Miranda pushed Shepard through another door that led from the courtyard into an arched tunnel. Shepard had heard the rhythmic roar and hiss in the courtyard, but she'd assumed it was the wind in the leaves of the trees that towered over her. She hadn't dared hope.

But it was true. Miranda pushed her out onto a stone terrace that looked over the ocean, the waves crashing and foaming on the glistening black rocks below. She had looked out of her window and seen a green wooded hillside descending into water, but there were no waves, so she thought it was a lake. It must have been an inlet.

She had always loved being near the sea. And now she saw it wasn't any sea on Earth, or any planet she remembered visiting. The water was too dark, almost midnight blue, and an immense red moon, streaked and scarred with meteor impacts, was sinking slowly behind it.

A smile spread across Shepard's face. It made her scars hurt, but she ignored them. "You've been holding out on me," she said.

"This is a safe house," Miranda said. "We use it to hide people - mostly friendly. So we thought it should be as comfortable as possible." She seemed to be referring to some foolish weakness that was beneath her.

"I'm glad I'm on the friendly list, despite everything," Shepard said.

We'll see if that's the right one, Miranda thought.

Shepard looked out over the water in silence for a while. Miranda mentally drafted her next report to the boss. A sentry, armed and armored like the one inside, paced the terrace, his steady footsteps strangely adding to the feeling of peace.

Eventually, Miranda turned Shepard's chair around to go back inside. Shepard drew in a breath. The view was almost as impressive as the sea, but she hadn't noticed it until now. A square tower of wood and stone and ivy rose high over the one- and two-story outbuildings that curved around it. Turrets and balconies with hanging gardens adorned it, and the arched windows had diamond panes. Below, more sentries walked this way and that, their heads looking in every direction.

"This physical therapy," Shepard said. "Can we do it outside?"

Miranda shook her head. "It's an unnecessary security risk. And we put an antigrav field generator in your room, at great - "

"Please?"

Miranda stopped. "All right," she heard herself say.

Miranda took Shepard all around the castle. It was built on a crag of rock that jutted out into the sea. In fact the sea had carved its way inward and around it, so there was even a drawbridge to connect it to the mainland, over a cauldron of white water and cruel, jagged black rocks far below.

The drawbridge was of course always up, and useless for defense anyway. Shepard's chair could cross the chasm, and on this otherwise uninhabited world, the threat would come from orbit. For that, Shepard saw, there were at least a dozen Gardian batteries camouflaged among the tall evergreen trees inside the castle walls.

The outbuildings included a gym with a swimming pool and skyball court, a greenhouse, a barracks, a garage, an armory, and a firing range. "Don't bother trying to break into those," Miranda said. Shepard said nothing.

Connected to the tower was a two-story chapel with an observation gallery. "Not many of the staff are religious," Miranda said, her voice swallowed up by the dim empty space. She knew Shepard wasn't either. "So there are no formal services. People just come here whenever they feel like it."

Shepard was looking up at the arched stained-glass windows, the motes of dust suspended in the blue and gold and red shafts of light that streamed from them, and thinking of Ashley. There were times when she envied her beliefs. Come to think of it, this was one of them. But instead of God bringing her back from the dead...

"Miranda," she said. "What did you bring me back to do? What exactly is the price of my resurrection?"

"Three billion, six hundred fifty-two million, ninety-eight thousand, one hundred and twelve point three credits, as of this morning," Miranda said. "And we're not done yet."

Shepard folded her arms. "If you want me to pay that back, you're going to be waiting a while."

Miranda smiled. "No. We just want you to stop the Reapers."

Shepard shook her head. "There's more than that. What are they doing?"

"Shepard..."

"Tell me." It was gentle, but it was an order.

Miranda's mouth thinned. Shepard was in no position to give her orders, but... She let out a deep sigh. "There are human colonies, out in the Terminus systems, vanishing without a trace. We think the Reapers are involved somehow."

"And I'm sitting in a chair, drinking in the scenery." Shepard's hands gripped the armrests and she started to lift herself upright.

"Shepard. You go back in this condition, and those three and a half billion credits will be wasted in your first fight."

Shepard was standing, trembling all over. Miranda stood facing her, fists clenched at her sides. Her first instinct was to push Shepard back into the chair, but she decided, cruelly, to wait her out.

It didn't take long. Shepard's knees gave out and she pitched forward into Miranda's arms. Rather than put her back into the chair, Miranda held on to her. "Damn it, this is why I didn't want to tell you this. You have to - "

Shepard's face turned to her, and Miranda's anger melted at once. There were tears standing in Shepard's eyes. They were so blue...

"It's not fair," Shepard said. "My crew, and now this. All those people dying, and I can't help them."

"We don't know they're dying," Miranda said, though she had little doubt. She reached up and brushed a few strands of Shepard's red hair away from her face. It was almost to her jaw now. "Kate. You've done more than anyone has. You've given literally everything. And now you can do more still. But first you have to get well. That's what you can do for them now."

It wasn't enough, of course - Miranda could see that in Shepard's face - but it was something. Shepard's eyes looked down, and they were thoughtful now, rather than despairing. Miranda lowered her gently back into the chair.

"And you think I'm too hard on myself." Miranda ventured a smile. In the aftermath of her tears, Shepard couldn't help but laugh. It was the physical strain that caused Shepard's emotional reaction, Miranda decided. She hoped so, anyway. Shepard had lost people before, and gotten through it just fine. If she started cracking under it now...

"So what was the price you had to pay?" Shepard asked.

"What?"

"Your engineering. You said it was paid for, with someone else's goals in mind."

"Oh. Yes, my father. Well..."

Miranda took Shepard back into the tower.

"I'd like to see the med-bay," Shepard said. "Where you rebuilt me."

"We didn't do that here. It was on a station in deep space. We're just finishing up here."

"I remember you...looking down at me. You wore a mask, but I remember your eyes. I...was trying to say something to you."

Damn it, Miranda thought. "The sedative wore off early one time. I hope you didn't feel any pain?" She was making final repairs to Shepard's skeletal muscles, and had her skin laid open in a dozen different places.

"No. But it was recent. It was here."

"That was, yes."

"I'd like to see it."

"It would be better if you didn't. It might upset you."

"It's all right. You'll be there."

Miranda didn't expect that. "All right." Shepard kept surprising her. And getting her way.

Miranda pushed Shepard down the stairs, to the basement, then through a hidden door that she opened by placing her hand against one of the stones.

It was as Shepard dimly remembered. Cold, and silent except for the hum of a ventilator. The table was in the center of the room. The top was padded, but the rest was gleaming metal. Several powerful lamps hung over it. The walls and floor were white and featureless. There was various equipment: tissue regenerators, nanoimagers, stasis units, sterilizers.

"When was the last time this room was used to torture someone instead?" Shepard said.

Miranda knew better than to deny it. "I don't know," she said. That was true.

"I'll bet it's effective. Take them outside to look at the ocean. Or up to one of those cozy rooms and bring them dinner. Then ask if they want to come back down here. That must break a lot of them right there. So is this where I end up, if I don't cooperate? If I try to escape?"

"Jesus, Shepard, of course not."

"Why not? How am I different from Admiral Kahoku?" Fear swept through Shepard's useless body. She was used to fighting, but...if they wanted to put her on that table, she could barely even struggle. She saw the restraints carving bloody rings into her frantic wrists and ankles as she screamed into those uncaring lights.

"We didn't spend - "

"3.6 billion credits on him. What if I betray you? All that money, wasted."

"You can't," Miranda said. Her fists knotted at her side, and at first Shepard thought she was angry.

"Why not?"

"You can't. I've put two years of my life into this, Shep - Kate. Into you."

"Your father must have said the same thing."

Miranda actually flinched as if Shepard had struck her. "This isn't like that at all. We gave you - "

"Life? So did he. That didn't give him the right to tell you how to live it."

Miranda opened her mouth to say something. Then she closed it. She looked down. Her face held something Shepard hadn't seen there before: doubt. The room was silent.

Shepard's hand flew to her temple as a horrid thought jumped at her. "Do I have a control chip in my head?" That was worse than torture. Instead of a few months of total dependency, she would have a lifetime of it. Or, if they kept bringing her back, an eternity...

Miranda shook her head quickly. "No."

"No?"

"No." Miranda took a breath. She met Shepard's eyes, with obvious effort. "I...had an argument with the boss over that. I wanted to put one in."

"Your father could have put one in you."

"Yes." Miranda's voice was small. "Yes, I suppose he could have."

"Why do you think he didn't?" Shepard's voice was gentler now.

"I...suppose for the same reason the boss didn't want you to have one. He must have been afraid it would change my personality. He thought I'd be just like him, do whatever he wanted, just because he created me."

"Do you think he was right?"

Miranda's shoulders, which were hunched together, slumped. "Yes. I was wrong. You should be left the way you are. I'm...beginning to see how you accomplished what you did."

A smile tugged at Shepard's mouth. "I can't even stand up."

"You know what I mean. You have...something that inspires people. Makes them want to be better than they are. For you. Maybe it's that you do the same for them. Anyway, it would be foolish to - to go to such trouble to bring you back, and then to handicap you. To not let you lead."

"Why did you think I should have one? Other than my being your mortal enemy."

Miranda began pacing. "I didn't agree with your decision to sacrifice human lives to save the Council. I was afraid that you'd continue to put the Council's interests ahead of humanity's. But what we're facing is bigger than that. The boss thinks that Cerberus is humanity. And I thought so, too. But maybe it isn't. Maybe some of it is us, and some is you."

She stopped and turned to Shepard. "Do you trust me? After what I've told you?"

"I...want to. I'm just afraid."

"Don't be." Miranda sank down so her face was level with Shepard's. "You have nothing to be afraid of while I'm here. I promise."

"What will you do if you have to choose? Between me and Cerberus?"

Miranda frowned. "I've never thought about it before." Her eyes flicked down as she thought of Oriana. When they came back up, they were worried. "I...Shepard, I don't know."

Shepard nodded. "At least you're honest."

No, I'm not even that, Miranda thought. She felt sick. She stood quickly and walked around behind Shepard's chair. "Let's get out of here. I'm freezing."