While it had only been a few years since the last time Shepard and Toombs met on Ontarom, Toombs looked as if he had aged at least a decade. It was all attributed to the fact that he was now sporting a fully grown beard and his graying hair was now long enough that it reached down to his shoulders. Despite the extra amount of hair covering it, Shepard could also make out several new scars that were on Toombs' face. Shepard could only guess they were acquired from missions he had done with his mercenary group. Obviously the mercenary life had not been good to Toombs.

"What?" Toombs said feigning surprise. "You're not going to say hello back Shepard? That's a fine way to treat an old acquaintance. Oh wait, that's right. You never really cared about me. It was all just an act to save your real buddy, Dr. Wayne the Cerberus scientist."

Shepard didn't respond to Toombs' taunts. He knew there was no point in doing so. He had already had this discussion with Toombs in the email he sent after the Collector mission. If Toombs wasn't going to listen to him back then, he certainly wasn't going to listen to him now. All he and the others could do was watch as Toombs made his way over to the bed Miranda was strapped to.

As Toombs stepped closer to the side of the bed, Miranda began to breathe heavier and heavier. While Shepard wanted to believe she was just angry at Toombs for tying her down, he couldn't help but wonder if the increased rate of her breathing was due to fear. Not that he could blame her if she was. Miranda was someone who liked to be in control of everything she did. Being strapped down to a bed gave her absolutely no control over what the madman who held her might do. Worse still, the one person she figured would be able to save her was trapped between unbreakable barriers. Any sane person would be afraid in a situation like that.

"Well that's okay," Toombs continued, "it's not like you saying anything will do any good. I'm not going to let you sweet talk me out of killing this Cerberus bitch like you did with the scientist."

Miranda grunted as she tried to get up from the bed but it was no use. The restraints were just too tight. Toombs looked to the asari standing next to him and smiled. The asari smiled back and the two of them chuckled as they watched Miranda continue to struggle. Then Toombs slowly reached to stroke Miranda's face. Before he could, Miranda spat at him and managed to get him in the eye. Initially Toombs didn't react. He merely wiped the spit from his eye and began to walk away from the bed. He didn't get far before he suddenly turned back and slapped Miranda across the face. Finally Shepard couldn't keep quiet any longer.

"LEAVE HER ALONE YOU SON OF A BITCH!" he shouted.

Toombs held up his in hands like he was surrendering and stepped back from the bed, "very well Shepard. You win. She doesn't need to die just yet."

"Toombs you don't need to do this," said Liara, "Miranda doesn't work for Cerberus anymore. In fact she's was instrumental in helping us destroy Cerberus for good."

"Don't waste your breath Liara," Shepard growled, "it's pointless trying to reason with him. As far as he's concerned, simply working for Cerberus at all is an automatic death sentence."

"That's right Shepard," said Toombs, "which means that I will someday be planning on serving you the same sentence."

"For God's sake Toombs," Ashley said frustrated, "Shepard never worked for Cerberus. Do you think I would've married him if he had? I know how evil Cerberus really was and I never would have approved of Shepard joining them for any reason."

"Say what you will Commander. You and I both know that it's not true. Your love for Shepard is strong enough that you would overlook anything he did. Hell you were willing to overlook a murder that Shepard committed before he even joined Cerberus."

Toombs' last statement had shocked everyone into silence. Ashley, Garrus and Liara looked to Shepard with a questioning look. Shepard just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea what Toombs was talking about. As far as he knew, every time he had killed someone it was during a kill or be killed situation. Nothing would ever make him think any one of them could be considered murder.

"I know I've killed many people in the past but it was always with good reason," Shepard shot back.

"Really?" Toombs replied with his face not showing any signs of being convinced with Shepard's answer, "that's not what my colleague and our employer say. Which reminds me, let me introduce you to my colleague Luciana."

The asari Toombs pointed to smiled and nodded, "pleased to finally meet you in person everyone, especially you Captain Shepard. Kelly told me so many wonderful things about you….well of course she did until she had that terrible brain hemorrhage (chuckle)."

That pretty much confirmed what Shepard had already guessed. Luciana was indeed the Ardat-Yakshi that killed Kelly. It was bad enough he was finally meeting Kelly's killer but to hear her laugh as if talking about Kelly's death was a joke was really making him want to put a bullet in her head. The only thing keeping him from being able to do so was the barrier between them. From the looks on the faces of his squadmates, they were wishing the same thing.

"You mean until you killed her," growled Garrus.

"Oh let's not worry about that little detail. The important thing is what Toombs said is right. I know you are a murderer Shepard and so does my employer."

"Your employer is one to talk," said Liara, "if it hadn't been for Shepard your employer would have been partially responsible for the deaths of thousands of people."

Luciana looked at Liara with a puzzled expression, "if it hadn't been for 'whom' Dr. T'Soni? From what I remember, the only reason Shepard was able to save those people was because of some issues the terrorists had carrying out their plans."

The statement prompted Shepard to think back to the events of all three plots. While he wanted to believe he was the one most responsible for stopping them, he had to admit that the issues Luciana mentioned were the main reason he was able to. He had been thinking for the last few months that each scheme having an issue that ultimately led to him being able to accomplish his missions was too much of a coincidence but he couldn't think of an explanation for them. But now that Luciana had brought it up, he finally found one.

"Your boss intentionally sabotaged the schemes. There was no intention for those schemes to succeed."

"Correct," said Luciana, "contrary to what you all think, my employer is not a killer. When the plans were put together, we took every precaution to ensure no innocent civilians would be lost. Of course we didn't mention that to Balak, the Dalatrass or Finch. As a matter of fact we were quite pleased that they all ended up dead or put in prison. It meant there were three less criminals free to roam the galaxy."

"But why would you fund their schemes in the first place?" Ashley asked, "if you weren't planning on allowing them to succeed then you were putting people at risk for no reason."

Luciana chuckled, "you people really don't have a clue what's going on do you? This is all about Shepard. He claims not to be a murderer but we know that is a lie. He murdered someone very close to my employer and we're going to see to it that he pays for it. My employer funded those terrorists so that they would create dangerous situations that would require the Council to ask Shepard to get a squad together to stop them and…."

"And then Shepard would end up being killed at some point during the mission," Garrus interrupted, "after three times your boss should've realized that the plan wasn't working."

Luciana was about to pick up where Garrus interrupted when she noticed that Shepard looked like he had come to a realization. Whatever it was, it was a bad one. She could tell because when she locked eyes with him, she saw horror and sadness in them.

"It wasn't me they were trying to kill Garrus," he said.

"Very good Shepard," Luciana replied, "my employer knew right away that the best way to get revenge was not by killing you outright. That does not even come close to making up for all the suffering you have caused. No the best way to do it is by killing those closest to you first so that you can suffer the same way my employer did before you die yourself. The true purpose of everything we've done so far was to create situations that would ultimately result in the death of one or more of your friends. With the exception of one initial failure, the plan has been working exceptionally well."

"Kasumi."

"Yes. One of the batarians under Balak's command was actually working for us and he was in charge of ensuring that the thief died during the mission. Once Balak had taken her hostage, our batarian friend was to get into the perfect sniping position and kill her. From your point of view, it would have seemed as if Balak had gotten trigger happy and killed her. Everything was going perfectly until you just happened to step into the path of his shot. Any shot he would have taken would have killed you as well and we weren't ready for you to die yet. By the time he was able to get a shot, you had already killed Balak and his men. Killing the thief then would have tipped you off to our plan too soon. So unfortunately we had to let her go."

"But we don't have to worry about that happening now," said Toombs as he made his way back to the Miranda's bed, "Shepard do you remember the question I asked you when I was holding that Cerberus scientist, the one I asked in response to when you asked me what Cerberus had done to me?"

Shepard eyes widened with horror when he remembered what Toombs was talking about, "no Toombs! Don't do it!"

It was then that Toombs pulled out a large vial from his pocket. The vial was filled with a yellow colored liquid. If it was what Shepard thought it was, Toombs had something really unpleasant planned for it. Toombs took the vial and hooked it up to a machine that was connected to the tubes that ran into Miranda's limbs.

"Now we'll find out what happens when a larger dose of thresher maw acid is pumped into this Cerberus bitch's veins."

There was no doubt in Shepard's mind now that the expression on Miranda's face was conveying terror. She fearfully watched as with a push of button, the machine began pumping the acid through the tubes. The acid flowed quickly through until it entered her limbs. At first Miranda just grunted as she began to feel a slight discomfort. Soon she felt like her insides were on fire due to the acid eating away at her veins. Her grunts turned to a long and loud piercing scream. It was so loud that Shepard's pleading for Toombs to stop couldn't be heard.

The sight of what was happening to Miranda caused Ashley and Liara to cover their mouths in horror while tears began to form in the eyes. Garrus just closed his eyes and sadly turned his head away. Shepard continued shouting for Toombs to stop and had even begun to bang on the barrier as if it might make it disappear. His focus shifted between looking at Miranda and watching Toombs as he and Luciana began to make their way towards the exit. Before leaving the room, Toombs turned and gave Shepard a smile and a mock salute while Luciana smiled as well and blew Shepard a kiss. With one final wave, the duo vanished as the med bay doors closed behind them. Once they were gone, Shepard's pleading grew quieter and the rate at which he banged on the barrier slowed. He then began to cry himself as he continued to quietly repeat "no."

A minute after Toombs and Luciana had left, the barrier separating Shepard and the others from Miranda suddenly vanished. Shepard didn't bother asking himself what was going on and ran to Miranda's side with the others right behind him. The first thing Shepard did was use his omni-blade to sever the tubes from the acid pumping machine, effectively stopping the flow of acid into Miranda. Once he was done, he turned to speak to the others.

"Liara," he said, "stay here and help me with Miranda. Williams, Garrus….."

"You don't even need to say it Shepard," said Ashley as she and Garrus ran out of the med bay in pursuit of Toombs and Luciana.

Once Ashley and Garrus were gone, Shepard turned his attention back to Miranda. She wasn't screaming as much now that the acid was no longer pumping through her. But the damage was done and she continued to grunt in pain. While Shepard brought up his omni-tool to administer medi-gel, Liara was using hers to run scans to assess the damage that the acid had done to Miranda. Shepard was ready to push the button to give Miranda the medi-gel when he noticed Liara's face was deeply solemn.

"What is it Liara?" he asked even though he had a hunch he already knew the answer.

"I'm sorry Shepard," replied Liara, "it's too late."

Shepard shook his head, "no it can't be. We're in a med bay for crying out loud. There has to be something we can do."

"Shepard even if we gave her the medi-gel now, it won't do any good. Some of the acid managed to flow through her veins and reach her heart. It's been damaged and neither one of us has the medical training to patch it up here. There's no telling when her heart will stop beating but it'll be soon enough that we don't have the time we need to get her back to the Normandy for Dr. Chakwas to properly repair it."

"Dammit!" Shepard shouted as he banged his fist on the bed and hung his head in sadness.

"Shepard," Miranda managed to whisper through the pain, "it's okay."

Shepard looked up and towards Miranda. It was only then he noticed the damage the acid had done to her head. There were three spots that had been eaten away: one on her forehead, one on her left cheek and one on her neck. She winced as a tear fell from her left eye and hit the spot on her cheek. But what surprised Shepard the most was that Miranda tried to give him a reassuring smile through the pain. He forced himself to smile back and gently took her hand. He then looked to Liara and nodded towards the exit. Liara nodded that she understood and pulled out her submachine gun as she went to join Ashley and Garrus.

"I'm sorry Miranda," he said when Liara had left.

"You don't have anything to apologize for Shepard," Miranda replied, "This isn't your fault. I know you did everything you could. (hiss) Damn it hurts. Please Shepard don't let me die like this."

The request took Shepard by surprise, "Miranda….I…."

"Please Shepard. If I'm going to die anyway, let me go quickly."

Realizing that he couldn't leave Miranda as she was, Shepard reluctantly pulled out his pistol and moved towards the foot of the bed. His hand shook as he slowly raised the pistol to point it at Miranda's head.

"Wait," Miranda said before Shepard had the gun leveled, "can you do one more thing for me?"

"Of course," replied Shepard, "name it."

"Will you kiss me?"

Shepard gasped, "what?"

"It doesn't have to be on the lips (grunt)."

Shepard didn't know what to do. On the one hand he didn't want to deny Miranda's request. She was dying and Shepard was a firm believer in granting a person's dying wish. Not only that but he owed a lot to Miranda. She was part of the Lazarus Project that brought Shepard back from the dead and since then she had been a loyal friend to him. But while Shepard cared for Miranda, his heart ultimately belonged to Ashley. He felt that if he kissed Miranda he would be betraying his wife.

Miranda sensed Shepard's hesitation and continued, "I realize it's a tough thing for me to ask for but it's something I've always wanted. You know that I've had feelings for you since the Collector mission. I haven't had those kinds of feelings for anyone else. I know I promised you that I would move on but I couldn't. I love you Shepard. You may not be able to love me in return but…I will always love you."

"Miranda I….I can't."

Miranda sighed, "I understand Shepard. (hiss). Ashley's an amazing woman and she's lucky to have you (grunt). Dammit. Do what you want Shepard. Just please do it quick."

Shepard began to raise his pistol again towards Miranda's head. This time he stopped himself before he had it leveled. He just couldn't do it yet. Miranda had made a request and he owed it to her grant it. Ashley would understand. In Shepard's mind, a kiss was the least he could do for everything that Miranda had done for him. He moved back to the side of the bed, leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.

Miranda smiled and whispered, "thank you."

After Miranda nodded to indicate she was ready, Shepard moved to the foot of the bed and this time leveled the pistol right at Miranda's head. His finger trembled as it slowly pulled the trigger. Before he pulled it all the way, he noticed Miranda mouth "I love you." He mouthed back "I know" and pulled the trigger the rest of the way.

Inside the Normandy's captain's cabin, Shepard was lying on the bed looking up at the stars through the window on the ceiling. His eyes were almost red from all the crying he had been doing. He couldn't remember the last time he had cried this much. A lot had happened at the facility. Disturbing revelations were made, Ashley and Garrus were unable to stop Toombs and Luciana from escaping in a shuttle and Shepard had lost another friend. What made the last thing even harder to deal with was the fact that he had to euthanize her himself. To top it off, he was still no closer to finding the mystery backer.

However he did get more information on Luciana. On the shuttle ride back to the Normandy, he had gotten a call from Samara. She was able to confirm that Luciana was indeed the real name of the Ardat-Yakshi he met at the facility. According to Samara, Luciana was known by friends and family for being a good person overall but she had some radical thoughts when it came to punishing criminals. Originally she worked as a dancer and moved around from club to club. It soon became apparent to authorities that every time Luciana began working at a new club, there was a spike in the murder of local criminals. The only reason she was never arrested was because she had help from sympathetic cops and civilians who would help her flee before anyone could catch her. She was diagnosed as an Ardat-Yakshi shortly after the end of the Reaper War and refused to move to the monastery saying she needed to be out in the galaxy using her condition to take out criminals. Thanks to the help of a sympathetic doctor, Luciana was able to escape execution and vanished without a trace. Shepard could only guess that it was shortly after vanishing that Luciana came across the mystery backer.

Even with Samara's information, Shepard felt helpless. He had no leads to pursue and the backer was not being helpful this time and giving him any hints. The last time Shepard felt this helpless was after Cerberus took the Prothean data on Thessia that he needed to finish the Crucible and end the Reaper War. If it wasn't for the break that Specialist Traynor found that led them to Horizon, they would have lost the war right there. Sadly Shepard couldn't think of any break that would help him here.

A knock on the door snapped him out of his thoughts. He growled in frustration as he had left strict orders with the crew that he was not to be disturbed. He was about to yell at the person and tell them to go away. Then he realized that it might be…her. This was her cabin too after all. So Shepard had to risk it and told the person to come in.

It was indeed Ashley who was waiting on the other side of the door. She stepped into the cabin but didn't speak right away as she seemed to be contemplating whether or not to join Shepard on the bed. To her relief, Shepard patted the spot next to him inviting her to join him. She sat next to him and leaned on his shoulder as he put his arm around her.

"Are you ready to talk about it?" she asked.

Shepard sighed, "Not really but I guess I need to do it sooner or later. I just wish I knew where to begin."

"Just start with whatever is upsetting you the most right now."

Shepard broke away from Ashley and lied back down on the bed. Ashley lied down next to him and placed a hand on Shepard's chest. Shepard took her hand but he didn't look at her. He just kept looking up at the stars. He already knew the answer to Ashley's question but he was nervous to tell her about it as it would deal with something that, if not handled right, might make Ashley mad at him. In the end, he decided he had to tell her.

"Miranda," he said.

"I figured that was going to be it," Ashley sighed, "I can't imagine what it was like for you to have to do what you did. But you did it so that she wouldn't suffer. The important thing to remember is that you weren't the one who killed her."

"I know Ash but the thing I keep thinking about is what happened before I shot her."

"What happened?"

The moment of truth had arrived, "she told me she loved me."

"What?" Ashley asked as she sat up.

"She told me that after she asked me to kiss her."

"She asked you…" Ashley began to say as jealously started to overtake her, "did you?"

"Yes but…."

(SMACK)

Ashley slapped Shepard before he could continue. She then moved to get off the bed. Shepard reached out to stop her but she just managed to get out of his reach and was now heading for the door. Shepard rubbed his sore cheek while feeling slightly dumbfounded. A part of him knew it wasn't going to be easy telling Ashley about the kiss but her slapping him was the last thing he expected. Normally she would have given him the chance to explain something before deciding whether or not he deserved to be slapped. He then realized Ashley had almost made it to the door while he was questioning what happened and quickly got off the bed to follow her.

"Ash it was just a kiss on the forehead," he called out, "it was her dying request. I couldn't say no."

Ashley froze before she could push the button to open the door and leave. A part of her wanted to do it. But the stronger part of her was telling her to stay and let Shepard explain. She had nearly lost Shepard once because she wouldn't let Shepard explain the truth behind his temporary alliance with Cerberus. She cared for Shepard too much to let that happen again. After taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she turned back towards Shepard. Even though her head was bowed, Shepard could see that Ashley was starting to cry.

"Did you love her?" she asked.

"What?" Shepard replied slightly taken aback by the question.

"Did you love her?"

"No," Shepard said as he walked towards Ashley and lifted her head up, "you're the one I love Ash. You know that. That's why I married you."

Ashley didn't respond. Instead she moved to take a seat on the couch. Shepard followed her and took a seat next to her.

"Come on Ash, talk to me. Did I do something to make you think otherwise?"

Ashley sighed, "it's just the way you acted after you realized it was Miranda who was in danger. The minute the chief mentioned her name, she was all you could think about. I figured it was just because she was a friend and you just wanted to help her but some of the stuff you did made me begin to wonder if it was more than that. You got pretty rough with the chief when you tried to get him to tell you where Toombs was. Then you snapped at me when I tried to calm you down. I know we've had some small arguments since we've been together but you never shouted at me like that before. You can't blame me if a part of me wondered if there was something between you."

Shepard reached over and took Ashley's hand, "I guess I can't. You always were a little jealous of her."

The remark caused Ashley to throw Shepard a mean glare that made him think she was going to slap him again. He let go of her hand and stepped back with his hands up in a surrender pose. Ashley had thrown him mean looks before but nothing like this. Shepard wondered if this was somehow connected to the strange way Ashley had been acting lately. He quickly decided that now was not the best time to figure it out as he needed to defuse this situation before it got worse.

"Well if I remember right you were pretty cold when she asked me to dance during our wedding reception."

Ashley turned away from Shepard and let out a huff as she crossed her arms, "if I was it was only because as long as I can remember she would always look at you funny whenever you two were together."

Thinking that it was safe to sit back on the couch, Shepard sat next to Ashley and put his arm around her.

"Look Ash, for the most part I was just worried about losing Miranda like we lost our other friends. But I will admit that while I care about all of my friends, Miranda is one I would say I was really close to. After all if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be here now. But I never considered her as anything more than a really good friend. But as you now know, Miranda didn't feel the same way. You see, it all started back during our mission against the Collectors."