A/N: In delay there lies no plenty.
I've been sitting on this for near 8 months.
Not another edit, it's been too long.

There was something about the way the ocean moved that was so foreign to Miranda. Mechanical and biological man-made structures were what she was used to. Studies, training, tests; that is what she considered familiar, normal. But the ocean was different. The way it turned and chopped was quite an unusual sight to her.

It wasn't as if she had never seen water before. Except it had all been pumped, its movement not of a natural ability. Such natural movement, untouched power on a large scale, was inspiring. She would get out one day, out on her own natural power. And not of her father's.

"Do you ever wonder what's out there?"

What an easy question, "London. New York. Rome. Paris. Moscow. And then there's the universe,"

Niket snorted a few feet behind her, "You know what I meant, Miri. We've been here all of our 18 years. You have to wonder how different everything else must be,"

As much as she wanted to say no, Niket knew her too well to believe it. He had been there for it all. The things she had been through and told him of, Niket knew. Other than herself, he was the only who knew how badly Miranda wanted out from under the thumb of her ego-maniacal father.

She still hadn't bothered to turn around, "I know exactly what is out there. My own life,"

An audible sigh from him floated through the air; he was about to lecture her. Or at least, Niket's attempt at a lecture. "It's not that easy, Miranda. You just can't get up and walk away from him. Nor can you go out there by yourself!"

Finally turning to face him, Miranda gave him a stare, only slightly cold enough to get her point cross, "I have already arranged transportation with my contact, I will no longer be of any service to my father within the next week. I am much more qualified than you want to admit Niket,"

He attempted to match her stare with one of his own, but swiftly abandoned the idea, "I know, I 's just difficult, you leaving and all. I guess I was a little selfish in trying to find an excuse to make you stay,"

"We'll keep in contact, as soon as the secure connection is set up," she settled for a less than demanding look, "I presume I can still trust you with those last few things?"

With a grin on his face, Niket set his hands in his hips, "You know me, tapping in on everything. Good thing I got a lot of practice bugging your room, huh?"

Miranda scowled, punching him in the arm, "Ass. I knew it was you!"

"There weren't many places to hide them!" Niket rubbed him arm, flashing another smile, "Do you need anything else before you go?"

"You just work on installing those surveillance jumper programs, I'll cover the rest,"

He gave her a nod, and a slow silence of understanding filled the space between them. Turning to leave, Niket headed back the way he came.

"Niket?"

Halted by her voice, he looked back at Miranda.

"Thank you. For everything."

He gave her an even wider grin, a look of understanding, and continued down his path, whistling the on way. Standing, Miranda watched Niket until she saw no more of him, and finally turn to her own destination after a long moment.

Now there was just one last thing to do.

She was half expecting to feel some kind of pain tear through her, bullet impact, a searing burn, numbness. Except the only thing Miranda felt was a sickening worry settled at the bottom of her stomach; coupled with darkened vision, she was utterly confused. She blinked, sight still black. Only now did she notice, it wasn't her sight that was black, it was an object. More accurately, a person.

Shepard.

Ass, what the hell is he doing standing in front of me?

Reaching up to turn him around, Miranda's fingers lost any grip to a slicked surface, and she ended up pushing him to face her rather than pulling. "What are you-" Oh.

All Miranda saw was a hint of red on her glove, she didn't need to think about what it was either. Looking to his face, Shepard gave her the most absurd smile to date. He hadn't even noticed his chest was pitted with shotgun blast bullet holes.

Yet when the realization finally clicked, he went slightly pale and frowned.

Seemingly in less than real time, she saw Shepard begin to collapse, Garrus quickly rushing over, saw Niket's dumbfounded expression behind him, a blur of blue which was more than likely Captain Enyala. She was the one who let out the shot. And now she was running away.

The bitch.

Summoning her biotic powers, Miranda pulled the Eclipse captain back to their position, slamming her into the concrete. A sickening crunch echoed around them as a mass of bones were broken, but Enyala jumped back up with a snarl, apparently unfazed by the damage. The feral look she gave demanded a fight. Which, in Miranda's eyes, wasn't a problem.

"Miri, just turn around and leave," the small spoken demand from Niket seemed to stop them all, both Miranda and Enyala seemed to hesitate. "For your own good,"

Reflexively she pulled her gun's sights to his head, "The next word that comes out of your mouth had better be the truth, Niket,"

He opened his mouth, as if to speak, but swiftly shut it at her words. A few moments passed by, and his gaze shifted down, "I'm sorry,"

"Like hell you're sorry! How could you just betray me?" A side of Miranda told herself to just shoot him, but the other side wanted answers, "You know all too well what I went through,"

He became somewhat defensive, "What you went through! You never even gave her a chance, and I'm not going to take away a life full of riches from her just because of you!"

She let her finger apply the slightest amount of extra pressure to the trigger of the gun; a shot rang out and ended to burn through Niket's shoulder. "Then you know nothing, Niket. You may have been my only friend, but I'm not letting you take Oriana,"

Expression turned to a grimace, cradling his shoulder while takes few stumbling steps back, "If I knew you stole a baby, I would have said the same back then,"

She had heard enough. Taking a final look at the last friend she thought she had, Miranda moved her sights back to his head, finger tensing on the trigger. A cough and a gravely voice stopped her, causing Miranda to hesitate. She never used to hesitate with anything. "You never mentioned Oriana was a baby,"

Miranda took a moment to look over her shoulder, seeing Shepard's Carnifex carefully aimed beyond her to Enyala as he took a spot next to his XO. Based on the empty medi-gel units scattered around, it seemed Garrus had patched Shepard up enough. Either that, or he was just stubborn. More than likely, the latter was the truth. "She's a teenager now, living a life away from our controlling father," shaking her head, Miranda's cold stare shot back to Niket. "I didn't steal her,"

"I'm sorry Miri, but I'm not changing my decision," he stood a little straighter, pain flashing across his face, "By now they're probably heading off world."

Enough questions. She was ending it one way or another, "I'll never know which is more ridiculous; your sense of loyalty, or my mistake in trusting anyone," there was a finality in the way she held her gun, "It was a good run, Niket,"

He had always kept the walls white, leaving zero room for any individuality or character upon them. No decorations, no colour, it was so impassive. Very fascist. Miranda felt more like she was living in a hospital, not a home.

Nor was it a place adequate enough to raise a child in. Completely the opposite in fact, as Miranda saw it. Personal experiences were quite persuasive.

The camera feeds had already been cut. Given the lack of completely competent personnel, Miranda estimated a window of two minutes were available. Just enough time to get in, and get out. And that was all she needed. No doubt her father will link everything back to her, but the past was behind her. Miranda no longer needed his approval, no longer strove to reach his impossible expectations.

Forty-five seconds had passed; majority of her time was spent simply getting to the desired room; her starting point had been near the opposite end of the property. She rounded the corner and slid an ID card through the security access, and the door glided open.

"South patrol 4, there's been a security breach in your sector. Intruder unknown, do you have a visual?"

Damn. They already figured out something was off, it would only be a matter of time before the squad reached the room she was in.

"Scanners are picking something up, we'll check it out. Over,"

Quietly, she slid through the doorway into the room. Even for a nursery, it was given little to identify it as so. Only a climate-controlled cradle stood to give any sign of life within the barren room. The little bundle inside, her genetic twin sister, was the only good thing left in this place. A small glance to the little baby's face dissolved any hesitation, and Miranda knew she was doing the right thing.

She could at least ensure Oriana would never become like herself.

The shot strayed left, grazing Niket's cheek. Miranda's arm was pushed aside by the shoulder of the bullet riddled man standing next to her, and he turned to give her an unapologetic look. "You don't want to kill him,"

"He is a loose end, Shepard," she moved her sights back to the first initial target, but Miranda still hesitated.

"Is that what you think? Or what Cerberus trained you to think?"

As much as she wanted to kill Niket, she couldn't; Shepard was right. And as much, and often, as he was right, Miranda wouldn't admit it. She never would, he knew that. And he seemed content with it as well.

Frustration levels grew, and Miranda almost threw her gun at her childhood friend, "God dammit, Niket! You had better leave now, before I change my mind,"

The adjacent asari mercenary snorted, "Scared little bitch," Enyala's Claymore went off before Miranda could process her actions, hitting Niket squarely in the chest. And with absolutely no armor, it impacted with bone-crushing force. Blood particles and bone fragments littered the air as he was thrown back, but before he landed Enyala had already swung her gun's muzzle in their direction.

A surprise shot from Garrus' sniper rifle clipped her in the shoulder, giving Miranda and Shepard a distraction to duck behind the nearest barricade. The turian began taking heat for his squadmates as fresh mercs started to fill the room with gunfire. Miranda heard the team's communication channel turn on, "I can guide them away for a few seconds, you two need to hurry up any come up with a plan before I get another scar to match the one already on my face,"

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

"Miranda, we need to take out Enyala! Without her, the rest will scramble!"

He wasn't supposed to die like this.

"Miranda!"

Switching to the same comm channel, Miranda addressed both Garrus and Shepard, "I'm going to use my biotics on her. As soon as she gets in your sights, fire with anything you've got to eliminate her barrier and shields down. Rifles, grenades, rockets, I don't care what you decide. After that, gravity will simply do the rest; Enyala will be defenseless,"

The subject of her biotics had become a sore one, but Miranda knew it would work. It had to, finding Oriana depended on it. Leaving cover, she began to walk toward where Enyala was last spotted. Garrus was causing such a commotion the mercs hadn't be aware of her location. Yet.

Shepard had moved from his position as well, following a step behind Miranda with his assault rifle trained. "Are you positive your bio-"

A blue flare surrounding her quickly cut him off, he resorted to keeping quiet and continued following behind. They finally reached the first merc, who was quickly cut down before he had the chance to alert any others. Moving up, a glimpse of blue and yellow could be seen beyond shipment crates and containers. With a raise of an arm, Enyala was lifted into the air by Miranda's biotics and quickly put into the middle of Garrus and Shepard's sights. The Eclipse Captain yelled commands to the mercenaries below, but Enyala had already began being fired upon and her shields were quickly failing.

Garrus chimed in over the comm, "Shields are down, her armor is at fifty-two percent. I'm moving ahead to the docking bay, I should be able to catch them before the shuttle takes off,"

Miranda pulled Enyala higher into the air as she looked over to see Shepard arm his rocket launcher with thermal ammunition. There was no hesitancy in his body language, bringing the sights up and pulling the trigger.

She didn't wait for the bloom of fire from the impact to dissipate, Miranda took little effort in increasing the density of the air around her target, and ultimately sent Enyala plummeting down at a speed faster than particularly necessary.

Shepard had been right; as soon as their own commander had been felled, the mercs scattered in different directions. The air was cluttered with the sound of their scrambling, stray shots directed at nothing in particular, and then silence. Yet all Miranda saw was the shredded body of a man lying across the way.

"You really were prophetic," she took a breath and a last glance before turning away, back to the eyes of Shepard.

"Are you alright?"

There was no time to think of anything else but her sister. Niket wasn't her primary concern; as much as Miranda wished it wasn't so, she would have to hold her thoughts of him until later. "My mission is finding Oriana, everything else is placed second on my agenda,"

Shepard reluctantly nodded, "Once this is over, we'll talk,"

Outrunning Shepard was like trying to catch a star. Damn near impossible. Even if she tried to avoid it, he'd pursue. Relentlessly, at that; Shepard was quite determined, and it was a quality Miranda found both the most interesting and the most irritating. Nevertheless, she gave a nod only her Commander could note. It would be a promise she would be able to keep once Miranda had relocated her sister.

"Commander?"

Eye contact broke as the Commander turned toward the docking bay's direction, "Go ahead Garrus,"

"There's no sign of the shuttle. Oriana's gone, Shepard."