"The Shepard Scholarship has gone into effect, targeting low income children on Earth, where the most famous human in the galaxy allegedly had a difficult childhood. The scholarships have allowed several dozen young men and women to leave gangs and join the military or enroll in school."

Michael stopped and stared at the newsfeed. He scratched the back of his head, then turned around. "What?"

"What?" Garrus clicked his mandibles. Then he shook his head. "Come on, Shepard. Think of the children."

"If I find you had anything to do with..." He narrowed his eyes.

"He tried to get them to name a frigate after you." Tali shrugged.

"Tali..." Garrus turned to glare at her.

"A turian frigate." Tali waved a hand. "I was going to steal it."

"That's..." Michael stared at her for a moment. "You were going to steal a ship for me?"

"Of course." Tali nodded.

"That's beautiful, Tali. Thank you." He started to put a hand on her shoulder, then just shrugged and gave her a hug.

"Awwwww..." Kasumi's voice came from somewhere to his left.

He glanced at the news display again, then started walking toward the shop to get the part they'd come for. It was kind of a sweet thought. Something told him the geezer had been behind it.

#

"Shepard, I find myself in the unpleasant position of asking for your help." Miranda folded her hands as she looked at him over her desk. "I don't like discussing personal matters..." She took a deep breath. "But this is important."

The woman who had wanted to put a control chip in his head was asking him for help. This should be good. Michael found himself wondering if there were puppies she needed kicked or an orphanage she wanted burned down. "What's going on?"

"My father was extremely wealthy. He wanted the ideal daughter, and he paid a great deal to genetically tailor me. When I learned that my father was more interested in controlling a dynasty than raising a daughter, I left." Oh, poor little rich girl. "He knows not to come after me." She rose and walked around her desk to face him. "I have a sister. A twin. And he's still hunting her. Cerberus has kept her safe. Until now. She's living a normal life on Illium, safe and hidden from my father."

That was... Not what he expected to hear. So, Miranda actually cared about someone. That was going to take some doing to wrap his brain around. "So you think your father has tracked her down."

"Precisely, Commander." She rubbed her shoulder. "My sources indicate he knows that she's on Illium." Miranda actually looked uncertain. Even vulnerable. A part of him was worried he was looking at some kind of elaborate trap. "I've tried to keep her hidden without impacting her life, but I'm out of options." She started pacing. "He's too close. I need to relocate my sister's family before it's too late."

Yet there was a small but not quite insignificant chance she was telling the truth. And he could always shoot her later if she wasn't. "What do you need me to do?" Besides, whatever she was cooking up could kill time while they waited for a lead to pop up.

"My father is extremely persistent. I'd like to go to Illium when Cerberus is moving the family to make sure none of his agents get too close." She offered him a datapad. "My contact's name is Lanteia. She'll be waiting for us in the lounge near the Nos Astra docking bay."

#

"It's got to be a trap." Garrus leaned back, staring at Shepard.

"I'm aware of that, Vakarian." Shepard smirked, then waived a hand. "But springing it and watching it blow up in her face might be entertaining."

"It..." Garrus clicked his mandibles. "Could. How is the eyepiece working for you?"

"Took a bit of getting used to..." Shepard touched the visor he wore. It was different from Garrus's own, and he'd already seen Shepard fiddling with modifications. "The armor scan feature is nice. Takes some of the guesswork out of deciding which ammo to use." Something shifted just a little in Shepard's expression. "Saw Tali working on yours, earlier."

"She said she'd been thinking about ways to improve its configuration for..." Garrus trailed off. "Why are you smirking?"

"Tali is spending her free time coming up with ways to improve your aim, Vakarian." Shepard continued smirking. "She's a smart girl."

"She should be thinking of ways to help yours. Then you might almost be some competition, Shepard." Garrus drew himself to his full height. On that front, at least, he definitely had the advantage over the human commander. "You can use all the help you can get."

Several expressions crossed Shepard's face, and the amusement vanished. "Yeah." Shepard straightened. "I should go see if the mail has arrived yet. Almost out of hamster food and you aren't supposed to give them table scraps."

Garrus watched his friend go, then turned to look at the main battery. "I'm not sure..." he addressed the gun. "But I think I missed something."

#

"Ms. Lawson, I'm glad you made it. We've had a complication." The asari they were meeting wasted no time getting down to business.

"What happened?" Some of Miranda's composure vanished. "Is Oriana alright?"

"She's fine. But..." Lanteia gestured. "You listed a man named Niket as your trusted source? He contacted me, warning that your father has sent Eclipse mercenaries to make a sweep. He suggested that the mercs might be watching for you personally. He's offered to escort Oriana's family to the terminal instead."

Oddly, that sounded more like a trap than Miranda inviting him on this mission did. Michael frowned. "You didn't mention anything about a Niket."

"He's a friend. He and I go back a long way..." Miranda smiled. That might have been reassuring, if she wasn't Miranda and couldn't say the same about The Invidiously Malignant.

"Do you want to bring in any of your other Illium contacts, Ms. Lawson?" The asari woman gestured at a datapad.

"No. You and Niket are the only two I trust on this." Miranda immediately shook her head.

"Making changes now could be dangerous." And might interfere with how he'd arranged for Thane and Samara to be waiting as backup if needed. "Are you sure you can trust Niket?"

"Absolutely." He was a bit surprised when she didn't hesitate before responding. "He's one of my oldest friends. I trust him with Oriana." Miranda turned back to the asari woman. "Lanteia, we'll follow Niket's suggestion. Shepard and I will take the car and draw their attention." Ah, lovely. As usual, he'd be the one getting shot at. "Have Niket escort the family to the shuttle. Give him full access to the family's itinerary, just to be safe."

"Understood, Ms. Lawson."

Michael took a deep breath. "So the plan is for us to get shot down by Eclipse while your sister gets to safety?"

"Eclipse will be under orders to take my sister alive. They won't risk anything that could kill us." Miranda shook her head.

"Not arguing, just confirming." Michael shrugged. "I mean, that does sound like one of our usual plans."

"It's does sound like Plan A." Jack smirked from the doorway.

"I prefer Plan B." Tali leaned on the other side of the door. "Make something go boom."

"Heh heh heh." Grunt nodded from where he stood between the two.

"I doubt Eclipse will send all their people just to stop you. Do you want to give Niket any backup?" Michael raised an eyebrow. Garrus could easily lead a secondary team.

"Niket can take care of himself. Besides, any armed backup just draws attention to him."

"Right." Michael nodded. "Let's go do inflict massive amounts of property damage." He waved a hand. "We can bill it to your dad."

"Thank you, Shepard." Her voice caught him as he started to turn toward the door. "I appreciate this. I hadn't planned on Eclipse..." Her smile almost looked genuine. "But they never planned on you."

#

"This is why I usually let Tali drive." Michael winced at the vehicle slid to a stop, sending sparks flying across the floor. Miranda was worse than Garrus. A few gunships and some fire, and she crashed.

Miranda got out and immediately started for the Eclipse troopers. Michael glared at her back before following. Someday, he really needed to put her ass in armor. "Since you're not firing yet, I trust you know who I am." She was glaring at the troopers.

"Yeah. They said you'd be in the car." The troopers moved toward them. "You're the bitch who kidnapped our boss' little girl."

Hang on... "Kidnapped?" Miranda scoffed. "This doesn't involve you. I suggest you take your men and go."

"Think you've got it all lined up, huh? Captain Enyala's already moving in on the kid." Kid? "She knows about Niket. He won't be helping you."

This was not getting to be the fun kind of interesting. There was a kid involved? Miranda hadn't mentioned anything about her sister having kids. Michael stepped forward. "I'm giving you one chance to leave. That's more than most get."

"Captain Enyala ordered us to give you one chance to walk away. But this whole time we've been talking, my men have been lining up shots." Yeah, yeah, he could see that. They weren't doing a very good job. Oh, look, the idiot was actually going to try getting in his face. "When I say the word, we unleash hell on your squad. So I suggest you walk away nicely, unless you want things to get ugly."

Michael gestured at his scars. "I'm already ugly." He grabbed the front of the man's armor, spun him, and used the guy's own gun to shoot down the crate currently being transported above the Eclipse squad's heads. It went crashing down, leaving only a surprised looking salarian behind. Then he snapped the man's neck as Miranda filled his lieutenant with holes.

The salarian almost had his gun aimed when Jack threw the what looked like the door of a sky car at him. Blue blood painted crates. "I hope they weren't paid in advance." Tali shrugged.

Grunt just glared when he realized there was nobody left standing for him to shoot.

#

A crackling sound indicated a dropped radio. Miranda walked over to retrieve it. "I'll patch us in, see if I can get an idea of what we're up against." She started working on it, then glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "Shepard." She took a deep breath. "I think I owe you an explanation. Oriana is my twin, genetically. But my father..." She exhaled. "Grew her when I was a teenager." Miranda looked away. "She was meant to replace me. I couldn't let my father do to her what he did to me. So I rescued her." Miranda looked back at him. "She's almost a woman now."

He opened his mouth, then closed it again before exhaling. If he'd had a sibling, he never would have left them behind when he ran. "Okay."

She blinked. "Okay?"

He met her eyes evenly. She'd read his dossier. "Okay."

Miranda swallowed, then nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you sooner. You deserve to know."

They were wasting time. "Sounds like your friend Niket might be in some trouble."

"If they've got to Niket somehow, this is going to be harder than I'd planned." Miranda started walking. "According to the specs I reviewed, we'll need to cut through the cargo processing yard to get to Oriana."

Michael touched his own radio. "Garrus, it's Shepard. See if you can come up with anything to slow shuttle traffic."

"On it." Garrus's voice came back. The man wasn't a hacker, but he'd been part of C-sec. He knew where to apply some red tape.

"I hope your friend can be trusted." Michael followed Miranda.

"Absolutely." She smiled again. He thought it might even be real. "Niket is one of my oldest friends. I guess you could say he was my only real friend. He's the only person I didn't cut ties with when I left my father."

"Right." He checked his ammo block. "Let's go find Niket and Oriana."

#

Michael felt a small twinge of pride as he watched Grunt beat a mercenary to the ground with another mercenary. His little krogan really was all grown up. That looked to be the last of them. He started toward the elevator when he heard more news over the radio. "Niket has reached the terminal. He'll switch the family over to our transport."

"Niket? But..." Miranda stared down at the radio. For a moment, she looked like a lost little girl. "That can't be right." He opened the elevator and gestured for them to enter. Miranda was shaking her head. "Maybe the captain knows we're listening in and she's feeding misinformation about Niket making a switch." Her movements were just slightly frantic. "Or maybe it means something else. Niket wouldn't do that." She whirled and discharged energy from her omnitool into the elevator's control panel, shutting off the annoying music. "Damn it, why won't this thing go any faster?"

"What makes you so sure that Niket wouldn't turn on you?" Michael jerked his head at Tali. She went to the control panel, and the elevator almost immediately started moving faster.

"He could've turned on me when I ran away. I'm sure my father tried to buy him off.

"Did Niket know you took Oriana from your father?" Michael frowned.

"No, he just found out about that recently." Miranda hesitated, then began washing one hand over the other. "It was too personal to involve someone else. I never really thought about it, but maybe..." She shook her head. "No. He'd have to understand why I did it. He knows what I went through."

If she hadn't tried to put a control chip in his head, there was a small possibility he'd be offering her a hug or something right now. "The message on the radio seemed pretty clear."

"He wouldn't betray me." Her voice was small. "We'll be at the transport shuttle in a moment, and we'll clear this up."

#

"Listen to me, I've got authorization to change their booking." A human man was arguing with an asari transport officer.

"I'm sorry, sir. We're under security lockdown." The officer shook her head. Garrus had clearly come through. "Until the situation is resolved, no passengers can be rebooked."

A woman in an eclipse uniform was clearly running out of patience. "This isn't worth my time, Niket. I get paid regardless of how the girl gets there."

"No. I was told I could handle this my way. We're not traumatizing the family any more than we -" He cut off when he caught sight of them, and his eyes locked on Miranda. "Miri."

"This should be fun." The eclipse woman got her gun out. The transport official started to run, and the woman shot her in the back.

"Niket." All traces of vulnerability and warmth were gone from Miranda's voice. "You sold me out."

"How do you want to handle this, Miranda?" Michael gestured for Tali to move toward the downed worker. She had the most first aid experience of any of them.

"Why, Niket? You were my friend. You helped me get away from my father." Miranda kept her gun level at the man.

"Yes. Because you wanted to leave. That was your choice. But if I'd know that you'd stolen a baby -" The man started shaking his head. Tali glanced up from the transport officer and gave a small shake of her own head. Nothing to be done for the woman, then.

"I didn't steal her. I rescued her."

"From a life of wealth and happiness. You weren't saving her. You were getting back at your father."

"Come on, Niket." The eclipse woman adjusted her gun slightly. Michael kept her in his sights. "Let's finish this bitch off and get out of here."

"Take your best shot." Miranda snarled.

"I was just waiting for you to finish getting dressed. Or does Cerberus really let you whore around in that outfit?" The eclipse woman smirked.

A heroic act of willpower kept Michael from snickering. Jack didn't manage the same feat. "I like her. Are we still recruiting?"

"If Niket knows about Oriana, then your father does too. Relocating her won't work." Michael glanced at Miranda.

Niket looked down. "Miranda's father has no information about Oriana." The man lowered his hands. "I knew you had spy programs in your father's system, Miri, so I kept it private. I'm the only one who knows."

"Which means that you're the only loose end. This isn't how I wanted it to end, Niket. I'm going to miss you..." She pulled the trigger. "Figuratively speaking."

"I was tired of talking anyway." The eclipse woman starting to bring up her gun.

Miranda apparently still had some issues to work out. Her biotic blast hurled the woman halfway across Illium.

#

"There could be more Eclipse mercs near the shuttle." Miranda put a round in the last mercenary's head. "I want to make sure Oriana and her family get on safely."

Michael nodded, then held out his credit chit to Jack. "We didn't have a chance to get Grunt dancing girls earlier. Mind?" She rolled her eyes at him but took the chit before gesturing for Tali and Grunt to follow her. He was not looking forward to the bar tab she was going to run up. Michael exhaled, then went after Miranda.

"I can't believe Niket sold me out. I didn't even see it coming."

"Everyone makes mistakes." Michael thought about putting a hand on her shoulder and decided against it. Too big a chance of drawing back a bloody stump.

"Why did he make me kill him?" There were tears in her eyes. "He could have run. He could've lied about having the data stored somewhere." She waved her hands. "But he just stood there, the only loose end. He knew what I'd have to do."

"Maybe some part of him regretted what he did." The man had even lowered his hands, making an easy target of himself. "And he wanted to atone somehow."

"You atone by fixing your mistakes, not by committing suicide." Miranda kicked the wall.

To hell with it. He put a hand on her shoulder. He could scan it for bugs later. "You did what you had to do, Miranda. You're not responsible for his death."

"Of course I am. But it's not my fault. It's not even Niket's, really. My father takes the blame..." She gestured back at the mess they'd left. "For all of this. It's always been like this. My father gave me anything I ever wanted, but there was always a hook, an angle for his long-term plan." She let his hand stay a moment longer, then moved away. "I threw away everything he ever gave me when I ran. Except Niket. Weakness on my part."

"You still have Oriana." A sister. She still had a sister.

"My father didn't give her to me. I rescued her. But..." She smiled. "Yes. You're right. I still have something. Thank you."

#

"No sign of Eclipse. It looks like we are clear." Her composure had returned. Good. Now he could go back to hating her without feeling bad about it. "There she is. She's safe..." The composure vanished again. Dammit. "With her family." Miranda closed her eyes, the reopened them. The composure came back, but he could still see past it. "Come on. We should go."

"Don't you even want to say hello?" He didn't think about Jezebel, Brenda, or Samuel often. But if he had the chance to go spend a few minutes talking to any one of them, he'd... Well, there were quite a few planets he'd cheerfully blow up for the opportunity.

"It's not about what I want. It's about what's right for her." Miranda shook her head. "The less she knows about me, the better. She's got a family. A life. I'll just complicate that for her."

He took a deep breath. He'd go back to hating her tomorrow. Today, however, she was a person. Hackett's words swam through his mind. Do yourself a favor and find an anchor. Or one of these days you're going to find you are so far out to sea you've got no way back. "She doesn't need any details, but would it really be so bad for her to know she has a sister who loves her?"

"I..." Tears shone in her eyes again. "Guess not."

#

He took a deep breath. Then another. Then a third. And a fourth. Then he walked into the police station. "Hi, I'm Commander Shepard."

Two hours later, he was done signing forms and his bank account had a very large dent in it. He glared as the officers led Tali, Jack, and Grunt out of the cells. They could at least have the basic decency to look ashamed of themselves. "You know..." He shook his head. "I distinctly remember us having a conversation about biotically juggling krogan being illegal on Illium..."