone had replaced his usual stern one. "To be sure, we ran your DNA in a database to find out who you were. We found the records and they stated you had been dead for more than hundred years. A fire spread through the whole town and killed half of the population."

All colors slowly drained from her face. The room was spinning; her heart beating faster and faster. "This can't be real. This is just some sick fucking joke!" She began hyperventilating, her lungs feeling like paper being crumpled into a ball. Chakwas was by her side in a split second, speaking in a calm voice. Cerys couldn't hear or see anything but static. Hugging her knees, she sobbed loud as Chakwas stroked her arm in a soothing manner. "I can't do this. I want to go home. I want my life back." Cerys looked pleadingly at them. Her tear-streaked face was fear-stricken. A few minutes later, she was sound asleep due to exhaustion.

"Let's move her to the med-bay," Chakwas whispered.

When Cerys awoke, she once again found herself in the same place as before. Paranoia filled her mind and she thought that she would relive all recent events like it was Edge of Tomorrow. This time there wasn't a woman by her side, but rather the man she had met right before getting a panic attack. The man tilted his head. He looked intrigued by her. Crossing his arms, he asked how she was feeling.

"Yeah, well I feel like shit. I still don't know if this is some sick joke or if I've actually lost everything I have ever known. How the fuck do you think I feel?" She snapped and laid to face the other way.

"You're right, it was a dumb question." The room was quiet for a moment. "What are you going to do now?"

Cerys felt a pang of pain hit her. What was she going to do? She had to face the fact that there was nothing left for her; nothing of her own world. "I don't know. I have no idea where I am even." She turned to face him again. "Are you going to kick me out now?"

He laughed. Cerys was taken aback by this and looked down in shame. "Kick you out into space? Not gonna do that." He said. "But we can drop you off at the Citadel if you want; get you up and running for a new life. Or you could stay here on the ship and help us out in some way, but I have to warn you that we're on a suicide mission so you may want to give it some thought before saying yes. The chance of survival is slim to none."

Cerys blinked dumbfounded. Space? Her eyes widened with both excitement and fear. "We're on a spaceship? A real spaceship?" There were so many questions flying around in her head. Why wasn't she dead? Why was she here? It was all so unclear and fuzzy and she couldn't remember a thing after leaving her apartment for the last time.

"I'm not trying to push you or anything, but we're arriving in the Citadel in about an hour. You need to decide soon."

"If I stay here, what am I supposed to help with? This technology is way ahead of what we had in my time." God, this made her feel older than she was. "I used to work with computers but my knowledge is outdated."

"Well, you could cook?" Cerys rolled her eyes at his statement. He cringed at his suggestion and said, "Well, you could accompany Joker up at the bridge. He never talks to anyone so it would be a good change, and he could teach you about the Normandy. You seemed to be quite interested in her."

Cerys nodded. She guessed this was a start. Not a good one, or a bad one - but it was a start.