Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Set in the distant future of the Thunderverse (where The Warrior's Code is set) so some (implied) spoilers and AU. Trigger warnings for mentions of child abuse and neglect, abuse of a disabled person, drug use, violence and death involving minors. Title comes from my personal nickname for the Jack/Miranda pairing – Jackiranda. The quote comes from Douglas Stewart's poem 'The Jacaranda'.
…
Miranda Lawson hugged herself as Oriana and her adopted family were taken away in the shuttle to (hopefully) a new and safer life, far from the manipulations of their father. She had committed what could only be described as crimes against sentient beings to safeguard that one precious life… and it had been all for nothing. Niket, the one tie to her old life she thought she could trust, had betrayed her… and even though Regan Shepard, with a simple touch, had stopped her from killing the bastard… he still died. In front of her. The genetically engineered brunette blinked back tears that blurred her eyes, wondering when she had become so weak.
"When I fail, the results are catastrophic." Her words to Regan, barely two months past, haunted her. Oriana had almost been captured and taken back to Henry Dawson, to a life of manipulation and subtle abuse… Even Cerberus' almost endless resources had failed to protect her.
Regan shut down her omnitool as Jack looked around Ilium's civilian docks with every evidence of interest. "Grissom Academy will be happy to have her," the small, thin-boned redhead announced calmly as Miranda looked over her shoulder.
How can a woman from a literal hellhole be such an idealist? Miranda wondered as she nodded. One of the conditions for Regan's aid in this mission was that Oriana be sent to Grissom Academy instead of another Cerberus-arranged safehouse. She considered it something of a minor miracle that Shepard was willing to help at all after the fact that they'd first met when Miranda was engaging in… well… human trafficking. Even if the Illusive Man had claimed it was for a greater good. After hearing what Jack went through at Pragia... Well, Miranda had her doubts now.
Commander Shepard, the Hero of Elysium, Eden Prime and the Battle of the Citadel, was one of the most truly heroic – in every positive sense of the word – people Miranda had ever encountered. Hard, hard and polished as a laser-cut diamond, the Australian soldier was nevertheless dedicated to doing the most amount of good she could do… and making her distrust of Cerberus known with every word. She'd thanked Miranda sincerely for raising her from the dead… and then punched her in the face for her actions all those years ago. The brunette had tasted blood from a cut lip and knew better, under the harsh gaze of those biotic-blue eyes, than to make the usual arguments about Pragia's necessity.
"Thank you," Miranda said through gritted teeth. God, but it was painful to owe the autistic woman such a big debt.
"Don't worry about it," Regan replied grimly. "We're going through the giant mass relay of doom. We might as well clear up our unfinished business, hmm?"
Uncomfortable under the calm acceptance of Regan's gaze and the understanding it was a suicide mission, Miranda glanced away, preferring the open hostility of Jack's angry brown eyes. But much to the Cerberus operative's surprise, there was… something that might almost be mistaken for compassion in the biotic's look.
Since the destruction of Pragia and the relentless example of Regan, Jack had… not exactly softened, but found a role model worth following, one who sympathised with what she went through but made no excuses for the biotic's actions. Miranda was willing to agree that Jack had every reason to be angry with Cerberus, though she wouldn't admit that on the ship where it could be overheard by the Illusive Man and be taken as a sign of disloyalty.
Jack pointedly turned away to face Regan, presented a tattooed back to the Cerberus operative. "I hear Eternity has great drinks," the shaven-headed woman told the Commander. "After Horizon, figure you might want to get shitfaced drunk while you can."
Regan's face, broad and blunt, tightened. Miranda had thought her expression stiff from the skin-weave used to reinforce her body but no, much of it came from her autism. Still, she'd quickly learned to read the Commander's expressions and discovered that aside from a few differences, she was no less emotional than any neurotypical.
"I'm not sure offhanded reminders about Commander Alenko are appropriate," Miranda murmured to Jack warningly. Horizon had been… messy, to say the least. The Illusive Man had manipulated the information reaching the Alliance to fracture any and all ties that bound Regan to her old team. Only the recruitment of Garrus Vakarian, whose flexible ethics and morality allowed for work with Cerberus, had been allowed. Everyone else was handpicked to make sure Shepard would be distanced from people like Liara T'Soni and, of course, her old lover Kaidan Alenko.
Miranda flinched as she recalled the stark pain in Regan's face as Kaidan turned around and walked away. That was when the first fracture in her solid loyalty to Cerberus appeared.
Now, she knew that if it was a choice between Regan Shepard and Jack Harper, the Illusive Man – she'd take humanity's first Spectre.
"Fuck off, Cheerleader," Jack muttered in reply as Regan simply walked away to hand over a locket lost in the docks to an asari. "She's bleeding internally, so to speak, and you're worried she might-"
"Shepard didn't have to help me. Hell, with our history, I would have expected her to tell me to piss off," Miranda retorted harshly. "But she didn't. I'm trying to make sure she isn't hurt any more than she already is."
"Cerberus let rumours reach him, didn't they?" Jack asked shrewdly. Miranda forgot, much like others did with Regan, how truly intelligent the renegade biotic was.
"I… Yes. I had nothing to do with that decision." It seemed important that Jack – and Regan – know that.
"Fuckers," Jack observed bitterly. "Didn't you want to stick a control chip in her head?"
"I, ah…" Miranda found herself lost for words. "Yes. But… I'm glad I didn't."
"Aren't we fucking all?" Jack pointed out. "So, how you going to justify that little piece of information, hmm?"
"I can't." Miranda's voice was stark. "After Project Overlord, after Pragia, I… can't. And I was… involved in collecting some of the children at the Teltin facility."
"Yeah, I know. Shepard told me." Jack made a disgusted sound. "Life's fucked up, ain't it? If she'd killed you, you wouldn't have been able to bring her back, but if you'd killed her, we'd all be collected or something by now."
Life's little ironies tended to amuse Miranda but not this one. Even as a half-grown gang sniper, Regan had made her look like an idiot. Now, she was a bloody legend, a legend that Cerberus sought to manipulate for their own ends.
"It is," she found herself agreeing with Jack. "But now you know one of the reasons why I joined up with Cerberus."
"To protect your little sister." Jack sighed, shaking her head. "You know, we're the biggest bomb on the Normandy. Reckon Regan dragged us along on each other's personal business to try and defuse it?"
"Probably," Miranda admitted. Regan inspired loyalty in a diverse crew by listening and doing her best to help others sort out their business.
"Cerberus is good at twisting the best in a person," Jack continued as she leaned against the low railing. "Plenty of the doctors at Pragia had good intentions but got fucked up thanks to the Illusive Man."
"He told me that… that… they were unwanted children and would serve a purpose for the greater good," Miranda admitted shamefacedly. "I believed him. I didn't know that Pragia would be so brutal – I thought it would be like Brain Camp."
"Which was pretty brutal to begin with," Regan noted from behind them; the two biotics turned to face the Spectre. "Kaidan told me what the place was like. Turian mercs breaking a kid's arm because she wanted a drink of water…"
That, aside from the relentlessly ethical worldview that the L2 followed, explained Kaidan's intense disdain for Cerberus.
"Wouldn't surprise me if Cerberus dabbled its fingers in that too," Jack noted dourly. "Look at Project Overlord."
Regan's eyes glittered. Even the simple mention of the project that saw an autistic man who could communicate with geth through mathematical abilities was enough to enrage her. Miranda found it hard to disagree with her cold-blooded execution of Gavin Archer.
"To make sure Oriana didn't feel like she was being shuttled out of the way, I asked her to keep an eye on David," the autistic said softly. "If she's half as capable as you, Miranda, she'll be the best bodyguard around."
"I wanted to keep her away from trouble," Miranda told her flatly.
"The Illusive Man ain't going to be pleased I removed a means of controlling you from his hands," Regan countered calmly. "And Oriana's a latent biotic just as you were. Kahlee's going to make sure she gets proper training."
"The Illusive Man wouldn't-" Miranda began, only to fall silent as both Shepard and Jack raised eyebrows in eloquent commentary.
"Why do you care so much?" Jack asked. "I'm fucked up and Miranda's a terrorist."
"And I was a gangbanger facing charges of attempted murder when Captain Anderson gave me a chance," Regan answered simply. "I'm going to do my best to pull as many people through this mission as I can to the other side. And when it's said and done, I want it to be your choice, Miranda, if you stay with Cerberus or not."
She squared her shoulders as Kasumi Goto briefly flickered into visibility. "If you'll pardon me, I need to see Liara about something. Take the rest of the day off."
Regan turned away and left the two women staring at her back with dropped jaws.
"Queen of the Boy fucking Scouts," Jack muttered.
"Girl Guides," Miranda corrected absently.
"What the fuck ever." Jack shook her head. "Look, we owe her. Maybe we should… fuck, never going to like you. Still want to gut you with a plastic spoon. Maybe we could lay off each other, you know, make her life easier."
"For the length of the mission," Miranda agreed. "I'm… sorry for calling you Subject Zero, Jack."
"Eh, whatever, Cheerleader." Jack shrugged. "Guess we have more in common than I thought."
"Engineered to fulfil someone else's plans and escaping under our own biotic power?" Miranda suggested, trying for a light tone to dispel the sudden surge of empathy she felt for the renegade.
"You fucking bet," Jack said cheerfully. "So, since Shepard seems dedicated to sobriety, want to get shitfaced? I don't trust anyone except maybe Regan, but I decide who I'm gonna kill and not kill when I see them drunk."
"If you don't hate me so much, you'll upgrade to a metal spoon to gut me when this is all over?" Miranda asked dryly.
"Hell, I'll use a knife if you aren't completely shitty as a person," Jack replied with a bloodthirsty grin. "Of course, that's if you return to Cerberus. If we took the Normandy and went… well, maybe not pirating but… I don't know… freelance merc work, we'd be fucking rolling in credits."
"I doubt Regan would turn merc," Miranda pointed out as the biotic stood up and headed towards the stairs that would lead to the Eternity bar.
"When this is over, she'll be going back to the life of a Spectre," Jack countered. "I'll have a little word with Alenko – and by that I mean threaten to castrate him if he doesn't get back with Regan – and we can travel the galaxy while she does… hero stuff. Maybe we'll invite Vakarian along too and Thane if he's still kicking. Kick the asses of things worse than us."
"There's still the Reapers," Miranda said grimly as she imagined herself as part of some Suicide Squad in space. It was… surprisingly tempting.
"Pfft, Regan's already killed one of them. She'll kick the asses of the rest of them and we'll all be out of work," Jack said cheerfully as they rounded a corner and entered the marketplace. Then the biotic stopped dead as she saw a magnificent tree, tall and broad, that was liberally festooned with so many pale blue-violet flowers that the dark green leaves were overwhelmed. "What the fuck is that?"
"A jacaranda," Miranda breathed as she looked at the centrepiece of the market, which seemed to be all exotic plants here. "Native to Australia."
"It's… beautiful." Jack's voice was awed. And wistful.
"It is," Miranda agreed. She recalled walks with Niket beneath the jacaranda trees at her father's rural Victorian property. "When the flowers fall, it's like… a shower of blue-violet trumpet-like blossoms falling to the ground like rain. I used to walk under them with Niket…"
Much to her embarrassment, the tears began to flow and her sentence ended with a choked sob. She wiped at her cheeks as Jack looked back in surprise. Then she fired up her biotics, glowing the same hue as jacaranda petals in sunlight, and waved her hand to shake the flowers loose from the tree.
Aliens cursed in surprise as a storm of blue-violet petals swirled around the marketplace with scatterings of fernlike leaves. At the heart of it was Jack, her sculpted face almost serene as she made it rain flowers as Miranda had described.
"Is it her banner and symbol the branches bear,
Or the living spirit itself come down to birth,
Glowing in a flesh of blossoms upon the air."
The old Douglas Stewart poem echoed through Miranda's thoughts as she watched Jack glowing amidst the falling petals, blurred by tears as the Cerberus operative allowed herself the release of weeping after so very long.
She had always known the price of her service would be Oriana's continued safety but secure in her belief in Cerberus' mission, she'd missed the veiled threat in the Illusive Man overseeing the arrangements himself. But Regan Shepard, unenhanced and achingly human, had perceived it… and taken steps to eliminate the danger to Oriana, unasked.
The last blossom fell to the ground as a couple asari cops walked in, called by someone no doubt about to accuse Jack of vandalism. Miranda quickly scrubbed her cheeks and intercepted them, smiling apologetically.
"I'm sorry about the mess, but my crewmate saw I was homesick and made the jacaranda flowers fall like they do back in Australia," she explained hastily. "I was describing it and she'd never seen it before, so…"
One of the asari smiled briefly and Miranda was relieved that she wasn't wearing her Cerberus uniform today but a plain black jumpsuit. "It's alright. We'll have to charge you a fine but I'll make it the minimum two hundred credits for, ah, interfering with government property."
A quick bringing up of Miranda's omnitool saw the credits transferred to the appropriate account from the personal account that she kept secret from the Illusive Man. "Thank you," she said as Jack came up. "I'm dreadfully sorry…"
The cop shook her head with another smile. "It's alright. At worst, some matron got petals in her scalp."
The other cop snickered. "If anyone gets shirty, contact Matriarch Aethyta. She'll throw a Singularity on their ass for bitching about something beautiful."
Miranda had no idea who Matriarch Aethyta was but she filed the name away for later reference. "Thanks," she said as the asari made a note the fine was paid and then moved on.
"Shepard knows her," Jack observed. "They had a two-hour conversation on Australian craft beers and asari philosophy."
"Is there anyone Regan doesn't know?" Miranda asked of the shaven-headed woman.
"The Illusive Man. And when she does, I think he can kiss his ass goodbye," Jack noted with cheerful malice.
Miranda's smile was thin. "I can get you and her there."
Jack blinked and then gave a slow, genuine smile that was almost as stiffly awkward as one of Regan's, but no less sincere. "You know what, Cheerleader? Maybe you don't completely suck."
"You know what, Jack?" Miranda countered. "You mightn't be completely psychotic."
"Fuck off, I have a reputation to maintain." But Jack was still smiling. "Let's go meet Matriarch Aethyta. If Liara T'Soni doesn't know it about Illium, she does… and we have a… what is she?"
"Asari Justicar," Miranda answered quietly. Samara's profile had been added when it became clear that despite Jack's raw biotic power and Miranda's own finesse, there was no one who could use the Barrier technique effectively – Thane, like Shepard herself, was a microbiotic who lacked the strength to do so.
"That's it. We got one of them to recruit." Jack rolled her tattooed shoulders to loosen them up. "So let's have a couple drinks and then go save Regan a bit of work."
Miranda watched her walk away, jacaranda petals still clinging to her skin, and wondered when she stopped hating Jack.