"Shepard this isn't a good idea."

"Miranda listen—" Shepard couldn't complete his argument as Miranda continued to finish her own. He looked at the stunning woman cross her arms and walk further away from him.

"I'm sorry Shepard I don't think that you understand what I'm saying so, I'll say it differently," Miranda uncrossed her arms and walked closer to Shepard. She took his arms and placed it around her waist and wrapped her arms around his neck. Shepard pulled her in closer.

"Shepard, this is NOT a good idea."

Shepard unwrapped Miranda's arms from his neck and walked to the opposite side of the room. He loved Miranda and he understood what she was trying to say, he also understood that if he turned the information he had on the Collectors to the Alliance he might not ever be able to see Miranda again. But he had to try. The evidence that he had was irrefutable. With the information on the Collectors and his information on Saren and the Geth there was no way the Council could refuse him now.

"Miranda, I can't keep having this argument with you—"

"Then don't."

"—But I need to do this. They need a chance, we all need a chance to win this war. Whether they believe it's coming or not. Now, you can understand that better yet, maybe you can't. But you have to trust that I know what I am doing."

Shepard started to walk out of the room, and head to his Cabin. He had been tired from fighting with the Collectors, the Illusive Man, and now Miranda. He just didn't have enough energy to keep arguing about what was evidently the right thing to do. But as he was walking out Miranda stopped him.

"I understand," Miranda said. Shepard stopped walking but kept his back to Miranda.

"I do John. But I also understand that this is going to be just like the first time and second time you tried to warn them. And each time you played the fool to their rules, and then you played the hero when you had to save their lives. They don't listen. And they won't listen. The only thing different about this time is that you will not come back from this. They have not believed anything that you have said for two years and they won't believe you now. I trust that you know what you're doing. But I know that they won't listen."

Shepard refused to turn around. He didn't want to argue with Miranda anymore, and if he turned he would have done just that. Shepard started to walk out the door but what Miranda said next had stopped his feet from knowing how to move.

"John...if you walk out that door I'm done. I have had everything I've ever loved ripped from me. I can't watch you sacrifice yourself for the Council. They won't listen and you won't come back. I know that you know that. So I'm making this decision easy for you. The Council or me."

Shepard stood still, refusing to move. His back still faced Miranda, he didn't want to see the look on her face. He didn't want to see the way her heart broke when he executed his decision. Instead he threw his head down and clenched his jaw, stopping himself from breaking down in front of the woman he loved. He knew he would regret his decision long before he made it, but it had to be done.

"I'm so sorry," Shepard whispered as he walked out the door. Leaving Miranda standing there heart broken.

Shepard sat, handcuffed helplessly to a chair replaying his last moment with Miranda for yet another time. Wishing he had done things differently. She had been right. The moment he docked the Normandy in Bay D24 he was proclaimed as a terrorist to the Alliance and nothing more. It had been over a month now and Shepard handcuffed to this chair had become nothing but a habit. That and the continuous Alliance, and at times C-Sec, officers asking questions about his "affairs" with Cerberus.

He was tired of answering their questions, because they never cared about the answers. They only wanted him to say what they wanted to hear. Besides, Shepard no longer wanted to answer, he himself had only one question that ran through his mind. How could you leave her?

"Commander Shepard. Commander Shepard you are doing it again."

Shepard didn't notice that the Alliance officer walked into the room to interrogate him. He wondered how long she had been sitting there.

"Doing what 'again' Daniels?"

Daniels sighed, Shepard knew she hated the informality but he wasn't really considered about how she felt. After all, he was the one handcuffed with a camera light shining in his face.

"Commander Shepard, I told you my name is Lieutenant Daniels. I prefer that you call me by that and only that. Just as I call you Commander in front of your name."

Shepard scoffed, "Sorry I keep forgetting that you preferred to be called Lieutenant Daniels. I'll try and call you that…Daniels."

Shepard smirked at Daniels, as she rolled her eyes and his incompliance.

"Commander Shepard, you do realize that you haven't been released from the Alliances custody because you refuse to civilly comply," Daniels questioned.

"Daniels you do realize that I haven't left the custody of the Alliance because I choose not to. Don't make it seem like you bureaucratic fools actually do anything useful."

"Commander we have you in handcuffs and when we don't have you in those you are under full lockdown in your dormitory. I doubt you could leave our custody if you tried."

Shepard was tired of the Alliance and their "all mighty behavior". If he wanted to leave he could, simple as that and they needed to know it. Daniels just happened to be sitting in the chair to relay the message to them.

"Daniels, I want you to listen to me and listen well. I am handcuffed because I allow it. If I wanted out of them I could easily charge into you, which will kill you on impact, in the same second I am propelling into you I would easily rip the keys from your neck and uncuff myself. When your Alliance friends behind that glass in there run in here you will have been already dead for about a minute. And you friends would have followed you in death just as quickly. If I wanted to leave that 'dormitory' I would have done that while you and your precious Alliance brass are asleep. I would have left day one. Your custody policies only work on everyone but me. I am here because I allow it. You and your Alliance have nothing to do with that."

Daniels shifted in her seat. A month ago, Shepard would have never talked to anyone like that. But now it had been a month too long and Shepard was growing tired of being treated like a regular criminal.

"Now listen Daniels, I am not answering any of your questions. They are all the same and so are the answers. So let's make today short for you. My answers to all of your questions are: The Reapers are coming, the Reapers are coming, and the Reapers are coming. Take that back to the Alliance."

Shepard shifted in his seat waiting for a response from the Lieutenant. She sat across from him with her arms crossed and her jaw clenched, but her skin had looked flushed. He couldn't tell whether she would punch him or become sick and oddly enough he hadn't cared. The Alliance had blocked his messages, forbad him visitors, named him a terrorist, and tarnished his name, he couldn't care less threatening their lives.

"So Daniels, excuse me, Lieutenant Daniels mind releasing me from this chair so I can go to my very high security 'dormitory' or should I release myself. "

Daniels stood up from her seat and removed the key from her necklace. She then released Shepard from his restraints. Shepard stood up from the seat and rubbed his wrist, he gave a thankful nod to Daniels who had refused to make eye contact. Shepard opened the door and right as he existed the room he heard Daniels yell at his back.

"You've changed Commander!"

I know, he thought, and I don't like it either.