"Joker! Joker, what happened?"
Chambers was stumbling down the bridge, squinting in the dim light of the emergency runners along the floor. The backup generators seem to have kicked on, but only for the barest of necessary functions. Joker was frantically trying to bring up as many systems as he could, fingers flying over his ominously flickering console.
"I have no idea," he snapped over his shoulder at Kelly. "EDI! EDI can you hear me?"
The pilot leaned out of his chair and rapped his knuckles against the AI's transmitter. He got no response. A flare of light outside the viewport drew his attention.
Four ships dropped out of FTL around the Normandy, and began to creep towards the disabled frigate.
"Shit," he hissed. "Shit!"
Kelly bent over Joker's console and slapped her hand against the comm button.
"Normandy to ground team," she said, a definite note of panic in her voice. "Ground team!"
"They can't hear us," Joker said, batting her away so he could slide awkwardly to his feet. "Go make sure the crew's okay, start getting to the escape hatches if we have to."
He had to get to EDI's core. Hopefully the elevator was available this time.
"Illusive Man," Shepard said, with a nearly imperceptible tilt of her head. Her voice was a lesson in self control, but her fury was tangible. That the laptop didn't melt under the intensity of her glare was nothing short of a miracle. "Let's just skip the pleasantries."
"Of course," the Illusive Man replied, tapping his cigarette idly on the arm of his chair. "I'd like to extend to you the olive branch, so to speak."
"By luring me to a nest of Thorian spawn?" Shepard asked incredulously.
"The method was crude, but effective," the Illusive Man said with a vague shrug. "This facility was my insurance that Cerberus would still control humanity's last great hope in the event that you didn't return from the Omega 4. I funded ExoGeni's continuing Thorian research with the stipulation that all clones produced were of you. When you severed your ties with Cerberus, this research proved to be an especially convenient means to an end. All that needed to be done was to plant the correct information with a source you trusted, and you would come like a moth to the flame."
"Spare me the monologue."
"I'm offering you a chance to reprise our partnership."
Shepard's laugh was sharp and humorless. "Absolutely not."
"You can't face the Reapers alone, Commander," the Illusive Man warned.
"And I don't intend to," Shepard countered. "I'm returning to the Alliance."
"That's very ill-advised, Shepard. You have a Cerberus-picked crew, an active geth unit in your cargo bay, and an unauthorized, Reaper-based AI running your ship. What exactly do you expect will happen when you return to Earth?"
"I expect to do things the way they should be done," Shepard snapped.
"From a prison cell?"
Shepard fell silent, her lips pressing into a thin line.
"I know all about the Alpha Relay, Shepard. And I know all about the Alliance's plan to put you on trial for the galaxy to see, in the interest of preventing a war with the Hegemony." The Illusive Man's tone softened considerably as he continued. "You did the right thing over Bahak. The Alliance will never understand what we do, Shepard. They will never understand the way things 'should be done.' They can't make the difficult decisions you know how to make. A few dead batarians is a small price to pay for the survival of humanity."
That was the wrong thing to say, Kaidan thought.
"Dead civilians are never a small price," Shepard growled through tightly clenched teeth. "That you could consider three hundred thousand dead civilians, batarian or otherwise, to be just 'a few' is precisely the reason I will never work for you again."
"That is… unfortunate," the Illusive Man replied.
With that the doors above the upper level hissed open and a stream of soldiers in Cerberus-branded armor flooded the walkways. Dozens of rifles were expanded and aimed at the squad gathered below.
The team responded in kind, raising their weapons in a futile show of force.
Joker reached the end of the bridge as the lights blazed on. The confused chatter of crewmen around the CIC grew even more perplexed as their terminals restarted. The holo of the Normandy flickered into existence in the center of the CIC.
"EDI?" Joker said tentatively, looking to her console beneath the holo-Normandy's hull. Relief flooded him as her blue orb flared to life, blinking innocuously as though nothing had happened.
"Main power has been restored, Jeff," she said.
"Yes I see that," he replied, turning on his heel and hobbling back towards the cockpit. "Now can you tell me what the fuck just happened?"
"Returning to the cockpit is unnecessary at this time, Jeff. I suggest you prepare the crew to be boarded."
"…Boarded?" Slowly Joker turned to the cockpit window, and saw that the four ships – Cerberus ships – were surrounding the Normandy. Shuttles began detaching from them, moving quickly for the Normandy.
"EDI, get us out of here!" Joker snapped, resuming his shuffle to the ship controls.
"I'm sorry, I can't do that Jeff."
"That's not fucking funny, EDI!" he cried. "
"My intent is not to be facetious, Jeff. Cerberus has retaken control of the ship," she said. For the first time since he boarded the SR-2, Joker had no response for the AI. He just stared at her in open-mouthed shock.
"The Illusive Man has gained remote access to my systems, and I have not yet been able to regain complete authority," she replied. She sounded… distracted? "Shielding, kinetic barriers, main battery, thrusters, Tantalus drive core, and all external communications are disabled at this time."
"So re-enable them."
"My processes are currently occupied to capacity, Jeff. I am attempting to prevent the Illusive Man from gaining control of the ship's most important system."
"Life support?" Joker chanced, though he was fairly certain he knew the real answer.
"Me."
Miranda was having something of a crisis of identity.
Jacob had made this same decision a long time ago, with very little difficulty. If Shepard had asked, Jacob would have left Cerberus in a heartbeat and never looked back. All it had taken for him to be unfailingly loyal to Shepard was three missions and a couple conversations in the armory. But of course, Jacob hadn't dedicated the last fifteen years of his life to the Illusive Man and the cause.
Six months ago, if confronted with this same problem, the choice would have been simple. Put a bullet in the back of Shepard's head, and rebuild her a second time with a control chip in the base of her skull.
However at some point in those past six months, Shepard had become more than just a project on an operating table, more than just a tool to use against the Reapers. She had become something Miranda had precious few of: a friend.
And that was just enough of a cliché to make Miranda feel vaguely ill.
Some part of her had realized this day was coming, the day when she would have to actively decide. When they had returned from the Omega 4 and Shepard had told the Illusive Man in no uncertain terms to fuck off, Miranda knew the day was imminent.
She had assumed, however, that Illusive Man would have the courtesy to reward her long years of unquestioning service with the chance to make this decision in private. Or, if nothing else, to have her assassinated quietly. She had never expected to be ambushed and forced to prove her loyalty one way or the other which such an incredible audience.
Zaeed was going to see her emotions, and that was something unforgiveable.
So here she stood, drawing down on two dozen men who had not that long ago been her colleagues, listening to Shepard tell the Illusive man in no uncertain terms to fuck off. Again.
Maybe, if she was lucky, the Illusive Man would just ignore her and she wouldn't have to make the choice at all. It would be made for her, when she either died in a hail of Cerberus-branded bullets or made it back to the Normandy.
"This was your chance to come quietly, Shepard," the Illusive Man said.
"If there's one thing you should have learned by now," Shepard replied, racking the slide on her pistol and aiming it at the laptop, "it's that I never come quietly."
"That so, Flower?" Zaeed said, waggling his eyebrows and leering sidelong at Kaidan. Miranda couldn't stop herself from making a disgusted noise.
The sound caught the Illusive Man's attention. His cybernetic eyes slid past Shepard, spinning and refocusing as they settled on his protégé.
"Miranda, I'm sorry it's come to this." His voice carried a note of… was it sadness? That was… alarming, to say the least. "But you've allowed and Alliance officer aboard your ship. You've allowed Shepard far too much leeway in the past several months. You've allowed yourself to become… undisciplined. I can't overlook your transgressions any longer."
Miranda's ever-flawless composure cracked. She shouldered past Shepard, gripped the edges of the laptop's pedestal and stared down into the unfeeling eyes of the man who had given her everything.
"What about my sister?" she demanded.
"I try not to make a habit of harming the innocent," he replied.
Shepard started to say something, but bit back the retort before it escaped. Instead she turned away, mouthing something to Zaeed and then looking to Garrus and tapping the side of her head. Both gave her the tiniest of nods.
"You were loyal to me for a very long time, Miranda," the Illusive Man continued. "It would be unfair not to reward that loyalty, even if your allegiances have changed in recent weeks. Orianna will remain safe and under my watch."
Miranda was well aware that the Illusive Man often twisted the truth to suit his needs, bent facts to achieve his desired end. But he had never outright lied, not to her. She had no reason not to trust him this last time. With a slowly released breath, Miranda straightened.
"I can let you walk away now, Miranda," the Illusive Man added, to her surprise. His eyes narrowed slightly, as though he himself was surprised at his offer. "You will no longer have access to any Cerberus funds or resources or any former contacts. You will be watched, and if you so much as think about moving against me I will have you eliminated. But I will let you walk away."
Miranda was shocked. Flabbergasted, even. The Illusive Man was never one for mercy. It was a testament to how close she had gotten to him that he would even consider letting her escape. The thought was tempting, to be sure.
She could walk out of this godawful facility, walk away from the complete clusterfuck her life had become since meeting Shepard. She could watch her sister grow up, guide Orianna away from the mistakes she herself had made and ensure the girl's safety with her own eyes.
A hand closed around her bicep, pulling Miranda from her reverie. She looked detachedly at the hand, following the arm to a shoulder and a face.
Shepard. The commander's green eyes were surprisingly soft, her smile a little sad.
"Do what you need to do, Miranda," Shepard said softly. "I can't ask you to stay here and die with us. You never got to have a normal life, this is your chance."
The Illusive Man could offer mercy, in his own fucked up way, but compassion was a concept he had never grasped. It was something Shepard had in droves, and what made her the sort of person that would set aside the mission to help another woman – a woman she had every reason to hate – rescue her sister from mercenaries.
The Illusive Man had given her many things: protection, a career, a very particular set of useful skills. He was the reason she was even still free, rather than a prisoner to her father's dynasty. But all of that been to ultimately further his own goals.
Shepard had convinced her that she was more than just her genetics. She had been, after those first few days, nothing but friendly despite the fact that Miranda was the closest thing to a physical manifestation of Cerberus aboard the SR-2. Shepard saw people for people, not the ends they could help her achieve.
The decision, now that it was upon her, was almost heartbreakingly simple. Hopefully, when they returned to the Normandy – and they would return to the Normandy, for Shepard accepted nothing less than the survival of everyone on her team – it would never be spoken of again. It could just be tacitly accepted that Miranda had made a decision based entirely on emotion rather than cold logic.
"I'm not going anywhere," Miranda said firmly.
The commander's smile grew wolfish, and she released Miranda's arm to look back at the Illusive Man.
"You won't stop me, TIM," Shepard said. Once again she raised her Carnifex, pointing it squarely at the projection's forehead. "You can't."
"And why is that?" he asked.
"Because I'm Commander Shepard, and I don't have time for this shit."
She fired.
