Chapter 12

Kaidan picked up his pace as he made his way out of the Alliance leadership office wing. The guards nodded at him as he passed into the grand entrance hall. Kaidan pinched the bridge of his nose and took another deep breath. His Omni-Tool beeped but Kaidan silenced it with his other hand. He took the hall straight ahead. He didn't even know where he was going. He was getting away from something, not going somewhere. People bustling around him, a few shoved against him. Foot traffic swelled as he walked further. This was the main hall leading across the building to the Council wing. Kaidan scurried out of the way and down a darker, quieter residential hallway. His Omni-Tool lit up again with but flashed this time. A comm call then. Kaidan checked it. Ah, Miranda. Kaidan gave a long sigh and paused over the answer button before just jamming his finger on it. Her face lit up the holoscreen as he raised his arm higher to meet her eyes.

"Finally decided to stop ignoring me, Kaidan?" Miranda asked folded her hands and leaning forward on a desk.

Metal and black leather furniture filled the background. Gray walls hung with some abstract etchings too far away to really make out.

"Sorry. I was in a meeting," he said.

A woman turned the corner of the hallway as Miranda gave him a flat look.

"Last night, too? You sneak out after some vague whisper and won't return any of my messages. Got what you wanted, then bored, take off."

The woman looked up from her Omni-Tool with an impish grin and glanced at Miranda's image on the holoscreen. Her eyes sized him up with a small smirk as she passed.

"Kaidan?" Miranda said. "Hey!"

Kaidan snapped his head back. "I'm in a public hallway. Where can I meet you?"

Miranda seemed to consider it looking down at her interlaced fingers. She sat back.

"Fine. I'm at my apartment. I'll send you the address."

"See you soon."

He turned off the screen and let his arm hang as he leaned back against the wall. Suspended. A different Kaidan, a Kaidan years younger, would be crestfallen. Even now though, it kind of felt like getting a failing grade, standing around staring at the report card, and waiting for his parents to find out. There wasn't anyone to disappoint but himself though. There was probably other ways to have gone about it better than storming offices. That was a useless line of thought though. What was done was done. Shepard was right. He did think too much.

His Omni-Tool chirped. Miranda must have sent the address. Liara may want to come, but she probably needed a day at home. His head still felt stuffed with glass. Each movement and change in position ached. If he was busy enough, it would blur away to an annoyance. He'd take the quieter hallways to for the nearest skycar platform.

The image of Tali and Garrus flashed in front of him - garish store lights strobing over them as Garrus stared at him. Kaidan sighed and touched his forehead pushing the image away. He checked him Omni-Tool to confirm it. He had Miranda's address.

XXX

"Tonight?" Kaidan turned following Miranda as she pushed past him.

She stopped over a small shipping container and set case full of medicine vials inside. Assorted medical supplies, laboratory equipment, tools and various scanners and datapads littered the floor around her. She squatted down and sorted through the clutter.

"It would be right now if I could," Miranda said. She sat back on her haunches. "Now where …"

"How?" Kaidan asked.

Miranda flicked her eyes up at him before pulling over another shipping box and digging through it.

"Supply freighter. Already talked to the merchant captain. We've come to an arrangement."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"I have a Council meeting this afternoon on this."

"So?"

"So …" He sighed.

She rubbed an eye with the back of her hand and took a slow breath before turning back to the clutter.

"Were you up all night?" he asked.

Miranda didn't answer. She pushed up off her knees as she stood. The desk she'd called him from sat against the window behind her. She crossed over to it and pulled a bulky microscope across the glass top to the edge. She grunted to lift it. Kaidan moved her aside and picked it up.

"I didn't ask for help."

"I didn't think you did."

He waited until she sighed and motioned to the larger shipping box by the couch. They were both biotics, but she looked as weary as he felt. No reason to add on that fatigue. He settled the microscope into the bottom of the box shoving over a scanner paddle and some smaller boxes. His hand paused over a small white case the size of his palm.

"Is this …" He held it up turning to her. "Tell me this isn't …"

"It is." Miranda griped the edge of the desk behind her and leaned back. "Look. We—"

"This could kill her."

He came over to her holding up the case. She leaned forward and snatched it from his hand.

"And if it doesn't, she's already dead. At least with this, there's a chance."

"She's not young and plastic enough for that, Miranda."

"You don't think I'm aware of that?" Miranda hissed. "It may be the only way."

"It'll kill her," Kaidan repeated.

"What would you have me do, Kaidan? I care about Shepard. Don't you think I want the best for her too?"

They stared at each other. Kaidan's jaw tightened as Miranda's eye narrowed. She turned the case over absently in her hands. Soft footsteps tapped down the hallway carpet to his right. Miranda glanced over with a sigh.

"It's fine, Oriana. You can come out."

"Sorry," she murmured sneaking by them to the kitchen. She threw a sly glance back at Kaidan then turned a raised eyebrow to Miranda.

Miranda rolled her eyes. "Hurry up."

"Just a snack," Oriana said. "Just finishing up the final touches."

"Sculpture commissioned by the Council," Miranda said to Kaidan. "Commemorate the war."

"Commemorate all the races uniting," Oriana called out from the kitchen. "Who wants to celebrate a war?"

"Winning the war then." Miranda shrugged.

"Well," Oriana twirled around the corner of the kitchen with a red apple in one hand. "It's not really about that."

"It's for the Summit?" Kaidan faced her.

She grinned. "Yep."

Her eyes traveled him up and down as she crunched a bite out of her apple.

"Ori, please. Just …" Miranda flicked her hand at her. "We're talking. Please."

"Very well."

Oriana threw a final glance back as she strolled down the hallway to a far door. Did she wink at him?

"Did she, uh …" He looked back to Miranda.

Miranda wrapped an arm around her middle supporting the other elbow as a hand hid her mouth. Was she smirking?

"Uh …" Kaidan said. "Your sister's quite the … uh, tease."

"Who's teasing?" Oriana called down the hall just before her door slid shut.

"Doesn't get out much." Miranda dropped her hand away from a growing lopsided grin. "As you can tell from her tastes."

Kaidan shrugged with a grin. "I wouldn't fault her for her fine tastes."

Miranda snorted and rolled her eyes as she stood away from the desk. "Poor kid. This is clearly what happens when you're sheltered."

She smiled fondly down the hallway. Kaidan's eyes moved to the white case dangling from Miranda's hand. He took a step closer.

"Please, Miranda." He gestured to the box. "Don't do that."

She turned back to him and glanced down at the case in her hand. She held it up to eye level.

"Look. You've got to trust that I know what I'm doing."

Kaidan stared her silently for a moment. Finally, he pivoted on his heel and rubbed a hand down his face with a long sigh.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay?"

Miranda peered at him as if uncertain and waiting to detect another objection. He was silent. She straightened and brushed past him to the shipping container and set the case down inside.

"What model?" Kaidan asked turning to watch her.

"L3. Hard to find, but less of a shock this way."

Kaidan nodded, silent. His head still pulsed, but his gut felt twisted now too.

"I don't want to do it, you know," Miranda said finally. "I haven't seen full scans, but from what I can tell, Shepard's implant started a misfire. Her whole brain's seizing with electrical activity. It hasn't involved the cerebellum given she's breathing independently, but whatever she did, it sent shockwaves from the L3. It's reverberating. It won't stop on its own."

Kaidan lifted his shoulder and stepped over to her. "Then remove it. Don't replace it."

"You don't understand," Miranda said. "Removing it does nothing. It changes nothing. The implant may have been the ignition, but now the whole brain is disorganized with rampant activity. Removing it doesn't change that. We need another signal. Jolt back into normal rhythms."

"Then do it externally without an implant."

"No." Miranda put her hand up. "I know what I'm doing, Kaidan. I'm good at it. Very good at it."

"I don't doubt that, Miranda."

"Then let me do what I'm good at. I don't know if that's what will need to happen. I won't know until I'm there. But if it's what I suspect …"

Kaidan relaxed the muscles between his shoulders and slowed his respiration. He said he would trust her.

"In a way, she's already dead," Miranda added. "It's like someone hitting the floor in cardiac arrest. The heart's full of all this electrical activity, but it's not coordinated enough to pump any blood. So, the person's dead, same as if the heart wasn't moving at all. We need to reset it. Replacing her implant, it's the defibrillator."

"Okay." Kaidan wiped a hand down his face and paced.

"Stop pacing. You're making me nervous."

Kaidan stopped. "Miranda?"

"What?"

"James said Shepard, and he wasn't sure, but he said she spread a barrier over a shuttle as it imploded. Is that … is that even possible?"

Miranda's mouth opened. "That's what she did?"

"Is it possible?"

"You fought beside her more than I did."

"Her skills with barriers, it's unparalleled. But that? No. Something of that size and then fineness of a weave to keep an explosion together, how impermeable it would need to be. You rebuilt her. With all those implants …"

"None of them would let her do that," Miranda said. "It's possible her L3 lost its safety features, let her overload it, but I can't imagine she'd be alive then. I'm not sure. She is good with barriers. Damn good. Skills grow with experience. Maybe she did do it."

Kaidan shook his head with pressed lips. "An entire shuttle, though? Covering people, sure, for a skilled biotic. Shepard's weave is more seamless than anyone's I've seen. But a shuttle, holding in an explosion of fire and debris? Seems like a big leap."

Miranda shrugged. "Adrenaline, fear, desperation. Circumstances propel leaps. Don't tell me you haven't surprised yourself."

"Nothing on that scale."

"I think," Miranda shimmered blue, "We all have our niches."

Something scrapped against the flooring behind Kaidan. The leather couch shimmered blue rising steadily off the floor. Kaidan backed up as the end table glowed up. Two wingchair across the coffee table, the coffee table, the end table's lamp, blankets on the back of couch, a pair of shoes against the wall - all floated shining blue. Kaidan's eyebrows rose, and he pursed his lips with a steady nod. He shot a glance at Miranda, sweat shimmering on her brow, forehead pinched. She gritted her teeth, gasped.

"Damnit."

The blue blinked out. Everything fell. Miranda yelped. Blue flashed out. The chairs blinked. The end table, the coffee table - quick burst across each, slowed enough to be braked before slamming onto the floor one then another. The lamp shattered on the carpet. The couch hung suspended with a blue halo as it settled back to the floor.

Miranda turned to Kaidan. "Hmm, thanks."

The blue energy faded off his skin. The vapors still curled off his hand as the couch tapped onto the floor.

"Figured it was cheaper to replace a lamp than couch," he said, "and chairs."

"Caught the table. Slowed each of the others enough to not break. Not bad."

"Couldn't have lifted everything at once like that. Couldn't even catch it all at once. I'm, uh, pretty impressed. Nice couch. Might not want to use it next time as the main set piece."

"Hmm … only other thing in the room big enough to replace it would be you."

"I'll pass."

"I give a good ride."

Kaidan narrowed his eyes. The smirk and haughty stare seemed to confirm it hadn't been a slip.

"You and your sister really are twins," Kaidan said.

Miranda chuckled. "You're so damned straight laced. Thought that one might go over your head."

"Hey. If I wasn't here, you'd be using your couch as a picnic blanket."

"My, my, put me in my place, you did." She smirked. "If you weren't here, I wouldn't have been floating all my furniture around to begin with."

"Not all your guests get this show?"

Miranda put her hands on her hips with something like a real smile.

"You're not so bad, Kaidan."

"Finally, something positive for my diary tonight."

Miranda rolled her eyes. "Don't make me take it back."

"I planned on using pencil anyway."

"Well …" Miranda moved some books around on the floor with the toe of her boot then sank down to sort through them. "You know how long it took me to be able to lift that - that much, that heavy?"

Kaidan shrugged. "I couldn't do it."

"Maybe with time. It's what you put time into. That, and some natural proclivity, I suppose. But to be able to do that, I won't even tell you how long it took me to get there. Embarrassing. My biggest step came when I was escaping with Ori. The path was blocked, heavy crates and construction material. My father's people were too close on my heels to move one at a time, and so heavy. It felt right though, and I did it. Now I'm even better at it. Well, usually better than this."

"You seemed tired when I came in."

Miranda shrugged. "Never have enough time. If I practiced more, I could probably do a lot more than even that. I can only invest in so many areas."

"Like rebuilding someone," Kaidan said.

"Not someone. Just Shepard. But yes, that didn't come without work and preparation."

Kaidan strolled over to where she was sorting clutter on the floor. "I won't dismiss it outright then - the shuttle."

"Do that, and stop jumping to your own conclusions." She pointed up at him. "That's what I didn't like about you to begin with."

Kaidan gave her a half grin. "I'll keep that in mind. I do want to stay 'not so bad.' If I leave you an opening to take it back, I'll have nothing to show for the day. Nothing good."

"Whatever."

Miranda pulled over a box and shifted things too deep inside for Kaidan to even see. An alarm buzzed on his Omni-Tool.

"My Council meeting."

Miranda eyes darted up and then back to digging in her box. "Better go."

"Thanks, Miranda." He went to the door.

"For what?"

"Taking care of Shepard. She needs you."

"You're not completely useless either." Miranda didn't look up from the box.

"Touched. How my journal entry grows." Kaidan paused in the open door.

Miranda glanced up with a twist to her lips. "Go away."

He backed out and let the doors slid shut. He checked the time and moved toward the nearest skycar station. Assuming he didn't have trouble getting a ride, he had just enough time to get to the Council wing of Alliance HQ without being late.