Oriana awoke with a harsh gasp, mind scrambled and scrambling to make sense of where she was. Her entire body was on fire with pain, even as she justy barely made out a few scattered words from shadows hanging above it.

“TOO SOON…YOU….MORON…Ten…Rig…NOW I SAID…”

There was a new burning in her veins that her brain vaguely told her was an injection. Then there was nothing. But this time, she dreamed…

----

The second time she awoke, it happened far more slowly, without the adrenaline surge and panic that she vaguely remembered from the first time. The dreams, dreams of friends, of family, of enemies, of times both good and terrible, were slow to fade. A heavy emotional exhaustion kept her eyes closed even after her mind began to wake. But then, she felt a hand on hers. Reflexively, she grasped it, somehow already knowing who it belonged to. A smile tugged at her lips. It was a bit painful, but it felt good somehow nevertheless. It took a serious effort of will to force her eyes open, and she managed only a single hoarse word as they focused. A name.

“A-Alliana.”

A tension faded from her lover’s face, relief flooding her eyes, even as the redhead’s other hand reached up to caress Oriana’s cheek.

“Ori. You had us so worried. I’m glad you’re back.”

She could already feel sleep pulling her back under again, even as the equally relieved faces of Liara and her sister appeared behind Alliana.

“G’lad I’m bac’ t’.”

Any other words were lost, as sleep took her once again. This time, all of her dreams were good ones…

----

Oriana didn’t know how many times she woke for a few minutes at a time. Many faces appeared in the chair next to her hospital bed as she did. Alliana, Miranda, Liara, Kelly, Samara, Ashley, even Garrus and Tali together once. Slowly, the amount of time she was awake for each time lengthened. A few minutes, twenty, a half an hour. Finally, the day came that she was greeted by Miranda and Alliana together again, feeling much stronger than she had at any point yet. It was time, some part of her realized, to finally face the music. She’d been content, until now, not to ask what was going on. Nor what had happened. Though the latter, of course, she had a vague idea of. She’d always known the powers that be in the galaxy would never let her live once they were sure they didn’t need her again. She was too dangerous and she’d made fools out of too many of them.

Honestly. She was amazed she’d lived through whatever the attempt had been. She vaguely remembered gunfire from behind and pain, but no more than that. She wet her lips and mustered the two questions she knew she needed to ask.

“How long? And what happened?”

Alliana’s face darkened, eyes sparking with rage. Thankfully, Miranda’s iron control held. There was rage in her eyes too, but her tone was clear as she answered.

“Eleven months. You’ve been fading in and out for about three. It took me nine to repair all the damage, and I couldn’t exactly use all original parts. We almost lost you.”

Miranda’s voice got a bit rough at the end, causing her to abruptly stop. Alliana, eyes still furious, took up answering the other question.

“One of the Asari Commandos was a sleeper agent. Completely unaware she’d been programmed to activate under specific conditions and with specific commands. She was activated to eliminate you once you were no longer necessary, and unloaded her entire assault rifle clip into your back. We tracked her back to a supposedly defunct STG program, but it’s likely that it was actually a Council order.”

Alliana took a deep breath, clearly fighting to keep calm about that, even if Oriana herself wasn’t particularly surprised. She’d expected it, though hadn’t thought they’d act quite that early. Miranda had gotten control of herself again and picked up the explanation.

“Thankfully, you were still in full armor from the earlier operation. Even if your biotic barrier was down, your armor was beyond bleeding edge and reduced the damage from instantly fatal to just extremely mortal. Equally thankfully, you insisted on everyone’s armor having a medical stasis module. I assume because of what you said happened to Shepard the first time around. In this case, it save your life…but the galaxy doesn’t actually know that.”

Oriana straightened, barely wincing as the movement pulled at a few aching parts of her. Did that mean? Miranda smirked and nodded.

“We activated Project Blank. Your condition was bad enough that it was easy to fake your death. And the medical facilities here at Point Slate are some of the best in the galaxy. No one that hasn’t visited you has any idea you’re alive. Not even your adopted parents, I’m afraid, as the watch kept on them hasn’t faded yet. I was never the public figure you were, so it was easy for me to vanish with you dead.” Her sister gestured at Alliana. “And Shepard is on the outs with the powers that be after she went on a rampage and gutted every single person and facility that had ever been involved. Including some rather important people. They can’t try to eliminate her, since she’s too important as a figurehead, but they sidelined her and she slipped her watchers pretty easily.”

Oriana grinned, reaching out to squeeze her lover’s hand again. Still, there was one more important question to ask.

“And the Reapers?”

Alliana’s rage visibly faded a bit between the hand squeeze and the new question. A certain satisfaction replaced much of the anger in her eyes.

“Beaten. Oh, there are still quite a few out there that the various Fleets are hunting down. And they are going to be a nightmare for centuries, possibly even for millenia. After all, any one of them could theoretically convert an entire species and launch them at the Citadel’s throat. Even so, that sort of thing can be managed. The chances of them doing a full wipe of organic life again have been broken as thoroughly as we could have hoped, though. The Cycles and Harvest are over. We won. You won it for us.”

Oriana shuddered with a wild mix of relief and disbelief. Her eyes closed and she began to cry, with too many emotions running through her to even be sure why. Alliana seemed to understand, shifting onto the bed and simply hugging her.

It was over. It was finally over. It would likely be a long time before she could fully accept that. And she wasn’t at all sure who she’d see in the mirror when she finally did. But…it was the first step. A blank slate. She’d done what she set out to do. Now, all that was left was to pick up the pieces and find out how much of herself it had cost her…