AN: Okay, I know, you Gundam SEED Prime series fans are thinking I'm lousy for starting yet another new project instead of updating Chaos Hunters, but in all honesty, I can't help myself. This idea has been bouncing around in my mind for months now, and I just had to put it out there. And speaking of this idea, I can't help but notice that every story I've either posted or updated recently has some form of connection to MARVEL or just Captain America. If this keeps up, then clearly I'm going to be setting a theme for myself this year on the work I do with my stories. Just one thing though, I haven't been as great a fan of Mass Effect as I would like to be for very long now, so if any of this seems lacking, please try to go easy on me because of both that, and because this is the first Mass Effect story that I've ever written. Now with that said, I'll let you get to it.

I do not own anything from any of either of the MARVEL or Mass Effect franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

Chapter 1: Resurrection

There was something about gazing at the burning surface of a star and its brilliant fires of chaos within tranquility that the individual known only to most as the Illusive Man found captivating, which would easily explain why he often had the monitor in the large, empty room that served as his office displaying an image of one such star. It often seemed to give him a reminder of the actions he would have his organization, Cerberus take in order to further humanity's progression to being one of the strongest powers in the galaxy, while also allowing him a soothing image to help him clear his mind when he needed to think clearly about something, usually involving what their next move would be in ensuring that humanity did not lose even the slightest bit of ground in their stance with the Citadel Council or races. Yet for all of his actions, decisions, influence, and connections, the Illusive Man found that he was not able to provide humanity with half as much as one man now had. The man known to many as the first human Spectre and savior of the Citadel: Commander John Shepard.

In the words of the Illusive Man's most trusted operative, Shepard had done everything right, ever since he had become the first human Spectre. Right from the moment when he was made a Spectre, all throughout his hunt for the rogue Spectre agent, Saren, and even when he saved the Council, nearly every move that the commander had made had benefited humanity in the long run, and as a result, he had become an icon, and yet it was still not enough. Shepard had practically shouted out how everyone was ignoring the very real threat of the Reapers, but people still chose to believe the Reaper known as Sovereign was just a highly advanced Geth ship that Saren used to deceive the synthetics into helping him with his plans. As a result, Shepard and his crew of the SSV Normandy SR1 were sent out to hunt the Geth down as soon as the crisis on the Citadel that resulted from Sovereign's attack was over, claiming that the former servants of the Quarians were the real culprits. That had been what had caused things to begin going downhill.

The Normandy had been patrolling a sector of space where a number of ships had gone missing in the past month when they were suddenly attacked by a large, unknown cruiser-class ship. What followed could easily be considered the most one-sided battle anyone had ever seen, as the cruiser easily tore apart the Normandy's shields and armor, causing many good Alliance soldiers to lose their lives, while forcing the rest to rush for the escape pods as soon as Shepard had ordered everyone to evacuate. The only person who had been left after everyone else had gotten clear of the severely damaged ship aside from the commander was the Normandy's pilot, Jeff "Joker" Moreau, and Shepard had refused to leave anyone behind if there was something he could do. Shepard had managed to get the pilot safely onto the last escape pod, but unfortunately, it had been at the cost of his life.

Knowing that the Council would be more likely to follow him than anyone else, and that losing Shepard would likely be the beginning of losing humanity, the Illusive Man immediately commissioned the Lazarus Project to ensure that they did not lose the commander the minute that Cerberus had recovered his lifeless body, placing his most trusted operative, Miranda Lawson in charge of the project as an extra bit of insurance for its success. Things seemed to be going well for the project, which was to be expected since Miranda was running it, but then one day, almost a year after Shepard had been reported dead and Cerberus had begun their efforts to bring him back, Miranda had contacted the Illusive Man with terrible news. The Lazarus Project had failed, and they lost Shepard.

It honestly baffled the Illusive Man as to how the project had failed, and the notes he received did not help it to make any more sense. Every analysis that had been made on Shepard over the past few months indicated that the commander would fully recover eventually, and yet one day, everything started going into the red zone, until they lost Shepard completely. It was almost as though someone had done something to ensure that Commander Shepard would never live again, but everyone on the station and that worked on the project were all trusted members of Cerberus, so there was very little possibility of a betrayal on that front. Then again, it could mean that Liara T'Soni had deceived them as well when she sent Shepard's body to them, but that scenario was completely unlikely, given the relationship that the Asari had with Shepard, so the Illusive Man found himself faced with a very great mystery, and he hated not knowing everything about something, especially when it came to something that happened in his organization.

The Illusive Man was once again looking through the notes on Shepard's condition up to the point where they had lost him, hoping to find something, anything that would explain why they had lost him, when Miranda Lawson came into the room. "Sir, first off, I'd like to apologize once again for the failure of the Lazarus Project," Miranda stated with a somber look that seemed rather out of place on the young, beautiful woman.

"No apologies necessary, Miss Lawson," the Illusive Man easily replied. "Not unless you have news that tells me how it happened."

"I'm afraid not," Miranda said. "I've looked over everything numerous times, and I've come back with nothing. The only thing that would indicate that there would have been a problem would be when the shuttle that we used to transport Shepard's body from Doctor T'Soni's care to the station was stopped by unforeseen circumstances, but it was written off as being an attack by random pirates."

The Illusive Man sighed in response to this, partially because Miranda had managed to find something more than he had, and partially because it was not much more, and he then took a small drag from his most recently lit cigarette and asked, "Do you have any good news to report, Operative Lawson, because I could really use some right now."

Miranda knew that she was likely in hot water when she heard her boss refer to her by her title in Cerberus instead of as "Miss Lawson", but she stood her ground nonetheless, giving off her usual confident, collected air as she revealed the one piece of good news that she did have. "There is one thing. The project can still succeed with another subject. One who may be just as good, if not better than Shepard."

Now the Illusive Man was intrigued, and he immediately put his full attention on Miranda and ordered, "Explain."

"Shepard's not the only hero in human history, and we happen to possess the capabilities to bring one its greatest heroes back," Miranda stated. "And I mean all the capabilities and requirements, because we just recovered his body from where it had been secretly laid to rest almost a century ago."

"You don't mean…" the Illusive Man started to ask.

"Yes," Miranda nodded. "I ran the DNA analysis myself. We've found Steven Rogers, better known to human history as the first Avenger, Captain America."

The Illusive Man just stared at Miranda, in what she could only assume was the closest thing to awe she had ever seen from him, before he finally sat back in his chair and took another drag from his cigarette and turned his possibly prosthetic, steely blue eyes on her. "That changes everything. Are you certain that the project will have better results with Captain America than it did with Shepard?"

"Absolutely," Miranda nodded. "The damage to the captain's body is not nearly as great as that of Shepard's, and from what I can tell, we will only need to make a few adjustments to his genetic makeup in order to keep all the harmful and adverse effects of the Super Soldier Serum from ever showing themselves. I'd say the chances of succeeding with Captain America are even greater than the odds were for Commander Shepard."

"Then start repurposing the Lazarus Project at once," the Illusive Man ordered. "And Miranda, this may be ours and your last chance, so we can't afford to allow this to fail."

Miranda nodded in understanding, and then slowly turned on her heel to leave the base and return to the station that housed the Lazarus Project. In all honesty, Miranda did not believe the not-so-subtle threat from the Illusive Man was necessary, as she was already intending to make sure that they would succeed with Captain America where they had failed with Commander Shepard, but she could understand her boss's reasoning for giving such a threat. Still, she would make sure she would succeed, not because she was afraid of what would happen to her personally if she failed or really if she failed period, but because she was determined she would not fail at this a second time.

He had done a lot of good in his quite unexpectedly long life, saved a lot of lives, made a great many sacrifices, and saved the world on multiple occasions, so one could easily understand why Steve Rogers thought that it was time for him to hang up his shield and be laid to rest when it was discovered that the Super Soldier Serum had a genetic degrading side effect that was slowly killing him, and Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man, was somewhat happy to oblige and allowed his friend to be laid to rest in the same arctic seas that he had ended his last mission in World War II in. He was happy to leave the shield and the legacy to Sam Wilson, alias the Falcon, so Steve honestly had to wonder why, after spending what felt like a very brief time, he was suddenly beginning to wake up feeling stronger than ever.

He was only vaguely aware of his surroundings, but from what he could tell, he was in some sort of lab, and his first thoughts was that it was one of HYDRA's or another group's like AIM or even Doctor Doom's, but the white walls around him and lack of any sign that would indicate that the lab belonged to any of those groups quickly disproved that theory. The next thing he took note of was the muffled sound of a pair of voices, a man and a woman's to be exact, but he could not really make out much of what the two were saying at first, at least until his vision started coming back to him, albeit a bit blurry.

"Damn it, Wilson, he's not ready yet! Give him the sedative," the woman's voice said, which Steve noted held a slight, Australian accent to it, and Steve looked to the source to find his blurry gaze met by a woman in a mostly white and black outfit with fair skin, long dark hair that reached her shoulders with a few strands hanging over the front of her shoulders, and grayish blue eyes. When the woman realized his attention was on her, she immediately looked towards him and grabbed his arm soothingly as she said, "Captain, don't try to move. Just lie still and try to stay calm."

Steve was not able to hear much more after that aside from his own breathing, and a moment later, his world went dark again after he heard the woman order for another dose of the sedative she mentioned a moment ago. He was not sure how long he had been out after that, but it must have been some time, because when he next woke up, it was to the sound of explosions ringing throughout the facility, and after sitting up, he looked out a nearby window to see that a few fires were springing up as flashes of weapons fire streaked through the air, all while the woman he saw earlier spoke to him over what he assumed was an intercom.

"Captain, can you hear me," the woman called out. "Please, I know you're just fully waking up after a very long rest, but I need you to get out of that bed and get moving. This facility is under attack! There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room along with your shield and a modified version of your old suit. Hurry!"

Steve did not need any more prompting than that, and he immediately climbed out of the bed and headed for what he assumed was the locker that the woman had indicated. The second he had made it to the locker, he reached in and pulled out what seemed to be his old uniform from his last few days with the Avengers, and overall, it seemed to be the same as it had been before, right down to the silver and red Avengers logo on either shoulder, but he could tell that a new belt had been added to it, along with a few modifications to the harness that was used to hold his shield on the back. Deciding to not worry about it at the moment, Steve just quickly changed out of the civilian attire he had currently been wearing and slipped into his uniform before reaching into the locker and pulling out his old, red, white, and blue vibranium shield and strapping it onto his arm. The last things he took from the locker was what he assumed was a communication device and a strange, futuristic-looking pistol, which he noted was a bit folded up until it was in his hand. Deciding that he had everything he would need, he quickly turned and made for the doorway out.

He only paused for a second to look around to make sure the area was clear before he slowly moved on and decided that he would try to get some answers from the woman on the other end of the radio, and called out, "I don't think I got your name, Miss…"

"Lawson. Miranda Lawson, and I'd much rather you'd focus on getting out of there and to the shuttle bay, Captain," the woman immediately replied. "I trust that pistol isn't too complicated for you to use?"

"It may have a few fancy lights and a design that would likely make Stark drool, but if it works like any other basic gun, then I shouldn't have a problem," Steve replied, and he quickly slipped his mask on over his head just for old time's sake before racing towards one of the nearby rooms that was actually open to him.

"Good to hear it, but for now, you should try to take cover. The mechs are converging on your position." No sooner had Miranda said those words, a small number of slim robots with guns came through the door and immediately started firing on Steve as soon as their optics had found him. Instead of taking cover though, Steve reacted on instinct and raised his shield in defense before taking aim with his borrowed weapon and pulling the trigger, letting loose a few, precise shots on the mechs as he did. He may not have been a master marksman like Hawkeye or Black Widow, but Steve was still a very impressive shot, and in no time at all, he managed to land a hit on each mech until the machines were all dispatched.

As soon as he had dealt with the immediate threat, Steve quickly raced across the length of the room and into a corridor which provided a window to the outside, and a small glance out said window allowed Steve to realize that he was in Space. Now, most people would probably be a little stunned by this revelation, but seeing as he had been in Space and other parts of the galaxy multiple times before now, Steve was able to just shrug it off and keep moving, figuring he would find out how he was out amongst the stars later on, along with who this station belonged to. The fact that Miranda was constantly urging him to keep moving was also a rather driving factor, as Steve could tell just by her voice that it would not be a good idea to upset her at the moment by taking his time and staying in one place for very long.

He encountered a few more mechs along the way, but they were just as easily dealt with as the first group, and with Miranda guiding him over the intercom, Steve was able to navigate his way through the station rather easily, at least until a new problem arose. "You're doing fine, Captain…Head to the next…Captain, do you read me? I've got mechs closing in on my position, and…"

The last thing that Steve heard from the radio he was using was the sound of an explosion, and with that the line went dead, indicating that something had happened to Miranda, and he would need to try and find out what. The only problem was that he had no idea where she was in the station, if he could get to her, or even where he was in the station period, at least beyond what Miranda had told him, so he bit back a curse and kept moving in the direction he had been before he lost contact. When he came to another door, he quickly opened it to find more mechs firing on a tall, dark skinned man in a black uniform that he did not recognize at all, as the man took cover behind a guard rail and returned fire. Once again, Steve reacted on instinct and sprang into action by tossing his shield at the mechs, letting it soar through the air and slice through each of the immediately threatening machines before returning to his arm and giving him a chance to run over to where the man was taking cover.

"What're you doing here," the man gasped when he saw Steve crouching next to him. "I thought you were still a work in progress."

None of that made any sense to Steve, so he decided to ignore it for now and get to the more important details. "Are you with Miranda," the super soldier asked.

"Yeah; sorry, I forgot this is all new to you right now," the man replied, apologetically. "I'm Jacob Taylor. I've been stationed here for…"

"Hostiles detected," a mechanical voice suddenly said, drawing the twos attention to the other side of the large room, and across the chasm that separated the two sides to see that a new group of mechs had entered the room and were now firing on them.

"Damn it," Jacob swore as he ducked down behind their cover once again to avoid getting hit. He then popped back up to return fire and knocked out a mech with a single head shot before he looked back to Steve. "Look, as great an honor it is to meet you in person, things must be worse than I thought if Miranda's got you running around. I'll fill you in, but we've got to get you to the shuttle first."

"How about just giving me the short version for now," Steve requested.

"I guess that's fair enough," Jacob conceded. "Here's the quick version: about a little over a year ago, we found where your body had been laid to rest, and if we had another option, we would've left you there, but unfortunately, the galaxy needs you back in action, so our scientists spent the last year and a half putting you back together. You looked a lot older then than you do now, and you were comatose or worse the entire time. Now, welcome back to the galaxy at large, and to your new life."

Steve had to take a couple minutes to process that before he finally sighed and said, "And I'm guessing that it's been a large number of years since I went to sleep again. Why is it that I've now been brought back to life when I should've just been laid to rest for the second time now?"

"Couldn't tell you," Jacob replied with a small smile. "Still, I think you should know that it's been over a hundred years since you had 'died.' Everyone thinks you've been dead for all that time, and if we don't get to those shuttles, you will be."

"What's the deal with those mechs though," Steve immediately asked.

"They're meant for security. Usually they fight for us, but somebody must've hacked them. That should be impossible unless you've got access."

"Why bring me back though? What's so important that someone would want to revive Captain America?"

"I'll tell you what, you help me finish off these mechs, and I'll play Twenty Questions with you all day," Jacob finally said, indicating that he was starting to run out of patience, a fact that Steve could not blame him for, under the circumstances. "We're low on thermal clips, but I'm a biotic. Just give the order when you want me to hit them with the good stuff."

"Wait, what's a biotic," Steve asked.

Instead of answering, Jacob just popped up from cover again and suddenly started glowing blue. The next thing Steve knew, the man had thrown his hand forward, and a small group of the attacking mechs were sent flying into the air before they suddenly dropped into the chasm below. Seeing the slightly stunned look on Steve's face, Jacob had to smirk a little as he said, "Someone who can do stuff like that and more. You ready now, Cap?"

Steve just reloaded his pistol with a smirk of his own and asked, "Do you really have to ask, soldier?"

Jacob smirked in reply and a minute later, the two were unleashing hell on the mechs. Between Captain America's combat skills and Jacob's biotics, the mechs stood absolutely no chance, and in short order, the machines were nothing more than scrap metal. After a quick fire fight, Jacob threw one last mech in the air, leaving it open for Steve to toss his shield through it, slicing it clean in two before it fell in the large chasm below. Once he had secured the shield back onto his arm again, Steve turned to see Jacob holstering his pistol as it seemed to fold in on itself and then look to him with a grateful look.

"Man, seeing you in action really is something else, never mind fighting beside you," Jacob gasped. He soon took a breath to recompose himself and said, "Okay, I promised I'd answer your questions, so what do you want to know."

Steve had at least a million questions running through his mind, but after a moment of silence, he figured it would be better to settle for the most important ones. "You said that they had spent a little over a year bringing me back. Just how bad was my condition?"

"When I first saw you, you looked like you could be my grandpa, and it was only getting worse by the second," Jacob replied. "They must've spent the first few months reversing the adverse effects of the Super Soldier Serum before they worked on reviving you completely. I'm no doctor, but I do know that it took seriously impressive stuff from medical science. Anywhere else, they'd have put you in a coffin, but Project Lazarus was different. All cutting edge technology."

"What can you tell me about this project," Steve asked. "Did they use things like cloning or cybernetics?"

"I don't know the details; you'd have to ask the scientists, but I'm pretty sure you're not a clone," Jacob chuckled in reply. "You're still you, just back to your old self before the serum started causing problems for you."

"Anything else, like whether or not there were other test subjects," Steve inquired.

"Project Lazarus has only had two subjects, including you," Jacob revealed. "The first one was the galaxy's greatest hero since you. In fact, some people would probably say that he was a modern day version of you: Commander John Shepard, the first human Spectre. The only reason they switched over to you was because their attempts to bring Shepard back had ended in failure."

"What happened? Why was he a subject in this project," Steve asked.

"Short version: Shepard died about three years ago after his ship, the Normandy was attacked by an unknown enemy," Jacob explained. "Aside from Shepard, the only ones who didn't make it out were a few service men from the lower decks, and Navigator Pressly, but everyone else, including the Non-Alliance crew members made it out. He was the only one that knew about the greatest threat to the galaxy we've ever seen, and who could get everyone together to stop it, but without him, you're our best bet. No pressure."

Steve nodded in understanding of all this. Admittedly, he was a bit lost in regards to some of the things Jacob had told him about this Commander Shepard person, but if Shepard really was anything like him then Steve could only assume that the commander had been a good man. He figured it would probably be better to ask for a bit more on the subject later, and decided to address the more immediate situation. "Do you know who's behind this attack or what they're after," Steve asked.

"Damned if I know," Jacob admitted. "I was getting ready for some shut-eye, and then bam, a bunch of explosions. Next thing I know, every damned mech in the place starts shooting at us. I'm guessing it had to be an inside job, because you'd need to have top security access to hack all the mechs."

"Just what is your job here anyway," Steve asked, wanting to get to know the man a little better.

"Depends on who you ask," Jacob replied with an easy-going shrug. "Technically, I'm Miranda's top lieutenant, but I'm just a soldier. Not like you or anything extraordinary, though. I served five years in the Alliance before this, and now I'm in charge of this station's security. It's usually a lot more dull than this, and normally I don't fire my gun unless it's target practice."

"I'd say that means you're doing your job pretty well then," Steve joked in reply, getting a chuckle out of Jacob in response. The super soldier then became serious again and said, "When I first woke up, someone named Miranda was talking to me over a radio, but we lost contact just before I ran into you."

"Miranda Lawson is the station's ranking officer," Jacob revealed. "She led the Lazarus team. It was her job to bring Shepard back to life, and when that failed, it became her job to bring you back, no matter what. Figures she'd try to save you. She took the failure of bringing Shepard back pretty hard, so she's not about to lose you now. Could you tell what was happening when you lost contact?"

"There was a lot of static, but I could hear a bit of gunfire and an explosion through it," Steve stated, his worry showing through his voice.

"Don't sweat it too much. She knows how to take care of herself," Jacob reassured the captain, though Steve could tell that the man was a bit worried about his colleague from how his voice wavered for a minute.

Deciding that they had spent enough time with questions, Steve moved on to the most important matter at the moment. "What's the quickest way to those shuttles you mentioned?"

"Depends on where the mechs were thickest," Jacob quickly replied as he immediately switched back to an all-business tone of voice. "It's probably best if we…"

Jacob paused in what he was saying for a minute when he received a signal over the radio, prompting him to raise his arm up as a glowing, holographic gauntlet suddenly appeared over said arm, much to Steve's shock. He then tapped a few different features on the gauntlet, indicating that it was some kind of advanced computer before he hit his radio to talk with the person on the other end. Steve was only able to hear Jacob's half of the conversation, since he did not want to risk tampering with his own radio too much without knowing a basic idea of how it worked, but from the sound of things, it seemed that Jacob was talking with another colleague of his that needed their help, and Jacob did not seem willing to leave the man to his own devices.

Looking to Steve's confused face, Jacob immediately explained, "Sorry, but it looks like we've got to go help one more person before we can get out of here. His name's Wilson, the chief medical tech."

"How do we get to him," Steve asked.

"Through the service tunnels over this way," Jacob said as he pointed over his shoulder, and the two immediately took off in that direction with Jacob leading the way. There was just one small problem with the route that they had to take, and that was the fact that it was crawling with mechs. Luckily, there was no shortage on places to take cover behind before they were shot full of holes, and Cap's reflexes were still as sharp as ever so he was able to have his shield raised to block any bullets before they could even scratch his skin, so all they really had to worry about was how quickly they destroyed the mechs in their way.

Eventually, they managed to make it to where Wilson was, and found him lying up against a pipe line holding his leg in pain, indicating that he had been shot there. Jacob made sure to keep Wilson calm while indicating a first aid station on the wall nearby to Steve, asking the captain to grab some medigel from it, and while Steve was skeptical as to how some gel was supposed to fix a man's injured leg at first, he was pleasantly surprised to see Wilson standing up straight with little problem just a few minutes after he had applied it to his leg. With Wilson now standing up straight, Steve was able to get a quick look over the man to find that he was bald with a bit of a beard, and that he wore a grey and white uniform with an odd looking, gold symbol on either shoulder, while the sleeves seemed to be rolled up just a short way past his elbows.

"Thanks Cap. Never thought you'd save my life, so I guess that makes us even now," Wilson then said, drawing Steve's attention to the man. "I thought maybe I could shut down the security mechs, but whoever did this fried the whole system; completely irreversible."

"We didn't ask what you were doing," Jacob pointed out just before he noticed a problem in Wilson's story. "Why do you even have security mech clearance? You were in the Bio Wing."

"Weren't you listening? I came here to try and fix this. Besides, I was shot! How do you explain that," Wilson snapped.

There was something in Wilson's tone that felt off to Steve, along with the things he had been saying, as well as the things he was not saying, since Wilson did not actually answer Jacob's question, but since he did not really know the man like Jacob seemed to, he probably did not have much of a right to make any judgments. Thinking of how he did not know Wilson reminded Steve of the situation that they were descending into while the station was going crazy around them, so he immediately brought their focus back to the matter at hand and pointed out, "You're all strangers to me, but for now, we should focus on getting out of here before we start pointing fingers at anyone."

"Right, Cap," Jacob nodded in agreement. "We need to find Miranda though. We can't leave her behind."

"Forget about Miranda," Wilson suddenly snapped, a little too quickly one might say. "She was over in D-Wing, and the mechs were all over that sector. There's no way she survived."

"A bunch of mechs won't drop Miranda. She's alive," Jacob retorted.

"Then where is she, and why haven't we heard from her," Wilson asked. "There are only two possible explanations: she's either dead, or she's a traitor."

"Then why did she wake me up and warn me about the attack," Steve pointed out.

"Okay, maybe she's not a traitor," Wilson conceded. "But it doesn't change the facts. We're here; she's not, so we need to save ourselves."

"It there's even a chance that she's alright, then we should at least try and reach her," Steve tried to argue.

"Cap, I'll be the first to admit that I hate the idea of leaving a friend behind, but right now, you're more important here. Everyone on this station knew that when they signed up, and they're more than willing to give their lives to make sure you get out of here alive," Jacob argued, and Steve could tell from the resigned tone of Jacob's voice that he really did not want to say that, no matter how true it might have been.

Before any more could be said though, the other door leading out of the room suddenly sprang open and allowed a squadron of mechs to come streaming in, forcing Jacob and Wilson to take cover again while Steve raised his shield and pulled his pistol off of his belt to return fire until he could reach a decent cover as well. Steve was about to jump over the crates he had taken cover behind when Jacob suddenly activated the gauntlet he had used earlier and caused a number of the nearby crates to explode, taking the mechs with them, a rather impressive feat in Steve's eyes. Seeing as everything was calm again, everyone immediately stood up from where they had crouched down and holstered their weapons, save for Captain America's shield, and prepared to leave the room and head for the shuttle bay again when Jacob suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Look this is getting a little too tense for anyone's tastes, so Cap, if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me," Jacob asked. Admittedly, Jacob knew that doing so would probably land him in a lot of trouble, a fact that Wilson was quick to point out, but he knew that not telling Captain America anything about the matter was just as bad a call as anything else, especially if they wanted Cap to trust them and not expect a shot in the back.

"I'll try to keep an open mind, but unless you're part of an organization I actually know that has somehow survived the past century, I can't say it will mean much," Steve told the biotic.

"Fair enough," Jacob nodded. "The Lazarus Project, the program that attempted to rebuild Commander Shepard and brought you back, is funded and controlled by Cerberus. According to the Alliance, we're a radical, pro-human splinter group. Shepard had actually wiped out a few of our research bases, but things have changed in recent years since the Alliance had declared Shepard dead." When he saw Steve giving him a small look that clearly said he was barely following any of that, Jacob went on to add, "I know that may not mean much, and in your position, I'll admit that I'd be suspicious too, but I thought you deserved to know what's what. Once we're off the station, I'll take you to the Illusive Man, and he'll explain everything. I promise."

"The Illusive Man? Is he some kind of future version of Nick Fury," Steve asked.

"I…suppose that's one way of putting it," Wilson shrugged after thinking about it for a minute. "That's not his real name of course. Nobody knows who he really is."

"It was a code name the Alliance used for him, and it kinda stuck," Jacob finished.

Steve nodded in understanding and then turned to leave the room with the other two following close behind him as he commented, "Well, if I can't get any other answers here, then I guess I'll just have to wait until I meet this Illusive Man, so let's get moving, and keep those weapons primed and ready in case we run into anymore mechs, soldiers."

A pair of voices saying "yes sir" was the only response Steve received for his last comment, and with that, the three were soon rushing through the station as quickly as they could. They ended up encountering a few more mechs along the way, including some large ones that seemed more like dogs than persons, but thankfully, the three were able to ward them off until they had reached the point where the shuttle bay was just a hop, skip, and a jump away. The entire time they had been moving though, Steve could not help but notice that Wilson was a bit more hesitant in destroying the mechs than he and Jacob were, and the fact that so many of his shots seemed to miss some of those mechs just seemed all the more suspicious to the super soldier. Still, despite Wilson's suspicious behavior, they managed to reach the shuttle bay doors in no time, which Wilson was all too eager to open until he saw who was on the other side of the doors.

"Miranda," Wilson gasped. "But you were…"

Before Wilson could finish his sentence, he was cut off by the sound of a gunshot and he then dropped to the floor before the woman that Steve recognized from when he had woken up earlier, and who's face held a very deep scowl that marred its otherwise extremely beautiful features. Another glance at the woman in question revealed a pistol in her hand, which was clearly used to shoot Wilson in the chest at point blank, so there was little doubt that any miracle of modern medicine could help Wilson this time. The now dead body that lay at her feet did not seem to bother Miranda in the slightest beyond the distasteful scowl that she was throwing at him, but it certainly seemed to be a shock to Jacob.

"What the hell are you doing," Jacob shouted as he ran to stand over Wilson.

"My job. Wilson betrayed us all," Miranda simply revealed as she walked around Wilson's lifeless body to stand between Jacob and Steve, her voice providing further confirmation to her identity for Steve, while her movements also allowed him to get a better look at her once she had stepped completely into the light. From what he could see, Miranda's face was not the only beautiful feature about her, as her entire figure held the appearance of a woman that just about every man alive would find desirable, and that fact was not hidden at all by the very form-fitting white and black cat suit, and black boots that she was wearing. The same logo that Jacob and Wilson wore adorned the left side of her suit's chest, just a short distance from the opening in the suit that left some of her chest bare for the world to see.

Still, no matter how stunning Miranda was, or how much he was sure that he would be blushing at the sight of her right now in another situation, it did not stop Steve from holding his borrowed pistol in her direction, just as a precaution. "Even if you're sure of that, that's no reason to have just killed him. You could've taken him alive to see what he knew."

"Too risky," Miranda denied. "There's no telling how much a security risk he could've been. More importantly, he sabotaged the security systems, killed my staff, and he would've killed us."

"You sure about that, Miranda? We've known Wilson for years. What if you're wrong," Jacob questioned.

"I'm never wrong. I'd thought you'd have learnt that by now, Jacob," Miranda immediately replied with just the slightest hints of pride and light condescending in her voice.

After holding his gaze on her for another minute to see if she was lying, Steve finally relaxed his guard a little and placed his gun on his belt, letting it fold up as soon as he had, and admitted, "I had a hunch Wilson wasn't trustworthy anyways, so I suppose I'll have to take your word for it if you say that this is for the best. Now what's our next move?"

"We get on the shuttle and go. My boss wants to speak to you," Miranda replied, clearly showing that she was not making a request.

"You mean the Illusive Man that I've heard about," Steve asked in retort. "I know that you work for this Cerberus group, whatever they are."

Miranda was a little caught off guard by this statement, but she made sure that it did not show in any of her features, even after it had passed and she turned to the only person who could have informed Steve about such facts. "Ah, Jacob. I should've known your consciences would get the better of you," Miranda sighed.

"Lying to Captain America isn't a good idea in principle, let alone the way to get him to join our cause," Jacob retorted.

"Well since we're getting everything out in the open, is there anything else you'd like to know before we go, Captain," Miranda then asked as she turned her attention back to the man she had worked so hard to bring back to the land of the living.

Such a fact was something that Steve wanted a bit more information on from the woman who had done this, so he immediately asked, "I was told that you were this Lazarus Project's director. Is that true?"

"Yes," Miranda nodded. "I put three years of my life into this project. The first half of it into Commander Shepard, and the other half into you."

"So what does Cerberus want from me," Steve asked as a follow-up.

"Probably the same thing that the Illusive Man wanted from Commander Shepard. Whatever that is, you would be better off asking the Illusive Man about when you meet him. He poured virtually unlimited resources into Lazarus, so obviously he had some kind of plan for Shepard that he's now redirected onto you," Miranda stated.

Steve nodded in understanding before he thought back to the attack. "What exactly happened during the attack when I lost contact with you?"

"Wilson had figured out I was helping you and he sent an army of mechs to take me out," Miranda revealed. "I got here as soon as I could…probably a little too soon if you ask Wilson."

"What about the rest of the people on this station," Steve asked, clearly still concerned about anyone who may or may not still be left.

"This is the evac area, and if they're not here, they're not coming," Miranda revealed.

Steve wanted to argue, but before he could, he immediately remembered Jacob's words from earlier and squashed down the argument. He may not like the fact that so many people had likely given their lives to make sure he lived, but he could understand that they were willing to make such a sacrifice if they thought it would help others in the long run. "So where will we be heading after we get off this station," Steve then asked.

"Another Cerberus facility," Miranda easily answered. "The Illusive Man is waiting for you there." As soon as she saw the neutral look that had formed on Steve's face, Miranda was able to determine exactly what he was thinking, and immediately said, "I know that you probably don't trust us, but this is the only shuttle off this station, so if you want to stay and rot with the mechs, be my guest."

Steve could see that the woman had a point, and after one last glance out the window into the immediate area of the station, Steve finally said, "I've honestly had enough of this station to last a lifetime."

"Or three, in your case," Miranda lightly joked, and she then gave a small nod in the direction of the shuttle to signal the two men to follow her as she moved to the ship herself. Jacob was quick to follow after the stunning woman, but Steve had to pause and take one last look back, thinking about how so many people had likely sacrificed themselves in this attack just so he could live again in another new future, before he joined them in boarding the shuttle. As soon as the ship had lifted off and blasted out of the massive station, Steve could only blink before it suddenly jumped to faster-than-light speeds, all the while wondering just what awaited him in this strange new future, and how much had changed since he had gone to sleep this time around.

AN: Okay, so a few quick things before I bring this first chapter to a close:

1) The MARVEL continuity for this story is mainly a mix of the MCU, and the mainstream universe in the comics, with a few other elements from other MARVEL franchises appearing here and there, so that's why Cap has the suit he wore in Avengers: Age of Ultron yet he seems like how he was in the most recent developments of the comics.

2) Yes, Cap will be taking Shepard's place in the events of the story, but this is not a typical hero of another franchise fills the role of the original hero from the featured franchise story. I won't say anymore than that at this time though, because you'll have to wait and see what surprises I have in store for later on down the road.

3) Yes, this takes place during Mass Effect 2, because honestly, there was no way that I could see for this to take place during the first game without somehow replacing Shepard with Captain America completely.

4) Yes, there will be other MARVEL characters in this story, and no, I will not say who they are until they show up, so don't expect any spoilers on that front from me. I will say that those characters from MARVEL that show up will be joining Cap's team on the Normandy, along with most of the characters from the original Mass Effect continuity, but I can't guarantee that everyone from the Mass Effect 2 team will be able to make the cut for this story. I will try to make sure that all the most memorable characters, at least in my opinion, make it in though.

Now then, if there's anything I didn't cover here, I will more than likely cover it in the next chapter's author's notes, and I will answer any questions you may pose in a review in the author's notes as well, but if you think that it would not be appropriate to post the question in a review, then by all means, send me a PM if you can. That's all for now folks, so Onto the Preview!...

After a quick test from Miranda and Jacob to make sure he was in top, mental condition, and reviewing the most recent galactic history concerning Earth and that of the galaxy at large, Captain America meets with the Illusive Man and discovers why he was brought back to life in the Twenty Second Century. Hearing about the citizens of human colonies being abducted is almost all Steve needs to hear before heading for the most recently attacked colony along with Miranda and Jacob so that they can investigate and get some answers. Just what will they find on the colony known as Freedom's Progress, and who will they encounter? Find out next time.

Please read and review, and I should go, fellow true believers!