After the initial beat down of the biotics test Shepard had scowled and fought back hard. She concentrated less on the fact that this was a test and more on making sure she didn't get her arse kicked by the numerous sensor drones that were flying at her. A synthesized voice commanded her what attack form to use and a flash of green with a soft harmonic tone on a sensor indicated which one she was supposed to hit while avoiding the others. A couple times she had to put up her barriers to shield herself from a hit. At the advancement of each stage she took a few knocks, missed a few of the calls but overall she managed to tag eighty percent of the targets in time and with the right biotic attack.
Then Rana had her trying out some of the Prothean techniques.
Shepard was very wary about this. Information could be stolen easily enough and it was one thing to know what she was capable of with normal biotics and another to know just how far outside the standard range she could go.
Rana measured and recorded Shepard's Biotic Vision, detailing what she described herself as seeing. Her breath became a little ragged as Shepard demonstrated how she could rip something apart at the molecular level, the power Shepard exuded was staggering.
Searching her memories Shepard forgot about Rana, forgot about the test, and truly began to explore her Prothean abilities like she'd never had the chance to before.
She created a biotic shell that formed an impenetrable shield not even an M920 Cain could break... for a few seconds at least.
Then a small cloud of swirling micro-singularities that tore through a sensor leaving it a twisted, smoking hunk of metal.
Rana watched in awe as a ring of tumultuous dark energy began spin around Shepard's feet. Then suddenly Shepard was disappearing into it! "Shepard!" she cried out, rushing over helplessly as the dark energy disappeared once Shepard had fallen into it.
In the next room Miranda and Shepard were a tangle of limbs on the floor, Miranda flat on her back with Shepard laying on top of her all akimbo and breathing heavily.
"What the bloody hell was that!" Miranda exclaimed as she tried to disengage herself from the dazed and disoriented Shepard, glancing up warily in the direction Shepard had just fallen from.
Shepard didn't speak for a moment as her mind tried to translate what Miranda had said.
When the look of dazed confusion didn't lift Miranda knelt beside Shepard and helped her to sit up, "Shepard, what did you just do?" she asked.
Before Shepard could respond Rana burst into the room in a panic about to express that Shepard had just vanished but was relieved to see both women in one piece.
Miranda glanced up to catch the look of relief crossing the asari's face but her attention was brought back to Shepard at the increasing anxiety that was beginning to flow through her. "What is it? What's wrong?" she asked in concern, looking over Shepard and seeing no physical injury.
Shepard relaxed as the words started making sense, "Too Prothean." she answered slowly, testing out each word as though it was hard for her to formulate them.
Miranda's eyes narrowed slightly. What did that mean? "Is there a limit on how much of the Prothean techniques you can use?" she asked quickly.
Shepard's brow furrowed as she translated as much as she could before giving up with an annoyed grunt, "Speak slowly please." she asked softly, a little embarrassed.
Rana went back to the console screens to see if there was anything in the scans that could explain this sudden change leaving the two women alone in the small room.
Miranda, kneeling beside the strangely behaving Commander, could hide her visible concern but knew with the growing connection they shared that Shepard would be able to feel how concerned she truly was. "Can you describe what you are feeling?" she asked, pausing slowly and deliberately after every word.
"Prothean brain." Shepard gestured to her head in frustration, "To ag-" she stopped as she'd about to say a Prothean word and sought for the English word, "deep in the Cipher for too long. Everything is in Prothean, having trouble translating." she responded slowly, sounding out her words carefully.
"Has this happened before?" Miranda was cursing herself as again her files lacked critical information concerning Shepard.
"Not to this...bad." Shepard was scowling at herself as she couldn't find the word in English she'd been wanting to use, it was on the tip of her tongue and bugging the hell out of her.
Miranda reached up and gently cupped Shepard's face. If this had happened before Shepard would know a way to fix it so she gently soothed the distressed woman, "How did you manage it last time?" She watched as Shepard mulled over her words until she understood them but was not reassured by the darkening scowl or the strange sensations running through Shepard. Was she feeling anger and embarrassment?
"Liara melded, helped me find my humanity." The words were coming back to her a little faster now.
Miranda was surprised at the twist in her gut at hearing that, but personal feelings aside if Shepard needed it... "I'll contact her." she moved to stand but was stopped by Shepard's hand and the shake of her head.
"I... want to listen to you, hearing you talk is helping, forcing my brain to find the language." Shepard was asking her to stay a little sheepishly, blushing a little as she averted her gaze from Miranda's sensational figure that was so close...
Miranda smiled and that twisting in her gut subsided. "Well then, I know I was just about finished and we both require a meal before the next stage of testing." she held her hand out to Shepard.
Shepard smiled and took it, smoothly regaining her feet as she stood beside Miranda, "Mmmm food, fastest way to a marine's heart." she grinned, patting her bare stomach. Then she'd realized exactly what she'd said and who she'd said it to and went bright red, "Uh, that is..." she fumbled as the words were lost to her, being flustered the Prothean language came to mind first.
Miranda restrained the chuckle at Shepard's slight panic and calmed her with a soft squeeze of her hand, "I'll keep that in mind."
As Miranda walked to the door Shepard couldn't help the downward glance of her eyes... then she realized she was staring like a teenage boy... or Massani, and shook her head. Chuckling to herself she followed after Miranda quickly.
Sitting in the cafeteria brought quite a bit of unwanted attention in the form of slack jawed stares from other researchers who'd come in for a quick coffee fix or nutrient boost before getting back to work. They were only part-way through their tests so the patches had remained on but both Miranda and Shepard had put on their outer clothes so it wasn't like they were wandering around in skin tight shorts and deliberately tormenting the scientists.
Miranda coolly ignored them and noted that Shepard was once again either oblivious or just didn't care.
"So what was the whole falling out of the sky thing?" Miranda asked her with a curious smile.
"Portal from what I can understand. I have never tried it before." She blushed, her words were slow and deliberate, "I was trying to create it in front of me but for some reason it was beneath me."
It actually took a moment for the operative to digest that, "You can actually create a portal between two points in space?"
Shepard tried to think of the explanation for it. Taking her napkin she unfolded it and placed it on the table between them, flattening it out. "Space/time." she indicated the napkin.
Miranda nodded, very interested in what she was saying.
"Portal does not carve through space/time like a wormhole. It bends space/time," she picked up the two diagonal corners of the napkin and brought them together, "bringing two points into one or at least close to one, not sure, have not explored the theory only application." Shepard shrugged and sat back. She had been exploring her abilities and what she could do not how the science behind them worked, she wasn't a scientist after all and it was all in Prothean.
Miranda blinked as she tried to find an explanation for that but space/time theory was not her speciality. "That's incredibly dangerous and would have to require a lot of energy." she mused.
Shepard again shrugged, catching the skeptical tone but not all of the words. Returning her hands to the napkin she scrunched the points together and shook her head, "Not like this, not pushing against, not breaking through." she smoothed it out again and lifted the corners together again, "Bending, no friction." she reiterated.
Miranda would wait until Shepard was able to think more clearly before she asked more questions on it for she could see the potential for such an ability to be put to excellent use in many ways. So she simply nodded and asked the next question that was on her mind. "Can I ask why you didn't want Liara's help with this?" Miranda asked, ensuring she kept her verbal pace slow for Shepard to follow with ease.
Shepard scowled down at her plate, not really seeing what was on it just not wanting to inflict her glare on Miranda. "Went to see her yesterday."
Miranda frowned, why didn't she know that? How could something like that escape her attention? Yes she'd been distracted but Shepard had gone to see one of her closest friends and hadn't said a word about it. "I take it, it didn't go so well." she shared her realization softly.
Shepard shook her head, "She has... changed." sadness crept into her. "I tried so hard during the melds to..." her sentence trailed off into a string of Prothean and she didn't realize until Miranda reached across the table and put her hand over Shepard's. Shepard stopped with a start and looked up in surprise.
"Stephanie, I can't speak Prothean. Slow down and concentrate on your words." Miranda instructed her softly. Normally she wouldn't have the patience to coach someone like this, but this was Shepard. She'd spent more than two years putting the woman back together and was still learning new and very surprising things about her. More than that though she was actually starting to care.
Shepard flushed and looked away in embarrassment but her hand was frozen under Miri's touch, "Sorry." she murmured.
Miranda smiled and gave her hand a light squeeze before sitting back, "Start again."
Shepard took a deep breath and proceeded with great concentration but this was easier than trying to explain some complicated Prothean scientific theory. "You saw what I was capable of on Omega, in the quarantine zone. There is a darkness in me, I keep it under control until something like that happens... when I see innocent little kids torn apart like that it surfaces and all I want, all I need is to tear apart those bastards with my bare hands." she swallowed, face bowed and eyes shut tight. "If my hand hadn't been broken it wouldn't have been my biotics I used to crush them." she whispered.
Miranda was already well aware of that, that Shepard could lose herself to anger and yet still function in a command capacity was remarkable.
"It's why I needed your help at the clinic, to restrain myself, to be... human again." She huffed, brows deeply furrowed, "I've fought it for so long there are days I question if I even am human anymore, I mean I needed an asari to drag my mind back into thinking like a human. How screwed up is that?" she growled more to herself than to the woman listening closely to her every word.
Miranda had stilled. That struggle of being human or not was something she could identify with so well. She touted being the genetically perfect human woman, used it as a shield to hide so much. But in truth she was bits and pieces of so many people there were days she didn't entirely feel human either. Those days she just buried herself in her work to make herself forget, to embrace the knowledge that she was a tool, the best bloody tool ever created.
Shepard took a deep breath as she felt an understanding in Miranda she'd never felt around anyone else, as though Miranda knew exactly what she was talking about. It gave her the encouragement she needed to continue, "When Liara melded with me, in deciphering the beacons and Cipher and helping me... find me again, I always tried to keep that darkness away from her." She slumped back in her chair, forgetting all about her food that wasn't all that flash anyway. "She was so beautiful and innocent and pure and now..." her expression darkened again, "Now she's threatening clients who don't want to pay with the same threat Benezia used on us on Noveria. As hard as I tried, I still tainted her."
"Bullshit." Miranda interjected immediately, cutting into that self-loathing anger that was forming in Shepard. At least Shepard was speaking faster now, as though it wasn't as hard for her to translate the words she wanted, which was a good sign.
Shepard jerked up at hearing Miranda swear like that, it sounded so dirty coming from the refined and immaculate woman sitting before her.
Still keeping her voice measured Miranda elaborated, "Liara is responsible for her own choices and has experienced things you cannot know or understand since you died. She's an information broker, that means she does some hard and dangerous things to get information and deals with dangerous people. Her life has depended on her toughening up in the career she's chosen. If," she leaned forward slightly for emphasis, "that's if you've influenced her in that way, it's saved her life. Even when you couldn't be there in person there was a part of you still protecting her a part that now always will."
Shepard listened to the admonishment and not only did she find it was getting easier to understand Miranda but she could kind of see where Miranda was coming from. It still felt as though she'd tainted Liara, Liara was an archaeologist, a doctor, she shouldn't be an information broker.
"Stephanie," Miranda tried again as though the anger faded the regret still clung to Shepard.
"Steph." Shepard murmured automatically at registering the name Miranda had just called her.
Miranda hesitated, it sounded so personal to call her that.
"Only my mother called me Stephanie and that's when I was in trouble." Shepard smirked, "Stephanie Evelyn Shepard, you put Mr. Jeffery's down right now!" she imitated her mother's scolding voice.
Miranda's brow rose and her lips quirked in a small smile.
Shepard's smirk widened into an actual grin, "He'd confiscated my piano attachment and I wasn't having a bar of it. So I lifted him biotically, flipped him upside down and shook him around a bit until my piano fell out of his pocket. Of course this was after school and in front of pretty much everyone. I got in big trouble, but he never confiscated anything from me again."
Miranda shook her head with a smile, "I can imagine you'd have been a teacher's worst nightmare."
Shepard laughed, "Yeah, asked so many questions one actually threatened to kick me out of class if I didn't sit on my hands and shut my mouth. Not my fault he couldn't back up his theories."
From that point Shepard began to perk up a little and found herself relaxing with Miranda. As she did and thought about different little stories from her past she found the Prothean language becoming less and less prevalent until she wasn't consciously having to translate what she was hearing or saying.
Returning to the testing for the combined session the pair were much more comfortable with each other and more in tune to each other.
It was a thing of beauty to watch them tear through exercises as one. The way they moved was as though they were in a dance, always aware of where the other was, of what they were doing or about to do. Their biotics hummed together, whispering even louder when they passed close by and visibly brightening whenever they did touch.
The tests that involved them being in physical contact as they carried out different attacks were remarkable.
Shepard was finding it increasingly harder not to turn around and shove Miranda against a wall in a crushing kiss. The air around them was heavy with the smell of ozone and it was making her a little heady. Then there was the fact that Miranda's slender hands were on Shepard's bare waist pouring her biotic energy into Shepard...
Rana had left some time ago as the biotic power of the women working in sync was just too damn dangerous to stay in the same room.
Shepard threw the last sensor drone through the wall, ending the test and left gasping for breath.
Miranda should have let go then, the test was over, the sheer power in Shepard through her touch was breathtaking. Shepard was breathtaking. The slight sheen of perspiration that made her skin glisten in the light, the feel of those muscles rippling beneath her hands, the scent that was only Shepard, the way the small tendrils of hair that had come free from her pony tail curled with the dampness of her sweat.
Shepard had been fighting to beat down that growing desire burning in her, to block that intense heat coming from Miranda. But when Miranda's arms slid around her, encircling her waist and pulling her close she almost lost the will to fight. Then Miranda's full, soft lips were on her neck, tasting her with light flicks of her tongue, and any desire to fight up and left the room.
The moment was broken when a lab tech from the lab next door barged in with an angry, "What is going on in here?"
Shepard groaned in dismay as Miranda straightened and pulled her arms back but surprisingly, and thankfully, her hands remained on Shepard's hips keeping her upright.
"That is none of your concern. Get out, now." Miranda commanded him with seething anger and superiority.
The man paled under the frightening glares of both women and scurried away in fear for his life.
Rana came in next seeing as the test was concluded and they shouldn't be throwing around warps, singularities, shockwaves and what not.
Shepard reluctantly found her knees and straightened, pulling away from Miranda's warm, soft body and feeling rather cold as a result.
"Okay patches off and go get cleaned up. I'll go over the results and we can have something to discuss when you return." Rana instructed them calmly, casting only a quick glance at the rather intimate position they were in and going straight to the console.
Miranda began to pull off the patches on Shepard's back as Shepard went to work on the ones on her head. Miranda had to bite her lip and concentrate on the patches at the way Shepard's muscles flexed when she raised her arms, she didn't feel like giving Rana even more of a show than they'd given her earlier.
Shepard was combating the heat from the goddess behind her by playing Nielson's Fifth in her mind. She was concentrating so hard on it she actually started humming, though one can hardly capture a piece like that with a simple little hum.
Miranda smiled and shook her head at the woman, working on removing her own patches now while trying to identify what Shepard was humming.
Patches all removed Shepard turned to help Miranda with the ones on her back and it was only then she realized she was actually humming. Clearing her throat she blushed and stepped around the smirking figure of Miranda.
Starting from the lowest patch and making her way up Shepard removed the patch under that pony tail of dark, thick, silken locks last. As she did she leaned in brushing aside the long hair and ever so lightly grazing her lips against the soft skin from beneath the patch just below her bio-amp implant.
Miranda gasped at the ghost of a kiss, Shepard did not touch her anywhere else, no hands on her back or hips, just the kiss, then she was gone and for a heartbeat Miranda wasn't sure it had even happened. Until she caught sight of the shy smile from Shepard as she took her handful of patches over to their box. That shy little smile warmed Miranda's heart as it hadn't been warmed in so long.
Showered and eager to find out the results of the tests Shepard rocked a little on the balls of her feet, watching Miranda's face as she read over the data herself.
"I'll start off with some of the data regarding Shepard." Rana nodded to the brunette, "From what I can tell your biotics are evolving, becoming more Prothean not just in technique but in how your body uses dark energy." she brought up a file from an unknown source that showed a human biotic creating a warp. "This is what is considered 'normal' for human biotics." she brought up another file that was Shepard's, "This is you." she played them side by side.
Shepard and Miranda both looked stunned.
The 'normal' biotics nodes and energy flow were bright, thick bands of blue light that traversed their body, brightest along their right arm, shoulder and neck region. However, Shepard's was barely visible, a small spark of almost purple light shooting along her arm that didn't travel nearly the distance the 'normal' biotics had. Yet Shepard's attack had been four times as powerful.
"You're becoming more efficient meaning that your biotic stamina and power levels have increased dramatically. I'm sure you've noticed that you can do more without feeling nearly as fatigued or hungry." Rana nodded, it would take more than an hour or so to truly understand this data.
"Yeah, had noticed that, but my appetite hasn't changed, I'm still as hungry as I was before meaning I eat about twice as much as the average human woman." Shepard admitted with a sigh.
Miranda smirked as she recalled seeing Shepard wolf down three bowls of Gardiner's calamari gumbo gleefully, much to the chef's delight.
Rana just nodded and continued, "There was some very interesting things happening in your brain when you began experimenting with Prothean techniques." she played a segment.
It meant very little to Shepard but Miranda watched on with great interest.
"I had thought that the Prothean techniques would align with the neural anomaly, that the anomaly was in fact the Cipher itself. But the anomaly is here." she highlighted a part of the brain that was showing only normal activity whereas other parts of Shepard's brain were alight with the flashes of synapses firing rapidly.
Shepard was deeply confused and scratched her head absently as she tried to figure it out but was drawing nothing but blanks.
"The anomaly only became active when you two began melding." Rana stated simply.
Miranda looked over at her sharply and Shepard spluttered a shocked, "What!"
"It's only basic at the moment, like a child reaching out to another for the first time. But with time and practice I firmly believe, given this data, that you two will be able to fully meld and join your minds should you so choose." Rana smiled between them with bright eyes as it could in fact be the greatest discovery in the development of human biotics, though someone else had figured it out and was keeping very tight lipped about it.
Shepard had gone sheet white in horror at the thought of melding with Miranda.
Miranda's heart raced in great concern at what she was feeling from Shepard. Moving from behind the console she halted as Shepard raised her hand between them and shook her head.
"Don't." Shepard whispered, her breathing ragged. It was as though her entire world had just crumbled around her. She had already tainted one person she loved, it would break her if she tainted Miranda.
Miranda frowned, as if the words would make a difference she declared firmly and with more than a little touch of anger, "I am not Liara don't you even think of comparing us, I am not some fragile little school girl. I've done things worse than you, Shepard, so you get it out of your head right now that you'll taint me."
Shepard recoiled, surprised that Miranda had seen what she was feeling so quickly as she was only just realizing it herself. Taking a deep breath she nodded slowly. Miranda was right in that she was completely different to Liara, she had done dark things in the name of Cerberus and advancing humanity. But did that mean what good there was still in Miranda would be threatened? "I'll... need some time to process that." she admitted softly.
Miranda felt her gut twisting again with bitter disappointment. She was only just beginning to think that they could be more than just friends yet the thought of Shepard rejecting her, not giving them a chance even, struck her harder than she could have imagined. Schooling her face into the well practiced blank mask she determined within herself to show Shepard they could work. She was Miranda Lawson, the bloody perfect woman, she did not get rejected.
Rana watched the exchange but said nothing even though her heart sank a little at the look on Shepard's face, that hardening of her eyes. When it was clear neither woman was going to say more she continued. "That anomaly was also active when the two of you were using your biotics in sync. So while it may not be Prothean in nature it most assuredly is involved, if not the reason, you are able to... link biotically. Yes your biotics are identical but that is not the reason why you can link, being identical means that you are in sync when you do link." she opted to refrain from using the term 'meld' given Shepard's response to it just then.
Shepard was still reeling from the previous revelation but got the general gist of what Rana was saying and nodded a little numbly.
"I need more time to look at the data but I think your neural link could actually be used to help with Miranda's treatments." Rana offered a little tentatively.
Shepard turned from them abruptly and stalked up to the wall. Bracing herself against it with her hands and forehead she took a deep breath to calm herself.
Miranda winced as a moment later Shepard punched the wall so hard she put her fist through it.
"Fuck!" Shepard hissed and not at what she'd done to the wall.
Rana glanced at Miranda who was watching Shepard closely, her expression a cold mask but there was a slight twitch to her left eye.
No one spoke for a few very tense minutes and Miranda made no move to approach or console Shepard.
Shepard seemed to finally pull herself together and straightened. Her face a mask of determination she turned back and walked up to Miranda.
Miranda said nothing but searched those dark brown eyes, there was still turmoil in Shepard but overriding that was her fierce protective streak.
"I promised you I'd do whatever it took to help you. I meant it." she spoke firmly in Commander tone rather than a personal one.
Miranda nodded a little stiffly, she didn't want Commander Shepard's help for this, she wanted Steph's, but she would have to make do with whichever side of Shepard came to her aide.
Shepard looked to Rana, "What would we have to do?" she asked brusquely.
"To start off with simply learning to meld. What happened today was more instinctual, your body's responding to each other's biotic stimulation." Rana kept her tone deliberately clinical.
Shepard still blushed though.
Miranda didn't react.
"Truthfully I'm not certain having an asari teach you would be beneficial for this. The way we meld is different to what you were exhibiting." Rana glanced between them.
"So in other words it would be best for us to test and develop this ourselves." Miranda stated more for Shepard's benefit than her own.
Shepard swallowed back the touch of panic, "But what if by melding Miranda actually finds out who I really am?"
"You were able to keep things from Liara, at this early stage keeping that information from me should be simple for you." Miranda responded quickly, a little too quickly.
Shepard straightened her shoulders and frowned, "You know it's not because I don't want you to know. Goddess Miri, I've wanted you to know since I first realized you didn't. I just..." her shoulders dropped minutely, "I can't flip a switch in the way I think, ever since I first melded with Liara I've been terrified of tainting someone, especially someone I love."
Miranda's eyes widened a little and the cool mask cracked slightly.
"I just need a little time to process this, please... please just give me some time." the hint of desperation in Shepard's voice was only minor compared to the inner war she was experiencing, she didn't even realize she'd used the word 'love'.
Miranda could feel the war in her and she softened though the use of 'love' did have her spinning a little, "I understand Steph." she nodded.
There was little else Rana could say with certainty with the day's revelations and needing time to study them so they began the journey back to the ship.
Waiting for a taxi Shepard reached out and gently took Miranda's hand in her own, looking down at it so as not to meet those captivating blue eyes, "I'd still like to have drinks with you tonight, if you're still interested..." her voice was soft and hesitant, almost lost to the busy sounds of Illium.
Miranda gave Shepard's hand a squeeze, "What time?"
"When you've finished your reports, I'd rather not have you thinking about work you need to finish." Shepard glanced up with a small smile.
Miranda returned the smile with a dazzling one of her own, "I'm looking forward to it." she reached up with her other hand and gently tucked a few stray hairs behind Shepard's ear, lightly running her fingertips along Shepard's jaw.
Shepard's smile widened and she didn't release Miranda's hand until the taxi arrived.
Thanks to all my faithful reviewers and the occassional ones! Really appreciating the feedback, some of which is truly making me think a little harder about different things I want to see in the game and how to make them happen in a legit enough way.
HB I have indeed read Sisirongana's stuff and loved it. I LOVE a good femShep/Miri fic :D
And for all you readers lost in the world of The Old Republic... SO JEALOUS! Never played an MMO but when I get the money I'm so totally in on this one!
Always love the reviews and you never know, you might be able to sell me on a really good idea or two! :D Oh and I'm not set on if I've shown you all of Seph's biotic potential yet, she did have quite the interruption after all...
Until next time! :)
[After-post thoughts: Had a friendly suggestion that Seph's getting all too powerful biotically so thought I'd let you in on a couple things I've got planned. Yes she's a biotic badass. However, even though she's got the memories of the Prothean abilities and was able to pull them off in a controlled environment things will be a little different when there's bullets flying around. There's also the factor that if she uses too much Prothean stuff it affects her mind which limits how much of it she can actually use in the field at one time. With the portal, let's just say that's not the last time it'll be raining Seph on Miri ;) Hope that helps!]