Chapter 26

3 Months later

"Joseph Michael Shepard Jr. target is extremely dangerous, threat level five, biotic power is unchallenged by any human including myself and subject zero. Do not be fooled by his lack of listed combat skill he is as deadly with his hands as any special operative of any association. You underestimate him and you are dead, you make a mistake and you are dead, you hesitate and you are dead. Is that understood?"
"Yes Operative Lawson" a group of Cerberus soldiers said to Miranda as she stood in front of them.
"Dismissed, handle this quickly and do not harm the child, I repeat do not harm the child, bring her to me" she said before walking away to the Illusive Man's office.
"Have the soldiers been properly briefed Miranda" TIM said smoking his cigarette.
"Yes sir" she said looking away.
"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but you deserved to know, your one of my best operatives and your safety and well being is important to me and so is your sister's" he said walking over to Miranda putting a hand on her shoulder. "I know how you feel about him, but that's what I tried to prevent for this reason, I didn't want him to betray your trust"
TIM said sympathetically.
"I can't believe he would do that, that bastard and I married him, I feel like such a fool" she said shaking her head " I'm going to go and make sure they don't fail" she said walking out of the room.

'Knock, knock' Joe was in the apartment, he had just taken Jessica to school and wasn't expecting anyone. Miranda didn't need to knock to get in so this was unexpected as he grabbed his Carnifex walking to the door.
"Hey Oriana, what are you doing here", he said smiling at his sister in law pulling her into a hug.
"I'm on a break from school I wanted to come and visit Miranda, is she here" Oriana asked.
"No, she told me she was going to see you actually" he said puzzled.
"We didn't plan anything I was hoping to surprise her actually" she informed him.
"That's not like Miranda at all, hmmmm maybe we should call and try to catch her before she gets too far" he said walking over to his omni tool calling Miranda.
"She's not picking up, she never ignores my calls" he told her sitting on the sofa wondering what Miranda was up to.
Just then he heard movement around the door. He quickly grabbed Oriana throwing her in the bedroom telling her to get in the closet. A team of twelve troopers stormed the apartment from the door and windows.
"Hmph, just twelve of you, I expected more" he said biotics already flaring.
"They were trained by one of our best" a man of Asian descent said stepping in from behind them.
"And who the fuck are you supposed to be, Cato" Joe said sizing the man up.
"I am Kai Leng, the Illusive Man's top assassin and you're dead", he said drawing his sword as Joseph put him in a stasis quickly.
"If your gonna kill somebody just do it, don't give a fucking speech", Joe said looking at the guards around him " who's ready to die" he said preparing to attack.
He finished the twelve troopers quickly releasing Kai Leng from his stasis.
"Your turn Liu Kang" he said walking towards Leng rolling his shoulders cracking his neck.
Leng pulled his sword rushing Joseph for an attack, he quickly disarmed Leng breaking his arm in three different places. Leng charged in for another attack as Joseph dodged sending Leng into a wall with a biotic right haymaker. Joe hit him three more times hoping he was dead before calling Oriana out with him.
"Come on, more might be on the way we have to go" he said reaching for her hand.
She grabbed his hand as he ran out the front door of the apartment to be met by Miranda's omni blade in his stomach. He released Oriana's hand dropping to his knees eyes wide with shock.
"Miranda...why" he struggled to get out trying to breathe.
"You really thought you were going to have my sister kidnapped without me figuring it out" she said looking down at him in disgust.
"I would never do that" he said losing blood fast trying to remain conscious.
"Don't lie to me Joseph, I know everything, the Illusive Man showed me everything" she said looking down at her dying husband.
"I would never betray you Miranda" he said looking up at her "I think I'm dying Miranda", he said losing his ability to speak coherently.
"Oh my God Miranda what have you done" Oriana said looking down at Joseph's bleeding body."he needs help" Oriana said rushing to Joe's side applying pressure to the wound to keep him alive.
"Ori, what are you doing here" Miranda asked shocked to see her sister.
"I came to visit you, he saved my life Miranda" she said holding the wound rubbing his head trying to calm him as Joseph's breathing began to slow.
"What that can't be right, the Illusive Man said-" she was cut off by Oriana.
"HE LIED MIRANDA" she yelled at her sister "Joseph is dying Miranda, he needs help" she said with tears in her eyes.
"Joseph I'm so sorry" Miranda said crying.
"Me too" he said choking up as he forced all the strength he had in him out to push Oriana off of him before performing a reave on Miranda to sustain his life. He drained her until she passed out leaving some life inside of her to recover.
"Take her to the hospital, she'll be fine" he said standing up running off still a little injured from the attack. He quickly called his mother asking her to pick Jessica up from school and keep her for a while. He hopped on the first shuttle off the planet headed to the citadel, he could hide there to figure out his next move.

Miranda woke up in the hospital the next day with Oriana at her side.
"Where's Joseph" she said looking around for her husband.
"He's gone Miri" she answered looking down. "He ran off after he reaved you" she told her "how could you think Joseph would do anything like that Miranda", Oriana said shaking her head at her sister.
"There was proof and evidence Oriana, I didn't just decide to get up and kill my husband one day" Miranda said looking down.
"Miranda, has Joseph ever given you a reason not to trust him" Oriana asked her sister.
"No but-" Miranda was cut off quickly.
"But nothing Miri, you could have asked him, you could have investigated on your own, but you took the word of your boss a well known liar amongst the galaxy and it cost you your husband" she said looking at her sister in her eyes.
"I know, god Ori I messed up" she said laying back in the bed.
"Where's Jessica" she asked.
"Joseph's mom picked her up from school, and took a shuttle nobody knows where to" she answered.
"How do you know all of this" Miranda wondered staring at her sister.
"I told her." Said Liara T'soni walking over to Miranda. "I have something for you, this should answer all of your questions" she said handing Miranda a few data pads walking away.
"What's on these" Miranda asked.
"You will see, I am sorry you lost Joseph...I may have to find him" Liara said walking out of the room as Miranda glared at her in a threatening manner.

Joe landed on the citadel three days later rushing his way to his apartment to lay low. "I don't believe she really tried to kill me" he said to himself sitting back on his sofa. He cleaned up his already healing wound before he laid down and took a nap for an hour before getting up and changing his clothes that were covered in blood. He ran out of the apartment quickly dodging into the keeper tunnels to keep a low profile making his way to the safe house he and John kept for emergencies. He had to warn the rest of the team that Cerberus was on the prowl and hunting their head's.

Vega walked into Shepard's room face stone serious for once turning on the small radio to full blast.
"Vega, you look pretty serious, what's up" John said stepping over wiping himself off with a towel.
"Got a message from Joe, Cerberus tried to take him out, said his wife orchestrated the hit" James said to Shepard in a low whisper barely coherent to the bugs in the room the music was helping to distort the signal.
"What? Is he ok" John asked getting worried.
"Yeah said he managed to escape, he said he'll be in the outfield when you need him, I don't know what that means" James informed John.
"Thank you James, I know what he meant" John said sitting down.
"Anytime commander" James said saluting before turning to walk away.
"James, did he say anything else" John asked.
"He said that Cerberus was hunting down the team" James said.
"James get me councillor Anderson immediately" John said, if Cerberus went after Joe then they would definitely be going after everyone else Ashley included whether she knew it or not.

Joe was sending off messages to everyone on the ground team warning them of his attack. He only got replies from Jack, Thane, Jacob, Ashley and Kasumi, the others couldn't be reached. He also informed them of Miranda's betrayal and to be on the lookout for her as well. It wasn't until he browsed the extranet and found articles detailing the deaths of former Lazarus Cell members who turned up dead. Goldstein, Rolston, and Hawthorne all ended up dead with their throats cut, most likely the bastard he fought in the apartment, he made sure to warn the team of him too. Joe wasn't a hundred percent sure if he killed him or not so he decided to get the word out anyway before destroying his omni tool and going dark.

Miranda sat on the hospital bed and began reviewing the data pads Liara dropped on her lap. Most likely incriminating things against Joseph seeing that Liara possibly wanted him for herself. Miranda decided better to get the knife wounds out of the way now than later.

DATA PAD 1
(THE ILLUSIVE MAN & HENRY LAWSON)
"Mr. Lawson I have information you may find interesting" TIM said using a voice disguiser that Liara was able to clear up.
"Oh and who might this be" Henry asked.
"That's not important Mr. Lawson what's important is that your daughter Oriana is located on Illium" TIM informed him.
"How do you know I'm looking for her" Henry asked the unknown caller before the call was ended.

FOOTAGE OF TIM AND HIS ASSISTANT
"Amy, get in contact with Lanteia , have her inform Operative Lawson that her father has located her sister. Miranda's loyalty to us must be reassured, she's too important to Cerberus for her to be slightly indifferent to us. That damn criminal Shepard brother is getting to her I should have had Kuril execute him when he was sent to Purgatory" TIM said in disgust at the mention of Joe.
"Sir, you kept Joseph Shepard alive to make the commander more comfortable and as a special request to certain outside parties" she reminded him.
"I know Amy, but he wasn't suppose to get his hooks or cock into Miranda without it being beneficial to Cerberus I pulled the short stick out of this little side deal we've negotiated" he said taking a sip of his drink.
"Very well sir, I'll make the call" Amy said leaving the room.
END DATA PAD

"Oh my god, he set me up, how could he" Miranda said putting the data pad down looking at the others dreading what was on them. "I have to know" she said picking up the next one.

DATA PAD 2
(TIM ON A VID CALL WITH WILLIAM SANTOS)

"Operative Santos" TIM said taking a drag off his cigarette.
"Yes sir" Santos said with the sound of laughter in the background from a woman and a child.
"I have some news regarding your step daughter's father" TIM informed him.
"My wife said he died sir" Santos answered a little unsure of what was next.
"She lied to you William, his name is Joseph Shepard brother of the famous Commander Shepard. He is very much alive and well it appears your wife ran into the commander a while back, he was shockingly sitting on that little bit of information regarding his brother's unknown child." TIM said as Amy brought him a fresh drink.
"She never mentioned it to me, she has been acting a little strange lately though" William said looking away.
"William what I am going to show you may be a bit of a shock but I need you to remain calm, is that understood" TIM said.
"Yes sir" Santos replied as footage of Joseph and Ana came across the screen. They were in Flux cuddling and kissing looking at each other lovingly. It was clearly old footage because the date shown on the video was the day they landed on Horizon and Joseph was too well groomed for the way he carried himself since the arrest and he had on a suit and tie obviously coming from his former place of employment.
"I didn't want you to find out this way William but your one of my best operatives and you deserve better" TIM said sounding sympathetic " as a gift I'm going to help you get rid of Joseph Shepard permanently. I'm going to send you some files that will remove Joseph Shepard from your lives for good, all you need to do is present it to c-sec and persuade your wife into getting him onto the citadel. The evidence is irrefutable the council will have no choice but to convict." TIM said reassuringly
"But sir isn't he with the Commander and Operative Lawson surely they'll know he didn't commit these crimes" William said nervously.
"Don't worry about Operative Lawson William, I'll make sure Miranda is busy during all of this, she won't waste her time on the likes of Joseph Shepard he's beneath her" TIM said knowing very well the extent of Joseph and Miranda's relationship at that point in time.
"Very well sir, I'll take care of this, and my wife will she be safe" William asked.
"She'll be perfectly fine William I'll have Operative Storms keep watch over your family during all of this" TIM replied before ending the call.

"Amy, get me Operative Storms" TIM ordered as Amy complied.
"Storms, you are to sit on Santos' house, I'll send you a feed linked to the council chamber's, the moment Operative Lawson eliminates Santos, finish the wife and child" he ordered.
"Sir, how can you be sure Lawson will kill Santos" Storms asked.
"I have a good feeling about it" TIM replied smiling before ending the call.
END DATA PAD

"That bastard, Jack was right about that entire situation. He used me to tie up his own loose ends that son of a bitch" Miranda said fuming. "Oh god do I even want to see what's on the rest of these" she said looking down at the data pads.