Renegade Reinterpretations


Dossier: The Loyalist


"I am Subject Zero, as close to the perfect human as you can get."


While Cerberus mastered the basics of Mass Cloning nearly a century ago, it has continued to research and refine its operations since then. Decades later, the product of that research is Subject Zero, the modified clone of the original Subject Zero a century ago. Subject Zero, who goes by the name Miranda, is not simply the direct clone of the most powerful biotic in human history: she's been upgraded in all the other applicable areas as well. Intelligence, strength, immunity, and every potential avenue of improvement without sacrificing biotic potential. Created, raised, and educated by Cerberus to be Humanity's defender, Miranda is the mold of perfect potential, and a zealous advocate of Cerberus.

The galaxy's most perfect Human is still only human, however, and all humans have flaws. Miranda's derive from the neural decay resulting from the Teltin Procedures that have boosted her biotic power to Asari Matriarch-levels. As the decay advances, Miranda's sanity is challenged. She has begun to experience deja vu to situations she has never gone through, unclear genetic memories of the original Subject Zero she was cloned after, and familiarity with an unfamiliar name: Jack. Though Miranda is a starting companion provided by Cerberus, when one of her 'sisters', another clone named Oriana, vanishes, Miranda's loyalty mission involves returning to where she truly began. Shepard goes to the long-abandoned Teltin Facility and confronting the legacy of the original Subject Zero. Upon arriving, it becomes clear that Oriana is undergoing the same problems in a more advanced stage, with the underlying identity of 'Jack' warring with Oriana's own self-identity. In the end, Miranda is faced with a choice: bring her sister Oriana back to Cerberus against her will for therapy to repress this emerging facet of their identity, or let her flee as 'Jack' begins to express herself through her sister. With her her decision made and past behind her, Miranda is focused on the mission.

Politically, Miranda dips into both the Assimilation and Xenonationalist aspects of Cerberus. Though Human survival is Cerberus's unifying priority, its politics reflect Humanity and the galaxy as a whole: Miranda is supportive of both dominant ideologies, preferring neither.

Miranda's Broker dossier sheds light on her sisterly ties with Oriana, as well as hints as to her own struggle with the influence of 'Jack.' Every year on her birthday, Miranda takes time off and goes to the original Project Teltin site.


Author Notes:

I admit: genetic memory/latent identity pseudo-sci-fi BS, just like the rest of the cloning plot device. Just blame it on Lazarus precedent. The general idea was on a twist of a concept a friend shared with me: combining Jack and Miranda into a single character. Why? Because too many characters in the game as is, and the two can provide an interesting spin combined rather than separate.

While that Jack-Miranda was a whole different beastie worth her own book, this Reinterpretation was more about making Jack relevant even though I firmly implied that Jack herself was around at the beginning of First Contact War, with the original Teltin. Jack is long since dead (mercifully for her), but she provided an interesting option for future relevance: if she's actually the most powerful human biotic, why wouldn't Cerberus try to keep her around?

Thus the Subject Zero-series, and Miranda. Clones of Jack, with increasing genetic tweaks to make her 'better.' Except 'Jack' remains in there, somewhere, and has a tendency to re-emerge over time/stress/plot devices. Miranda still loves her sister Oriana, Miranda and Jack still don't get along (for different reasons this time), and Jack makes more or less of a cameo despite being 'cut' at the writing stage.

Which I fully admit. It's not that I dislike Jack, but she already had a different role in this Reinterpretation, and that role was in the past. Shepard's team is already too big for much characterization or interaction simply by scale of size, and needed trimming. Candidate number two for that was Jack. The first was Zaeed, who was rolled into a Cerberus-raised Batarian character who didn't make the cut for Shepard's crew. The idea was that the biggest bad-ass Cerberus operative of all time was a Batarian, but 'Zaeed' didn't balance well with the rest of the team. Now 'Zaeed' may still exist, but more of a chuck-noris figure of rumor. Sort of like Chicago Ted from Left 4 Dead.

Apologies for the delay: what was supposed to be a three hour doctor appointment turned into a nine hour ordeal.

As always, reviews appreciated. Anyone who has private questions/discussions that I don't convey in these notes is welcome to PM me personally.