The Normandy had changed. The Alliance had exchanged gleaming brightness for shadows that fell across the floor and made Miranda's already halting steps even more ponderous. The crewmen did their best not to look at her, but she could almost feel the distrust radiating off them. Typical Alliance. She could have handed them Leng's head and they still wouldn't have trusted her because she had the temerity to actually want to do something to help humanity. Pain radiated down her leg. Not that she had been all that successful at being helpful.
She opened the door. Her own quarters had been transformed. The monitors covered one wall and provided a real-time map of the galaxy. Systems under Reaper control were in red, the Alliance and its allies in blue, known Cerberus bases in orange. There was far too much red and orange on that map. Her team had taken out their share of Cerberus bases, but not enough. Sanctuary was supposed to have been their greatest victory yet. She would have put an end to Henry once and for all and shut down whatever monstrosity he was running. Only Leng and the Reapers had come. She had survived, barely, but her team was dead and there had been no climactic confrontation with Henry. She'd only been able to beg Shepard to save Ori before using the last of her strength to throw him through the window while Shepard said the things that she should have. The damsel in distress again.
Liara was pale. She'd been a far better broker than Miranda would have guessed when they met on Omega, but the war had etched new lines on her face and turned bright, inquisitive eyesdull. She turned and surprise and pity washed over her face. "Miranda? Should you be out of the med bay yet?"
Miranda bristled in irritation. She didn't need pity. She had never needed pity "If I spend one more minute there, I'll go insane. Were you able to use any of the data Shepard and I scrounged from the site?"
"Some. It'll be some time before we can use it to plot a course to the Illusive Man's base. I'm waiting to hear from some of my agents now."
"I don't like this. Leng shouldn't have detected that tracking program you gave me." She winced as she stepped around to the monitors. "I'm getting sick of being beaten. And rescued."
Liara smiled at her. "I'd hardly call it a rescue. We stepped through a mountain of husks on our way to the tower. You did well."
Old memories eddied to the surface. You did well. She'd told Liara that when the asari had been wallowing in grief and self-blame over Feron's capture. Miranda didn't believe in fate, but the way the patterns of life shifted and changed. The scared scientist became the Shadow Broker. The Cerberus second-in-command lost almost everything. "Not nearly well enough. I'd have been dead if you and Jacob hadn't come when you did. Just like with Jacob and the batarians. I should be better than this. How do people cope with needing to be rescued?"
Liara's expression was suddenly distant. "They vow never to let it happen again. The train until they are exhausted. They gather power, knowledge, and influence to make themselves stronger. They refuse to let their friends help them because that means they're still cowering in a cave somewhere. If they're lucky, they achieve some measure of success. And then the Reapers destroye their home and they realize that everyone is helpless and the best we can do is muddle through and do what good we can to get others back on their feet. Because the next day, the person we save might have to save us."
Miranda laughed. Liara would know something about being the damsel in distress, wouldn't she? But cowering before that krogan battlemaster hadn't defined her. Losing to Leng didn't define Miranda unless she let the loss define her. She was injured, but she had been injured before. And she had still found a way to defeat death. Even Shepard had been helpless until Miranda had restored the vital spark of life. "Yes, I imagine becoming the Shadow Broker is quite the ego boost. You better start sleeping with one eye open, T'Soni." She tapped a monitor. "I'm not much for fighting at the moment, but I do have my skills. What do you say we catch ourselves an Illusive Man?"