[Book Three] Chapter 32: Like brother, like sister

Chapter 32: Like brother, like sister

“3, 2, 1…”

The bomb that James had brought and armed exploded, creating a big hole in the archives wall. Now with an open path, the team got inside the underground building. They arrived in a big square room with plenty of terminals and desks. Rick supposed that it was in a room like that that every data was archived.
When everyone was inside, each was targeted by lasers. Immediately understanding that the mercs had been waiting for them and set an ambush the crew went all out. Two teams, Mako and Hammerhead were on the upper floor, dealing with the enemies on the same level, leaving the ones on the ground to Team Shepard. Everything was going well when a familiar voice shouted over the gunfire to stop fighting and for the crew to drop their weapons or they would kill Brooks who got herself taken as a hostage.

“Go ahead.”
“Rick!” Jane chastised, playing his game whatever it was.
“Just saying.”
“Drop your gun. Everyone else too.” she ordered and was obeyed.

With everyone disarmed the mysterious figure holding Brooks in the shadows pushed her forward making her fall to the ground floor.

“I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what you want but I know that you won’t escape from this nor will you be able to hide.” Jane warned.
“Hide? Commander Shepard doesn’t hide.”

Getting into the light and dropping town to the lower floor, the mysterious figure's identity was revealed. Rick knew he had recognized their voice. It was his sister’s after all.
Right there in front of the crew was standing a tall perfect lookalike of Commander Jane Rosalind Shepard.

“Who are you?…” the redhead whispered dumbfounded at the revelation.
“Turned out, you weren’t the only one brought back to life by Cerberus. But at least one of us will do something about it.”
“You’re two reapers, a peace and a saved from extinction species behind.” Rick commented.
“Ah! Saving the krogans? Brokering peace between Geths and Quarians? Not much of a feat for humanity; mistakes at best. The reapers? One was done in by a thresher maw the other by an orbital strike. Not much of a feat either.” replied the Jane lookalike.
“I had many questions for you but what you just said made them irrelevant. All except one. Do you really think you can be me? That you can replace me?”
“The only difference between you and I is the memories.”
“So that’s your big plan, kill everyone on the crew that’s familiar with the original?” asked Rick.
“Yes. Pretty simple isn’t it?” the lookalike answered.
“Oh, and you’ll kill Hacket? Anderson? Her own mother who’s currently the human councilor?” the helmeted man added.
“There is no need. From my reports Hackett doesn’t know you personally, Anderson is stuck on Earth and you’re not on good terms with your mother. Or rather my mother. I’m pretty sure we’ll mend the bridge once she gets to know me, after all she’s the butcher of Torfan. She will be proud of me seeing that I finally follow in her footsteps to the progress of humanity.” the lookalike replied, making Jane laugh.
“Your ignorance is baffling. Go ahead, do it. Just for a laugh, because there is no way your plan will work.” the original redhead challenged.
“Bluff all you want, it’s pointless.”
“Is it the right moment to tell her that your mother was proud of you for standing up to her for Torfan? How do you think she’ll react knowing, dear mommy will catch her on the spot?” Rick mockingly whispered in his sister’s ear loud enough to be heard.
“Enough! I will not be mocked by a man child who couldn’t even protect his wife and unborn daughter!”
““““““““...”””””””””””
“DIBS ON KILLING THAT CUNT.” Rick replied darkly.
“As if you could. The only reason you’re on the crew to begin with is because she took pity on you in the first place. True, you fight well and you’re a tech expert but I’ve got plenty of guys as good if not better.”
“I’m going to rip your skull and spine from your body with my bare hands.”
“That’s the spirit!” Wrex said.
“Throw them through the airlock afterward!” Javik advised from the back.
“What are you anyway? A clone?” Jane asked.
“Yes.”
“The clone of the Lazarus project? I thought you had been disposed of?” remarked EDI.
“I wasn’t. Some members of Cerberus believed that I would do better than the original because I was made better. I’m you but perfected.” he said to Jane. “Without the doubts, without the failures. I’m…”
“A child that wants to be Shepard instead of Shepard.” interrupted Rick. “The only reason Gingerbread has come this far is because she was forged into what she is thanks to every experience she went through. You have none. You have the potential sure, thanks to the DNA but you’re just a blank slate. You can’t do shit.”
“I. AM. SHEPARD!” the redhead spat right in front of Rick’s face. “I am the greatest soldier in the Galaxy and I’m going to defeat the reapers! Not her!”
“I doubt that.” Jane replied and tried to reach the Normandy to give the order of locking down. Unfortunately The communication was blocked and the signal copied by the clone who used it instead. Ordering Traynor to prepare for flight.
“Is she trying to steal my ship?” Jane asked, looking back at her team before turning back to ask the same to her clone. “Are you trying to steal my ship?”
“Steal? I’m not stealing anything. After all I'm Commander Shepard and the Normandy belongs to me.” Turning around she exited the room giving an execution order to her subordinates.

Rick immediately created an area barrier protecting everyone. Not missing a bit the crew picked up their guns and were ready to shoot. Focusing on the flow of energy in his hand Rick created a nova, sending every enemy too close backward and allowing the team to attack.
Despite how well equipped the mercs were they were no match for the seasoned crew of the Normandy. They didn’t even last five minutes before they were all dead. Rick didn’t waste time going through the door the clone left with Jane, Wrex and Tali in tow, while team Mako and Hammerhead did the same but on the upper floor.

“I almost feel sorry for your clone, Jane. Almost.” said Tali.
“I’m not.”
“You don't feel sorry for anything Wrex and I share the sentiment, Tali. Trying to steal my identity was already a death warrant but it could have been swift. Talking to Rick like that…” Jane said as three mercs flew in front of the trio from one side to the other and hitting head first, in a loud crack, the wall on their left.
“She’s going to hurt a lot.” Tali finished not bothering to look at the down enemies.
“Even *I* don't have a quad big enough for that. I mean, a fight to the death? Sure. Taunting him that way? I’m not that dumb.”

The whole crew moved deeper and deeper into the archives taking care of every single enemy on their way. After some time, the mercs were crying to their mothers or whining that they didn’t have any Krogan on their team. When Rick jumped down the upper floor, after reaching there with a biotic charge, he landed on Wrex’s shoulders as the krogan was doing his own charge. He switched his hold on his shotgun from two to one hands and drew his gun with the one that was now free. The sight of a mini-tank with a nasty turret on top was what the mercs saw just before they died, Rick shooting in a 360 circle, not missing any shots.

“Keelah… I’m going to have nightmares about this.” Tali said as she stopped shooting and moving to look at the male of her team.
“Don’t worry, they’re on our side. Thankfully.” Jane replied.
“Still… I may prefer to face a reaper.” the quarian added as she listened to the cackling of Wrex and Rick as they mowed down the opposition.

After going down several levels they arrived at a different area where hundreds if not thousands of big vaults were stored. They were in tube shape with a length of at least two skycars and a height of nearly ten feet and were everywhere. Some were stored inside the walls, some were right on the open. The area was a labyrinth but thanks to Glyph who led the way no one got lost. They finally arrived at a dead end. Or rather there was a way out, a simple ladder, but with all the mercs converging to their positions it was difficult to climb it. Rick and Jane created a biotic barrier each, protecting everyone, giving the possibility to the rest of the crew to go up. With the high ground they line themselves and shoot down every single mercs.

“There is no kill, like overkill.” Steve said with satisfaction, earning different looks from everyone else. “What?”
“We’re going to talk about this, Esteban. It’s not the first time.” James said.
“Bah! He has the right mindset.” commented Wrex.


Jane and Rick climbed up the ladder and they noticed that they were back in an archives area. Each team went their own way and Team Shepard was left alone. Moving forward and dealing with a smaller than usual number of mercs, the communication with the other teams had become jammed. Only Brooks was able to communicate with the team and that confirmed in Jane’s mind that the woman was not who she claimed to be. After going up a few levels they reached a new type of room and saw Brooks on the other side, firing her gun at someone beyond their view. Rushing in they got trapped in a vault by the activation of its kinetic barriers.

‘The gig is up. Finally, I was tired of running around waiting.’ thought the redhead.

At that moment the clone showed itself from the entrance Brooks was last seen, a smirk triumphant on her face. She even had her hands on her hips, striking a pose.

“This is the end of the road for you and your friends.”
“If you think that the Alliance will believe you for a second…”
“I don’t know? Brooks?”

From the back Brooks showed herself, walking to the clone’s side; her too with a triumphant smirk.

“They won’t even know. Not once you officially take her place. By the way, thanks for the collar, I think I’ll keep it.” the woman said, taunting Rick as she reached for the orange gemstone in the middle of her throat.
“Speaking of.”

Clone Jane walked to a console on the side and began to use it.

“Do you know what’s the difference between a person and their clone? Or Twins?”
“Fingerprints. It’s not a genotypic trait but a phenotypic one.” Rick replied, breathing roughly.
“Correct, know-it-all. You see, that’s the only weakness of my plan. I can’t fake that but thankfully all I have to do is access your file and replace your prints with mine.” the clone said as she put her hand on the holographic display and did what she said. “And now, I’m the real Shepard. All thanks to you. If you and your friends weren’t so dumb I would never have been able to complete my plan.”
“*Ahem*”
“Of course, Brooks was the key to everything. Leading you just like I wanted. You may have had Miranda, but mine has more bite.”

At that, Jane finally lost it and laughed. She laughed so hard that tears began to form at the corner of her eyes. Wrex and Tali wondered for a moment if she had lost her mind, while Rick was silent, breathing even harder than earlier.

“What’s so funny?!” Yelled the clone. “ I won! You lost!”
“Did you?” Jane answered coyly and wiping her tears away. “I guess, since it’s time for revelations I should make mine but first, let me correct both of you on something. I didn’t have Miranda, I had better. I had Rick. As for your plan… while I didn’t know everything, I knew that Brooks was on it.”
“You’re lying.” the aforementioned woman retorted with a scoff.
“Not in the least. I realized it before we left my apartment to get here, all thanks to Rick’s behavior. On the trip I thought back on everything that happened and I got to the conclusion that you were involved. The plan wasn’t even that clever.”
“There is no way that’s true.” Brooks defended, seething.
“Rick probably understood that much by the time we arrived at my apartment the first time or at least that you were on the bad guys’ side.” she said looking at her brother.
“When we met at the landing pad.”
“Impossible!”
“Ah! But it is Brooks. You see, thinking back on it, how did you know where to find me when both Joker and I received a fake invitation from the other to this particular restaurant? Answer: You knew, either because you were the one to send those messages or colluded with the person who did. So did the mercs by the way. Next, what were the odds that I would fall through a fish tank and land on the only maintenance balcony around, deployed? Then there were the wards, completely empty of people except your mercs who were patrolling as if they already knew I would go through this area. There is also the alarm on the bridge that set off when I used my spectre’s authorization and the c-sec shuttle that had come way too fast…
“The lockdown never existed in the first place, it was to get Gingerbread to use her spectre’s authorization. I know because I was in a taxi in this location roughly at the same time.” Rick added.
“Ha! Never thought of that. Anyway, next was the casino where you really dropped the ball. The only way to kill Khan was to go the way you did, the normal way which was just walking there, would have been too suspicious. But if someone else was there, you would have reported their work on the security or even met them down the vent and yet you didn’t. Finally, the wiped out drives. It takes a professional to get to Khan’s office the way you did but they wiped out just the drives and not the coms logs? Very unprofessional, unless it was on purpose.”
“Khan’s body’s temperature hadn’t decreased yet which meant he had been killed after we arrived at the casino leaving you with the only suspect.” explained Rick.
“I didn’t know that but that’s alright I got to the truth nonetheless.”
“This changes nothing!” clone Jane shouted. “You’re still trapped.”
“So much for outsmarting me.” laughed Brooks.
“Want to know the difference between Miranda and you?” Rick inquired. “ There are four. One, Miranda is hotter and sexier and knows how to take advantage of that. Two, she knows that while she’s smart I’m above her intellect and to never never underestimate me because she understands that nobody can outsmart me. Third, Miranda would have checked anything I or anyone else would have given her. Like a collar laced with explosives.”
“Wha-...”

Brooks didn’t finish her sentence. She couldn’t as her head exploded into a mess of blood, bones and brain matter and splashing her surroundings with it. Half the face of the clone was painted in red.

“Four, Miranda has a good head on her shoulders.” Rick finished, his omni-tool active and making Wrex laugh like mad at what had just happened. “You’re next.”  he promised.

With a snarl of fury the clone used the console again, activating the system of the archives that put the vault in the opened back into the wall among the others.

“I can’t believe you blew her head up just like that!” exclaimed Tali.
“That was awesome!”
“Wrex!”
“What? it’s true!”

While the two of them were bantering, Rick took as much distance from everyone, reached his side of the vault and sat down. He quickly removed his helmet with trembling hands and began to hyperventilate with his head between his knees. He has been holding up as best as he could, his mind focused on the conversation but the talk was over.
Jane was by his side in an instant while the two others stopped talking looking at what was happening. Tali began to get closer, but a hand from Shepard along a shake of the head stopped her in her tracks.

“What’s wrong with him?” inquired the Krogan.
“He’s having a panic attack.” Jane replied before calling for Glyph to get them out immediately.
“A panic attack?” Tali asked this time.
“From what?”
“He’s cleithrophobic.” Jane explained, taking his hands in hers.
““He’s what?!””
“Afraid of being trapped.”

Both Tali and Wrex looked at each other. The latter just shrugged his shoulders while the other turned her head back to look at her best friend in worry. They were indeed trapped and Rick’s situation wasn’t going to get better. Fortunately, Glyph showed up in record time and saved everyone. The second the kinetic barriers of the vault were down, Rick was out and tried to catch his breath.

“I. Am. Beyond. Livid.” was the only thing he said when Jane brought him his helmet.

In no time everyone from the crew was freed; Team Mako and Hammerhead having fallen for the same trap Team Shepard did.  In no time they were outside the archives and in no time Joker showed up with a Skycar. Rick was the first inside followed by Jane and Liara. The latter being the one that has been chosen to be part of the three people team that would reach the Normandy first to stop the clone.
“Where’s Brooks?” Steve asked as everyone watched the skyca r fly away.
“She joined the headless people’s heaven.” answered poetically Tali.
“What?”
“Wald blew her head off. It was glorious.” Wrex explained.
“Why would he do that? And how?”
“She was working with the clone all along.” the Quarian replied. “Her collar was filled with explosives, that’s why it was so thick.”
“I knew it! There was no way Annalysse would have ever worn something like that! The color was all wrong and it was a collar not a choker!” Ashley exclaimed.
“Wait a minute, he knew Brooks was hostile before going to the casino? Why didn’t he say anything? And I may sound like a broken record but how?” James interjected.
“Well…” Tali began.

____________________________________________________________

Jane was in a very foul mood. She had a living clone that took her identity, and now it was about to take her ship. Cherry on the top of the cake, she had pissed off her brother and hurt him by trapping him in a vault. She had been trapped too but she wasn’t the one having panic attacks in those situations. To be honest she got a lot of mixed feelings when she saw Rick brutality when dealing with the grunts on their way to the Normandy. They were dealt promptly and looked like blood stains on the short walls. At least for the unlikely ones that weren’t just sent flying above the rails. Reaching the ship’s sas just as it was about to depart, they met Traynor. The poor Com specialist didn’t know what just happened to her but proved that she had a fighter in her when she saw Jane and began to yell at her for firing and discharging her.

“Traynor! It wasn’t me! It was a clone!”
“A… clone? You really believe that I’d…”
“Yes. Otherwise I would still be inside the ship and not doing my best in a hurry to get in!” she replied before talking to Rick who suddenly was kneeling and opening the emergency sas. “What’s going on?”
“The sas is locked and we can't get in.” answered Liara as her boyfriend began to focus his biotic on his hand to work on opening their only hope.
“That’s… I can’t do it. I don’t have such fine and precise control.” he confessed.
“Here, use this.” The young woman said as she presented her toothbrush to him. “Cision Pro Mark 4. It uses tiny mass effect fields.”

Everyone looked at her like she had lost her mind before Rick ripped it out from her hands and began to work with it.

“You just won a lifetime supply of toothbrush from me, or me going easy on you at chess once. Pick whichever.”
“You going easy at chess!”
“Really? From what I remember your toothbrush is worth thousands of credits.”
“Commander, a toothbrush can be replaced. A win against him at chess is priceless! I’m tired of losing, so even if he would be going easy on me, I'll still take it!”

Rick opened the entrance and immediately went inside, tossing the toothbrush back to its owner. Jane then Liara followed and entered the ship without problem just as it left the dock.

“Are you going to be alright?” the redhead whispered to her brother as they were currently moving like ducks in the tight space right under the ship’s bridge.
“I’m too furious to care.” he whispered back.

Reaching the exit of their small access, Rick opened and charged the first guy he saw, relieving it of its head with his lightsaber, before kicking it in midair with a roundhouse kick right onto another grunt on the other side of the CIC. Jane and Liara used the distraction to attack the others mercs and in no time the Deck was cleared.

“Where is she?” the redhead asked to see Rick using a terminal.
“Cargo Deck.”
“Can you do something about the Normandy? Take back control?”
“Yes, but it will take time, the security EDI and I installed is playing against us. It doesn’t help that she’s disconnected.”
“Can’t you put her back online?” Liara inquired.
“I’ll need to go to her servers’ room but we’ll be sitting ducks.”
“Then we deal with my clone fir… Oh hell no!”
““What?!””
“Look!” Jane said as she walked towards the elevator. Next to it was a big garbage with all of her stuff in it, including the space hamster Rick had gifted her. “That’s personal now.”
“Really? It’s personal now? Not after stealing your identity and your ship?” Liara said with a brow raised, incredulous.
“I mean…”
“She’s mine. You can play with what’s left of her after.” Rick said as he entered the elevator.

Following him both Jane and Liara readied themselves. The latter feeling talkative.
“You know… I’m really glad this elevator is faster than on the first normandy. It was a torture. Thank the goddess Tali and you tweaked it, though it was perhaps going a bit too fast.”
“You did what?!” Jane exclaimed. “What are you talking about?”
“Tali and I worked on the SSV’s elevator to make it go faster.”
“Why was it always so slow when I was using it then?”
“You forbade us to do it but we said fuck it and so to not get caught I put a emitter and receiver on its ceiling. Everytime you entered it your omni-tool’s ID would be read and you would be recognized, making the elevator go at its original speed.”
“I can’t believe you!” Jane shouted as Liara laughed at her dumbfounded face.
“I told you back then that I wouldn’t obey stupid orders.”
“We’re talking about this later.” she announced, frowning.

The elevator stopped at the right deck and opened its door. In a flash the trio was out of it and took a defensive stance looking around for any hostiles. The deck was full of big containers and big crates everywhere. The gym area has completely been dismantled, pissing both Rick and Jane even more. Their entrance was not missed as the mercs appeared in position for a fight. The clone came out from between crates dressed in a full N7 armor and opened fire, prompting everyone on the team to take cover.

“Stop shooting my ship!” Jane shouted.
“It’s not your ship!”
“It is, you idiot! Jesus! Just because you’re stealing it means it’s yours! Just like my identity, that I restored by the way! I can’t believe it, you know?! You could have been someone. You could have been your own person but nooo, you had to be the walking talking cliché of the clone wanting to take the place of the original because their inferiority complex was bigger than the moon and were too scared and too pathetic to make their own feats and life!” Jane said, as she signaled Rick to be ready to create chaos.
“I am not! I’m Shepard! Better than you ever were! Unlike you, I don't need worthless friends good only for worshiping me and kissing my ass!” replied the clone as it fired again in Jane’s direction.
“Oh, Puh-lease. Conrad Verner is a better me than you will ever be.”

Another salvo of bullets hit the console Jane was hiding behind and when it stopped and heard the distant click of an empty gun, both she and Rick acted. They send two Throws and hit two mercs sending them backwards. Liara created a singularity blocking one aisle of crates and began to shoot at mercs in another. Jane went after her clone as she was closer while Rick, despite his limited movement for his fighting style, unleashed his shotgun on any enemy he met. It was a very difficult fight as there were perhaps a dozen mercs fighting alongside the clone while there were only three. The team had much more experience however, and it showed as one by one the mercs fell to its unrelated assault until only the clone was left.
Out of thermal clip, it ran towards Jane preparing a biotic laced punch and Jane answered in kind. They may have been identical but the training each underwent was different. Jane had been taught by Jack and Rick the two best human biotics in the galaxy. Be it raw power or more importantly control Jane had her clone beat. Proof was that Jane would have made a biotic charge instead of running towards her opponent like her clone did. Another proof was that she wasn’t even going all out with her biotics, simply matching the amount of power in their biotic lock. Using the tricks she learned from her brother and adding a bit more power, Jane began to dominate her clone, who was trying its hardest.

“How?!” it said with greeted teeth.
“Experience. I was trained by the best.” Jane said with finality and sent her clown flying away backward, winning the biotic contest.

Rick was upon the clone in an instant, straddling her and beginning to punch her face with everything he had repeatedly. Over and over again with no end in sight.

“That’s for making me love you!” he shouted, hitting her left cheek. “For making me dependent on you! For abandoning me!”

Each time he gave a reason he hit her and there were a lot of them. The clone’s face was completely bloody and unrecognizable and yet Rick kept punching. Jane knew that enrolling in the military had hurt him deeply, leaving scars that had never properly healed and still hurt to this day. But seeing him giving his all to punch someone with her face with so much fury… She didn’t know how to feel but she finally understood the depth of his pain. Deeper than anything she had ever thought. And the fact that so far he only choked the life out of her and nothing more was astonishing. He hasn’t been that violent with her, in fact choking aside he never raised his hand against her and that puzzled her. The difference of treatment he gave between her and her clone.
She would have pondered more on that if Liara hadn’t run forward and tackled Rick to the side and pinned him down.

“Enough! This isn’t like you! This is not the man I fell in love with!” She yelled as was trying to fight her so he could go back to beat the clone to death. “Please! Stop!” she added as she put all her weight on him and grabbed the sides of his helmet with both hands.

That had the desired effect as Rick stopped struggling and became motionless with the exception of his torso, raising and falling heavily in accordance to his ragged breath.
While the two of them were busy, Jane walked toward her clone gun in hand. She wasn’t sure if she could call it her clone anymore, its face being so much of a mess that it could have been anybody. She looked back at the swelling eye, full of blood that could still be opened and saw only defeat and pleading. Its wounds were extensive and downright disgusting. Jane wasn’t sure if it would survive. She would have tried her best had the clone not demonstrated a xenophobic attitude and a blatant disregard for anyone but itself. It had never cared a second for all the mercs that the Normandy’s crew had killed, not even Brooks. It had been furious, yes but more because it had lost an asset than anything else.
Jane made her decision and simply raised her gun and pulled the trigger, putting an end to her clone and its plan.

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