They were on their way to Pragia, to blow up the research facility that created Jack. He wondered briefly if his plan on bringing Miranda would backfire on whatever they have going on right now. He wanted Miranda to see how bad Cerberus gets, he had seen it first hand with the Thorian creepers and rachni and Miranda had acknowledged those projects as mistakes of some insane Cerberus agents. Shepard however felt that Illusive Man knew about them, someone like that does not get where he is without some serious trust issues, he could bet on the fact that Illusive Man did not trust Shepard, he probably did not trust any of the people he had working for him unless he held the leash personally.

So he is going to take Jack, who hates Cerberus and Miranda who likes Cerberus. Both women owe much of their lives to Cerberus. Both were moulded by their contact with Cerberus. They were like the two sides of the same coin, both powerful biotics, both created this way, both escaping their previous lives. But where Miranda found purpose and ability to work unhindered by the usual Alliance protocol, Jack found pain, loss and more anger than a platoon of krogan in bloodrage.

Both of them needed to see the facility, Jack to finally close the door to her past, to acknowledge that she had finally escaped the clutches of the people who tortured her and Miranda who needed to see that Cerberus is not simply a shadowy Alliance private organization trying to make humanity stronger.

Which is why he is not going to go to Miranda's quarters right now and tell her that he is attracted to her. She would have enough conflicting emotions soon enough and Shepard knew that adding to them would only distract her even if it wouldn't have been extremely unprofessional of him to do that. He already had one experience of romantic involvement with a subordinate and while Miranda was not a subordinate in the strict sense of the word she was also his second in command. He had heard of captains, female and male getting involved with their own XO's and usually it ended in one of two ways, marriage or disaster. And he didn't see Miranda marrying him.

Vorcha's head exploded as a round from Shepard's rifle struck him right in the forehead. Vorcha were hard to kill and regenerated as fast as most krogan so head shots were the best way, taking out the brain, or whatever they had that fulfilled the same functions killed them in one go, just had to be sure to cause enough damage as shots from SMG's were not having that much of an effect. Miranda was again putting down covering fire and using her biotics to keep the krogan from regenerating while Jack used her biotics to get close enough for her shotgun to be most effective. Dropping behind the wall that he was using for cover Shepard saw a vorcha trying to sneak up to them. Just in time too as a few seconds later he would have been close enough to use that flame thrower that was strapped to its back. Dropping his rifle he made a sign with his fingers and flicked his wrist sending a small incineration charge towards the vorcha. Gently accelerated by the mass effect field it flew through the air in an arc before hitting the vorcha. As a small charge of plasma converted to flame on contact with air and engulfed the vorcha in a brief but very potent fire the fuel tanks for the flame thrower overheated and exploded creating a rapidly cooling cloud of flame grilled vorcha bits.

Shifting his attention back to the krogan he saw that the fight has been finished. Jack was standing over a krogan's corpse whose face and part of the plate had been minced by what he guessed was a close range application of the M-22 Eviscerator. A very apt name judging by the evidence presented. Miranda had finished off the other two vorcha with her Phalanx and was in the process of reloading her weapons with fresh heatsinks. Say what you will but while really good at suppressing fire the M-9 Tempest went through the heatsinks like a hungry varren through pyjaks.

"Well this seems to be the last of them." Shepard said picking up the rifle he had dropped earlier

"Yeah, the next room is where they kept me." Jack said strain clear in her voice.

Miranda just nodded grimly. It had been a rather unpleasant journey for all of them, Jack remembering all the things that had happened here, listening to the security and research logs that were still active in this place. It seems that what had happened here differed from what Jack remembered and it had all the indications that for once Illusive Man might not have been actually in control, oh he must have started the project or at least given the green light but the torture, the fights and the experiments were done by the staff that was growing increasingly erratic by the lack of definitive results. Miranda has grown less and less talkative, less and less trying to somehow explain what has been going on here as they went deeper. Shepard knew what was happening to her. She was a believer in Cerberus, a believer in the words that Illusive Man had told her. She knew of course the things that Cerberus had done, some assassinations, illegal research and a few other sins that Cerberus was definitely guilty of but so far each crime had a clear explanation behind it, a clear cause and effect. Things were done because the end justified the means. To her, no doubt with Illusive Man's assurances the worst acts attributed to Cerberus like the repeated acts of terrorism and mass murder were acts of rogue Cerberus agents. It was easy to say that when all she had seen of those things were just the reports but here seeing it first hand, the bloodstains, the logs. This could not be ignored.

She would notice by the time they got on board the Normandy his attempt to change her mind, she would probably see it as an attempt to manipulate her. He hoped that she would understand or at least try to clarify the reason why he brought her here. Faith, belief especially in something like Cerberus was dangerous. He had believed exactly the same way in the Alliance, in the ability of the Alliance to protect its colonies, at least the main ones. Elysium and a dozen other smaller outposts had stripped it from him. His later service during their counter-attack against the pirates and slavers had shown him how much misery there really is in the bright dream that was Alliance and the Citadel.

"Come out. We know you are here." Shepard said

"Who are you?" Jack said aiming her gun

"My name is Aresh, and you are breaking into my home. I know you, Subject Zero." the man said, "So many years have passed, and I thought I was the only survivor."

"My name is Jack. How the hell do you know me?"

"We all knew your face Jack. They inflicted horrors on us so their experiments wouldn't kill you. You were the question and I am still looking for the answer."

"Looks like you are not the only one pulled back here, Jack." Shepard said

"I tried to forget this. But a place like this...it doesn't forget you. It follows you."said Aresh tapping his head, "I hired these mercs and came back almost a solar year ago. We are rebuilding it, piece by piece. I'm going to find out what they knew – how to unlock true biotic potential in humans. I'm restarting the Teltin facility. It will be beautiful."Aresh continued turning around and his voice turning wistful.

"I wanted a hole in the ground – he is trying to justify what happened by using it!" Jack said

"You'd do the same to new kinds. Wasn't this forced on you?" Shepard said shaking his head in disbelief

"Some were bought from poor families on Earth or kidnapped from the colonies. Most ended up here the way I did: batarian pirates. They did such horrible things to us. They must have had a good reason for it."

"There's no reason good enough. Are you nuts? You lived it!" Jack said gritting her teeth

"This place was like a prison. How did you get out?"

"We all attacked at once as they were taking us to the lab. They would have put us down, but then Jack got loose. When I came to, it was over – the guards, the scientists and the kids were all dead. And you were gone." Aresh replied to Shepard's question pointing at Jack

"I stopped it, all of it. Maybe the others did have it bad, but what you're doing is just messed."

"Everything we went through must have been meant something." Aresh exclaimed frustrated

"We can blow up the place, but that still leaves him. What do we do with another you?"

"That's easy." Jack said walking up to Aresh

"Just leave me here. This is where I belong."

"Fuck that." Jack said and biotically pushed Aresh down aiming the gun at the back of his head

"Jack he is trapped in the past. You need to move on from yours."

"He wants to restart this place. He needs to die!"

"He's crazy and he's never going to restart this facility. You have to let it go. Your past doesn't have to control you."

"Fuck." Jack sweared with feeling, "Get out of here. Go!" Aresh rushed out prompted by Jack, "He is not worth chasing. None of it is."

"You did the right thing, Jack."

"Maybe," she said looking around,"this room was my whole childhood. Give me a minute to look around."

"Go ahead."

The right back on the shuttle was silent. Jack kept playing with the detonator until they reached the minimum safe distance. Jacob with the help of engineer Gabby Daniels had outdone themselves. The bomb worked a bit too good for Shepard's taste as even from the distance of several kilometres the shuttle was buffeted by the explosion. Miranda had assembled all the pieces and was looking at Shepard with clear promise that as soon as they are back on the ship and out of sight she would say quite a lot of things to him, most of which were probably not pleasant. He closed his eyes and started an exercise to calm his mind, to think of nothing, to gain the serenity he would need to look Miranda in the eyes and explain why he felt it necessary for her to see the Teltin facility.

Shepard had just finished taking off his armour when Joker informed him of the fight between Miranda and Jack. He managed to separate them without injuries on all parts and that had to count for something, Shepard knew that he didn't want to step in between two powerful biotics ready to tear each other apart any time soon. He saw the look in Miranda's face when Jack stalked away and he braced for what was to come but Joker or rather Illusive Man saved him with the comm request.

The Quantum Entanglement Communicator was an impressive peace of technology and he appreciated the benefits of it but he wished it could connect him to more than just Illusive Man, it seemed otherwise like a colossal waste of money.

The idea of storming a Collector ship, even a damaged one seemed reckless for sure. But as Illusive man pointed it out you had to risk it, the rewards could be great. It would take them twelve hours to reach the coordinates and there were preparations to be made but first he needed to talk to Miranda.

Walking up to the hatch leading to Miranda's quarters he waited for them to part and when it didn't happen he frowned.

"EDI, why is the hatch not opening?"

"Operative Lawson is currently not receiving visitors."

"Can you tell her that it's me, Shepard." Shepard said

"Operative Lawson knows this Commander and she replies that she is not receiving any visitors. She is tired after the mission and would like to rest."

This is ridiculous, Shepard thought, he expected anger, accusation, coldness but not what he could only think of as pouting from Miranda. Miranda was logical, calculating, she didn't let emotion control her yet here he was standing outside her quarters feeling guilty for doing what he felt is right and unable to explain why. It felt like he was a teenager again. His first girlfriend had gotten mad at him and had slammed the door in front of his nose refusing to listen to him. Now he knew that it was expected from a sixteen year old girl, so seeing someone twice that age do the same thing was odd.

"Tell Miranda that if she wants to talk I will be in my quarters."

"Understood Commander."

Walking off Shepard remembered that it had been his first and last fight with that girl and he hoped that this time it would work better.

Miranda sat on her bed and looked out into space. The ship was once again in FTL, heading for another mission and she was relieved that she had a handy excuse to not see Shepard right now. Of course she knew that Shepard would see through the ruse but she didn't care at this moment. That fight with Jack was stupid, and Miranda Lawson did not do stupid. Worse was the realisation that her anger was not even aimed really at Jack, she of course found Jack grating as a person and she would have frankly never taken her on if she had a choice in recruitment for the mission but Shepard proved to be able to channel Jack's anger and destructive capabilities away from her surroundings and into the enemies in their path. So she could live with an incredibly annoying but useful weapon if that helped their cause. That was her thinking before seeing the facility where Jack was made into what she was. Now she knew that she and Jack were not that different. Her cage had been gilded but her father had never allowed her to forget that she was in the cage, that his will controlled everything in his life. That it was his decision she be born and everything about her was his decision. That none of what she did, none of what she was had been hers. Jack's cage was brutal, quite literal in fact but it had been no less insidious. And it was Cerberus that had done it to her. And it had been Shepard who showed it to Miranda. She understood even before they stepped into the facility why he had chosen to take her and she was prepared to throw it in his face once they got back to Normandy. Instead the arguments that she had prepared in her head felt thin, the list of things Cerberus did right seemed short and she knew that nothing could or would justify what was done there.

Her chest felt tight, her heart aching, she still found it hard to believe that the same psychopaths that did those things to children were part of the same organisation. She could even remember a few names from the files she has seen of dormant Cerberus agents with medical knowledge when she had been tasked to revive Shepard. She had dismissed them because Shepard was not a biotic so their area of expertise simply did not apply.

Experimenting on children was the kind of evil that was unforgivable to her, she still remembered those few weeks that she had cared for baby Oriana before giving her up for adoption. After getting the medical report on her own inability to have children she cherished that time in her life even more knowing that she would never be able to experience it again.

Miranda sighed and took off her combat suit, the inner layer peeling slowly away from her skin. She had always maintained her suit on her own, she did design it after all so she doubted anyone knew that she wore it on her bare skin, the inner gel layer acting as both thermo-regulating layer and sweat absorbing one. It gave her excellent mobility, with a layer of synthetic muscle fiber woven through it allowing her to move faster and hit stronger and the fact that it was skin tight had always given her an upper hand when dealing with men.

Storing it away in a specialised compartment for cleaning and charging she slipped under the blanket and felt the coolness of the sheets. Miranda was not really the romantic type and her last lover had been Jacob which had ended rather awkwardly for both of them but she was still human and not for the first time in two years she wished that someone was there sharing her bed. Not just for sex but someone who would wrap his arms around her and tell her it would be alright. Drifting away into sleep she did not realise that it was Shepard's voice she was imagining.

Ok, this is the second chapter I have done today and I would like some feedback. I am focusing more on the feelings of Shepard and Miranda and I was thinking of including more. Also I am not sure where the M rating gets me with the whole nudity/violence thing. Can it be on the same level as in game? Well anyway I am being careful for now and since my characters haven't really reached the place where there needs to be anything more detailed that works fine. Anyway tell me what you think, it will be much appreciated.

PS. The physical description of my Shepard is not going to be the default one. I thought of doing that but I just don't feel like that would work for this.