~Author's Note~ I apologize for the incredibly long delay, but life intervened, as it does sometimes.

Enjoy the chapter, and please drop a review if you read.

And one other thing- the rating has been changed to M, just to be safe. I don't think we're really going to cross any lines, but I'd rather not push it.


Convincing Solus to join them was easy enough.

All he wanted them to do was get his cure into the air, something that should have been very simple, but that Shepard somehow knew would turn out to be much more complicated than that.

Mirala's biotics cleared a path for them to the reactors, the vorcha acting only as so much fodder. Shepard again shook her head at the asari's biotic display, and the fact that she was still showing no sign at all of tiring. She really had to figure out how Mirala was doing that.

Miranda was obviously feeling a bit shown up, as she had at first attempted to keep up with Mirala's pace, but fell behind sharply as they slogged through dozens of the vorcha.

Already Shepard had a very bad feeling about this. There was no way that the vorcha had designed a plague. Dr. Solus had suggested the Collectors were behind it. Why were they abducting human colonies and trying to make a plague that would be blamed on humans? What was the purpose, the goal, of their activities?

Kalahira had been silent since she had helped Shepard save Garrus- not that she was complaining, she had needed a full night's rest after staying up until Garrus came to. But she could just send her a message or something, give her a couple more hints as to what to do.

They turned the corner into the chamber, and her thoughts scattered as they engaged the vorcha once again. There were a lot of them, all guarding the reactor that Shepard would need to turn on, but the four of them didn't have much of a problem clearing them out.

A couple more waves came in, but there were simply too few of them to stop Shepard and her team.

All in all, it was one of the easier missions she had been on. But her bad feeling would not go away, and Shepard had learned to trust her instincts. She remained on edge until they had retrieved Dr. Solus and were back on the Normandy.


Mordin set up shop in the research lab- he, at least, seemed rather thrilled with the situation. Miranda, however, was being completely unreasonable.

"She is not on the dossier, Shepard!"

She had just about had enough of her Cerberus-assigned X.O. "So, what, only the people that your boss approves can come with us? She's a very powerful biotic, and she's willing to work for free!"

Miranda glared at her. "Something about her strikes me as being... off, Shepard. And I've learned to trust my instincts."

"As have I. And my instincts are telling me to take her."

The Cerberus operative sighed, obviously realizing that she wasn't going to win this fight. "Alright, Shepard. It's your call. She's a loose cannon, she likes what she does to people too much for my taste. I really hope you know what you're doing... and that you're not letting your personal feelings get in the way of the mission."

Shepard narrowed her eyes. "Exactly what is that supposed to mean?"

Miranda met her eyes for a moment, then shook her head. "Nothing. I'll be in my office if you need me."

Shepard watched her go for a moment, then shrugged. Miranda was paranoid- it was probably part of her job description. She could keep Mirala under control, and she had spoken truly about her biotics, they would indeed be a great asset. A small, petty part of her, suggested that Miranda was simply jealous because Mirala was a better biotic than her. But then, Shepard was a better biotic than her as well. She laughed to herself. It would be funny if the entire reason why Miranda seemed to dislike her stemmed from her jealousy over Shepard's biotics. Ah, if only it were that simple.

She headed up to the CIC to tell Joker to take them to the Citadel. Finally, they could go and get Garrus some proper treatment. Hopefully they hadn't taken too long. If they had... well, Miranda was going to get what was coming to her a bit early if that were the case.


She had expected the doctors on the Citadel to take Garrus for awhile. Not for two whole weeks, though. Being without Garrus for two weeks, the only person she felt she could trust to watch her back in a live-fire situation... a part of her wanted to do nothing more than curl up into a ball and wait for him to come back.

She shrugged that off. She was Commander Shepard, she had done just fine before Garrus got here, and she could do fine without him here for a bit, especially if it meant they could heal most of the damage that had been done to him.

"Right, Shepard, that's why you're wandering around the mess area at 4 AM, unable to sleep," she mocked herself quietly. She tried to explain that away by telling herself she was worried about Garrus, not about how she would do without him, but that was only partially true.

She sighed, determined to try to get some sleep once more, and turned to exit the room.

Mirala was standing in the doorway.

She jumped, and almost let out one of her embarassing yelps that Garrus liked to tease her about.

The asari grinned, but said nothing.

"God, Mirala, you scared the shit out of me."

"Apologies, Shepard. My people do like to keep to the shadows."

Shepard recovered enough to appreciate the irony of that statement. "Right. Most asari I've met prefer attention."

"Mmm. Yes. They do." The look on the asari's face... Shepard averted her eyes before her body's reaction caught up with her again.

"I... um, I need to go try and get some sleep. Won't be much of a Commander tomorrow if I don't have any sleep."

Mirala's eyes glittered. "Do you need some company... to escort you back?"

She shook her head, still not meeting the asari's eyes. "No, no. I can find my own way back just fine." What the hell was wrong with her?

Mirala smoothly slid to one side. "Whatever you desire, Commander."

She slipped past the asari, who hadn't quite moved enough to be completely out of the way. Shepard brushed against her on the way out, and ignored the electric shock that accompanied the touch.

She didn't look back, making straight for the elevator, not trusting herself to meet that gaze.


Back in her own room, she berated herself out loud.

"What the hell are you, a schoolgirl with her first crush? You've got a mission to perform, get ahold of yourself. She's just an asari. Yes, an incredibly beautiful one, but still just an asari." She slammed her first onto the sink, staring down into it.

She hated letting her emotions get the better of her. She could reason her way through this. She had never felt such a strong initial reaction to someone, positive or negative. It was simply not like her. Garrus hadn't been here long enough to see her... crush, infatuation, whatever the hell this was, otherwise he would undoubtedly tease her to death over it.

Not even Kaidan had been like- she violently shut down that thought, refusing to go through that again. Not at this hour.

With a sigh, she slipped between the sheets, trying to catch a few hours of sleep before the day began anew. They were just going to pick up a prisoner, it should be a piece of cake. Nice and easy, go in, pay the cash, take the prisoner, and get out. Shepard was willing to lay money it wouldn't be that simple.

In hindsight, she should really start betting with people on it.


"The Warden seems to have reneged on his contract, Shepard."

"Yes, thank you for that, Jacob. Couldn't have figured that out from the dozens of his mercs he's throwing at us."

Mirala crushed the captain of the mercs with her biotics, just folding him up like a cardboard box. Shepard winced.

Mirala calmly dropped back down behind cover. "Kuril has obviously gone completely insane if he hopes to capture Commander Shepard with a few dozen rejects from the Blue Suns."

Shepard grinned at the asari. "I think he's just trying to commit suicide via Shepard."

Mirala grinned back. "I'd be more than happy to hold him down for you."

They fought their way through to the control area, Mirala slamming the unfortunate techie into the wall with a sickening crack. Shepard glanced down at the button and swore. "Son of a bitch. It's linked to all the cells over the entire station."

Jacob pressed a hand on her shoulder. "Shepard... we'd let all these prisoners out."

Her face set. "There is no other way to get Jack. I'm doing it."

Mirala grinned again. "Glorious. There will be a battle waged over the entire station, desperate prisoners attacking their tormentors."

Shepard glanced at her, a little repulsed by her tone. Mirala's love of violence was a little too vivid for her tastes. Perhaps that's why she was so good at what she did. Regardless, this had to be done. "Stand by, I'm letting them out. This could get interesting."

Jacob shook his head. "Yeah, that's exactly the word I would choose."

She released the safeguard and then pressed the button to get Jack out of cryo. She had come here to get a biotic prodigy, and by the goddess, she was going to get him. Or, as it turned out, her.

"That's Jack?"

"Huh. Didn't see that coming."

Shepard's eyebrows shot straight up as Jack tore through the heavy mechs that had been guarding her cage. "Wow. She might be able to give you a run for your money, Mirala."

The asari rolled her eyes. "Please, Shepard. Some of us know how to utilize control instead of using everything in one burst. We can.. stretch out the moment for hours."

Shepard ignored the double entendre. "Come on. We need to get down there and help her."

Jacob's reply was heavily sardonic. "Help her? It looks like everyone else is going to need help."


It was when Warden Kuril was finally taken down that Shepard got an inkling of what exactly Mirala was doing to keep her biotics as powerful as they were for as long as she was. The turian was crawling towards his gun, desperate to try to reach it before the oncoming asari reached him. Mirala used her biotics to pick him up and slam him into the wall.

From the distance she was at, Shepard couldn't hear the words that were exchanged, but she did Mirala's sinister smile and her placing both hands on the turian's head. And then it seemed like she just... drained him. He visibly became weaker as Shepard watched. The overwhelming sense of wrongness, the only way she could describe her feeling, was simply nauseating. She knew, somehow, that what was being done to Kuril was not something she could ever bring herself to do, no matter the situation.

Finally, the Warden's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell limply backwards. Mirala stood and streched, then trotted down the incline towards Jacob and Shepard. Jacob hadn't seen a thing, having been occupied with the two remaining mercenaries. Shepard just stared at Mirala as she approached. The asari noticed her gaze and slowed, realizing that Shepard must have seen what had happened.

Shepard shook her head in disgust. "Come on, Taylor. Let's go get Jack."

Mirala laid a hand on her shoulder. "Some people deserve whatever is done to them, Shepard."

She met the asari's gaze squarely, for once not feeling nervous or intimidated. "Things like that are never about whether or not a person deserves it, Mirala." She brushed her hand off of her shoulder, and turned to follow Jacob. "It's about what that shit does to the person who uses it."

Mirala stared after her, her eyes narrowing. She brought a hand up, her biotics at the ready. The voice was the only thing that stopped her from tearing into Shepard with her biotics. "Patience. It is not yet her time. You will have her, when it is time... my Siha."