Miranda looked up when she heard a knock on the door to her office. After grabbing her sidearm she said, "Come in."
When the door opened, Sarah walked in, smiling at the Operative. "Hi. Miss me?"
"A bit." The Operative admitted, putting her pistol back in its normal hiding point.
Sarah laughed, and said, "Did you really have a pistol pointed at the door from below your desk?"
"I wasn't sure who it was, and the automated security systems have been bugging out all week."
"That's not good. It also explains why that mech just asked me if I liked waffles before letting me in."
Miranda sighed, and said, "Yes, that does appear to be an issue. Hopefully the techs will be able to fix it soon."
"Yeah, don't want any assassins getting in and hurting my girl." Sarah said, "You want me to arrange to have an actual person who we can trust take care of security until the mechs are fixed?"
"That won't be necessary. I can take care of myself."
"Alright." Sarah said, sitting down on the couch and motioning for Miranda to join her, "If you need anything, just let me know. I'll get you it."
"I'll be fine, Sarah." Miranda replied as she sat down beside the soldier. "It's not like I haven't gone through this without your help before."
"I know, I just want to know that you're safe. If anything happened to you... a lot of people would wind up dead."
"I can handle myself."
"I know, but I still worry something will happen to you. I can't help it."
"If I need help, you'll be the first person I contact, Sarah." Miranda said, as the soldier wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Good. I'd be hurt if you went to someone else first."
"I think that I'd probably end up hurt too, not many people are as skilled as you."
"That's true." Sarah said, looking around, "So, this is what your other office was based on. The security cameras in the same places?"
"I removed the ones in my bathroom. I don't see any reason that the Illusive Man should need to watch me shower."
"Yeah, I'll have to make it clear to that old pervert that if he keeps trying to get cameras in your room I'll be having a very serious chat with him."
"Thanks." Miranda said, resting her head on Sarah's shoulder. "So, how did your mission go?"
"The first one went relatively fine except for Halthas showing up."
"Halthas showed up? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Miri. He just wanted to convince me that his idiot ideas are the right ones."
"I'm guessing you disagreed." Miranda said with a smile on her face.
"Yeah, he has some crazy conspiracy theory about that group he betrayed."
"If you want I can remove the other security cameras to make so we can talk normally."
"Nah, might make TIM suspicious."
"It probably would. What about the other missions?"
"The second went off without a hitch. Nearly took a bullet to the knee, but my armor stopped it. The third went great, got a medal for going above and beyond the call of duty."
"What did you do?"
"I may have jumped on top of a grenade to save Anderson."
"So that's where the scar on the middle of your chest came from?"
"Yeah, but this time my barriers were able to hold it off. Incredible what you can do with the powers that control the universe."
"Yeah." Miranda said. "Please don't get yourself hurt."
"I won't. I'd rather not be as scarred as I was before. It made picking up women who weren't krogan really hard. And, I'm figuring that if normal women were repulsed by how scarred I was, that you'd be less interested in seeing me naked."
"I'm not that shallow, Sarah."
"It's not a matter of shallowness, it's a matter of I was really fucking scarred before."
"If the squeamish Doctor T'soni could handle it, I'm pretty sure I can." Miranda replied.
"Oh right, her. I'm kinda thinking that it might be best to just let Saren do whatever he wants."
"Or you could try to make her see you as just a friend."
"I'll be completely honest, Miri. I tried that the first time. Then she thought I wanted to bang her, and I hadn't gotten laid in like three years at that point, so I was pretty desperate."
"You're telling me that you slept with Liara not because you actually had interest, but because you were just really horny?"
"Yes."
"You make some horrible decisions, you do realize that, don't you?"
"Yeah."
"Just make it clear to her that you aren't interested in anything beyond simple friendship. That shouldn't be too hard."
"Maybe. But, I'd rather not talk about blue people right now."
"Okay. What do you want to talk about?"
"How have you been?"
"Pretty good. Just doing some work for Cerberus."
"I always thought of you as a field Operative. Why the desk job?"
"It's fairly early in my career. Give me another year or two and I'll be doing a lot more field work."
"Alright. So, TIM doesn't trust you to get the job done yet?"
"You could say that. I'm still technically doing some field training."
"Reasonable. So, want to go get dinner later? You know, have some time for just the two of us?"
"That sounds great, Sarah." Miranda replied.
"Excellent. So, when do I pick you up?"
"I think I can be done with what I need to do today by around seven."
"Got it. So, how's Ori?"
"Nothing else has happened since her family was relocated. With luck it won't have to be done again until that particular date."
"Or not at all."
"You have a plan?"
"Yeah. You know how your father's going to be on a very public visit to the Citadel in a few days?"
"Of course."
"Well, let's just say that when he arrives, I'm going to be there. And, I'm going to make it clear that if he comes after either you or Oriana, he'll have me to deal with. And that he doesn't want that."
"I can't think of anything worse than getting hunted down by you."
"Well if I was hunting you down it would be because you had decided you needed to disappear and didn't take me with you. And, I wouldn't be out to hurt you, but to be with you hiding who knows where."
"So, you're saying that I'm stuck with you no matter what?"
"Pretty much. I don't think that I'd stay behind even if you told me to not follow you."
"Thanks, I think." Miranda said.
"What can I say, I'm very loyal. Like a stray puppy you might adopt."
"I think that a stray dog would be a bit less likely to kill anyone who irritates me."
"That depends on how you train it." Sarah said with a smirk.
"Always looking for ways to turn innocent things violent, aren't you?"
"Nah, that'd be fucked up. I'm just saying that you could have the dog kill anyone who irritates you."
"I could but wouldn't."
"Fair enough."
"And, Sarah, while it's great to see you, I do need to get this work done if we're going to be able to get dinner at a reasonable time."
"Alright. I'll see you later then." The soldier said, giving Miranda a quick kiss before exiting the Operative's room.
-=0=-
Outside the Cerberus base where Miranda was working, Sarah saw Jennifer and Jason standing beside her skycar. "Why the hell did you follow me here?"
"You're acting suspiciously. And this facility has some intel that says some shady shit has been going down here. Stuff about inhumane research. What do you have to do with this, Shepard?" Jason asked.
"Yes, inhumane research has been conducted here. I came here to make sure that people I know were not behind it or victims of it."
"What are you talking about, Shepard?" Jennifer asked. "Who do you know that works here?"
"The correct question would be who do we know that works here."
"Wait... your girlfriend works here? With all this fucked up shit? Do you know what they've done here?"
"Every last bit of it was necessary." Sarah replied, walking towards her vehicle.
"What are you talking about, Shepard?" Jason asked, "They tortured people! Did horrible experiments to them!"
"And it saved my life!" The soldier replied, "If that research hadn't been done I would be dead right now. If that research hadn't been performed, the galaxy would be doomed."
"What are you talking about?" Jason asked, confusion clear in his voice.
"This research will prove critical in the Lazarus Project which has brought me back to life and will do so again."
"Lazarus Project, there's no mention of that anywhere in this facility's databases."
"Because it hasn't happened yet you dumbass!" Sarah growled, pushing him out of the way.
"Shepard, you're sounding crazy right now."
"Guess what, Jason, the universe isn't as simple as you think it is. I've died. Twice. Both times in the year 2183. And I have been restored twice. Both in the year 2185. What you see as the present I see as the past that I have to change in order to save not just humanity but all life in the galaxy. What I do is to save more lives than have ever lived by destroying monstrosities older than you would believe."
"Shepard, are you sure you haven't gone completely insane?"
"No, I'm not, soldier. How do you think I kicked the instructor's ass at boot camp? I have been trained as an N7 marine and have achieved the position of Spectre. I have saved the Citadel Council by sacrificing a portion of the fifth fleet. I have had to make the decision between which one of two close friends die.
"I have had to watch the person I love fall to her death because I was too goddamn slow. I had to fight a monster created from hundreds of thousands of human colonists on foot. I have led a team through the Omega 4 Relay to eradicate the Collectors. I have had to watch the galaxy crumble around me because I was ignored. I have blown up a motherfucking mass relay, destroying an entire solar system.
"You think you know shit, Jason, but you don't. I'm a soldier who has seen things that would break anyone else. You see a crazy woman, but the people who know what I've been through see someone who spends almost every last second with so much pressure on her that it's a miracle I don't just snap and kill everyone around me."
"You really think that the fate of the galaxy is in your hands?" He asked, "You must be crazy. You're a skilled soldier, but what you talked about is impossible."
"Why is it impossible?"
"What?"
"Why is it impossible, soldier?" Sarah asked.
"Time travel doesn't exist. It can't be done!"
"The theory of achieving time travel has existed as long as weapons which use mass effect fields of varying frequencies to tear apart hostiles. They create tiny space/time distortions. Now, it would require an enormous field like that to have any effective time travel abilities, but it is possible."
"That's a load of bullshit."
"Why so skeptical?"
"Because what you're saying defies all conventional logic!"
"Just like saying the universe wasn't geocentric was in defiance of all conventional logic. But we now know that the universe doesn't revolve around the earth."
"But what you're talking about is impossible!"
"Soldier," Sarah said shaking her head, "You ever watch those old Star Wars movies?"
"Yeah, they're classics."
"The shit you saw the Jedi do in those? I can do that and more." as she lifted him into the air. "These abilities are part of what enabled the time reversal. What made so that I could reverse time to make so that a war older than time itself could be won on our terms, not those of the enemy."
"And who is this enemy?"
"They are three different enemies. First and most dangerous is Halthas, a being with powers that could shatter the minds of most mortals. Second and least dangerous are the Leviathans. They have the ability to control the minds of organic species, but are physically weak due to their inability to leave aquatic environments. Third, and nearly as dangerous are the Reapers, they are enormous vessels with incredible offensive capabilities. They're also incredibly difficult to kill."
"So, three enemies, what is their goal?"
"They all have the same goal. To achieve synthesis, no matter what it takes."
"What's synthesis?" both Jason and Jennifer asked, almost in unison.
"The end of life as you know it. It would lead to the death of freedom. All life, both organic and synthetic would be brought under the control of the Leviathans. I could sacrifice myself to initiate it and it would slay Halthas and countless others. Those who remain would be controlled by the Leviathans. So, I have to fight. To keep that from happening."
"You have to find a way to kill them all?"
"We have to find a way to destroy the Reapers. Once those are out of the way Halthas will have no choice but to fully show himself and do an all out offensive on his own if he wants to see his dream of a world where freedom no longer exists."
"Won't new life evolve that isn't under the Leviathan's control?"
"It will affect every single molecule in the galaxy. There won't be any new pure evolution. If this 'synthesis' is done, the future is bleak as no new life which isn't affected by the synthesis procedure could evolve. Now, get out of my way, Jason."
"You can condone was done here, Shepard?"
"It was a necessary evil to ensure that the galaxy has a future."
"You think you're that important?"
"No, I know I am. If I die and stay dead, there will be no one to lead the effort to stop the Reapers."
"Why not?"
"Because no one else will have the influence I do. They won't have done what I have, and as Miranda put it once, they won't have the fire I do. The ability to make someone follow me into the depths of hell and trust their worst enemy to watch their backs and not shoot them."
"Really?"
"I got Miranda and a woman who said that she would only not let Miranda get killed so that she could fillet her personally."
"Uhm, I'm guessing this person was killed by you?" Jennifer said.
"Nah she's fine. I managed to convince Jack to not hate Miri."
Jason shook his head, and said, "You people are going to drive me insane."
"Yeah right." Sarah said as she pushed them out of the way and got into her car. "I need to go get ready for my date later. So, you two have fun. Jen, I'll introduce you to a friend of mine in a few weeks. I think you'll like her."
"Are you trying to play matchmaker?"
"Nope." Sarah said, "I'm succeeding. I know everything you like in a woman/lover so I just know who to choose to hook you up with."
"That is slightly disturbing."
"Time travel does make this kind of thing easier." Sarah said with a grin as she entered the skycar and flew away.
"So," Jason said, "do we tell the Alliance about this place?"
"I think that Shepard would kill us if we did." Jennifer replied.
-=0=-
A/N: So, here's the latest chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it. And for fuck's sake, please review. Your silence has me scared that I've done something so horrible to piss you guys off to silence. And you're just continuing to read because it's like reading a spectacular train wreck. Just watching this wither and die in a horrific manner.