A/N: Dear readers... First of all, I am so terribly sorry for leaving you like that... Please, believe me when I say that I wasn't trying to abandon you or that story. I just... dunno, I wasn't in a mood, couldn't focus on that story, everything I wa trying to write sucked... Well, I hope you can forgive me that enormous delay and you'd enjoy the chapter. So, have fun! And did I mention that I'm really really sorry?

Ch. 4

Literally quivering with anger she clenched her fists, trying to not hit anything. She couldn't remember the last time she had been so furious at herself. Loosing Shepard was entirely her fault. She should have never let her go alone. It was her duty to look after the Commander's safety and the only thing she had done was fail. She just couldn't believe how she had been able to let that happen. She should have remembered that Shepard was incapable of making a reasonable assessment of the situation. If any harm had come to her...

She lowered her head, clenching her teeth. The dark energy strengthened by her anger was boiling in her veins. With a smooth move of her hand, she released the energy; the metal parts of the wreck flew up in the air as the biotic wave hit them. She took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her hair, looking at the metal parts falling back down together with snow. Trying to calm down, she came closer to inspect the wreck of the shuttle. There was no sign of blood anywhere in the vicinity, which led her to think that Shepard had been nowhere near the vehicle when it exploded – otherwise they would be stumbling over the remains of jagged flesh. The whole area was covered with footsteps that belonged not only to Shepard but also to the crew, which made tracking her almost impossible.

She punched the closest piece of metal with anger. Sighing she leaned against the big wheeled vehicle hidden under enormous amounts of snow. It was the first time in her whole life that she really didn't know what to do. She was almost devastated by what had happened. There was this unpleasant tightness in her chest. Under the great wave of anger there was also despair. She had failed. She had lost Shepard. First she had exposed her to danger and now the most important woman in the whole galaxy was gone. She didn't know what was worse; the awareness of her own failure or the loss of the only person she trusted. Damn it, even Niket's betrayal hadn't been as painful.

"Lawson?"

She budged at the sound of a husky voice. The sudden wetness disappeared from her eyes as she blinked a few times. Embracing herself unthinkingly, she raised her head slightly to look at the concerned turian approaching her slowly, like she was some kind of wild animal. There was no need to see his face to know he was more than anxious.

"We won't find anything here, let's go back to the ship," he said sadly.

Her fists clenched with anger again. Her eyes flickered as she desperately looked around, searching for even a tiny trace that could tell them what had happened to the Commander.

"Thane?"

"Yes, Operative Lawson?"

She cursed in her mind. If he didn't stop appearing from nowhere like he just had, she'd end up with a heart attack.

"Did you find anything?" she asked cautiously, a bit afraid to hear the answer.

Thane shook his head slightly. "I'm sorry. It seems as if the Commander vanished into thin air."

She closed her eyes and tightened the embrace she was giving herself, feeling that her hands were starting to tremble again. Her own biotics woke inside of her and in a flash were boiling in her veins, muscles, in her whole body. Yet before she released them, smashing up everything in her sight, a hand rested on her shoulder. She blinked slowly before glancing briefly at the turian's fingers.

"We'll find her," he said slowly, like he was trying to convince himself of that.

Her eyes travelled up his arm until she could see her own reflection in the dark pane of his helmet. She took a deep breath and slowly nodded. Shepard was tough, she'd been able to do the impossible, had survived the thresher maw's attack on Akuze, had survived the battle of the Citadel, had managed to get to Ilos, had defeated Saren. There was no reason to even think that she couldn't handle whatever had happened to her. What Miranda should do now was to take over command of the ship and crew and do everything in her power to find the Commander.

She pulled herself together and straightened her back; there was no looking back at the drell and the turian as she walked towards the ship. The snow was crunching under her boots, appeasing her thoughts that were running through her mind in. She didn't even try to focus on anything; she just let her thoughts wander a few more moments before she would have to focus.

She stopped dead in her tracks so suddenly that Garrus, who had been following her silently, almost bumped into her. There were some words spoken but she didn't hear any of them. Her whole attention was completely consumed by the tiny flash she noticed not far from her. Ignoring the surprised turian she took a few steps aside, her eyes never leaving the place where she'd seen it. Every step she took increased her fear dramatically. In her imagination she already saw Shepard's crushed armour and empty green eyes. Swallowing hard, she kneeled carefully and brushed the snow aside. What she saw there was a small metal plate, a dog tag. Holding her breath she picked it up from the cold ground and turned to look at the name. Charles Pressly. She sighed heavily. Clenching her fingers around the plate, she looked around, wondering what it was that she was feeling more intensely, the relief or disappointment. She was unsatisfied because she had hoped to find a clue, but at the same time she was a bit relieved as she'd realised the dog tag hadn't belonged to Shepard.

She was about to stand up and join Garrus, when she noticed something under the snow about two meters from where she was standing. Frowning, she got up and approached the mysterious object. She gasped as she swept the snow aside. In front of her was the Commander's precious submachine gun M-12 Locust. Carefully picking up the weapon, she examined it closely. The safety catch was unlocked, yet the clip remained untouched, which meant that Shepard had not taken a single shot. It looked like the Commander had sensed a danger but hadn't had enough time to send anybody to eternity.

A dull pain throbbed inside her skull and a second later she suddenly felt dizzy as the realisation hit her. Shepard would never leave her weapon willingly. That could only mean that someone had made her leave it because even if she had lost it somehow, she would have searched for it until she found the damn gun. So the fact that the Locust was still there meant only one thing; Commander Shepard was kidnapped.

She almost jumped when her omni-tool activated on its own. It took only one single glance to make her speechless. The relief was so powerful that she surely would be bouncing in joy if her knees weren't so weak. She leaned against the nearest rock as the whole tension left her muscles. It took her only a moment to browse through the reading from Shepard's armour. There were no wounds registered, neither physical nor mental. The report showed clearly that the woman was asleep. Miranda turned on a tracking device. Less than a second later an almost deafening scream containing a whole string of the worst known swear words echoed through the mountains.

"Can anyone tell me how that bloody ship was able to fool the Normandy's damn radar?!"

Not a single person gathered in the Communication Room dared to look her in the eyes. Most of them trembled as her fist loudly collided with the table. The anger that she'd felt earlier towards Shepard was nothing compared to the rage that was consuming her right now. There was a red mist that clouded her sight and her hands were surrounded by the flash of her biotics. She was so furious that if that... that bloody son of a bitch who had dared to take Shepard away had appeared before her, she would have ripped him apart with her bare hands, not even bothering to reach for her gun.

"There is not a single ship in the whole galaxy that could be equipped with newer and better systems than Normandy," she growled, her eyes slowly travelling from one crew member to another. "Even the equipment provided by the Alliance couldn't be compared with what Cerberus installed here. The Reapers wouldn't hide from us, dammit! So could anyone explain to me how they tricked us and got away before we even noticed?!"

She clenched her fists when again, there was no answer. She looked around and everyone who she glanced at averted their eyes immediately. Even Jack was leaning against the wall staring at the floor. Miranda sighed heavily and broke away from the table she was leaning on. Taking a step back and turning her back towards the crew, she massaged her temples trying to ease the throbbing. She closed her eyes and crossed her arms, taking a deep breath that was supposed to help her calm down. She could feel the stares on her back, but ignored them, thinking about how she could have let all this happen.

"Normandy has the best equipment that exists," she muttered to herself and shook her head. "It's just impossible for anyone to trick those systems. Damn, only the Normandy could hide from itself." She froze momentarily when a simple yet disturbing thought appeared in her head. "EDI?"

"Yes, Operative Lawson?" the artificial voice responded immediately.

"Could you gain access into Alliance's database?"

"Of course..."

"Great," Miranda interrupted the Artificial Intelligence, before she could add anything. "Find everything you can about the Normandy and send it all to my private terminal."

"Yes, Operative. Is there anything else?"

"Give me the current position of the kidnapper's ship."

"They're just about to reach the Mass Relay in the Sahrabarik system."

Miranda nodded. "That would be all."

"Logging you out."

The blue hologram behind her disappeared without a sound and a silence filled the room again. Miranda turned on her heel and quickly walked across the room without a word, not even glancing at anyone. The door opened with a hiss and immediately closed behind her, hiding her from the dreary looks.