A/N: My first fanfic, please feel free to tear me a new one as I go into this journey of learning.

Timeline is immediately after the events of ME:2 but before the events of 3.

Prologue: Mission Complete

"Joker, lose this channel." The hologram of Shepard flickered for a moment before fading, leaving The Illusive Man fuming in disbelief. His hands shook, the glass of brandy he was holding slowly started to crack at his grip.

"Unbelievable…" He muttered to himself, his knuckles going white while the glass slowly started to give, the sound of it audible in the dead silence. That technology would've been the dawn of a new Golden Age for Cerberus; For Humanity as a species. It was almost within his reach, just painfully inches away from his grasp. It could have given him the means to save mankind from the Reaper threat and beyond. Could have. If only it wasn't for-

"Shepard." The Illusive Man continued with as much coldness as he could muster, finally shattering the glass in his vice grip. The shards cut deep and the alcohol stung, but it paled in comparison to his rage and frustration. All the research and credits and lives he had invested in Project Lazarus may as well have been for nothing due to one man's naïve idealism. He examined the damage done to his hand and slowly sat down on his chair, the moment over coming him. "That… That… Ungrateful, double crossing, naïve-" He stopped as his vision wandered to his ailing hand.

His bionic eyes went blood shot as his mind started to register the pain. Gritting his teeth, he clenched his mangled hand into a fist which made the bleeding worse. The blood ran down his arm and staining the sleeve of his immaculate suit. He started breathing heavily; sweat forming on his brow as he swatted the table next to his chair into the ground in frustration, knocking over his ashtray and the rest of the brandy. The Illusive Man slumped back into his chair, wheeling it around to face the soft glow of the blue sun outside his office window. Being the CEO of one of mankind's largest organization didn't make him a stranger to stress, and he had always found the view relaxing even in the most taxing of situations.

This particular situation, of course, was already beyond the realm of taxing. But the effect did not falter him, the warm glow soothing the pain in his hand and chest. Now wasn't the time for anger. He did not reach his position by letting every set back haunt him. No, no. The Illusive Man did not become one of the most powerful individuals in the galaxy by putting all his eggs into one basket. He had a dozen contingencies for every situation, and failure only brought about different opportunities. The technology was not completely lost; any viable salvage from the explosion would still be valuable, though not immensely. He had his ghost protocols in EDI's system download enough data from the Reaper IFF to start working on a similar device which would lead him back to the wreck of the collector base. It would have to be sufficient for preparation.

But that still left Shepard and his crew. Hate him or not, the man was a leader. No, he was not just a leader; that would be a gross understatement. The man was a symbol the entire galaxy can unite behind. Until recently, it was a symbol he had influence on. That would have to be rectified if he wanted to move on with his plans end ensure human supremacy in the galaxy.

"Clara." The Illusive Man said softly as a small terminal rose from the floor alongside his chair.

"Yes sir?" A woman's voice replied from the device.

"Have a first aid team come up to my office."

"Sir?" The voice suddenly said in alarm, "At once sir. Are you alright?"

"Don't concern yourself with it, Clara." He replied to his secretary, not taking his gaze away from the sun.

"Of course sir, would that be all?"

"Also, patch me through to Professor Zsasz." He took a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth. With the same hand he reached into his coat for his lighter, lighting the cigarette and taking a deep puff of them cool smoke.

"Yes sir." The woman said. A few moments later, a second voice came from the terminal.

"Ah, Illusive Man." Came a man's voice, it was deep and the accent heavily Dutch, laced with the grogginess of sleep-interrupted. "To what do I owe the honor?"

"Sorry to wake you at such a late hour, Victor." He replied, taking the cigarette out of his mouth after another puff. "It's about Shepard."

"Tis no trouble," the voice said. After a few moments of silence, he added, "So, did Shepard come through?"

"Yes and No." The Illusive Man had to hold the sudden urge to berate the doctor. "The Collector threat has been taken care of, but the Commander thought it best to rid us of their technology."

"Ah! Pity…" The reply was laced with self-satisfaction, and The Illusive Man had a very good guess as to why. "What will be our next move, sir?"

The Illusive Man leaned back on his chair and took another deep drag on his cigarette.

"I am giving Project Gemini the green-light." He said, turning towards the monitor to look at the smug professor. Had he not been one of his oldest associates, he would've had him shot long ago. "I'll expect a report on everything you will require within the next 12 hours. This project is now given top priority of all of Cerberus' resources."

The professor had vouched to be the one leading Project Lazarus, the group entrusted with Shepard's resurrection. He had been bitter about losing the position to the upstart Miss Lawson, and the look of triumph on his face was barely even hidden. The only thing missing was an I TOLD YOU SO.

Speaking of Miss Lawson, he would have to deal with Miranda and the rest of the mutinous crew, but there was time enough for that later.

"No need to wait sir, I am uploading it to your terminal now." Professor Victor Zsasz said, all traces of tiredness gone from his voice. "I have even begun preliminary research into the subject. Nothing too grand, mind you; Just a little vivisection here and there."

"Once again Victor, your eagerness impresses me." He looked at the small puddle of blood on the floor, his brow scrunching in anger. "I'll be expecting your preliminary reports in 72 hours then. I'm looking forward to your work, Victor."

"And I look forward to working on it." Zsasz replied.

He cut off the communication as he turned to let the medic team enter his office, escorted by a cadre of his personal guard. He silently presented his hand to one of the medics as he took in all that just happened.

"Blood for blood, Shepard." He said to nobody in particular as the doctors worked on his hand.

Meanwhile, on the Normandy...

Shepard stepped out of the FTL communicator, letting out a sigh of relief as the table rose from the floor and the lights went back on in the debriefing room. Damn, that felt great, he thought to himself as he grabbed one of the nearby chairs and sat down. His hands reached for his helmet and unclasped it, the air from depressurization hissing as he pulled it off and placed it on the table. His eyes caught his reflection on the tinted face plate visor and he barely recognized the man looking back at him. The one scar he had running across his left eye down to his cheek glowed a violent orange even in the well-lit room. Sins on face-value, he thought as he recalled some of the things he did to get the job done that he was not particularly proud of. He had the look of a man who hadn't slept in weeks, bags heavy and dark. He was also pretty sure his hair had a bit of grayness to them now as opposed to the jet black crown of hair he had when all this first started. A gauntleted hand ran across it as he let out a sigh of relief, kicking his feet up on the table and leaning back.

The mission had gone much better than anyone could have hoped. There were a lot of hairy situations but he managed to pull his entire team out of it relatively in one piece. Not only that but they also managed to rescue his entire crew. Really, the only thing that suffered greatly was the Normandy herself; the cargo bay had to be sealed off because of the gaping hole from the occulus attack but even that was being seen to even as they spoke. It would've been a happy ending had it not been for the death of the colonists. It was too late when they had arrived, the colonists were already being processed and he had barely enough time to rescue his own crew, much less hundreds of thousands of innocents. But you took whatever fate has given you, he had saved this much at least, as well as ensured the safety of the other colonies.

For the time being, anyway.

His walk about around the ship prior to his 'conversation' with the Illusive Man was uneventful. The med bay was thankfully almost empty, save for Dr. Chakwas and crewman Williams, who had a bruised ego, more than anything else. Most of the crew was too busy to chat for long, being too preoccupied with keeping the ship in one piece. Tali could only give him a quick hug and fought the urge to hug him longer before turning back to her work. He couldn't help but remember the attack on the collector base. How he had almost lost her when the station started to collapse. He brushed away the grim thought and was content in knowing that the person he cherished most was alive and well on board the ship.

He stayed there in silence for a few minutes, almost drifting to sleep when EDI piped up.

"Commander." The AI spoke, snapping Shepard out of his reverie.

"EDI!" He said in suprise, almost jumping out of his chair before regaining his composure. "EDI. Sorry, I was just… Never mind, what's going on?"

"You had instructed me to brief you in the ship's status, commander." The AI replied as a diagnostic hologram of the Normandy popped up in the middle of the table.

"Easy on the tech lingo and give me the short story, EDI." Shepard said as he leant in closer.

"Very well, Shepard." EDI said as various diagnostic readings came up. "The ship has sustained serious damage but field repairs have made her flight worthy over short distances." The hologram zoomed in on decks 4 and 5, showing various damage reports of the ship's many components. "The mass effect core is operating at minimum capacity. Docking and more elaborate repairs are highly recommended. The cargo bay has also been exposed to the vacuum of space. A make shift biotic patch has been installed but it won't hold for long."

"Thanks EDI, instruct Joker to make port in Omega." He would have given anything to make port anywhere else, but he didn't have much to give left. "We shall stay there until critical repairs are finished and leave not a moment sooner."

He never liked Omega, the pirate space station ran by the cut-throat Asari big boss known as Aria T'Loak. Being a mercenary hub, he could only imagine what would happen should Cerberus go public with a bounty on his head as well as the entire ship. No, they couldn't afford to stay there for long.

"Anything else, commander?" EDI spoke up.

"Yes, inform the team that we're going to have a meeting here in 15 minutes." They needed to discuss what would happen now. He paused for a bit before turning back to EDI's holographic projection. "Thank you, EDI."

"Thank you too, commander." The AI stated. "Logging you out, Shepard."

Shepard smiled weakly as the AI took it's leave. He didn't trust EDI at first, but after everything they have been through, he was pleasantly surprised that he was able to think of the AI as his crewmate. His friend.

He rolled his chair around and picked up his helmet, staring at it's battle-scarred plating for a moment. It was a long battle, but the war was far from over. The Collectors, Harbinger, they were only a small sample of what they would eventually have to face down. He closed his eyes and donned his helmet, the HUD flickering to life as the onboard computer linked up with his omni-tool.

War is coming. War unlike anything this galaxy has ever seen. It wasn't easy being John Shepard, but he knew that it wouldn't be easy being anybody in the months to come.