Sydney Australia

The Year 2166

Miranda Lawson sat outside of her home with her head hung low. Ever since she visited her father in his lab Miranda hadn't even seen Henry Lawson. He had spent all his time locked away working on...whatever it was he was working on. She was so ashamed of herself for being so stupid. How could she have ever thought her pathetic grades would have impressed him. But the incident had rendered the young girl understandably depressed.

When she was little her father used to be so impressed with her. It seemed she never failed to make him proud in her younger days. But ever since she hit puberty her father had been distant. Even more so in the past few weeks. Sometimes it felt like she didn't exist. Nobody at school paid her any mind, she was far too young to call any of them friends. In fact some of them had been rather cruel to the young girl, Miranda knew it was because the college students didn't appreciate the fact that a sixteen year old girl got much higher marks than them. Even still, some of the things they said hurt. She had been forced to adapt a stoic attitude which had left her cold and uncaring to those around her. Now she was known as "That little bitch" or "The Ice Princess" behind her back. At least it meant they left her alone. She didn't even see Niket anymore, the boy's family had recently moved off world taking her only friend with them.

Now Miranda sat alone on the grass outside of her large home in the heart of Sydney Australia. It was a beautiful day, birds were singing and there was a comforting breeze in the air. Miranda didn't take notice of any of it. She brushed her shoulder length hair away from her face and picked up her knapsack from around her ankles and shrugged it on over her shoulders. She scanned into the front door and walked inside, only this time she didn't expect to see her father waiting for her. Not like he used to. She wished she knew what she did to make him stop loving her.

She climbed the stairs on her way to her spacious room. She figured she may as well spend her night doing school work like always. Perhaps she'd play her violin to get her mind off things for a while. Lawson perked up when she heard the sound of someone inside her bedroom on the other side of the door at the end of the hall. Her mind went racing as she ran towards it. Had her father changed his attitude? Had he forgiven her? Was he giving her the birthday present she didn't receive from him two weeks back and waiting to surprise his daughter in her room? She opened the door and stepped inside of her room with a foolish smile on her lips.

"Father!" She cried, delighted to see him after creating various fantasies in her head about his visit to her room that were about to be destroyed. She noticed a set of bags was set out on her bed and that her father was jamming her clothes into them.

"You're home." He said without facing her and continued stuffing the bags.

"Are...are we going on a trip?" she asked before looking to the waste basket and seeing that her violin had been broken in half so it could be forced inside the trash bin.

"We're not." He finished packing the last of her clothes and zipped up the bag. "You are."

Miranda padded over to the trash and fished out what remained of her beloved instrument. "W-Why did you throw away my Violin?"

"You won't be needing it anymore."

Tears began to sting in her eyes. "Where am I going?"

"A boarding school in Earth orbit."

"You're...sending me away?"

Henry reached down and tossed a datapad to her which she caught. "You're meeting the school's representatives at the airport tomorrow. Bring that with you. Even you can't mess that up."

"Father, I don't understand. Why do you want me to go?"

"It's over, Miranda."

Miranda's lower lip quivered and tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Over?"

"I tried my best but you're nothing but a failure. I created you to carry on my legacy and I'm afraid you're not up to the task. So you're being sent away while I work on your successor. Hopefully your sister will not make the same mistakes as you."

"I can do better! I promise!" Miranda cried.

"That's just it. You can't. I blame myself really. But you can't expect every experiment to be successful, Miranda."

"But...when will I come home? What about my studies here?"

"You will stay here as always when this is done. Disappointment as you might be I'm unfortunately stuck with you. But I need you out of my hair while I work on Oriana."

"Why? Why are you doing this to me?" Miranda whimpered.

"You're a failure, Miranda. I created you to be perfect and you don't even come close. By the time you return I'll have figured out what to do with you."

Miranda began to sob uncontrollably. "Please. Please don't make me go!" hard as it was, this life was all Miranda knew. The thought of everything being taken away was unthinkable; that she had failed her father, that she was going to be replaced and ignored in favor of a new girl. Despite how difficult he was Henry Lawson was still her father. She thought that counted for something. But it was the first of many hard lessons Miranda would have to learn.

"Pack up anything else you wish to take with you. Goodbye, Miranda." He said without emotion as he went to move past her Miranda grabbed his arm.

Suddenly she was enraged. "You can't do this! You can't just throw me away and replace me!"

"It's already done." Henry replied.

Miranda summoned her biotics. "No!" she screamed, her biotics flaring with her anger. "I've spent my whole life trying to make you proud. I won't allow you to just toss me aside like I'm nothing!"

Henry smirked, as if something about this situation was amusing to him. "What are you going to do?" Miranda grew silent and Henry shook his head. "Still such a child." he added before turning the other way and closing his daughter's bedroom door behind him as he left her alone.

Miranda turned back to her broken Violin and pulled the rest of the splintered instrument out of the bin. The twisted mess of strings and the shattered bow where enough to push her over the edge. Miranda used her biotics to toss what remained of the violin against the wall and shattered it. She clenched her fists in anger. Her father thought she was just going to be shipped off to some school and be forgotten like an animal. He was sorely mistaken.

Illium 2188

Oriana nervously paced in the corner of the lecture hall. She had an entire room filled with her peers who were all wondering what the hell had happened just like her. She'd have to do something or the halls would soon be flooded with the exiting students who could very well run in to her big sister's fiancee who seemed to be having some sort of psychological meltdown.

She had to admit, she never expected Miranda's lover to be so interesting. But she couldn't dwell on that, she had to delay her classmates for as long as she could so Miranda could deal with the tattooed biotic.

Ori scrambled up on stage. "Um, I'm afraid the lecture has been cancelled!" Oriana shouted from where she stood in front of a packed lecture hall. The students all stared with confusion at the young woman. "But you can all come see my band Won-Ton play this weekend at Shepard's Pint!" she offered trying to steer people minds away from the unusual conclusion to her big sister's lecture.

Doctor Cardo chuckled. He knew that tart was all talk, the ridiculous woman probably ran off when she realized she was talking out of her ass. He couldn't believe she had the audacity to openly defy his theory to his face. As if some woman who hardly looked like she'd ever seen the inside of a proper laboratory could have discovered something he'd missed on Pragia, or in his work since the Teltin facility. He knew people believed she was responsible for bringing Commander Shepard back but he always doubted it, meeting her first hand only fed in to those doubts. He got up to leave with everyone else but then the student on stage cried out again giving everyone pause.

"Wait!" Oriana shouted. Everyone stared at her and the younger Lawson cleared her throat nervously. She had to keep them in here a little longer and she racked her brain thinking of how before an idea came to her. "So who here likes magic?"

"Fuck!" Jack screamed and Miranda wrapped her arms around the convict in a tight hug.

"I'm sure you just made a mistake." Miranda assured her.

"It wasn't a fucking mistake! Cardo is alive! And he's in the next room right now!" Jack pushed away from the embrace and wiped the tears from her eyes before she marched for the door.

Miranda jumped in front of her. 'What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna go finish what I started and put that asshole down for good this time."

"Jack, you can't!"

"The hell I can't, Miranda! You have any fucking idea what he did to me?! Do you?!" Jack screamed. Miranda had never heard her so angry.

"Yes." Miranda answered. "I do. But you can't walk in there and kill a man in front of my little sister and her class. They'd lock you up for good, and this time Shepard and I won't be able to break you out."

"He can't just get away with it! I won't let him." She tried to shove past Miranda but the taller woman grabbed her again. "Let go of me! Who's fucking side are you on, Cheerleader?"

"I'm always going to be on your side, Jack. And i'm saving you from yourself."

Jack tried to wiggled free from Miranda's grasp. "Fuck, how can you even stand in my way after what you did to your father?"

"Because I love you! And I won't allow you to destroy your life for this. Our life."

The tattooed woman pulled even harder. "I don't want to hurt you, Miranda. Let go of me!"

"You're not going to hurt me." Miranda said. Jack knew it was true just as much as Lawson did so she stopped resisting.

"I can't just let it go. I...I just can't."

Miranda released her lover. "I know you can't."

"Then...what do we do?" Jack asked a bit calmer.

Lawson was silent while she thought about it. "We'll follow him. Find out all we can. And make sure this is him. We have to be certain."

"It's him." Jack promised.

"We'll see. And if it is. We'll figure out our next move from there." Miranda took Jack in her arms again and ran her fingers through her lover's brown hair. "I promised you I'd get you closure on this didn't I? I always keep my promises."

Jack leaned in to the embrace. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... you know."

"I know." Miranda said. "Now, stay here and try to calm down. I'm going to check on Ori."

Jack just nodded and Miranda exited the destroyed classroom. She'd have to pay for the damages Jack had caused in addition to donating another sizable amount to make sure Oriana didn't suffer from her lover's temper. She didn't care, it was only money and she had plenty of that. What worried her most was this entire situation. In an instant it was like all the progress Jack had made in the two years they'd been together had vanished. She was more like the frightened and enraged convict she had met on the blue sun's prison ship all those years ago. That terrified Miranda. She wouldn't let this man hurt Jack again, she promised herself that. One way or the other when they finally left Illium Miranda would make sure whatever remained of Subject Zero died on the asari world.

Outside of the classroom she was met with a crowd of students as they flooded out of the lecture hall. She gave out a few half hearted apologies for ending the lecture prematurely to them as they moved past her. Her eyes found Oriana on the stage. She got her sister's attention with a motion of her hand and waved her over. Ori jumped down and ran to meet her big sister with concern carried on her face. "Is everything okay? Is Jack alright?" she asked once Miranda had lead them away from the crowd.

"Yes. Unfortunately Jack has trouble in crowds sometimes." She lied. How could she possibly be expected to explain the situation to Oriana?

"Oh! Thank goodness. I thought something terrible had happened. But she'll be alright?"

Her sister really was a sweet girl. Lawson had made many hard choices in her life but one decision Miranda never regretted was taking her sister from their father. "She'll be okay. But I'm going to take her back to our hotel."

"Of course."

"I'm really sorry, Ori."

Oriana hugged her. "Don't be. Now go. We can see each other again soon."

Miranda wrapped her arms around her and smiled. "I love you." she didn't tell her sister that enough.

"Love you too, sis."With that Oriana exited the lecture hall. Miranda let out a sigh and buried her face in her hands.

"It was an interesting lecture, Miss Lawson." a voice said from behind her.

Miranda spun around to find Doctor Cardo grinning. "My apologies. Something urgent came up."

"What a shame. Well perhaps another time?"

"I hope so."

Cardo offered his robotic hand and a disingenuous smile. "I do hope our paths cross again soon."

Miranda firmly shook his cold metal prosthetic. "Careful what you wish for." She said and forced a chuckle. Once Cardo turned his back and moved to leave the room Miranda went to work on her omni-tool. It only took a moment for her to place a tracer on Cardo's device. A trick she had learned long ago and had utilized to great effect before on Horizon with the late Kai Leng.

She hurried out of the lecture hall and back into the ruined classroom to find Jack hunched over in one of the desks that was lucky enough to have not been destroyed in Jack's rage. The convict had her face buried on the desk top and she looked up when she heard the familiar sound of Miranda's boots clicking on the floor. "What's up? Did you see that piece of shit?"

Miranda nodded. "I did. If your up for it now why don't we see where the good doctor calls home."

Jack jumped to her feet. "Oh I can do now."

"Then follow me."

Miranda and Jack sat in front seats of their rented skycar as the convict drove and Lawson monitored the trace on her omni-tool. Doctor Cardo had left Nos Astra university soon after Miranda'a lecture and after making a quick stop at a grocery store he was heading home. Or at least Miranda hoped he was.

They were only four skycars behind Cardo and Jack had nothing short of determination on her face. "I have an idea of what this man did." Miranda said breaking the silence. "But given the situation I think I'd like to know a little more. If you don't mind."

"He did pretty much any fucked up thing you could think of. Tortured me, experimented on me, beat me. And..." Jack's sentence trailed off and she grew silent once more.

"He raped you?" Miranda guessed.

Jack only gave a silent nod. "A lot." she added. "I was just a kid, cheerleader."

Miranda sighed. "You didn't deserve any of that."

"No shit. Nobody does."

"I'm sorry I ever defended them. I was wrong about a lot of things back then."

Jack chuckled. "Yeah. You were."

"We'll make it right."

"We damn well better." There was a long period of silence between them as they continued to follow Cardo's skycar. Finally Jack decided to change the topic. "Your sister, she's a good kid."

Miranda smiled. "She is."

"Back when you took her from your father..."

"Yes?"

"How'd you do it?"

"It doesn't matter how I did it. All that matters is I did it. Once I saw what my father had done to me I couldn't let him do that again to another girl."

"We can't let Cardo do it again either." Jack said.

"I have no plans of letting him."

"Good. Thanks for setting me straight back there. I don't know what the hell I would have done if you weren't there."

"Something violent I'm sure." Miranda said while she continued to study her omni-tool.

Jack smirked. "Probably."

"What do you want to do with him, Jack?"

"What the hell do you think, Cheerleader? I wanna kill him. And I want to make that fucker feel it too."

"You sure about that?"

"Positive." Jack answered.

"I figured as much. If that's what you want, then we're going to have to make sure we do this right."

"Whatever. So long as we end him."

Suddenly Cardo's skycar began a rapid decent into a car park outside of a large expensive looking apartment complex which towered high above the streets below. "Time to see where this piece of shit, sleeps."

They followed him down and after waiting for Cardo to unload his groceries and hobble inside the complex Miranda and Jack followed from a distance. Cardo shot a greeting to an asari who sat behind the desk in the complex's lobby before he called the elevator. After he stepped inside and the doors closed Miranda and Jack hurried over to see the floor he took it to. "Top floor." Miranda said as she hit the up button to follow after him.

They rode the lift in silence and finally when they arrived at the Doctor's floor they hurried out of the elevator and hugged a nearby wall when they heard Cardo shuffling down the hallway with his bags of groceries. They both peeked around the corner and watched as Cardo came to a stop at the last apartment at the end of the hall. The door's scanner read Cardo and slid open.

Then the most unexpected sound echoed through the hall. The sound of a young girl's voice. "Daddy!" A smile came to Cardo's face and he dropped to one knee and set his bags down before a girl no older than six leapt into his arms and kissed his cheek.

Cardo chuckled. "Hello baby girl." he said and hugged his daughter.

Notes-Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Man, it was a fun one to write. So yep, Cardo is a father. I'd love to hear what you think of that and of the whole chapter in the reviews! Thanks for reading and have an amazing day.