Here it is, chapter two in the story of everyone's favourite biotics! Thanks to everyone for their feedback on Chapter 1! Hopefully, Chapter 2 live up to whatever expectations people have! :-)

As always, all comments/reviews/critiques welcome!

Bioware owns the characters, but I stole their souls... *maniacal laugh*

They were pinned down, and blood was flowing from the wound in her side. Just fucking great, thought Jack. I'm gonna die and it's all because of some stupid fucking varren.

It was a week after Omeron, and they were on Persius, investigating another Cerberus facility. As with last time, Miranda, Jack, Ash and Shepard went down to investigate, this time with Samara, Jacob, and Kasumi standing by as backup. And now, it was needed.

They had been halfway through the facility without any problems, when a small pack of wild varren had run at the group. There had been five total, which was no problem, but they had let down their guard when after they cut down the animals, and that's when they had been ambushed by a large team of Blood Pack mercenaries. Jack had quickly taken a shotgun blast to the chest, which had mostly been absorbed by her shields, but still sent her flying backwards. She had been instantly grateful that she had taken to wearing the flak jacket over her regular leather harness; otherwise she would be much worse off.

As it was, she was still pretty badly off. After the initial blast, when her shields had been down and before she could get to cover, she had felt herself get shot in the side. It was only a pistol round, but without shields, it still hurt, and left a very nasty whole in her flesh. Even with the wound, though, she was helping lay down cover fire for her teammates, though she saw Miranda was pinned down as well, with her ankle bent at an impossible angle. Shepard and Ash, with their heavier armor, were making their way forward, though the Blood Pack mercenaries were still laying down heavy fire.

Suddenly, the wall at the far side of the room came crashing down. A Ymir mech stormed through the rubble, and started firing rockets at the four of them. Ash and Shepard were able to get behind cover before they took any fire, but now they were in the same position Miranda and Jack were: stuck.

"Miranda!"

Jack screamed over the roar of gunfire and incoming rockets. She saw Miranda look over to her, pain and determination creasing her face. Jack had to assume that she looked much the same way, though now was no time to let their injuries affect them. She nodded at Miranda twice, and Miranda nodded back once. They fell into a routine that they had used many times in combat before.

Once there was a lull in the gunfire, Jack stepped out from behind the cases she had been behind. She fired off a few quick rounds from her shotgun, then dropped it back behind the cases, and brought both of her hands up. She erected a barrier of biotic energy in front of her, right as the Ymir fired off a salvo of rockets. Right before they impacted, Miranda fed her own biotic energy to Jack, and, as the rockets reached Jack's barrier, she forced the barrier back towards the mech, throwing the rockets right back at it.

The rockets impacted the heavy mech, and shattered its armor. Shepard and Ash quickly sprang from their cover and poured rounds from their assault rifles into the machine, dropping it in a pile of scrap. The wreckage exploded, finishing off the nearby Blood Pack mercenaries.

Seeing that they were now clear, Jack collapsed to the ground. She felt lightheaded, and she could feel blood pouring from her wound.

"Jack!" Miranda called as she made her way over to the injured woman. She crawled over the ground, her broken ankle throbbing and sending sharp jolts of pain up her spine. Once she got to Jack, she turned her over onto her back. Jack let out a quiet moan and grimaced as Miranda moved her. Once she had Jack on her back, she tore Jack's flak jacket off to inspect the wound more closely. She saw that it wasn't deep, but it was wide, leading to a lot of blood loss. Combined with the massive effort that using biotics took, she was surprised that Jack hadn't passed out much earlier.

She quickly pulled out a small metal stiletto from her medkit, and reached into the wound to pull out the bullet. Jack winced, but was too close to unconsciousness to do more than that. Fortunately, the bullet hadn't fragmented, and it wasn't an enhanced round, such as an incendiary or toxic round, so it was just the wound. She quickly applied some medi-gel, but the main issue was Jack's blood loss.

By the time Miranda was done with the field dressing, Shepard and Ash had come back over. "Kodiak, we have wounded, need pick-up!" Shepard shouted into the radio to the shuttle's pilot.

"Copy that, Shepard. ETA is ninety seconds; we'll be out front when you get there."

Shepard looked down and immediately picked up Jack, being careful not to disturb the wound again. Ash helped Miranda up and put Miranda's arm over her shoulder, and together, the four of them made their way back to the front of the building and to the waiting shuttle.

*Jack woke up several hours later. She was in medbay, with an IV in her left arm. She saw Doctor Chakwas over at her station near the door. She felt tired and had a massive headache, but thankfully the normally bright lights had been dimmed down. She felt her side where she had been shot: except for the slightly swollen feeling where the med-gel had sealed the wound, she couldn't even tell she had been shot. She knew the muscles below the skin would take some time to heal, but she would be fine. Another fight, another scar, she thought to herself.

She tried to sit up, but felt too tired to, though Chakwas heard her moving, and was soon next to the bed.

"You should rest. You've lost a lot of blood."

"Fuck that, I'm fine." Jack tried to sit up again, grimaced, and collapsed back onto the bed.

"As I said, you should rest. I must admit, Miranda did an admirable job in patching you up on the battlefield. If everyone keeps getting better at field dressing, pretty soon I can retire."

Jack ignored the playful tone in Chakwas' voice. She looked around her. In the bed across from her lay Miranda, her foot elevated and in a plastic cast.

Chakwas followed Jack's eyes. "Her ankle was pretty badly broken, nearly shattered. I was able to put it back together, but she'll be limping for a couple weeks. No ground missions for either of you for awhile."

Jack sighed as she leaned back on the bed. She hated being stuck in medbay. Mostly because anyone could come in at any time and bother her. With Miranda in medbay as well, chances were Shepard, Ash, and Kelly would be in and out all the time. She hoped that she wouldn't be stuck in here too long.

Chakwas seemed to know what she was thinking. "As soon as you're feeling better, I'll let you go. The wound is healing quite well, and the tissue behind the skin is repairing itself nicely. As soon as your body replenishes your red cells, you'll be off, back to your quarters. I would advise tripling your normal intake of non-alcoholic liquids for the next three days, and forgoing any strenuous physical activity until I give you the ok, but you'll be fine." One thing Jack always appreciated was Chakwas' lack of pity or sympathy with her. She told her what the deal was, and then left her alone. "If you need anything, the call button's right next to you. Otherwise, since you and Miranda are both stable, I'm going to go to my own quarters for the night. Please try to not leave Medbay until I check you in the morning," Chakwas almost sighed this, knowing Jack would probably be gone in the morning.

Jack lay back on the bed, and she heard Chakwas leaving medbay. Jack sighed, and tried to get some sleep.

"It seems I hate being stuck in medbay just as much as you. I guess we have another thing in common." Miranda's voice came from the near-darkness of medbay. Jack picked her head up, and could see Miranda through the darkness.

Jack chuckled to herself. "Along with getting our asses kicked by some fucking punk mercenaries."

"That too."

They laid in silence for a moment. She wasn't sure why, perhaps it was her restless nature, or perhaps she needed to know, but Jack found herself asking "So, why are you doing this?"

Miranda was confused by Jack's question. "Doing what?"

"Helping me. Investigating these Cerberus facilities. I mean, up until Shepard gave Timmy the finger and told him where to shove his humanity; you were the biggest fan of Cerberus I'd ever seen. Now… you're different. What's the deal?"

Miranda paused for a moment. She had tried to give it some thought, but she had never been able to find a good reason for it. Obviously, Shepard had asked her and Jack to look into it, but there was something more.

"I guess that's why I need to do this. I spent most of my life dedicated to Cerberus. I was convinced that helping humanity, protecting our growth, was what Cerberus wanted. I've always been a 'the ends justify the means' type of person, so the odd report of projects gone awry didn't concern me. Every group has their fanatics, so of course Cerberus would have its share.

"Shepard told me about finding the colonists killed by a thresher maw back during his hunt for Saren, and I attributed it to a rogue group. What I didn't tell him was that it was the third report of something like that happening, all on different planets. The Illusive Man told me he had no knowledge of this, that they had been rogue groups.

"When you said that it had been Cerberus that had experimented on you, I didn't believe it. I thought it had to be one group that didn't have authorization. But then you said you found other facilities. At first, I thought this would be a chance to prove you wrong, to show that the other facilities were run properly, without the inhuman abuses you experienced. To show you that Cerberus wasn't this monstrous group you, and most others, thought it was. What we found on Omeron confirmed that it wasn't just one facility, it was the whole project. You were right… and I was wrong. And if I was wrong about that, what else could I be wrong about? What if my whole life has been in service of a lie?"

Jack laid there in the dark, listening. She finally got Miranda to admit that she had been right all along. She knew she should feel vindicated, she should jump up and shout "I told you so" to her, but she found herself unable to speak. She remembered how she felt when she realized that she hadn't been the only child being abused, that a lot of her memories had been a lie.

What Miranda said next, though, shocked Jack to the core.

"Jack, I'm sorry."

Jack sat up, ignoring the sharp pain in her side. "What? Why the fuck would you say that?"

Miranda didn't move. She lay on her back, staring at the ceiling, not even looking at Jack. "When I said that you were clearly a mistake… I meant what happened to you, the way you were treated, not you yourself. But I was angry and I knew it would hurt you. But you weren't the mistake."

Jack sat there for a moment. It might have been the way the light from the common area outside coming in through the windows combined with the low light in the medbay, but Jack thought she saw tears on Miranda's face.

Eventually, she lay back on the bed. Part of her wanted to run out of medbay, the other part of her was oddly at peace. Faced with these conflicting feelings, Jack just laid there. "Just… get some rest, Miranda."

"You too, Jack."

They laid there in silence, each wondering exactly what their conversation had been about.

Two days later, Miranda was sitting up in her bed in medbay, going over some of the files that Tali had downloaded from the facility on Persius. Jack had gotten the ok from Dr Chakwas to leave medbay that morning and return to her quarters, though she would have to come in for a daily checkup for a week, just to monitor how it was healing, but until Chakwas said so, she was off of ground missions.

Miranda, though, with her nearly shattered ankle, was going to take some more time. Chakwas had repaired it easily enough, but not even medigel could make broken bones and torn ligaments and tendons heal overnight. Instead, she would probably be in a cast for a week, and then it would be about a month longer until she was fully healed. While it would be tomorrow morning that she could go back to her own quarters, she decided to keep busy by decrypting the files from Persius. Tali had done an admirable job in getting them after the initial landing party returned to the Normandy, and Miranda was impressed at the quarian's hacking skills as nearly all of the files complete.

When Miranda got to one of the files, though, she frowned in confusion. It was still heavily encrypted. She had run all of the data through her own Cerberus decryption routines, so there shouldn't be anything that was still unable to be accessed. She tried to use all of the codes she had memorized, but it wouldn't work. Whatever was in this file was using a code she had never encountered before.

She decided to come back to it later on. The next file she pulled up was a list of all of their test subjects, which also made her frown. As with all the previous facilities, they had their subjects numbered, obviously in an attempt to dehumanize them. The odd thing about this, though, was that they had multiple Subject Zeroes. They had them listed as Subject Zero point One, Zero point two, all the way up to Zero point Seven.

From the files that Miranda and Jack had already retrieved, they had found a pattern to this research. Each facility would have their own Subject Zero, which would be the main test subject. The other children were subjected to various experiments to try to augment their biotic abilities. Once the researchers found a technique that worked, it was applied to Subject Zero and tested in combat against another subject.

But this facility had had seven Subject Zeroes. Miranda couldn't understand why, but she had an assumption that it had to do with the encoded file. She had to figure out how to break the code. She would check with Tali or Garrus to see if they could help her figure it out. In the meantime, she still had other files to go over, as well as her regular duties as XO.

Shepard and Ash had finally been able to get some information they could use in hunting down a way to fight the Reapers, so Jack and Miranda's side mission was going to take a back seat for a few days, which worked out fine, as they were both grounded while their injuries healed. While they both were healing, they had decided to go over the information that they already had, and use their various contacts to see if they could get any more intel on the planets and systems these facilities were located in, as well as tracking down any names of people associated with them.

So far, Miranda hadn't gotten too much. She was hoping that Jack, with her contacts in the criminal underworld, was finding more, but wasn't hopeful. Cerberus usually ran tight operations, and the likelihood of any criminal organization getting intel on what was going on usually ran slim to none.

The door to medbay opened, and in walked Jack. She came over to Miranda's bed, pulled over a crate, and sat down, with her own datapad. Apparently, she had found something after all.

"Ok, so check it out. I found out that Persius and three other facilities all placed large orders through a pharmaceutical company called EcoGen. Massive amounts of medical supplies; bandages, antiseptics, scanners, you name it."

"That's odd," Miranda interjected, confused. "Cerberus supplies all of their own facilities. They shouldn't have been ordering supplies from any company."

Jack smiled maliciously. "That's because I found out the Cerberus supply ships got hit by some pirates. My guess is they were too embarrassed that their stuff got hijacked, so they just ordered it themselves rather than let Mr. Illusive Prick know that they cost him a whole lot of money."

"Quite possible, though how a research facility came about that many credits is curious."

Jack's smile quickly faded. "How do you think they raised the money? They sold some of the kids into slavery. They had plenty of them, and they were just going to be used as guinea pigs anyways, who would miss a dozen or so?"

Miranda nodded grimly. One thing they've come to accept in their investigation was the callus and inhuman way the researchers regarded the children they were experimenting on.

"Anyways," Jack continued, "all of the shipments were dropped at the facility on Gaid, then they distributed them from there. If we hit Gaid first, we'll probably have the most luck of finding out anything, especially since it was operational just fifteen years ago, more recently than the others."

Miranda looked over the information that Jack had found. "Good idea, Jack. That way, we're not wasting time at the others."

"Right. And there's more. Once the first delivery was made, they started getting other deliveries from EcoGen. And not just more supplies…"

Miranda's eyes widened. "They were getting test subjects! More children."

"Yup. I couldn't find where EcoGen was getting the kids from, but I'll bet there's something on Gaid that'll tell us more."

"I also found something. Persius had seven different Subject Zeroes." Miranda handed her datapad over to Jack so she could see.

"Seven? What the hell?" Jack looked over the reports that Miranda had decrypted. "And what's this other file?"

"I don't know. It's not any cipher that Cerberus uses. It might be something they developed internally. It seems to me that these four facilities were all working in tandem, perhaps this cipher was used for communications between them. I'll bet it's in reference to either the multiple Subject Zeroes, or the shipments from EcoGen."

"I can't wait to get to Gaid. God, I hope there's someone there for me to shoot."

Miranda smiled sadly. "Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait before we can try to shoot someone. Neither of us has gotten the ok from Doctor Chakwas to join the ground missions yet. Which must really be difficult for you, since you're usually on Shepard's landing team."

Jack was a little surprised that Miranda seemed to care how being grounded was affecting her. True, she was going stir crazy knowing she would be cooped up on the ship at least another two weeks to avoid her straining the repaired muscles in her side, but she was trying to keep herself otherwise occupied.

"I'm fine. At least I'm out of Medbay."

Miranda smiled. "Yes, at least you have that over me. Thought not for long, I'm due out tomorrow morning. Doctor Chakwas just wants to take one last look at how the bones are settling, and then I'll be up and out."

"Good, because I need to get moving again. Isn't it weird how a gunshot heals faster than a few broken bones?"

"Medi-gel is wonderful, but I guess it can't do everything. But I guess this little delay will give us some more time to try dig up some more information. Maybe even get this mystery file decoded."

Jack nodded. "I got a few more people I can call to check on EcoGen. Maybe Kasumi or Zaeed will have some contacts we can use."

Miranda was surprised at Jack's idea. She knew that Jack had no problem talking to Zaeed, but that was usually limited to drinking or killing stories. As far as Miranda knew, Jack had never actually spoken to Kasumi about anything. Obviously, Jack was getting to be far more sociable than she ever was before. Even the fact that she was speaking to Miranda without any threats of violence was a big step, much less that they were actually getting along.

Jack stood to leave. "Heal up quick, Lawson. I can't go shoot anyone until you're healed, and that's putting a damper on my otherwise sunny disposition."

Miranda smiled as Jack left Medbay. She made a joke, and not even a dirty one at that, she thought. Miranda found herself actually enjoying the time they spent together lately, though she assumed that it was because they were further along in their investigation every time they spoke. No, it's not just that. I think I actually enjoy her company. The thought surprised Miranda, though not much. It seemed that life was full of surprises when Jack was around.

What the hell was that? Jack wasn't even all the way out of Medbay when she realized that she had made a joke. Why the hell would I say something stupid like that? Jack shook her head. For whatever reason, she had found herself in a good mood lately. While the thought of what had happened to hundreds of children infuriated her, the fact that they were finding out more and more about the whole project was pleasing to her. And the fact that she and Miranda were working together, and working together well, made things that much better.

For some reason, the two days that they had been in Medbay together, she had found herself reassured by Miranda's presence, though she couldn't explain why. Most likely it was because they could discuss the mission any time they wanted. Or maybe it was knowing that she wasn't alone in her search for answers. Or maybe it was…

She refused to think anymore about it. Thinking often led to feeling, and feeling only led to getting hurt. Instead, she focused on the facts that they had uncovered. She had a few contacts left in the pirate underworld, and she also knew how to get a hold of some corporate sellouts who wouldn't hesitate to trade what they knew on EcoGen for some quick credits.

As she rode the elevator down to engineering, she absently rubbed her side where she had been shot. It barely even hurt anymore, just a dull soreness and a little swelling. It hit her that she hadn't thanked Miranda for saving her life on Persius, as it was her quick actions to get the bullet out and the medi-gel in that had allowed Chakwas to finish the job back on the Normandy. Why should I thank her, Jack thought to herself. That's part of our job on the battlefield. Keep each other patched up so we can fight again tomorrow.

Still, she guessed she should thank Miranda, just to make sure everything stays all sunshine and rainbows between us, she thought as the elevator opened to the engineering deck. She figured she'd go see Miranda later. In the meantime, she was going to ask Zaeed if he might have any contacts in his mercenary circles that might be able to get them some information, and maybe see if she could win some credits off him playing some cards.

So, there's Chapter 2. I'll probably be updating the story soon with actual chapter titles.

Coming soon: revelations, explanations... and shadow brokers?