They'd decided unanimously that the east gate where Shepard first entered from was the fastest way back to the landing zone. With him in the lead, they ran lightly along the roof apex of the L-shape building Miranda's omnitool identified as a light plastics processing plant. The buildings in this part of the complex were uniformly two-storied, and the view totally unobstructed. As Miranda was about to learn, it was both a blessing and a curse.
As they reached the junction between the two wings, a shadow emerged on the south eastern side and materialised into the shape of a man climbing onto the roof. She dropped flat with a hiss and ahead of her, Shepard followed suit immediately. In unison, they rolled off the apex over to the obscured side.
"Shit." Shepard's curse carried across in a harsh whisper. "I must've slipped up while checking that storage facility."
"It could've been me." She countered as she extended her visor eyepiece to slip it over the edge of the pinnacle. Through the cross-hair, she saw the figure conduct a cursory sweep and then slowly clambered down out of sight again.
"He's gone. They probably saw something, but not enough to raise a full-scale alarm."
"That won't last. Roofs are no longer an option. No place to hide." Shepard muttered as he fired up his omni-tool. "The building below links to both the storage facility and the ceramic plant where I came from. Beyond that is the accelerator building. It's twenty metres to the east gate from there."
Miranda shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see it.
"If it's linked, they're likely crawling through every inch of it right now."
"So we don't go in. But the longer we stay here, the worse it'll get."
The familiar signs of dark energy outlined Shepard as he rolled down the roof and off the edge.
"Clear." His voice transmitted through her earpiece. She imitated his stunt, landing soundlessly in the narrow passageway sandwiched by two buildings. Automatically, she switched her visor to infrared, and made a sound of frustration when the bandwidth flickered with harsh interference.
"Something with electromagnetism around these parts," Shepard said in a low tone, understanding her problem immediately. "At least their scanners won't be working either."
Gripping his pistol in one hand, he began to run northward towards a T-junction. The right turn would take them to the accelerator plant, and Shepard went down that direction. Just as they were closing in on the end of the path, footsteps made them stop short. Their location was perfect for an ambush, but totally untenable when the objective was to stay undetected. There were no niches, nowhere to hide.
Quickly, Shepard holstered his weapon and slapped his palms together, extending his knee to give her a leg up. She took his offer in grave alacrity, pulling herself onto the roof. Reaching down, she grabbed his arm in a twin-lock, thankful for the fact that his biotics made him light enough for her to hoist him up one-handed.
It wasn't a moment too soon. Two shadows crossed the place they stood before, and then disappeared northwards.
Miranda counted to ten between gritted teeth before whispering, "Bloody hell. They're heading for the east gate. With the distance separating the fence and the buildings, all it takes is one man to watch that entire stretch."
Shepard pursed his lips and surveyed their surroundings. The monotone of featureless roofs was broken by the anti-grav tube which criss-crossed the buildings here, running east-west. Even through thick interference, it registered as a bright red streak on infrared.
"Can the tubes get us out of here?" he asked.
She consulted her omni-tool.
"There's a shuttle landing pad and an open storage area the system goes out to on the north side. The nearest entrance is the packaging facility. There," She pointed at the adjacent building. "The service door is at the southern face."
"Let's leg it."
It was easier said than done. They had to wait for the wake of another passing patrol to make the dash. Thankfully, it went off without a hitch and the facility was empty. The link-up to the tube system was underground here, guarded by twin steel sliding doors. As Miranda went forward to hack the doors open, Shepard made a quick tour of the place. It was filled to the brim with a bewildering range of shipping containers, from foot-long snap-up plastic boxes to metal canisters taller than a man. Shrink-wrap and weighing stations, along with shock-absorbing gel dispensers lined half a wall.
He returned to her side as she got the doors to open onto a short passageway that ended in a square hole in the ground. An inspection revealed twin chambers below marked with arrows indicating the direction objects dropped into each would travel. Mass effect fields ran through the entire system, generating weightlessness in the tubes. Counter-currents served to push objects along. The system worked by attaching an electronic tag with a destination code to an item, which was scanned by sensors within the tubes. The item would then be allocated a travel path that took it to its intended destination. It was similar to systems used to move luggage and goods in space ports.
"Left is right and right is left." Shepard muttered. "Which one do we take?"
"That's pretty apt actually. The whole route makes a big circle." Miranda explained. "It's a fifteen-minute trip if we take the left chamber. One hour and ten for the right."
"Left it is. Not a good idea to jump straight into that current, yeah?"
She shook her head.
"It only works with designated containers. A system-wide alarm also goes off if unprotected biological matter falls in."
"Right, I'll go scrounge up something for us to hide in then."
As he did that, she made her way to the administration desk. It took a few minutes rummaging through the clutter to locate the tag box. Consulting a datapad gave her the destination code she wanted. She punched in the final number as Shepard carefully rolled a man-size metal cylinder through the doors.
Miranda eyed the shipping container critically as the doors slid shut, sealing them in the small space.
"Bit small, don't you think?"
"It's the biggest thing out there," he shrugged. "If you don't want to share, I could get one each for us to ride in."
She looked at him askance, but he simply waited for her decision with raised brows.
"No," she decided firmly. "Pointless courting more trouble."
Slapping the tag on the exterior, she gripped the edge of the cylinder and slid in on her back. Shepard joined her in gingerly motions, fully aware that he was resting his entire weight on her.
"Sorry," he muttered as he pulled the lid extension to cover the opening. The contraption shut with a neat click.
"Okay, let's roll this baby in."
Shepard's weight abruptly disappeared even as null-g hit Miranda with its stomach-churning effect as they dropped into the chamber. She swallowed several times to accustom herself to the experience, one made worse by the fact that it was pitch-black. For a moment, she had to fight visceral panic at the sensory deprivation. Then she felt Shepard move against her, and heard the sound of his fingers struggling with something on the lid. Crimson lighting flooded the interior as he finally got the small inspection slot open.
She breathed an involuntary sigh of relief. And with that, some of urgency that had been plaguing her drained away. They were sitting ducks for now, but there was also very little chance that they'd be discovered.
"Better?"
In the dim light, she could see the bemused expression on his face.
"Don't suppose you brought poker cards?"
"No such luck," he quipped back in mock glumness. "I'd suggest a round of mental chess. But you'd just whoop my ass."
"I can only do that if you have patience for chess in the first place," she pointed out.
"Ouch." He grinned. "Guess I left myself wide open to that one, didn't I?"
"Among other things." She agreed blandly and then sighed. "So we wait."
"One of us could get out and push."
"Mm... In that case, I volunteer you for the job."
"With you shouting directions from a black box? Sounds like a raw deal."
"Raw deal for who?" she teased and added slyly, "Strike two."
"Bully."
A deep silence, broken by the low hum of the system filled the small space. And small it was. Gradually, Miranda became aware that Shepard had braced his hands against the opposite surface to keep from bumping into her, but at the same time effectively trapping her head and shoulders in between. He kept his head bowed to one side. Even so, his breathing disturbed the fine hair on her cheek, and made her intensely aware of sweat-tinged scent of his body.
Her first hint that he was similarly aware of her own body came when he lifted his head to rest it against his shoulder, studiously avoiding eye contact the whole time. The angle only served to give her a clear view of the muscles playing on his neck as he swallowed convulsively.
"You saw this coming," she accused through a throat suddenly gone dry.
He turned to look at her, the planes of his face accentuated by the directional lighting. In the dimness, his pupils were dilated, dark with purpose.
"What was the alternative? Should I get out and push?" He sighed, a soft susurration of air. "I won't break our agreement. Not unless you want me to."
She stared at him in stunned outrage, torn between capitulating and anger that once again, he'd tossed the choice into her lap. His eyes raked her face for the smallest changes of expression. There was none she could give him. In contrast, his own was a kaleidoscope, enquiry flickering into understanding, and finally a tightening of his lips that suggested he'd arrived at a decision.
Slowly, Shepard unlocked his elbows, freeing his hands to grasp her face. The interplay took place in slow motion. She knew it was his implicit way of giving her the chance to push him away if she wanted. Knowing that reminded her again of how he continued to haunt her heart all these years, and made it even more impossible to rebuff the advance.
His lips touched hers gently, chastely even. But she was suddenly sick of the indeterminacy between them, sick of all the tap dancing. With a growl of frustration, she shoved his hands aside to fling her arms around his neck, flushing their bodies together. Even in armour, she could feel the jolt of surprise running through Shepard, but then his hesitation vanished. Their faces and necks were the only areas exposed, a shortcoming that simply heightened meticulous attendance and incredible sensitivity.
He covered her mouth with his, parting her lips to slide his tongue in. The taste and feel of him was heady, rough and unapologetic. This close, his masculine scent was intoxicating, fulfilling what she'd tantalised herself with for weeks. Lack of air finally forced their mouths apart, and she went unerring for his neck, swirling her tongue around the swell of his Adam's apple and relishing in the salty tang of his skin. The rumble that trembled his throat only accentuated the experience further. Not to be outdone, Shepard returned the measure as she guided him to her neck. He compiled like an eager puppy, licking and nipping the soft skin there with his teeth even as he rubbed the rough growth of his beard against the rest of the expanse. She uttered a low moan and dragged her fingers through his hair. He'd always been an attentive lover, knowing exactly what her weaknesses were.
Hands played counterpoint to the dialogue of tongues. The feel of skin against skin was out of the question elsewhere, but pressure remained a potent force. There was more space allowance around their lower torsos, and she lost no time wedging her legs around his waist to press hard against his crotch. He gave a strangled gasp and then slipped a hand between her ass, shoving upwards in a hard motion to grind the armour plate against her sex. Thankfully, her cry of pleasure was muffled by the renewed presence of his tongue in her mouth.
The null-g environment and the onslaught of sensations absent for years amplified every reaction to ridiculous heights. As wave after wave of sensation washed over Miranda's body, the overriding thought that came to mind was this was long, long overdue. She could only be grateful that they wore armour and were deep in hostile territory. Otherwise, they'd have fucked each other silly by now. Even so, the jolt that ran through the canister as it finally dropped out of the tube wouldn't have registered if not for the sudden return of gravity. Her knees would've buckled on the spot if they could, except there wasn't enough space. As it was, she half-slid off him before they broke apart to stare at each other dazedly while their harsh breathing punctuated the air.
Finally, Shepard reached up to slide the lid back. He hoisted her up by the waist so she could grip the rim to haul herself out before reaching down to assist him. The area around the tube was shielded on two sides by buildings. A quick glance beyond revealed an empty parking lot. Against all odds, their luck had held out.
But the rational part of Miranda's mind continued to chasten that what just happened was highly irresponsible. Even now she remained distracted, her entire body raw and charged like a live wire. She spared Shepard a meaningful glance which he caught, and then shook her head. He nodded understanding that now was not the time to talk about it as he walked slowly and stiffly to join her.
She cleared her throat.
"Are you all right?"
The tube system had deposited them neatly outside the complex and the shuttle was just a kilometre away. What frustration she felt at the rude interruption was soberly mitigated by the realisation that they still had to save Oriana.
"Going to need a few minutes before I can run. Male problem," he supplied gruffly.
She choked back an impolitic laugh, and settled for giving him an apologetic look instead.
"I'll contact Shan and tell him we're incoming," she said, moving away to give him recovery space.
It was two hours later when they returned to the complex again, this time with Shan in tow. The trip to pick the marine up had been fraught with uncomfortable silence, and valiantly, they'd tried to fall back on their professional roles again. The result was thirty minutes of hectic discussion in the shuttle, fine-combing through the battle plan, going over what worked and what wouldn't.
A tentative proposal to include security guards from the other parts of the complex was shot down on the basis that they were civilians and would get mowed down in no time. In the end, the logical conclusion came back to just the three of them sneaking in, take down as many patrols as they could via stealth and pre-empting all chances for them to report back.
Both Shepard and herself were well aware of the Blue Suns' operational protocols to check in every fifteen minutes during a Level One alert. That was their time window—wait for the latest report to go out, and in fifteen minutes, eliminate as many as possible on the way to the storage facility in order to reach there with an element of surprise.
Locating the sole sentry left to guard the eastern stretch of the boundary had been easy as well. The clueless merc had retreated into the gatehouse as Shepard drew near. The moment he reported in, Shepard drove a knife through his throat before motioning Shan and Miranda to join him.
Ten minutes into the operation saw a merc sliding bonelessly to the ground, victim of a well-placed shot. Beside her, Shan gently eased another body to the ground after firing his heavy pistol point-blank into the back of the hapless man, bypassing the protective range of his kinetic barrier.
"Pile them against that niche," Miranda instructed as she heaved her target's body by the armpits.
That was the fifth group. Ten mercs down, at least twenty to forty more to go. Two of those groups were taken down by Shepard who was scouting ahead, their bodies tucked neatly into corners. It was chilling to see heads hanging off unnatural angles and wide slashes across necks that severed all major veins and arteries, leaving bodies sitting in widening pools of blood. She knew he did it out of necessity, but the killing method was almost brutal and cold-blooded, a far cry from the modus operandi he'd used to favour.
The whisper of live electronics came on as Shan completed the task with his dead target.
"Way's clear. No more patrols in sight. They've probably pulled back to the facility. Which means we've got to hit it now. I'm in the plastics processing plant—the L-shaped building."
"Let's go."
She and Shan legged the distance, trusting Shepard's intel. They arrived to find him in the process of priming an alarming number of trip bombs and land mines. There were blood splatters all over his armour and face, again something he didn't seem to mind.
Faintly disturbed, Miranda was compelled to ask, "I thought we've agreed on a low-key approach. Are you thinking to change the plan now?"
"Just being prepared," he replied and then inclined his head at the connecting door to the storage facility. "Most of the mercs are at the main entrance on the other side. We should still be able to stealth in. After we eliminate the guards on the other side of this door."
He began distributing the primed explosives, stuffing the remainder into his sling bag.
"Shan and I will handle them. You need to hack the door. It's beyond our expertise. We good to go?"
She nodded reluctantly. Both men took positions on either side of the door. Shepard drew his bloodied combat knife out before nodding at her.
The lock was as tricky as he said. When the door finally slid open, both men darted to engage the two stationary guards at the sides. Blood spurt in a wide arc as Shepard disposed of his target soundlessly. She ran to assist Shan who had his target in a headlock, shoving her own combat knife through a gap in the merc's armour.
Reprogramming the lock took one more minute, and in that interim, she found she couldn't shake off her disquiet at Shepard's brutal efficiency. It felt decidedly out of character for him for some reason. But as usual, now wasn't the time. With a silent sigh of frustration, she unholstered her heavy pistol and made for the metal staircase beside the door. The two men had already moved on ahead, inching forward from cover to cover.
Miranda fired up the electromagnetic and infrared bandwidths on her visor. A well-hidden alarm right at the top of the staircase lit up on the former like a blue beacon. She disabled it and ran past, making a beeline as quietly as possible for the next staircase that led to the ceiling gantry. It made an ideal position for snipers, and her job was to eliminate those.
A blind turn revealed a surprised guard. He tried to level his weapon at her, but she slapped it down with one hand, her other flashing to smash her firearm across his neck. Pivoting, she landed an elbow against his face causing him to drop his firearm before she fired her pistol point blank into his stomach. Like a telepathic signal going off, the sound of gunfire echoed from below.
That did it.
She ran for the second staircase at a ground-eating pace until shouts from above stopped her short. A quick vault to the side of the landing hid her presence and the sudden glow of biotics that enveloped her body. The unfortunate merc that came down was neatly tossed off to fall two stories below. At the top of the final landing, Miranda rearmed herself with the pistol and extended her visor to mark the position of the sniper around the bend. He looked up in surprise, his hand halfway to his pistol as she fired a clean shot through his head.
Crouching down, she peered through the telescopic sight just in time to see Shepard tossing a grenade through the main door. In the aftermath of the explosion, Shan ran in to attach trip bombs on both sides before sliding a number of remote-detonation land mines into the space just beyond. Readying his SMG, he prepared to hold the line.
Tearing her eyes away from the spectacle, she dragged the dead sniper aside and dropped to a prone firing position to examine the rifle. It was the new model from Rosenkov Materials that came into service during the Reaper war, famed for its ability to punch through both kinetic barrier and armour in a single shot. She'd never undergone sniper training, but the mechanics were familiar to her and at short distances, the targeting system ought to compensate for any of her shortfalls.
"I'm in sniping position, north-west side, top of the gantry."
"Can you cover me?"
"You're in my sight. I should be able to take out what you flush from the woodwork."
In response, she saw the familiar signs of dark energy outline his body as he lifted a supply box effortlessly, exposing a heavy weapons specialist and a trooper. She took aim at the grenade launcher through the cross-hair and depressed the trigger. The recoil was harder than she'd anticipated, but the weapon corrected the kick smoothly. The heavy armament blew up in an incandescent fireball, killing both targets outright. Ejecting the spent thermal clip and reloading in quick succession, Miranda pivoted the weapon to the right and took out another merc who was attempting to flank Shepard.
That required another reload. While she slapped a new clip into the cooling chamber, Shepard's biotics flared up as he rammed straight into another target and fired his shotgun at point blank. The merc crumbled into a heap.
"Thanks. Looks clear down here. I'll start on the room search."
"I'll cover Shan."
"Appreciate it, ma'am."
She swung the rifle to the far left. The telescopic sight automatically compensated for daylight glare from the main entrance. The only problem was the angle only covered half the space. As she struggled to reposition the twenty-kilogram firearm and its bipod for a better angle, there was a scraping sound around the bend. She whipped out her SMG just as two mercs rounded the corner and opened fire.
Miranda winced as her barrier took several hits. Instinctively, she drew her limbs close to present a smaller target while laying down cover fire. Seeing one merc's kinetic barrier flicker and die, she wrapped him up in a mass effect field and threw him off the gantry. As her rounds overloaded the remaining merc's shield and pierced through, it occurred to her that they could only have gotten the jump if they'd broken her lock on the connecting door.
Her own biotic barrier was spent. The last shot actually tore past but her armour proved to be the final line of defence. Gingerly, she fingered the burnt dent on her right shoulder, and experimented with a few swings on the joint. Badly bruised but not broken. Tremors coursed through her body, the effects of adrenaline and incredible amounts of energy spent harnessing her biotics in the short time combined.
She ejected the thermal clip from the sniper rifle, shoved it into the ammo bag lying beside and slung the whole thing on her back to ensure no one else would be able to use the weapon. Suppressing a groan, she stumbled to her feet and slapped a new clip into her SMG. A surreptitious glance down after the bend confirmed her fears. A new squad had entered through the connecting door. Removing a belt of grenades from their holder on her waist, she ripped off the series of safety pins with her teeth and tiredly forced the eezo nodules in her nervous system to engage again.
"Fire in the hole!"
There was only time to issue that warning before she clambered over the railing and jumped. As her biotics slowed down her descent, she threw the belt as far as she could before returning her mass to near-normal immediately after. The floor came up in a rush and she couldn't stifle her cry of pain as she hit the ground on the bad shoulder. The subsequent roll to cover was almost too late. The grenades detonated in an explosion that deafened her, trembling bedrock until the entire building shook. Debris and body parts showered down, followed by bigger pieces of twisted metal and concrete blocks that miraculously missed her. Wiping globs of bloody tissue from her face, Miranda poked her head over cover and saw at least six bodies, all dismembered. With clinical dispassion, she got up and opened fire on the leftover as they lay twitching on the ground.
"—come in. Miranda! Are you okay?"
Shepard's voice came across as a tinny whine. It took a while to realise there wasn't an equipment malfunction, but rather her ears were still ringing.
"I'm fine!"
She staggered across to check on the door. It didn't exist anymore, along with a good portion of the wall. Thankfully, it wasn't load bearing. Access to the gantry was also destroyed, another good thing. Trip bombs would have to guard this entrance now. The time spent affixing them also gave her accelerated healing a chance to kick in and by the time she was done, she was able to jog back to the front of the building.
Shepard looked up from his attempt at hacking a room door.
"What happened?"
"They came in from the back, a full squad." She reloaded her weapon with some difficulty. "I've dealt with them."
He placed a hand on her shoulder, the left one fortunately, and scrutinised her in concern.
"I'm engineered to be ambidextrous, remember? I can still fire a gun with my other hand," she countered, daring him to object. "Any luck at all?"
"That's not what I was thinking," he said and then shook his head tiredly. "Ground floor's almost done."
At her stricken look, he squeezed her shoulder and smiled fierce encouragement.
"She has to be here somewhere. If you took out one squad, they should be down to ten men or less by now. Keep searching. I'll go help Shan."
The sound of gunfire ripped the air from the building entrance all this time. Just as Shepard finished speaking, a giant conflagration rocked the main door. The heat and roar of the explosion was a palpable force even at this distance. They exchanged one look and then ran in unison. Shan laid unmoving beside the door, thrown flat on the ground by the shockwave.
The smoke cleared slowly. Through the agitated haze, Miranda saw Kai Leng standing at a safe distance outside. She took in the sight of body parts scattered throughout the area in disbelief. The bastard actually tripped the bombs with his men in the line of fire!
"Kai Leng!"
It took her a moment to register the hiss of outrage as Shepard's.
The glow of biotics limned his body in a blaze far brighter than she'd ever seen. For a moment, his anger-filled features were obliterated. In the next, he was gone, in a charge so hard and fast all she could catch was the sight of Kai Leng being tossed off his feet twenty-metres away, and smashed straight into a solid wall of the adjacent building and beyond.
They'd agreed that Kai Leng was the complication, and right from the start, Shepard had volunteered to take him out of the picture. Even so, Miranda couldn't shake the feeling of dread at way he'd taken off. She stood there, stunned, and then remembered Shan. They weren't out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. Fortunately, the younger man was in the middle of getting to his feet.
"Are you okay?"
Shan looked about dazedly and then nodded. She picked up his SMG and slapped it into his hands.
"Go back John up. I'll take care of here. Go!"
Miranda ran the breath of the facility back to the door Shepard half-hacked, and quickly completed the task. Her useless right arm was a nuisance, requiring her to swap her SMG between hands. She levelled her weapon as the door slid open on a dark room filled to the brim with supplies. With a sound of disgust, she hit the shut button and proceeded to the next. A quick inspection revealed two remaining rooms on the ground floor. Frustration began building up as both doors revealed only supplies behind them.
She took the staircase two steps at a time, and began hacking the first door on the row. It was almost impossible to believe Oriana could still be in the building after all this time, but she refused to give up.
In her frantic haste, she almost keyed the wrong combination. She cursed and then forced herself to breathe deeply. The first and second door opened to empty rooms. Her mind refused to dwell on the fact that there were only five rooms on this level.
The third door finally slid open on its tracks to reveal Oriana within. The abject relief she felt was immediately mitigated by the presence of a merc standing behind, holding her at gun point. Miranda levelled her pistol despite the fact that she couldn't even get a clear look at the face. A sinking feeling permeated her. At this range, neither of them would be able to penetrate each other's defences in one shot. The only casualty here would be Oriana.
"Your friends are dead. Let her go and you walk free. Hurt her and I'll tear you apart."
Oriana's eyes had widened at the sight of her. Then her little sister did the strangest thing. She began shaking her head frantically.
"You can't kill her, Miri, you can't."
"What are you talking about, Ori?" She muttered fiercely, fear rising within her at Oriana's decidedly strange behaviour.
"Touching," a female voice drawled. Slowly, the figure sidestepped from behind Oriana.
It was one of those rare moments of her life she could count using one hand. Miranda's mind went absolutely blank at the sight of her own face smiling coldly back at her.
It had to be a dream, it had to be.
"Who are you?" she finally rasped.
"What an ironic question." The other woman's brow lifted in a vulgar parody of her own trademark quirk. "Fine, I'll play it straight. I'm Cordelia. Our father named me in the hope that I'd be his one true daughter. After his two older abandoned him. Again, terribly ironic, don't you think?"
She shook her head hard, but the phantom refused to disappear.
Did you really think he'd stop working on his dynasty the moment you and Oriana were safely out of his reach?
That half-remembered thought swam damningly to the surface of her mind. With herculean effort, she shoved it away and replaced it with the terrified face of Oriana staring at her.
"Let her go. Now."
"You don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to making demands, dear sister. We both know the only one who can die here is her."
Cordelia laid a hand on Oriana's shoulder.
"One wrong move and I'll blow her head off. Unless you want to test it yourself."
"Why the hell are you doing this?"
Her own face made a little toss of the head to flick long hair away, and then frowned back at her.
"Are you stupid? So you'd come to the place where it all began, of course. But I won't negotiate under current circumstances. Now back off."
It was like an unimaginable nightmare—watching two actors clad in twin masks of a Japanese Noh play, each personifying an emotional aspect of human nature. Triumph and Fear intertwined. And herself, an unwilling dreaming participant, wearing a similar mask, but one twisted in the paroxysm of helpless anger.
Miranda wanted to scream. But she gritted her teeth and did as she was told. And watched as her doppelganger, and doppelganger it was, far more than Oriana even, drag one of the pillars of her heart away.
-~o~-
The instantaneous rush which smashed them through the concrete-reinforced acrylic compounded walls was almost instinctive. One of Shepard's regrets had been he was unable to kick the living daylights out of Kai Leng when the time came to apprehend him for his crimes. The other man had no such qualms, taking down almost half of the Normandy's crew along with him. As far as Shepard was concerned, the payback was long overdue.
They didn't stop until they hit the far wall of the plastics moulding facility. So massive was the charge that Shepard could feel the tingles from his nervous system as dark energy surged through his synapses. The speed and momentum of the charge was so powerful that Kai Leng's kinetic barrier system automatically kicked in. It also apparently broke load-bearing structures of the building, causing a loud roar as the entire western portion caved in. Rubble stoppered the crudely-made passage. They were alone, for now.
Their final landing was bone-jarring, but Shepard knew better than to underestimate the other man. Almost immediately, Kai Leng shoved a knee in-between them and kicked, sending him tumbling away. The flicker of recharging shields enveloped Kai Leng as he jumped back up and extracted his SMG. On his part, Shepard gripped his shotgun ready as they started circling one another.
His mind went into overdrive. He could charge and fire, but if he didn't get Kai Leng in one move, the other man would have the edge. In all their sparring matches on board the Normandy, Kai Leng was one of the very few who could best him in hand-to-hand combat. To make things worse, Shepard knew he was out of form. The years spent commanding fleets from the comfort of a flagship had taken their toll in the form of slip-ups he'd never imagine himself making. Even now, his muscles ached from all the exertion.
A headlong rush like before would only end up getting his ass handed back to him on a platter. No, it was time for a calculative approach.
"How did you escape from jail, Kai Leng?" Shepard asked conversationally. "Didn't the Alliance extradite you from Council ruling so you could rot in eternal hell?"
The other man smirked as he carefully circled his prey. Prey was pretty much what Kai Leng would see him as.
"The war, of course. War makes everyone equal. Although I had to even out the odds a bit."
"Let me guess, did that include mass murder, arson and destruction of government property?"
Kai Leng gave a deceptively self-deprecating shrug.
"Collateral damage. That's what you used to call it. I only learned from the best."
"Fuck you." Shepard growled. "I never taught you that."
"Correct. You taught me nothing I didn't already know."
Kai Leng's moves were smooth as a cat's. They were similar in age, but Kai Leng had the advantage of not spending the last few years lounging in command chairs. Just as the other man walked right in front of the control panel of one of the machines, Shepard charged.
The force he used was far less than the one before, just enough to ram Kai Leng right into the panel. In the flash of a moment, the other man struck one arm up, neatly deflecting the incoming gunshot. His other hand gripping the SMG smashed right across Shepard's face, hard enough to stagger.
"Getting soft in your old age, Shepard?"
But Kai Leng's look of triumph turned to anger as he realised the reason for the weak charge. With a jerk, he tore himself away from control panel. The damage was already done. His kinetic barrier generator sparkled from impact with one of the levers, causing his shield to flicker and then wink out of existence.
Rage contorted his features as Shepard lifted his shotgun again. With almost unimaginable speed, Kai Leng drew his combat knife and ran into melee range. Knife met gun barrel, before sliding down in a teeth-grinding whine. The force behind that downward thrust would almost certainly slice through ceramic-alloyed gloves. Without thinking, Shepard dropped his left hand from the barrel, his trigger finger almost breaking from the sudden increase in the pressure-hold.
Shepard threw a punch with his free hand just enough to unbalance Kai Leng. In that split second, he gripped his gun from the other side, twisting to catch the blade between the barrel and the mass effect field generator.
It'd come down to a battle of strength and tenacity. Both knife and barrel were made of dura-alloy. Both men were also cybernetically augmented for enhanced combat performance. But tenacity wasn't a fight Shepard could win at. Combat fatigue was a problem before, but now it had become an Achilles' heel. Already, his muscles were screaming in protest.
With a shout, Shepard fired up his biotics, augmenting his faltering strength with mass effect fields. He executed a hard torque, snapping the knife at the base of the blade. Kai Leng responded by smashing the hilt against his neck, almost crushing his windpipe. The sound of gunfire rocked the air in-between as Shepard's trigger finger spasmed. It was a blind shot, but by a stroke of luck, one of the tungsten sabot rounds ripped through Kai Leng's left hand.
The other man roared in pain and executing a hand-twist that tore the firearm from his shaky grasp. Shepard reacted with a hard biotic yank that ragdolled Kai Leng away, throwing him straight into a wall with a bone-crunching thud.
Shepard looked on as his assailant slid down to the floor. Slowly, he stumbled over to his shotgun and picked it up.
Just as he levelled the weapon on Kai Leng's inert form, a gunshot rang out, the friction of the bullet scouring a thin gash across his cheek. He turned around to the sight of Miranda standing in the doorway with one hand tightly snaked around Oriana's neck.
"Miranda...?" he breathed on autopilot. "What are you doing? Why did you bring Oriana in here?"
Then the strangest thing happened. Oriana struggled against the deadlock as she shook her head frantically.
"It's not Miri!"
Her scream rang out just as the phantom figure lifted her pistol and fired again.
Shit, shit, shit.
Instinctively, Shepard rolled into cover. He forced his mind to wrap around what he just saw. But if Oriana existed, the logical conclusion was why wouldn't there be others? No expletive was strong enough for this. He closed his eyes and tried to psych himself to open fire on the woman, any woman who wore that face. He wasn't sure he could.
It was pointless anyway. Oriana didn't have any protection. A single shot was all it took to get her killed.
Sure enough, the doppelganger called out in that achingly familiar voice, "Raise your hands and come out slowly, or I'll start shooting off her limbs."
Shepard grimaced. It was like going back to his first command, on that ill-fated expedition on Akuze. No baseline to compare with, his mind totally flat-lined. Finally, he latched on to one certainty—neither woman must come to harm. That logic was riddled with gaping holes, but right now, it was the only decision that made sense.
"Don't make me carry out my threat, Shepard."
He cursed and shook his head hard. There was only one way to handle this, the only strategy his confounded thoughts could patch together.
Firing up his biotics, Shepard rose slowly to his feet, hands held high in the air.
He forced his eyes to stay trained on the third twin as he made a show of dropping his shotgun. Third twin, what a hoot. The coldness in her eyes surpassed anything he'd ever seen from Miranda. Where was Miranda now, his mind skittered off with. With effort, he brought it back on track, the same way he slowly and painstakingly lifted a steel drum behind the two women without betraying a sound. Mimetic gestures were inculcated into almost every form of human biotic training in existence, but through sheer mental focus aided by visualisation of those gestures, it was possible to harness mass effect fields without them.
Shepard gritted his teeth at the effort as he walked slowly forward. Faintly, he heard Kai Leng's groan of pain and saw the man stirred in the corner of his eye. That clinched it. The other twin's eyes widened in alarm as she finally caught his intention. She sidestepped, but not fast enough to avoid the drum slamming into her flank.
Shepard sprinted and crashed into Oriana. He tucked her close as they skidded across the room and rolled behind a series of complicated-looking moulding machines. Whipping out his SMG, he blind fired over cover as he extracting his pistol, the only weapon he had left, and pressed it into Oriana's inert hands.
"If Kai Leng comes over, don't hesitate. Just shoot." He instructed. "Go wedge yourself against that corner over there."
Her wide blue eyes brimmed with unshed tears.
"Don't kill her!"
"I won't. I promise."
Painful cramps spasmed his muscles. Every move was pure torture, but Shepard knew he had to leave the spot, or risk drawing fire and endangering Oriana. There was no way he could take Kai Leng down in a fistfight, but the advantage of close quarters was clear now. Kai Leng had lost his shields, and that in itself was the best defence against gunfire from the other twin.
Slapping a new clip into his SMG and priming his biotics, Shepard rolled out of cover. He winced as fresh shots hammered his barrier, but he knew he made too attractive a target for Kai Leng not to fire at. Unleashing the accumulated dark energy, Shepard charged.
This time, he gripped Kai Leng's shoulder harness in an elbow lock. As predicted, Kai Leng's fists began to make short work of his exposed face. But he ignored all of that as he swung around to empty his entire thermal clip at the other woman until her shield overloaded and flickered out.
That was his cue. With Kai Leng in tow, he rammed straight into her. The combined momentum smashed the three of them into a pile of rubble. The whiplash would have snapped the neck of any ordinary human. As it was, sandwiched between rock and two armoured bodies, the third twin finally crumbled into a comatose heap.
The blurred ceiling of the facility came slowly into focus as Shepard tried to rise to his feet. The numbness he'd felt before had now permeated his entire body. He tried bracing his arm under him. That failed. Fighting against a tide of irrational fear, he settled for lifting a hand. This had never happened before and his face contorted into a rictus as he willed himself to move to no avail.
Nearby, gunfire resounded, and he could only hope Miranda and Shan were closing in. Agonisingly, he looked on as Kai Leng slowly stood up. To be betrayed at the very end by his own body—the irony was indescribable.
Shepard could only look on as his nemesis dragged the unconscious woman away. Next, Kai Leng walked over to his shotgun and picked it up.
"Bet you've been salivating so hard for this moment, huh?"
Slurred words were all he had, and he threw them like haphazard bullets at the other man. Through hazy vision, he saw Kai Leng cocked his head to one side as he lifted the shotgun.
This close, it was impossible for all three shots to miss. His body couldn't even harness the resources to react to the abuse. Faintly, Shepard felt the coppery taste of blood fill his mouth. Far away, the sound of commotion edged nearer. His rapidly darkening vision registered emptiness before Kai Leng entered the picture again, this time holding a metal rod.
"For the record, I've always hated your speeches," came the cold assertion as the rod drove home. "You talked too much."
Awareness slowly contracted into a pinprick, and then was snuffed out in entirety.
-~o~-
Miranda cursed as she was forced to make a roundabout to reach the moulding complex, a task excruciatingly hampered by the few mercs remaining. Cordelia had retreated past that scant frontline, taking Oriana with her. She wasted no time tearing through the sparse ranks with Shan. Seeing the battle lost, two of the mercs had tried to make a break for it. She mowed them down mercilessly. In that brief time, she'd regained the use of her right arm, and she flexed it carefully before bursting through the door into the facility.
Her eyes immediately registered Oriana's crawling form. It was like the weight of the world was lifted off her. And then she saw the supine figure her little sister was crawling towards. There was no other living presence in the space. Slowly, she walked over, and for the moment, she couldn't comprehend what it meant seeing the pool of blood Shepard was lying in, or the metal rod stuck grotesquely like a victory flagpole into his chest.
Eventually, she found herself coming to kneel by his side. Just in time to watch as the light left his eyes.