Notes: IDK what I'm doing with this, I'm honestly just enjoying writing again and had little ideas for a bunch of oneshots during ME2 which I'm now throwing together into one hopefully cohesive fic. Also IDK if I like the title or not. It's the working title and I'm tolerating it.


Shepard Traitor Soldier Spy - Prologue

The Illusive Man said she was free to leave any time she chose. She thought he had a funny definition of free. She was onboard a Cerberus vessel, with a Cerberus crew, and Cerberus body modifications, including a Cerberus tracking chip in her arm. She was sure she was free to leave the Normandy whenever she wanted to, but they'd never let her go.

She did as much research into Cerberus as she could following Nepheron. Even with her intelligence contacts and hacking ability, all her work turned up next to nothing. She didn't know how far their resources or influence stretched.

She had no money that wasn't tied up in a Cerberus account. Her Omni-Tool was of Cerberus make and design, ergo she had no way of knowing what kind of monitoring software they had loaded onto it. For all she knew, Lawson was lying about the control chip to lure her into a false sense of self-determination. As far as most of the galaxy was concerned, she was still dead. Her former crew were either working for Cerberus, untraceable, or unable or unwilling to follow her on another suicide mission.

She could run, but she wouldn't get far.

As much as she loathed to admit it, she admired him for this. The Illusive Man created a situation in which she ostensibly free so that it would look to the world that Commander Shepard was working with Cerberus of her own accord. The Illusive Man got his perfectly designed weapon and her grudging loyalty, all he had to do was keep her isolated and dependent on Cerberus.

Then again, she was Mira Shepard. She was the Savior of the Citadel, the First Human Spectre, the Sole Survivor of Akuze, Alliance Intelligence's top Infiltrator, and dozens of other titles she was sure she'd earned somewhere along the line. She was on a Cerberus vessel, full of Cerberus intelligence and personnel files. Perhaps something useful could come of this.

She was going to get out of this and she was going to leave Cerberus burning in her wake. She just had to trust that for all her intelligence, Lawson was just as much the Illusive Man's lackey as everybody else on this ship. So long as her thoughts were still her own, she could escape.

She would have to be careful. The Normandy was crawling with bugs and even without Chambers reading over her communications, she suspected it would be next to impossible to download or send any sort of data without being monitored. It was a good thing they invested countless resources into her with the express intent of asking her for the impossible.

She would have to take this slowly, earn Cerberus' trust. Lawson had all her old files, she'd never trust her if she turned around and played the good Cerberus soldier right out of the gate. So for a while, she'd make Cerberus fight like hell for everything they got out of her, then she'd slowly give in.

Take an order from Lawson, be polite to Chambers, leave the bugs and cameras in her quarters, all little things to make them think that she finally come around to Cerberus. She'd earn their trust, a little bit of privacy, then access to the treasure trove of information they had to offer.

She would let them collar her like a dog and by the time this was over, they'd forget she had teeth.