Kaidan, Shepard, and Wrex followed the rest of the team through the Archives. Shepard had to smile at the friendly rivalry continuing through the comms as they tried to outdo each other. She particularly liked how Cortez was coming alive on this mission. He so rarely had the chance to work with the rest of them, his job limited as it was to dropping them off and hoping they would be all right, that she was glad he had this chance to be a member of the team. It was nice as well how they all accepted Cortez and Vega and Javik as part of the group. She was sorry more of the team from the Collector mission couldn't be here. She missed Kasumi, and Jack, and Grunt … and Thane.

Thinking of him in the midst of all this was like a sudden kick in the gut. How she would have liked to have his quiet, solid presence next to her, his calmness in the face of all the strange things the galaxy seemed to throw at her.

For a moment, she paused, her hand on a railing to steady herself. He was with her. He was in her heart, in her memories, in everything she had learned from and with him. He always would be. "Amonkira, Lord of Hunters, keep my hands and nerves steady and my mind focused in this uncertain moment. Guide me through this."

Kaidan stopped at her side, concerned. "Shepard?"

"I'm fine. Let's go."

She didn't miss his worried eyes on her as she continued, and was grateful for his support—especially considering that this must be his nightmare even more than it was hers.

Tali buzzed her over the comm. "Shepard, what do you think your clone is looking for in here?"

"Beats me. At this point, anything's possible."

"You mean like finding out you have a clone?" Liara teased.

Shepard growled, the hard-won peace from her prayer fading. What she wouldn't give to have the Illusive Man in front of her right now. "I don't want to talk about it."

"At least not until we've all had a stiff drink," Kaidan added. "Or twelve."

"Let's just get some kegs and have a party, Lola," Vega suggested.

There was a burst of gunfire, and then Wrex chortled through the comm, "Kid, this is a party!"

Ahead of him, Shepard spied the glow of Liara's little drone buddy, and called it over.

"Yes, Commander?" it asked, hovering in front of her.

"Track the target. Give me updates on its location." It didn't move, and she sighed. "Yes, Glyph?"

"What is the nature of the target?"

"She looks like me." It still didn't move, and she growled at it. "What?"

"I believe I have found the target."

"Not this me, another me," she snapped, although admittedly it did sound confusing. She forced herself to slow down and explain more carefully. "Ahead of us, there's someone else who looks like me. Find her for me and track her. You got it?"

"Yes, Commander."

Glyph headed off and Shepard, Kaidan, and Wrex continued to move forward. The Archives were just massive, and Shepard despaired of finding this clone before she did some kind of real damage that would be hard, or impossible, to undo.

Suddenly Kaidan chuckled.

"What? I'd love to hear anything even remotely funny."

"Fighting your own clone." He shook his head, still smiling. "You won't find that in the Spectre handbook."

"Wait." She stopped and frowned at him. "There's a handbook? No one gave me a handbook!"

"In fairness, Shepard, I doubt they thought you'd use it."

Garrus's voice crackled through the comm. "There's no handbook, Shepard. That's the whole point of being a Spectre."

She looked at Kaidan, who was all wide-eyed guileless innocence, and then considered Garrus's penchant for discarding the regs whenever he could. "You're both impossible, you know that?"

Garrus's chuckle came through the comm, and Kaidan grinned.

"You should not shoot this clone, Commander," Javik said thoughtfully.

"I know. We should throw it out an airlock."

"Not this time, no. It could be useful. If there is a task you don't wish to do, let them handle it."

"Council meetings," Kaidan whispered to her, and she shuddered just thinking what a mess the clone could make with the Council.

"Like a personal butler," Brooks suggested brightly.

Shepard had a brief vision of slogging through the mud planetside with a uniformed henchperson carrying all her gear. It didn't sound all that bad, actually … until the henchperson got themselves killed. "I don't want to talk about it!" she repeated forcefully.

Wrex nudged her. "Right. So you let your clone do it."

She rolled her eyes at him.

They heard gunfire ahead, and Shepard lifted her weapon. "Let's move."

A group of the clone's cheap mercs had surrounded the other two teams and had them pinned down, shooting from the high ground. Wrex charged in with gusto, and Shepard and Kaidan laid down covering fire while the others scrambled up a ladder to a ledge where they were level with the mercs.

And then, as Shepard, Kaidan, and Wrex followed them across the open space and up the ladder, the entire group opened fire on the mercs at once. The sound of the gunfire was deafening, and the mercs didn't stand a chance.

When the mercs were all down, some of them feebly holding up their hands to indicate surrender, Wrex looked at the rest of the team, lined up along the ledge with their weapons still smoking from the gunfire, and grinned. "That's why I love hanging out with you guys. Why shoot something once when you can shoot it forty-six more times?"