a/n so awesome! two more followers so I shall give you all three new chapters, because I will not be leaving it at Chp 13. Also a rugh sex chapter is on the way. It's not this one.
Miranda
'' The sun is frying my shields." I bring the issue to Shea's attention. "So we'll fight from the shade, but no hiding." Grunt says. Another thing I can thank Chey for usually, Grunt's enthusiasm and childlike behavior would irritate me. Now it's rather endearing and amusing. It also appears to relieve tensions. "Geth drop ship incoming." Shea says. I guess it was a good idea for me to come then, my overload is hell on the Geth. There's still a thought at the back of my head. "I really hope Chey is ok with Jack." I say louder then I thought. "She'll be fine Miranda. I mean she jumped up and head butted a full grown Krogan for insulting Grunt and I." Shea says. "Yeah, it was awesome. I was almost torn between which Shepard to declare my battle master." Grunt adds. "I was not aware of this head butting incident. I need to talk to the Mrs. about her need to take on Krogans." I said. "What? The Mrs. When did this happen?" Shea asks. " It hasn't, not yet anyways." I reply.
"While it's good to know you have those intentions. You are forgetting one gigantic issue. You are Cerberus and Chey is Alliance. As long as you are with them TIM will never stop trying to use her for his nefarious plans. As long as she is Alliance, even speaking to you let alone marrying you would be considered treason. Cerberus and Alliance will always be at odds." Shea points out. I want to say something anything to argue her point, but I couldn't she was right. "I'm not saying you have to end your relationship, but you need to keep that in mind before you make that commitment." She says. "I will Shea I promise you, if there is a way that our two worlds can collide then I will do all I can to make it happen. I love her with every molecule of my being and with every beat of my heart." I said. She nods. "That's all I will ask of you." She says.
The Geth seemed never ending and the heat was almost unbearable. Why would the Quarians ever want to live here. When Chey and I were together, we never talked about it. I'm sure it was in the back of our minds, but we had decided silently to not bring it up. I could only think of three solutions to our problem. The first was that I quit Cerberus, my loyalty to TIM already wavering a bit. With Oriana free, I didn't have that over my head. I doubted TIM would let me go easily or at all. If I were to leave he could possibly try and harm Chey and that was unacceptable. The second solution was that Chey could leave the Alliance, but I wonder if they would hunt her down for associating with me and by extension Cerberus. The life of fugitive is not something I would want for her. It was not an easy life, and the constant moving could wear a person down. The third option was that one our both of us were to die on this mission. If the choice was mine I would sacrifice myself in order for Chey to live. Then again she probably thinks the same way, I get the feeling she would die in my stead as well.
The thought of that made a very real shiver go up my spine. I wouldn't let her die, the universe needs people like her in it. The universe doesn't need Miranda Lawson. It needs the Shepard sisters especially for when the Reapers come. I fully believe without either of them the galaxy as a whole would not survive. I loud concussive shot to me right snaps back to this god awful place, and at this moment Shea is setting up some kind of explosive in the collapsed pillar. Our path now unhindered we reach the Quarian camp. There were several dead Quarians and Geth but no Tali. Then we hear an incoming message from Tali, they speak for a bit getting a handle on the situation. Tali then unlocks the door to our left. Shea lowers the shutters our eyes widen. "Colossus. Get down." She warns us. "See this is why I follow you Shepard, big things." Grunt says excitedly.
Shea
We speak to Kal Reegar and come up with a plan. I remembered the first time I ever fought one, we were on Therum looking for Liara. It was Ashley, Chey, Tali and me, it was a much easier model back then, no automatic repair program. Still it was a tough battle, it's energy gun ripped through our shields fairly easy. So we were balancing dodging it's gun and those damn Geth stalkers, that never stayed still longer then a minute. I really wish I had the ML-77 missile launcher or the Collector's particle rifle then. I make Reegar stay down and decide the right side was the best option for us. We fought through the first couple of waves relatively easy. "Where did Grunt go?" Miranda asks. I look around and see him charging down the middle towards the Colossus. "Really Grunt! I get that you think you are invincible, but I would much rather prefer you didn't die! Get your ass back into cover!" I yell at him through the comm channel.
He laughs, but gets to cover. I guess it's helpful that he mows down the rest of the Geth, it will provide a bit of breathing room. Geth clear it was just the colossus now. Grunt hit it with concussive shots and shots from his Mattock, I have a feeling if his Claymore Shotgun didn't need to be close up he would have used it. He loves that shotgun. Miranda hit it with overload, warp, and rapid fire from her locust and I launched every single missile my ML-77 had all 23 of them. In no time under this onslaught the colossus was defeated with an excellent explosion, which I think Grunt thought was extremely beautiful. There were tears in his eyes. He saw that I noticed and I made the hand gesture of zipping my lips. This made him smile.
I ran around and collected some Iridium and heavy weapon ammo while we waited for Tali to open the reinforced doors. "Just a second I just need to finish this download." She says. I take a minute to take her in. "Was she that tall on Freedom's Progress?" I wonder. She also appears to have filled out in other areas. "How did I not notice this before?" I ask. "Notice what?" Tali asks. "You've grown up in a few places. I was just wondering why I didn't notice you becoming an adult. I thought you were fully… umm… developed on the SR1." I said. "Why Shea, what would Ash say?" she asks teasingly. "Couldn't tell you. She's not talking to me right now. I should be careful with what I say. Liara may flay me alive with her mind." I said "Liara is with you?" she says and I can hear the embarrassment in her voice.
"Alas no she could not join us on our mission. She has other commitments at this time." I said. "Oh." She said sadly. "Though I am due to visit her on my way back to Ilium she has some packages for me. You'll see her soon." I said. "Well if she is busy, I do not wish to intrude." Tali said. "I have a feeling, she wouldn't mind the intrusion if it was you." I tease her. "Seriously though, I could really use your engineering skills on this mission. Are you able to join me now?" I ask. "I am. I just need to send this to the fleet, then we can leave. I am sick of this place. I lost my whole squad. This information better be worth it." She says irritated. "Maybe not your whole squad ma'am." Kal Reegar says. She seems happy that he is ok. I wonder how friendly those two got. They seemed pretty close.
"I am glad you could save him. We grew up together, he's like a brother to me." She tells us on the shuttle. "Is that so? It seemed much more intimate then that." I tease. "Maybe once upon a time we cared for each other in that way. Not anymore though. After he went on his pilgrimage we grew apart and things had changed, I had discovered that I preferred females and he had discovered he preferred males. So we just kept it friends/ brother and sister" She says.
Chey
I had just finished my shower, and was feeding the hamster, then I bumped into her terminal. She had left something on the screen. I was curious about it. I knew I probably shouldn't read it, but Shea has been almost obsessive about this thing, whatever it was. As I was reading through it and listening to all these poems of love, desire, and endless devotion all for Ashley. My heart ached for my sister. An idea struck me, again something I probably shouldn't do. I sighed, but I already knew I was going to go through with my idea. "Easier to seek forgiveness then ask permission."I said. I pulled up my contacts and connected her terminal to my Omni tool. "Hey Liara. So I have this really bad idea, which might end up being a really good one." I said. "I'm not sure I really want to know." She says. "Please? It's for Shea and Ashley." I plead. "Oh fine. Tell me your bad idea." She says.
"Well, lately Shea has been almost obsessively writing letters and poems for Ash she even sent AV files. Of her reading some so I was wondering if you could send them for me. If you wondering why, well, it's because I don't think she'd ever send it. You know the possibility of dying. She wouldn't want Ash to go through that again. My hope is that these words will reach Ash's heart, and she'll contact Shea and forgive her and give her hope that she'll be waiting for her." I said. "Which in turn would make Shea invest 110 % and work even harder to survive, because the woman she loves will be waiting for her." She finishes my thought process.
"I will help you and hopefully we'll survive Shea's wrath at violating her privacy and interfering with her personal life." She says. "I also need another favor from you. It's for me, and it's personal. " I said. "What is it?" she asks. "I need you to send my resignation letter to Anderson and Hackett, but I don't want TIM to find out. I don't want him to think I'm doing this for him." I said. "Is this for Ms. Lawson?" she asks. "No, I have been considering it since we spoke to the council and they refused to help for some political bullshit reasons. I want the Alliance to know that unless they are willing to do something about the Reaper threat they seem to be ignoring, I will not reenlist and if they try to draft me for any other reason then that I will deny them. I could not in good conscious serve a military that ignores a very real threat. I just have this feeling that unless the Reapers touch down on Earth, Palavan, Sur'kesh, or Thessia they'll continue to ignore it. They shouldn't put politics above the safety of the galaxy." I state firmly.
"Okay. So what first?" she asks. "Ashley's files. There is more to download and transfer. So do you remember that old encryption code we made up on the SR1?" I ask. "Yes I do." She says. "Ok, so I'm going to send all the files to you using it. If Ashley asks how you got this information, well, you can either tell her the truth or make something up. You know Ashley better then me, you know what she prefers. I also have another AV file that EDI recorded and I asked for it and I asked her to make sure TIM doesn't get it. " I said. "Alright I'm all set to receive the files. You can send them all at the same time your letter included. I'll get them where they need to go." She says. I set it up to start. "I certainly hope it gets down before Shea gets back from Haestrom. I really don't want her to find out yet." I said. I cross my fingers and press the execute button. It takes only 15 minutes. "Wow, that was fast." I comment out loud. "I boosted the signal." EDI says. "You did? Why?" I ask her. "It is a strange phenomenon but I find that Shea's pain is too much to bear." She replies. I feel a bit confused an AI is having feelings. It's a bit unnerving, but I'll keep it to myself and observe the situation carefully.
Miranda
God it felt good to be back on the Normandy and on my way to Chey, whom has become my home, for lack of better word. I don't even follow them to the QEC to help settle Tali. Shea and Jacob can do that. "EDI, where is Chey currently located?" I ask. "Currently Chey is in the main battery, speaking with Garrus." She says. "Excellent, how did her training go with Jack?" I ask. "She did extraordinarily well, I saved a video and sent it to your personal terminal. It was quite an impressive display. You will find pleasure in it." She says. "Oh now this I have to see." So I settle down at my desk. A shower can wait for a bit. It really was impressive and apparently taxing enough for them to strip down to her sports bra, considering Jack already wore practically nothing. I ignored the trash talk Jack directed towards me. The way Chey moved, it was like poetry in motion. Extremely fast motion, but poetry none the less.
"Oh God." I said feeling very turned on by her raw power and the fact that she ripped off what little clothes Jack had on with her Biotics, it wasn't the removal of Jack's but the image of her doing that to me and doing that to her as well. It would have to wait till later though. TIM wants his report and I need a bloody shower. A shower is the first thing I did, I didn't quite realize how much my body ached until the moment the almost hot water touched my skin and began to relax my muscles and joints. After changing into my black jump suit I began my report to TIM. Chey returned around dinner time. "Hey honey, it's chow time come on." She said. "Just a moment sweetie, just have to send this report." She diligently waited the two minutes I needed. Then she took my hand and we walked into the mess hall. She didn't let go till we had our plates of food.
Surprisingly Jack joined us with Kelly on her arm. I softened a bit to her, because I could she that she really loved Kelly. Probably as much as I loved Chey and Shea loved Ashley. I made a promise to myself to attempt to not let her get the best of me anymore. If Kelly could love Jack then she wasn't a complete loss. Grunt was talking about his charge towards the colossus and the sheer joy he felt when it exploded. "It was 100x better then when we killed that thresher maw on Tuchanka during my right of passage. " he said. That reminded me. "Speaking of Tuchanka, what was that I heard about you head butting a Krogan darling." She blushed and looked away. "Well, he was being an ass. And no one, I mean absolutely no one insults my sister or my Grunt." She said.
"Holy fuckin cow, you actually did that. I mean it is bad ass that you did, but I gotta know, how? I mean you're like four feet tall and Krogans, full grown at their shortest are at seven feet tall." Jack asks. "First I am five feet tall and second would you like me to show you?" Jack nods. "Hey Grunt can I borrow you for a moment Jack would like a demonstration?" she asks. "Sure, little Shepard." He said with a grin. This could get out of hand quickly. Though I wanted to see this too. Grunt stood tall and straight. With an impressive jump Chey head butts him right on his forehead. He laughs but doesn't retaliate. "Happy now Jack.'' She says. "Dude, you are totally bad ass." Jack says. I smile, I can't help but to agree with her. "That's nothing compared to what she did on Feros. Though it was a lot more foolish." Garrus said. "Oh?" I ask. "Yeah she ran towards the colonists that we're under the Thorian's control and knocked them out personally when they ran out of the anti-thorian knockout gas. Shea has terrible aim with grenades. That in itself wasn't impressive except that they were shooting clip after clip at her." He said
Shea
I remembered that day, above all else. That was the day she almost died. "Not to mention she had a bullet wound in her shoulder and leg. Yet she ran at them." Garrus continued. That was also the day that we decided to do an intervention. The Normandy crew and I did an intervention as soon as she was lucid enough from the pain meds that were administered to her when Karin had to dig the bullets out. "Do you remember the time when she ran towards that Geth Armature on Therum. She pushed me out of the way of it's beam, got tagged a bit then ran towards it throwing armor piercing grenades?" Tali ask. That wasn't the first time she ran headfirst into imminent danger. On occasion I still have nightmares about her doing the same thing only dying horrifically each time. I left her on the ship when we went to Noveria. Even though she promised to be more careful.
"It sounds like you had very serious death wish." Miranda says. "At the time I did. My wife and unborn child had been murdered and I didn't know how to deal with it. So I acted rashly, hoping to join her. After Feros there was an intervention, which steered me from that destructive path onto on of justice. I wanted to kill Saren, rip him apart with my bare hands. I was angrier then you Jack and that's saying something." Chey replies. "After we learned that Saren was being controlled by Sovereign, Chey became obsessed with killing Sovereign instead of Saren. She wasn't unpopular on SR1, even though her manner was brusque. She got a bit better after we went to Thessia to have a funeral for Benezia. I never understood why though." I said. "During Benezia's funeral I said good bye to Liana and Shepard jr. I let them go, and promised Liana I would not let my anger or need for vengeance consume me. In her memory I would try to be the woman she loved." Chey replies.
"Wait so the cheerleader isn't your first love?" Jack asks as if that knowledge would bug Miranda. " No. I hope she will be my last love though. " Chey says. I really would like to point out the unlikely hood of that considering their choices of allegiance. It was easier for Ashley and I, we held the same allegiances to both the Alliance and each other. Now I wasn't so sure. True I was still loyal to her for sure, but the Alliance, well I questioned that. Not because of Cerberus but their unwillingness to help the Terminus Colonies. I know Ashley would always follow orders and never as questions of the councils. It's like she said she was Alliance through and through it was in her blood. "Damn Williams pride." I thought. I remembered the argument we had on Virmire, about who I should save her or Kaiden. She chewed me out when we returned to the ship. I can still remember the fire in her eyes and how breathtaking it was.
She blamed it on my feelings for her, and I remember passionately defending my decision. "That had nothing to do with it Williams. Kaiden had the better tech skills. I needed him with the bomb incase anything unexpected happened and needed to be worked out." I said to her. "Keep telling yourself that Shepard." She said. "Gunnery Chief Williams, I have never nor will I ever put my own feelings above the mission. If you don't believe me go ask Cheyenne. Ask Cheyenne about the time I left her on the crashing ship, because my mission was very clear. Get the High Councilor out everyone else is second priority. Ask her Ashley, then come sling you insults and accusations at me!" I was so pissed, I had a few more choice words for her then I had to leave right then and there. She did actually ask Chey about it, when she came to seek me out later she apologized. She never wanted us to become an issue, or rather the lack of an us.
Chey
I listened to their stories, and remembered each one, but soon enough dinner time was over. Tonight she reads a couple more chapters in the Ascension novel, she borrowed from me. '' Hey Miri?" I ask. She finishes the paragraph she was reading. "Yes love?" she asks. "So I don't know if you knew but I wrote a book about our hunt for Saren. The Galactic council didn't like the light that was cast on them. So I don't think it circulated. But I was wondering, do you think it would be okay, if wrote about this as well. I'm so tired of people painting my sister in such a terrible light. I want them to know who she is and why she agreed to this mission." I said. Will you be writing about us too?" she asks. "Yes but it will be very vanilla. The galaxy doesn't need to know about my special appendage. Nor do they need to know exactly how sexy your body is, but I would like to share about what you and I have found with each other if that is possible." I reply. "Alright just keep it from TIM for now." She says. "Will do." I said.
"Where would you like to start?" she asks. "I'd probably start with the letter TIM sent Joker, Karin, and I. Then go from there, what I have experienced and what the rest of the crew has on groundside. I probably won't go into any detail of the two years after she died. Those are books for others to write not me." I said. "Sounds great sweetie. I'd love to read it when it's finished. Speaking of finished books, you wouldn't happen to have a copy of the first book would you. I'd love to read what happened from someone who was there. The reports I read were all factual." She says. "I do it's on my data pad. I'll send the file to you. Be sure to read the preface. It explains my emotional state as I was writing it. So it may make it easier to read through. The others who were able to read it before the council banned it said that it made it easier to read through without wanting to stop. The first quarter of the book is pretty hard to get through. " I said. "Okay, I have been warned." She said. I transferred it over to her data pad and began chronicling our story so far.
I smiled when I saw her immediately open the file and begin devouring the book. It was two hours later before she said anything to me again. "Good Lord Chey you were not kidding about it being hard to read through. It is astounding just how angry and depressed you were, but I can understand the how of it. The preface really does help." She said. I don't even get to respond before she dives in again. It was another two hours when my eyelids grew too tired to stay awake. I saved what I had done and looked at Miri. She was still nose deep in the book. "Honey?" she stops and meets my eyes. "I'm going to try and get some sleep now. Can we dim the lights?" I ask. "Of course, I'm just going to finish this chapter about Therum. It seemed even before Shea had a pension for helping people. I am surprised she didn't ask the consort for more then just her words." She comments. "She was not even tempted to, not since she met Ashley. Shea told me that if she had never met Ash she would have give her first time to the consort." I reply. She dims the lights and kisses me good night.
"I love you Miri." I said. "I love you too Chey. Sleep well. I hear we're going back to Hagalaz tomorrow." She says. "Good maybe Liara has more information, or at least the things I ordered." I said. "What did you get?" she asks. "It's a surprise, so you'll just have to wait." I reply. "I don't like surprises." She says. "Get used to it honey, because for as long as we're together you'll be getting them." I kiss her again. I could tell her mind is working for a way to get me to tell her she smiles. "Sorry love, seducing me will not work in this instance." She glares at me. "Fine. Goodnight." She leaves the bed and sits on the couch.