Miranda was vaguely aware of the voices around her. They were speaking right next to her, but it all sounded like it was coming through a brick wall, muffled and distorted. Her instincts told her to try and make sense of the voices but it was no use. Her mind was foggy and she felt oddly detached from her body.
Struggling to open her eyes a fraction, she saw hazy white lights intermittently passing along the ceiling as she was wheeled down a long, dark corridor. She felt the impulse to rise and jump out of the gurney she suddenly realized she was strapped to, but then there was a strong hand seizing her right arm followed by the painful pinprick of some kind of injector stabbing carelessly into her skin. She squirmed and tried to wrench her arm away, but her muscles would not obey. And then slowly, the darkness began to engulf her again and dull pain resonated throughout her body as the world turned quiet around her.
A little while after, Miranda began to wake from the drug-induced stupor. She felt a pair of hands on her face and then her eyelids were lifted up one by one as a bright white light was moved about in front of her face. And then there was another voice speaking just above her.
The voice was unrecognizable, but sounded clinical. "She should be awake soon. The suppressant cocktail has taken full effect."
Miranda felt herself moving again as she was pushed along the threshold of another corridor. Muffled footfalls echoed next to her and then she felt herself lifted up by several pairs of hands and then immediately placed back down on her back. Then there was the harsh sound of a heavy door slamming, followed by an eerie silence.
Her eyes fluttered as she inhaled deeply, straining for oxygen as a sharp pain in her side flared. The space around her had become quiet, free of movement or voices, so she decided to remain as still as possible and focus on small, controlled breathes.
After several minutes passed—or perhaps it was as much as an hour—Miranda felt her senses slowly return. She opened her eyes and stared up at the solitary, dirty yellow light shining down at her from the ceiling. Moving her head from side to side, she tried to get a sense of where she was. But it was no use as everything looked gray and hazy. Finally, she decided to close her weary eyes again and drift back off to sleep.
Sometime later, Miranda woke and her mind felt clearer. Opening her eyes again, she saw the same solitary bulb projecting its meager light within the room. She began to raise herself up but stopped halfway, wincing at the throbbing pain that shot through her head and the dull soreness in her side where she had injured herself during the shuttle crash in Bahak. How long ago was that? She had no concept of time. Taking another few slow, deep breaths, she pulled herself the rest of the way upright and began to take in her surroundings.
She was inside some kind of small prison cell. The harsh light from the ceiling was casting uneven shadows on rough, gray stone walls. It was a cold, drab place and the walls were cracked from what looked like decades of wear and neglect. She was sitting up on a small cot covered with a foul smelling, moth eaten mattress. Other than the bed, there was a small sink attached to one wall and an altogether uninviting looking toilet next to it. At the opposite end of the cell from where she sat was a heavy metal door with a small, covered slit at its base and a tiny window near the top. Lifting her gaze a little higher, Miranda noted the small black orb attached to the ceiling just above the door where a surveillance camera no doubt resided. The whole place smelled faintly of industrial grade disinfectant that did little to conceal the unmistakable odor of decay, blood, and death.
Observing her grim surroundings, Miranda had little doubt she had been locked away in some kind of Alliance Intelligence black site. Clearly, she had been one of the priority Cerberus targets marked for interrogation when they boarded the Normandy.
And then she thought of Shepard. Her last clear memory had been of the SpecOps soldiers mercilessly beating him down before the vicious blows she had taken from behind had knocked her unconscious. Oh John, what have they done with you?
Miranda then looked down at her lap and noticed an odd looking device attached to her right forearm. It extended from her wrist to her elbow, like some sort of metallic sheath. There were two vials of fluid, one clear and one a greenish yellow, which were integrated within the top of the device. It appeared to be injecting a steady dose of whatever was in those vials into her veins. Miranda had an idea of the device's purpose, and as she attempted to summon a modest biotic charge her suspicions were confirmed when she was met with a suffocating pain that radiated throughout her body and paralyzed her limbs. Abandoning her efforts, the discomfort immediately subsided and she was able to breathe again.
She struggled for a moment to pull the thing free from her body, but her efforts were again met with severe pain that shot up through her arm and rapidly spread throughout her body. She pulled her hand away from the device, feeling like she'd been burned by a hot stove, and the pain again dissipated. Clearly, the biotic suppressant device was designed to be tamper resistant.
Suddenly realizing her extreme vulnerability, Miranda felt an increasing sense of dread. Normally, she wouldn't have feared the treatment she might be subjected to while under Alliance confinement. But thinking back to Councilor Anderson's grave warnings of the fractured nature of the organization and the extremes that some internal factions were undertaking, she felt a chill down her spine that had nothing to do with the damp, cold conditions of her cell.
Reaching up to brush a few strands of hair from her eyes, Miranda recoiled in pain as her fingers brushed against the right side of her face. The image of the rifle butt that had struck her flashed in her memory and Miranda placed her hands back in her lap. Taking several more deep breaths, she swung her legs out over the edge of the cot and set her bare feet down upon the cold, rough stone floor. Wiling the strength to return to her limbs, she slowly pushed herself up from the cot and stood upright on her unsteady legs.
Shuffling across the short distance to the cell door, she peered out through the small window slit and saw that her cell was at the end of a long, narrow corridor lined by other similar cells. Somewhere off in the distance, she could hear someone screaming in pain. It sounded like a salarian.
Miranda swallowed deliberately and her stomach tightened with fear. She had endured beatings in the past during her days as a Cerberus operative, but she wasn't eager to be tortured again. She stood at the door for another minute, listening to the suffering of her distant neighbor, and then finally pulled herself away from the door and made her way over to the sink.
Opening the tap and allowing the cool liquid to fill her cupped hands, she raised it to her mouth but then recoiled from the foul smelling water. Smelling of sulfur, the water had a brownish tint and appeared far from safe to drink. Groaning in disappointment, she released the water from her hands and dumped it down the drain.
Above the sink there was a dented and scratched, polished piece of metal bolted to the wall. Miranda looked at her distorted reflection in the crude mirror and sighed. She looked awful.
The right side of her face was badly bruised and her right eye was swollen nearly completely shut. There were a dozen carelessly applied old-fashioned sutures on her brow and her hair was terribly disheveled and looked as if it had been recklessly chopped away in several places. Delicately touching her bashed in face, Miranda felt certain that the blow from the butt of that assault rifle had fractured her eye socket. And the bastards didn't even bother to apply proper Medi-gel to the injury before tossing her into this cage.
Her head was still throbbing as she reached up and felt around her scalp to the back of her head, locating another wound just above the nape of her neck. Beneath her hair, she felt the rough edges of more stitches caked with dried blood.
Exhaling heavily at her dreadful appearance, Miranda looked down at her body and noted she was clothed in a loosely fitting, dingy gray smock that ended just above the knees. The garment smelled of mildew and was rough and irritating against her skin. Her stomach turned at the sudden realization that she'd been stripped while unconscious. She hoped her captures had at least had the decency to have other females attend to that duty, but under the circumstances, the notion seemed almost naïve.
Reaching under the smock, Miranda moved her hands around her body, examining herself as best she could. She allowed herself a small amount of relief, feeling reasonably confident that she at least hadn't been sexually violated while under sedation. Rape wasn't a threat that biotics often feared, but the exception was when they found themselves unconscious and helpless. She had heard stories.
Retreating back over to the musty cot at the back of the cell, Miranda sat back down with a heavy heart. Staring vacantly across the meager space that extended to the cell door, she absentmindedly rubbed her hand over her left arm, feeling the rough skin of a partially healed wound. Examining it more closely, Miranda saw the long, raw scar of a clumsily cauterized incision along her forearm. The subdermal interface of her Omni-tool had been extracted, she realized. She was completely cutoff, without any means to contact the outside world for help.
But who could she contact for help anyway, she thought bitterly.
If she had still been one of Cerberus' most prized and valued assets, they certainly would have launched an attempt to extract her. But that world was gone now. Liara T'Soni? Miranda had instructed Tali and Mordin to flee to Hagalaz if the Normandy didn't return in a timely manner. But would the asari in her new role as Shadow Broker prioritize locating the former Cerberus operative that had stolen away her one-time lover? She wasn't so sure. Vakarian and Grunt were likely back on their homeworlds by now and would have little knowledge of her whereabouts. But would any of Miranda's former colleagues even care that she was left to rot away in an Alliance Intelligence black site? Looking down at her bare feet, Miranda concluded that they very likely would not. Shepard would take precedence, and rightfully so. Kasumi had apparently evaded the Alliance boarding party, but there was no telling if she managed to get off the Normandy or had remained hidden from the soldiers. There was a bond of genuine friendship with the Japanese thief, but tracking down and infiltrating a facility like this was likely beyond even Kasumi's considerable skill.
Feeling despondent, Miranda realized that she had no allies left to call upon for aid. The Illusive Man was right. Her imagined life with Shepard and Oriana was a foolish, child-like fantasy. The ground beneath her feet was no longer stable and things that once counted as steadfast and enduring felt terribly precarious. This new world was now exceedingly dangerous and Miranda had been swallowed up by the ever-expanding blaze the Reaper approach was igniting. And there would be no one coming to pull her out of the fire this time.
Lying back down on the moth-eaten mattress, Miranda pulled her legs in close to her body, curled up in a fetal position and tried to stay warm. Shivering in the drafty cell, hot tears began to run down her face as the weight of her despair threatened to suffocate her before she drifted off into a restless sleep.
Sometime later, Miranda was jarred awake by the screeching hinges of her cell's heavy metal door. Bolting upright, she swung her legs back around and off the cot, planting her feet on the floor but remaining seated at the edge of the mattress. Two large, human male guards dressed in light battle armor and holding nasty looking stun batons entered her cell and took up position at either side of the door. A third guard carried in a collapsible chair, unfolded it, placed it in front of her cot, and then promptly left the cell. Then a fourth man dressed in dark blue fatigues and carrying a datapad entered the cell and sat down in the chair in front of her. He crossed his legs as he continued to read the datapad, not yet bothering to look up at Miranda.
Miranda studied him for a moment before her eyes drifted up to the imposing looking guards that flanked her cell door behind the seated man. She took heart in the fact that, despite her battered state, these people still saw her as threatening enough to warrant such a security detail.
Returning her gaze to the man seated before her, Miranda shuddered unperceptively as she met his cold, steel gray eyes.
There was a knowing look on his face, as if the man had been reading her mind. When he spoke, it was in a businesslike tone, devoid of emotion. "I assure you, the men behind me are accomplished killers and will not hesitate to inflict significant pain upon your person should you provoke them in any way," he said and gestured to Miranda's right arm. "I'm sure you have already determined that the device attached to your arm is injecting a continuous serum of biotic inhibiting compounds into your body. Any attempts to utilize your biotic abilities or tamper with the device will result in significant discomfort."
Miranda kept her expression neutral, struggling to suppress the unease she felt looking back at the man. Like Major Richter, his eyes were oddly vacant and possessed a vague malice that was extremely disquieting.
"My name is Lieutenant Silva, Systems Alliance Intelligence," he said. "I have been tasked with overseeing your interrogation and maintaining your incarceration at this facility."
"And where exactly is this facility I'm incarcerated within," Miranda asked coolly.
"That information is classified," he said and looked back down at the datapad in his hands. "You are Miranda Olivia Lawson, born 2150 in Sydney, Australia through means of unconventional reproduction, also known as Rachel Collette, Tania Van Arkle, Sophie Kendall, and Allison Lyons." He looked back up at Miranda and continued reciting her history. "You have been an active Cerberus operative since late 2172 and are considered one of the top five most influential accomplices of the terrorist known as the Illusive Man. Most recently, you oversaw the Cerberus operation, designated Lazarus, tasked with recovering former Commander John Shepard's body and in which he was subsequently resuscitated and rehabilitated through unknown means. You then proceeded to serve as Executive Officer under former Commander Shepard's command on the Cerberus vessel designated Normandy SR2. This is all accurate, yes?"
"I'm sure you think you're very well informed, Lieutenant Silva," Miranda said, emphasizing the man's name with obvious disdain. "But you're holding me illegally. I demand to be brought before a Systems Alliance judiciary board and be provided the legal counsel my rights entitle me to."
"You're rights are irrelevant," Silva said dismissively and studied the screen of his datapad. "And you have no legal standing within the Systems Alliance."
"Like hell," she said. "You have no idea who you're dealing with. I have extremely powerful friends." But even as the words escaped her mouth with as much bravado as she could muster, Miranda wondered if she had any such friends left in the galaxy.
Silva drew in a long, deliberate breath and stared back at Miranda with unblinking eyes. "Miss Lawson, I intend to extract information from you about both your activities working for Cerberus and with former Commander Shepard. This process will be systematic and time consuming. The means by which I obtain the information do not necessarily need to be uncomfortable for you. However, your cooperation, or lack thereof, will dictate the levels of discomfort I will have to subject you to as I work to acquire the information my superiors require. The conditions in which you will enjoy here will also directly correlate to your level of cooperation. Do you understand?"
Miranda simply stared back at Silva with a loathing expression. She had been beaten, was filthy, weak, and practically naked, but she refused to be intimidated by this distasteful man.
Unmoved by the venom Miranda silently directed toward him and uninterested in an answer to his question, Silva stood and made to leave the cell. Pausing at the doorway, he turned around and looked back at her. "Miss Lawson, let me assure you that there is no possibility for your release from this facility. I have the power to improve your conditions here, based on your level of cooperation, but this is your home now. I implore you to work with me in good faith while we get on with our business."
He lingered in the door's threshold for another moment and then left. A guard entered and retrieved the chair and then departed with the other two men, sealing the door behind them.
Miranda remained seated on the edge of her cot, a growing scowl on her face as she stared at the cell door and considered what the man had said. Like hell this is my home.
Not long after the guards and Silva had left, the small opening at the base of her cell door opened and a tray was pushed through. As the slider closed with a harsh clang, Miranda crossed the short distance from her cot to the door and retrieved her meal. It consisted of a bowl of beige colored protein paste, a wilted green salad of some sort, and a bottle of water. There were no utensils of any kind.
Taking the tray back to the only piece of furniture in her small cell, Miranda sat back down upon the cot and immediately downed half the bottle of water. Feeling terribly dehydrated and weak, she choked on the lukewarm water, coughing uncontrollably for a few seconds. Cautiously raising the green mess to her nose, she recoiled slightly and then placed the bowl back onto the tray in disgust. The vegetables smelled as rotten as they looked. She then warily placed a finger in the protein paste, sniffed the nondescript substance and tried it. It was bitter, but otherwise tasteless. Miranda recognized it as the emergency, soy-based rations that were distributed to the more far-flung colonies. Feeling like she needed to take steps to keep up her failing strength, she forced down about half the bowl and followed it with the remainder of the water.
Almost immediately after finishing the pathetic meal, she felt her stomach turning. Trying to calm the churning discomfort in her gut for a few moments, Miranda gave up, lunged toward the toilet, and vomited. She winced as her convulsing abdomen caused stabbing pain in her injured side. She then felt her legs shaking uncontrollably and sat down on the cold floor next to the filthy toilet while she took shallow breaths and tried to rein in the nausea. An oppressive feeling of hopelessness spread over her, but Miranda refused to let the tears fall again. She knew they would try to break her soon and she was determined to not make their job any easier.
Remaining on the floor for another several minutes, Miranda focused on her breathing and tried to calm her mind and body. Concluding there was nothing she could do in her present physical state other than try to recover what little energy she could manage, she stood up on her unsteady legs, climbed back onto the cot and stretched out on the grimy mattress. It wouldn't be long before her captors set to work on her in earnest and began to deny her the opportunity to properly rest. She needed to sleep.
Her exhausted body complied without objection and she soon descended into a fitful sleep, dreaming of a world outside of the cold stone walls that imprisoned her…
The Collectors seemed to be pouring into the central Starport of the colony from every direction.
Shepard, Garrus, Zaeed and Miranda had dug in near the primary control array for the GUARDIAN laser defense towers and were waiting for the system to charge while they tried desperately to avoid being swarmed by the Collector forces still groundside on Horizon. Jacob, Grunt and Jack were pushing in through the east, engaging hostiles as they went, trying to relieve some of the heat on Shepard's group. But they wouldn't make it to the Starport before either the turrets finished their charging cycle or the Commander's team was overrun.
Miranda leaned out from behind a large stack of equipment crates and leveled her Locust SMG at an approaching group of drones. Letting loose with a hail of armor piercing rounds, she followed up her attack with a potent warp field that engulfed multiple hostiles within a storm of dark energy-powered, shredding mass effect fields. Shepard was nearby, just a few meters to her right, and stood up to take careful aim with the Mattock assault rifle he had grown to rely on. Zeroing in on a pair of Collector assassins, he charged the powerful rifle and fired a concussive blast. The assassins were propelled hard against the wall behind their position and then picked off in quick succession by Garrus and Zaeed, who had both sought out slightly higher ground on an elevated platform.
There was a momentary pause in the chaotic battle as the Collectors and husks that were trying to encircle the squad regrouped for another push. Miranda took the opportunity and checked the readout on her Omni-tool. The GUARDIANs were at ninety-one percent charge. "Almost there!" she called out over the squad channel.
Miranda then crouched down a little lower and began to scope out the next threat when an ear-splitting buzzing sound engulfed the area. She looked up and saw a rapidly descending shadow cast against the building across the plaza.
"Incoming heavy!" Shepard shouted.
It was a heavy assault construct that Cerberus had codenamed praetorian. Armed with twin particle beams and an advanced barrier system they were still trying to understand, it was a very tough and tremendously deadly opponent.
Miranda looked over to the Commander and met his gaze. "Displace!" he commanded and motioned her to get moving toward another section of the Starport. They leapfrogged across several openings between cover, hugging the walls of the modular colony buildings, and sought out a stronger position to take on the new arrival.
Behind them, Vakarian and Massani opened up on the beast with everything they had, throwing full automatic fire at the praetorian as it approached the ground and lobbing several thermal proximity grenades at it just before they abandoned their positions and moved on to seek out more substantial cover for themselves.
Shepard stopped behind a heavy concrete column and leaned out, hammering out short bursts of fire at the praetorian while Garrus and Zaeed moved off to the opposite end of the Starport's plaza, attempting to flank the creature and setup somewhere they could get clear shots with the shoulder mounted missile launchers they were both carrying. But the two men were held up by the appearance of a half dozen Collector drones, pinning them down behind some agriculture machinery.
Miranda dashed across the next open intersection and dove behind a grouping of heavy metal crates as the Commander continued to sustain rifle fire a few meters behind her. Gathering herself, she took a knee, sighted the Collector heavy with her SMG and opened up with full auto fire, trying to bite into the creature's rapidly regenerating barriers.
Her assault got its attention and the praetorian immediately swung around and fired a blast from its particle beam cannons. The crates that had been providing cover for Miranda exploded in a shower of jagged metal splinters and fiery sparks just as she lunged away from the incoming attack. Quickly jumping back to her feet, Miranda was suddenly caught in the open and completely exposed as the creature closed in on her position and lined up a shot that would incinerate the Cerberus operative.
But then Shepard was there, diving toward her and pushing her to the ground just as the praetorian fired its canons. Miranda was hurled several meters to her left as the furious barrage of the twin particle beams laced through the space where she had been crouched a split second before. Shepard was right at her back, pushing her clear, but took a glancing blow off his battle armor's right pauldron, shearing the shoulder guard clean off and sending it ricocheting across the plaza. The two came to a rest on the ground with the Commander half sitting atop his XO. Shepard rolled off of her and raised the heavy Collector energy weapon they had recovered from another part of the colony and fired pointblank upon the praetorian.
Simultaneously, Garrus and Zaeed, who had made quick work of the Collectors that had held them up, launched both missiles at the rear of the praetorian. Their target lurched forward violently as the missiles struck home, causing it to crash into the ground at the center of the Starport's plaza. A second sustained blast from Commander's seized Collector heavy weapon finished it off as the creature detonated in a white-hot explosion that sent a thunderous reverberation through the ground.
Miranda got back on her feet, dusted herself off, and looked over to where Shepard was standing a short distance away from her. His right shoulder was exposed and smoking and she smelled the unmistakable odor of burned flesh. He tore his partially scorched battle helmet off and tossed it to the ground as he tapped the earbud transmitter in his left ear. "EDI, I need those towers online now!" he shouted.
EDI's voice echoed through the squad's comm channel a second later. "Understood, Commander. Turrets are at 99.6% charge. I am targeting the Collector vessel now."
A moment later, Miranda heard the whine of hydraulics as the nearest GUARDIAN defense laser turret swung its muzzle up and around to point toward the huge Collector cruiser positioned half a kilometer from the Spaceport. The canon fired a blast that traveled the distance to the target almost instantaneously, striking the midsection of the cruiser's hull. Across the Spaceport, the other five turrets joined in and began a sustained energy attack on the ship.
Then the ground beneath the team's feet began to rumble as the Collector cruiser ignited its engines and lifted off from the ground. Miranda scanned their immediate area for hostile stragglers but found no threats. She then looked up and watched as the massive alien craft climbed rapidly into the atmosphere above Horizon's capital, shaking off the focused laser fire from the GUARDIAN turrets. A few seconds later the ship disappeared through the high cumulus clouds over Horizon and the colony's defense cannons fell silent.
Miranda walked closer to the man who had saved her life a few moments earlier and studied Shepard with the critical eye of a medical researcher. A portion of his baselayer, where the Collector particle beam had sliced through his armor, had been burned away, exposing his scorched shoulder and neck. She grimaced at the site of his charred skin, knowing how painful the wound must have been. However, the Commander seemed oblivious as he stood watching the point in the sky where the alien cruiser had just vanished.
Garrus and Zaeed came trotting over to Shepard and Miranda's location a second later. Stopping near the Commander, Garrus eyed the smoking ruin of his right shoulder armor. "Shepard, your mother would be very unhappy with that move you pulled a second ago," he said with a wry grin.
Shepard drew his gaze away from Horizon's sky and looked at the turian with a crooked smile. "I thought you were my mother, Garrus."
Miranda looked on disapprovingly at the Commander and Vakarian as the three men all shared a laugh. She then reached into the combat bag slung over her shoulder to retrieve a Medi-gel applicator. "Vakarian is right, Commander," she said. "Exposing yourself like that was foolish. Cerberus has invested far too much into you and this mission to lose you after our first encounter with the Collectors."
Shepard smiled at Miranda. "I can't very well have my XO vaporized right out of the gate. Garrus and I are both shit with paperwork," he said and gave the operative a sly wink.
Miranda groaned and rolled her eyes as she reached up and turned Shepard's face gently to the side, inspecting the prominent burn along his neck and upper shoulder. "Here, let me take a closer look at that," she said and carefully moved her fingers along the Commander's reddened skin.
Garrus slapped the missile launcher onto the back of his battle armor as he watched the Commander and Lawson. "You two keep flirting like this and you might as well go get a room," he said with a laugh.
Shepard laughed out loud but Miranda looked scandalized as she shot the turian an incredulous look. But then she recovered. "He should be so lucky," she said and applied a generous dose of Medi-gel to the Commander's injured neck.
It was at that moment that Ashley Williams appeared from behind a wall of stacked, modular equipment crates. "Shepard!" she called out.
Shepard pulled himself away from Miranda's grasp and immediately strode over to Williams. They embraced briefly, but that was the limit to the warmth the Alliance Marine showed the Commander that day.
As she stood near Garrus and Zaeed watching the scene unfold, Miranda felt the twinge of a peculiar emotion. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but as Williams derided Shepard's involvement with Cerberus and professed the pain she'd felt mourning him for the past two years, the cool and calculating operative couldn't help but feel compassion for the Commander and the life that he had so abruptly been ripped away from.
After Williams refused to hear the Commander out or consider joining the team on the Normandy, she turned her back and strode purposefully back toward the downtown section of the colony. Shepard walked back to the group with a wounded expression that had nothing to do with the injury he had sustained in battle. "Normandy, Bravo 1-1. Ready for extraction," he announced over the comm. "I've had enough of this colony."
Miranda studied the Commander for a long moment before she finally realized what she had been feeling at the moment Williams had appeared and tore Shepard from her grasp. Good god, it was jealousy, she thought with a shock.
Soon afterward, Jacobs's group arrived in the Starport plaza and the distinctive whine of the Kodiak drop shuttle's engine could be heard approaching overhead. It was time to move out from Horizon and assess what they'd learned…
Miranda's mind tried desperately to hold onto the memory of that day on Horizon so many months before, but her weary body was roused awake by the harsh screech of corroded hinges as the door to her cell burst open with a resounding bang.
The two guards from earlier stepped into the cramped space and seized her by either arm, pulling her off of the cot and onto her wobbling feet. Instinctively, she tried to struggle and resist their powerful grips. But after retching up what little nourishment she'd had a few hours before and the general neglect she'd endured since being taken from the Normandy, Miranda was far too weak to pull away from their cruel hands.
Giving up and stopping her useless struggle, Miranda allowed her body to go limp between the two enormous human guards as they held her up between them. She then heard the precise rhythm of hard soled shoes approaching down the corridor beyond her cell and looked up to see the Intelligence man from earlier stop just inside the doorway, his hands clasped behind his back.
Silva gave Miranda a callous look as he observed her pathetic state. "It's time to begin our work together, Miss Lawson."
Author's note:
OK, back to some shorter, more manageably sized chapters that I can hopefully crank out a little faster.
Alright, so Miranda gets a middle name! Just something I pulled out of the air and because it reminds me of Olivia Wilde, who I find quite lovely. You're a lucky man, Jason Sudeikis!
And I totally borrowed the "your mother would be upset—I thought you were my mother" line between Shepard and Garrus from Saving Private Ryan. But I love it and think it fits perfectly with their friendship, so there's that. Consider that my citation for the day.
Housekeeping-wise, I changed the rating on this fic from M down to T because I don't really think I'm going beyond a PG-13 level as far as violence, language or sexual situations. If anyone feels differently, please feel free to shoot me a message or post a review and I'll act accordingly. If things get more graphic in the future, it might get bumped back up to M.
As always, thanks for reading and the great feedback!