Miranda Lawson had never expected things to turn out the way they had. Two years ago, she had fully expected to sacrifice her life, along with Shepard and the rest of her crew, to defeat the Collectors. That was as far as her plan had carried her. In the months leading up to their assault on the Omega-4 base, Miranda had found closure and made peace with her demons as best she could. She had been ready to die for a cause she believed in.

And then she didn't.

Instead of dying, Miranda found herself on the run from the Illusive Man and trying to protect her sister from their father, without a plan and using what little resources she had left to stay off the grid. Add in the war with the Reapers, and it made for a rough year.

None of that compared to the pain that was to come.

After helping defeat her father on Horizon, Miranda set out to make sure her sister would be safe, once and for all. She, along with her sister and her family, relocated to a secure Alliance base, where she knew they would all be safe - at least for the moment.

The Alliance was surprised to have an ex-Cerberus officer willing to help them, but Shepard's good word kept them from bothering her too much. She was able to use her leadership skills to negotiate for Crucible resources. For the most part, she stayed away from battle, still weak from her encounter from Kai Leng. She was regretful that she was unable to be with Shepard's team on Earth, but she had every confidence that her former love interest would succeed without her, something she would not have been able to admit just a year prior.

Her feelings were mixed once the dust began to settle. She was finally free from the clutches of both possessive men in her life - her father and the Illusive Man. Her sister, Oriana, was safe. Miranda was finally able to have the life with her sister that she had longed for.

At the same time, Shepard was gone. Upon hearing of the Reapers' defeat, as well as Shepard's death, Miranda found herself in a state of disbelief. It was unfathomable that Jennifer Shepard could be dead. There was no evidence in the wreckage of the Crucible. Luckily, she was not the only one who felt this way. One Liara T'Soni was already looking into what had happened on the Citadel and contacted Miranda to come work for her. With little alternative, she did.

The nagging feeling that Shepard wasn't dead ate away at her. It was because of this that she agreed to help Liara. It gave her a focus, and who could say no to Liara? Miranda may have been talented, but she was still human. She was no match for a pure biotic asari or the numerous soldiers she had at her disposal.

She aided in the movement and reconstruction of the Citadel and eventually moved into an apartment when construction was finished, all the while looking for clues as to what could have happened to Shepard. It wasn't a cut and dry process either. Months went by with little to no information. Many times, she felt like giving up.

But she didn't.

After a year, their work finally paid off. Liara contacted her about someone resembling the commander. A woman had been rescued from an uncharted world by one of Aria T'Loak's ships, and she was seeking refuge on Omega. Unable to join Miranda on Omega herself, Liara sent a dossier on the one other person with enough reason to believe Shepard still alive - the second human Spectre (and Shepard's significant other, no less), Kaidan Alenko.

Miranda questioned it, regardless of Liara's certainty.

"Why Alenko? He's unstable. Surely someone else would be better suited to the mission. What about Vakarian? Vega? Hell, I'd prefer Jack." Miranda moved swiftly back and forth in front of the monitor the Shadow Broker's face appeared on.

Liara simply shook her head. "It makes the most sense. The others are have moved on. I think this would be good for Kaidan. Look out for him, lie to him if you have to. Do what you can to get him to go with you. It has to be him. Trust me."

Joker was standing by with a ship to take her to Omega, and they had a small crew. Miranda had her orders. All that was left was Kaidan.

So Miranda did as she was told. She contacted him via Extranet communication and asked him to meet her on the Citadel so that they could talk about something in person. She was wary of doing it any other way, for fear of scaring him off or having their conversation monitored. She did not tell him much, aside from the importance of them speaking. Kaidan seemed reluctant, but he eventually agreed to meet her the next day.

With the meeting scheduled, she knew her next hurdle was to convince him to help in her cause. Her mind was moving rapidly to brainstorm the best course of action. She had been given complete control over how to handle the mission, the only exception being that it had to be Kaidan Alenko and no one else accompanying her. Her conversation with Liara just days before made that evident enough. Convincing him would be the most important thing. Without him, there was no plan. She had to make sure she had a plan

When the next day finally came, Miranda spent most of the day preparing, planning for what he might say or any questions he might have. Instead of her usual armor, which Joker had once said could hardly be called such, she dressed in more appropriate attire for the setting: a long and revealing black dress.

They had decided on her favorite sushi restaurant on the Silversun Strip, one that Shepard nearly destroyed and that had only recently reopened after completing renovations, and she made sure to show up promptly five minutes before the agreed time. She expected Kaidan to be late, given what she had seen of him from the Shadow Broker's feeds, but that didn't matter. It would give her time to compose herself, to gather her thoughts.