A/N Sorry for the delay! This one was difficult to write, making up all the sciency stuff is rather tricky...

22nd February 2193 – Crucible pulse + 6 years 5 months

Miranda poured over the seemingly endless lists of test results on one screen in her office, the next screen along scroll displaying corresponding images of the lungs of over five thousand Drell test subjects – varying to larger images to in depth scans of the micro-organisms present. She reached the end of the list before deciding on a course of action, pressing down the intercom and speaking in her authoritative tone.

"I want everyone in the briefing room in two minutes."

Miranda spun around in her chair, taking a moment to gaze out at the Presidium through the reinforced glass wall. Then she stood and walked through the door, heading down the corridor to the meeting room. Miranda took her seat at the end of the table and waited for everyone else to arrive, all fifteen of her team eventually taking their places.

"Right," The sound of her throat clearing caused everyone to fall silent, turning to face her. "This is a bit of a sitrep, and perhaps brainstorming session if you like."

Miranda keyed a button on her armrest, opening up a series of holographic displays on the walls and in the centre of the table.

"So, this data. You've all been studying it over the past few days, as have I," There was a series of nods around the table. "Well then, thoughts? Start with the basics, if you like."

"Well," Maelon started off. "We've isolated the exact strain of bacteria responsible for the infection, ultimately the organism that causes death."

"It seems to have resisted all different antibiotic causes so far by adapting and becoming immune in ridiculously short amounts of time," One of the human scientists at the other end spoke up. "Surgery is ineffective once the infection has taken root, and transplants aren't guaranteed to be successful in the majority of cases."

"Radiotherapy is also ineffective, same for chemotherapy," Another one added. "The bacteria seems to be resistant to radiation, it's incredibly tough."

"Indeed, this is one tough little bug," Miranda nodded. "So, with this new data, has anyone got any ideas on new treatment plans? Any epiphanies at all?"

She was greeted by a series of head shakes, though Maelon cleared his throat.

"I don't have anything at the moment," The Salarian frowned. "But I believe that, to solve this problem, we have to get to the root of it."

"Oh, I agree totally with that," Miranda nodded. "I was going to suggest that we take a break from looking at the disease in the present, to have a look at it in the past. To see what historical data could tell us."

A Turian spoke up, cocking his head to one side. "Why?"

"To get to the root of the problem of course," Miranda rolled her eyes. "This bacteria is obscenely tough, aggressive, and impossible to predict and eradicate. Can someone tell me why?"

There was a series of blank looks around the table before one voice spoke up.

"I had one theory..." Mae Lu, the young Chinese woman, began. "But I wasn't sure if it was ridiculous or not."

Miranda nodded. "Go for it Dr Lu."

"Well, what if it's an artificial strain? Bio-engineered, designed to be just this deadly?"

There was a series of disbelieving mutterings around the table, Miranda silencing them with a quiet clearing of her throat.

"I believe you are right there, to a certain degree at least," Miranda gave what was, to the team, a rare smile. "I first thought of that almost four months ago."

"With disbelief – you knew for four months Doctor?" Xaro-Tsen, the Elcor geneticist spoke up. "Questioning – why did you not say? And where is the evidence? Nothing supports that idea that we have seen."

"Well I don't know," Miranda corrected. "But I have a hunch, and my hunches are always correct. Firstly I wanted to wait until the results of the large scale testing were returned, in case anything new was gleaned from them."

"But the tests tell us nothing we all ready know, they just confirm our discoveries on a larger scale," Maelon frowned. "I can't see any proof in this data."

"No, it just confirms everything we all ready knew and how lethal this bacteria really is," Miranda keyed up the complete list of results. "And they do imply third party involvement if you look closely, though yes they do not prove anything on their own. Lets take a comparison."

Miranda pulled up two images, one of the lungs of a young Drell without the disease and another of an older Drell in the early stages of Keprals Syndrome. She zoomed in to a microscopic level on both images, pointing to the one of the young Drell.

"This is a scan from a young Drell who was found dead in the wards, an example of a Drell without Keprals. And the other image is of a fully infected Drell," She explained. "Note the naturally present bacteria in the non infected, there is quite a large variety of different strains as you would expect."

"What is that?" One of the Asari scientists pointed to a tiny blue blip to the corner of the one image.

"Good eyes, that is what we need to look at," Miranda magnified the image, everyone around the table recoiling with wide eyes. "That is our little bacteria, hiding in the lungs of healthy Drell from a very young age. Then, when the lungs weaken to a particular state due to the humid climate, it strikes – within about a year most subjects are dead."

"That's a very sophisticated action," Maelon narrowed his eyes. "How widespread is it?"

"Oh incredibly," Miranda nodded. "Did none of you notice that at least half a dozen of these bacteria cells were hidden away in the lungs of every single Drell we tested? Even the children?"

"What?" Mae's mouth dropped. "Every single Drell carries the bacteria from birth? How come they haven't evolved to stop producing it? Surely that would've occurred?"

"Well, that's another thing to discover," Miranda replied. "But it helps to point towards artificial exacerbation. So I believe the next step is to find relevant historical data that can show us any significant modification of the Drell over a rapid time period."

"Do you have a hunch who could of done this?"

"There are only three particular groups who I believe could have done this, one of whom I believe won't have done this," She nodded. "But I'm not going to go into detail now, I want hard proof before I allocate any blame. Now then, that should conclude this meeting for now – everyone is dismissed."

XXXXXXXX

"Argh, I will destroy you!"

"No!" The human cowered away from the robotic humanoid. "Please, have mercy!"

"Never," The robot shouted. "Dr Evil will rule the universe!"

Just before the robot could strike another cartoon figure appeared, bursting on to the scene from a door.

"Stand back, agent of Dr Evil!"

"Shep-man!" The human cried. "I'm saved!"

"What?" Shepard scowled in disbelief. "Shep-man? That is ridiculous!"

Next to him Oriana was giggling madly. "Oh, it was only a matter of time before people started doing that!"

"What, making me a superhero?" Shepard grinned. "I am one anyway, I don't need the twins favourite cartoon to show me."

"Yeah, or villains called Dr Evil!"

"Ha! That's true," Shepard chuckled. "It's not a brilliant name for a villain is it?"

"No, but you can't expect cartoon villains called Saren or Sovereign now can we?"

"Again, that's true," Shepard laughed. "I guess a Reaper called Dr Evil wouldn't have had the same affect."

"No," Oriana giggled again. "Or any Reaper with a stupid name...like Patsy."

"Patsy the Reaper?" Shepard snorted. "Don't think that'd be quite so terrifying, in fact it would probably die of embarrassment."

"That would've made your job easier then," She laughed. "A whole bunch of Reapers called Patsy, Tiddles, and Mr Cuddlesworth that get laughed to death."

Shepard laughed along with her. "That's true too, though going back to the cartoon – where are the twins? They never miss this stuff."

"Erm..." Oriana scratched her head as she looked around the flat. "I haven't seen them for quite a bit actually."

Shepard turned to the other sofa. "Lizzie?"

"Nope." Was the reply from behind a rather large hardback book on the history of Ancient Greece and Rome.

"David? Kaiden?" Shepard called out. After no reply he turned to Oriana with a shrug. "I swear, ever since they've been walking they've just been able to appear and disappear like bloody ghosts!"

"I was rather amazed at..."

Oriana was interrupted by a large crashing noise, both of them turning to each other with raised eyebrows. Shepard jumped up from the sofa and headed upstairs to the source of the noise, calling out to the boys as he ascended.

As he walked into the lounge area in the middle of the upstairs he noticed a whole pile of books on the floor that had knocked off a shelf just above. The shelf itself was teetering on the metal rack attached to the wall, but there was no trace of the twins.

"Boys? Are you OK?" He paused. "You aren't in trouble, you know?"

There was still no reply, so Shepard begun to head towards the other stairs. As he walked he stopped though, catching movement in his peripheral vision. He spun but saw nothing, despite the fact he was sure he saw a brownish shape move in the corner of his eye. He shook his head as he turned to walk on, but heard another clattering from the other steps.

"Shepard! Get down here!"

At Oriana's shout he hurried downstairs, seeing another mess of books on the way. Downstairs he saw a hell of a commotion, though Lizzie was doubled up with laughter on the sofa. Shepard widened his eyes at the sight of both of the twins on Legions back as the dog bolted through the flat. Both of the one year old boys were giggling madly as the dog slid around the sofa, barking wildly.

"Oh god!" Shepard shouted. "No! Legion, down!"

At his command the dog dropped down instantly, flopping onto it's stomach. The boys flew off it's back onto the carpet, but neither seemed to get hurt and continued to laugh. That was until Shepard walked over to stand above them.

"Oi! What have your mother and I told you about riding the dog?" He tapped his foot as the two stopped laughing, looking to each other for an answer. "Well?"

Kaiden looked up at him again. "Sorry."

"Yeah," David added. "Sorry."

"No, that's not good enough," He shook his head. "This is at least the tenth time you've done it!"

"Sorry." Both boys repeated back to him.

"Yeah well, never again. You hear me?" The twins nodded. "Right, well go and do something else...something that won't result in you getting shouted at!"

"Well," Lizzie chuckled from the sofa. "That'll be tricky daddy!"

"Yeah, too true," Shepard rolled his eyes as he pulled both boys up off the floor, placing one under each arm and hoisting them over to the sofa. Both of them giggled wildly at his actions. "Bloomin troublemakers!"

XXXXXXXX

A pinging noise and a pop-up message on one of the screens attracted Miranda's attention. She noticed a red banner, noting the access and download of encrypted data without her consent to an unknown device. Miranda frowned, it meant that someone was making a copy of data to an unknown to the network device. She clicked on to the alert to identify the data in question, raising an eyebrow at the data. Strangely enough, it was the full results and report of the large scale Keprals Syndrome survey data that was to be sent to the Council with a series of requests for extra resources.

Miranda turned to another console, bringing up the series of vid cams feeds throughout her department. She rewound the feeds back a few minutes, watching all of the different shots simultaneously. She spent the next few minutes analysing the feeds, watching who was accessing terminals during the time of the download. Unfortunately, eight out of her fifteen staff members were sat at terminals, and anyone of them could indeed be performing the download. Mae Lu and one of the Asari scientists, Senya, wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Miranda scowled. She wasn't annoyed that at the nature of the data that had been extracted, no one could really do anything with it unless they were as adept as her own team and able to make progress on that data. The only reason an alert system was in place was because of Council policy. Really she was annoyed because it meant one of her team couldn't be trusted, and was potentially working for someone else or even selling the data.

She stood up and walked out of the office, heading down the main corridor of the departments wing. The walls of all the labs and offices were glass from floor to ceiling and gave Miranda a perfect view of each scientists lab or office. As she passed she noticed no one looking particularly suspicious, all of the staff appeared to be thoroughly engrossed in their work.

As Miranda passed the locker room she heard light chuckling from within, pressing her ear to the door. She narrowed her eyes as she pushed the door open, raising both eyebrows at the sight within. Mae Lu and Senya didn't see Miranda for several seconds but they burst apart when they did, Senya attempting to cover her breasts with her arms. Both scientists looked rather embarrassed, flushing purple and red.

"Well, I know it's your break time but this is hardly appropriate," Miranda spoke icily. "I have no issues with a relationship between the pair of you, but keep it out of my department. It's hardly professional, is it?"

Before either could answer Miranda turned on her heels and strode back to her office, double checking on her other staff on the way back. She still had no idea exactly who had betrayed her, but she knew she could at least rule out Senya and Mae Lu.

As Miranda stepped back into her office she turned her mind to medical matters, mainly how to try to get evidence for her theory. If she had to be honest Miranda knew that any proof of her theory was tenuous at best, it was no more than a hunch on a very general idea. She knew that it would require a lot of historical data, to see if they could build up a detailed time line of the bacteria that caused Keprals and track it's development. At the moment they had all of the data from the Hanar's discovery of the Drell up to their own present day research, though what she really needed was information from far earlier in the Drell's history than that. Perhaps what she needed wasn't attainable, if the group she suspected were indeed responsible then she may need data from almost fifty thousand years ago – Prothean data.

She sat down behind her desk once more, leaning back in her chair and staring up to the ceiling. For a few seconds she just closed her eyes, running through the potential information sources she could go to. After seven seconds she decided that Liara would be the first port of call and the most likely to have any Prothean data, she had all of the intel from the Prothean beacons on Mars and Thessia stored in her network, not to mention all of the Prothean and Collector data the previous Shadow Broker had obsessed over.

Miranda pressed a series of buttons on her console, bringing up Liara's contact details. She dialled for the Shadow Broker and drummed her fingers impatiently on the desk whilst waiting for the Asari to pick up. A few moments later the screen crackled into life, Liara's face coming into view.

"Miranda," She smiled. "Good to see you."

"You too Liara, though I'm afraid this is a work call," Miranda explained. "I need a bit of assistance."

"I'll see if I can help."

"Right, great. Well I need data for the Drell, specifically old biological data," Liara cocked her head as Miranda relayed her information. "What I need is the oldest possible biological records of the Drell that you have in your system, particularly anything lung related."

"I can get access to any data you need," Liara frowned. "But how old are we talking?"

"That's the issue," Miranda hummed. "To be honest we need info from before the Hanar rescues the Drell from their homeworld."

"Ah, that may be an issue," Liara leaned down to start typing on a keyboard. "I'll search for anything from the last Shadow Broker or the Prothean beacons, but I have never come across anything of the like you need before."

"I suspected as much," Miranda nodded. "But you are a good place to start with."

"Yes," Liara nodded as she continued to search on another screen in her office. "I assume this is for the work on Keprals Syndrome?"

"Yes," Miranda nodded. "I have a hunch, one that the team agrees could be feasible, but I need the data to prove my theory."

"I'm assuming you need a comparison?"

"Something like that," Miranda nodded. "Looking for a little bacteria, it's hiding from us."

"Right," Liara nodded before peering at another screen next to her. "The earliest detailed data I have is from the first contact between the Asari and Drell, just over three hundred Earth years ago. Like I thought, nothing Prothean on the Drell unfortunately."

"Hmm," Miranda frowned. "I'm pretty sure we have the Asari data, in fact I'm definitely sure we do."

"Well, that's the oldest data I possess," Liara shrugged. "I'm sorry as to not be more help."

"Don't worry," Miranda sighed. "Though I do have to worry, how the hell am I going to discover where this micro-organism came from."

"Do you mind if I interrupt?" Javik questioned as he stepped into view of the screen, handing Benezia, their daughter, to Liara. "I have overheard your conversation and have a suggestion."

"A suggestion?" Miranda raised an eyebrow. "Well, I take suggestions off John, what's the harm off taking any of yours? Shoot Javik."

"Well, you could look for Prothean data." Javik suggested.

"Yes, that's just what I asked Liara to..."

"I hadn't finished," Javik interrupter her with the shake of his head. "You could look for Prothean data from a Prothean source, it's hardly surprising that the Shadow Broker hasn't got anything suitable."

"So, where do we get it?"

"I do not know exactly," He admitted. "However, our people had research stations near to the home worlds of all of the primitive species, and I believe that the Drell are no exception."

"That's a good shout actually," Miranda nodded. "And you don't exactly know where it is?"

"No," He shook his head. "But I would suggest a detailed search of their home system and, if you find nothing, the neighbouring systems."

"Right, thank you very much," Miranda smiled. "That's probably the best idea, I'll get on it right away. Thanks Javik."

"If that is all, then I must return to Benezia," He took the child off Liara again. "I was in the middle of explaining to her the different species in our Empire."

"There is one more thing," Miranda realised. "If we do find something, maybe a beacon like on Mars, then would you be able to interpret the data for us?"

"I suppose I can do that," Javik nodded. "Let me know if you find anything."

"Right thanks," Miranda nodded. "Now, I've got to put a trace in my system. Bloody traitors!"

XXXXXXXX

"Hey," Miranda said as she entered the flat, heading over to Shepard. He was crouched down on the floor next to the piano, picking up a large and untidy pile of toys strewn about. She approached him from behind, leaning down to press a quick kiss to the side of his neck. "Should I ask what happened?"

"Erm, not really," Shepard sighed. "The twins were rather restless today, I'm bloody shattered."

"Oh dear," Miranda looked around. "Where are they now?"

"They're up in their rooms, having a nap," He explained. "Not surprised they're shattered too."

As Miranda continued to scan the room she noted a large pile of books on the floor of the mezzanine in a large pile.

"And those books up there?" Miranda raised an eyebrow, and as she turned back she noticed Legion lying flat out on his back with his paws in the air. The dog looked very worn out as well. "And the dog looks half dead."

"Ah, I wasn't going to mention it but..." Shepard chuckled. "I caught them riding the dog again, several times in fact."

"Again?" Miranda scowled. "I swear, if they do that one more time then..."

"Chill Randa!" Oriana called from the kitchen, pointing at her with a spatula. "Boys will be boys, I bet Shepard would've done that when he was younger!"

"Oh, you're still here Ori," Miranda slowly headed over to the kitchen, dropping her bag on the sofa on the way. "And you're probably right though."

"Maybe we should ask Granny?" Elizabeth giggled from behind Oriana as she was whisking a large bowl filled with what looked like batter or a pancake mix.

"Maybe we should darling," Miranda smiled back. "What are you guys making there?"

Elizabeth grinned back. "Pancakes."

"Pancakes?" Miranda raised an eyebrow to Oriana. "Hardly much of a substantial supper is it."

"Oh come on, a nice treat every now and then has never harmed anyone!"

"Yes," Miranda nodded. "But no one should get a treat after using the dog as a horse despite being repeatedly told not too."

"Seriously Miri, listen to your sister," Shepard said as he approached them, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Chill babes."

Miranda rolled her eyes as Shepard nuzzled the back of her neck. Elizabeth giggled at them, whilst Oriana pretended to throw up.

"Oh Oriana, don't be stupid," Miranda said. "Will you do us a favour and go and grab the twins from upstairs."

"Sure," She nodded as she passed them. "Then I won't have to watch you two slobber more than your Saint Bernard!"

"Charming Ori!" Miranda called after her. After a few moments of watching Elizabeth stir the mixture Miranda spoke. "Shepard, I need a favour from you."

"OK, what is it?"

"Well, my department needs Council resources. I am going to go through the proper channels of course, but I need the report pushed through."

"What resources do you mean exactly?"

"I want to scan the entire Drell system for a Prothean research base, like the Mars Archives," She turned to notice his raised eyebrow. "It's to compare Prothean Cycle Drell to our Cycle Drell, see if a third party did develop the bacteria for Keprals. Javik suggested it."

"Right, that's going to take a lot of resources Miranda – a whole fleet will have to go," He scratched his head. "But is he sure there is a base there? I'm surprised that no one would've found that yet."

"He said he had definitely heard of one, but he had never been and he didn't know it's exact location," Miranda admitted. "But I reckon it will be there, they studied all of the 'primitive' species so it makes sense."

"Well I can try, and I guess the Council would be keen to find another Prothean beacon."

"Yes, I guess so," She nodded as Oriana returned with the twins, turning to face them with narrowed eyes. "Oi you two!"

Both of the twins stood stock still at the bottom of the stairs, turning to each other with worried expressions.

"If you ever get on the back of that dog again I will strap you both to the dog and force you to live on it," She approached them slowly. "Then we'll see who enjoys being on the back of the dog."

"Uhm..." David started.

"...Sorry?" Kaiden finished.

"Yes, I should hope so," Miranda spoke sternly as she crouched down in front of them. "It's not fair on the dog, and also it's dangerous – you could get hurt."

Both of the twins nodded solemnly.

"Right," She stood back up, sighing as she walked back to the kitchen. "I guess you two will want some pancakes, eh?"