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Malicious Intent

"Looks like she's coming around," a voice said. Shepard's heart beat faster. She didn't remember passing out again. But it was true: the amoeba-like blotches of shadow started to take some kind of form. She blinked. Everything looked like she had opened her eyes while submerged in a vat of tar.

"Hello, Commander Shepard." The lilac asari from earlier was speaking to her. "Do you know where you are?"

Her vision cleared somewhat, and Shepard found that she was looking down at her own legs. Was she standing up? No. Her bare feet weren't even touching the ground. She raised her head, and suddenly became aware that her arms were in metal shackles, hanging from chains above her. Her broken wrist was twisted painfully in its cuff. She tried to jiggle it into a less disagreeable angle, but to no success. The chains rattled. "No," she answered. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kamala," she answered. "This is Tayir," she pointed to a krogran with greenish gray skin, "and this is Varick." It was the turian with the black Xs painted on his face. The one who hurt Kaidan.

"What do you want with me? Who do you work for?"

Kamala grinned, revealing bright white teeth. "Not so fast, Shep. That's not how we're gonna do this."

"And, this is...?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're going to torture you."

Shepard's face paled. She'd never faced enemies that took prisoners before. "Oh." She hung there for a moment, looking at three of them. "Any reason in particular? Or just because you can?" Though she did her best to prevent it, she couldn't stop her voice from wavering ever so slightly at the end.

Kamala's grin broadened, and she took a step closer. "Like I said, all in good time."

Shepard shivered. Give her a gun and tell her to save the Citadel from a Reaper, no problem. Set her against a room full of asari commandos with nothing but her biotics, and she'd manage. But with her hands bound, she didn't know how she was supposed to defend herself. The only thing she knew how to do was fight back. If she couldn't do that... what was she supposed to do? "Okay. Have it your way." Her eyes darted back and forth between the other two. "Are you guys going to take turns, or is this going to be a foursome?"

The asari laughed, her pretty features twisting into a sneer. "Finally, we get one that doesn't immediately start begging for their life! So much more amusing this way." She pulled a serrated dagger from the depths of her white coat, its jewelled handle glittering beneath the harsh light.

Shepard tried to swing herself, in hopes of gaining enough momentum to muster up a kick, but all she did was sway back and forth inappreciably. The asari smirked. "Aww, Shep. You look scared." Shepard usually had a pretty good poker face, but apparently it wasn't holding up. Kamala gripped the dagger in one hand. "Try not to move," she said, snickering. She drove the blade into her thigh.

She didn't mean to, but Shepard cried out when its tip sunk into her skin. She bit her tongue when Kamala dragged the serrated edge downward. "Is this hurting you?"

"Just surprised me is all." Kamala left a shallow, unbroken cut from thigh to ankle, cutting her pants in the process. She did the same to the other leg, then sawed through the material around her hips. Her shredded pants fell to the ground. Shepard forced a rough smile. "If you wanted me out of my pants, all you had to do was ask."

Kamala giggled, possibly mocking Shepard's futile attempt at masking her pain, or simply appreciating the joke. Varick, the turian, gave a half-hearted chuckle. She removed Shepard's shirt in the same manner, leaving a thin line of red from the hollow of her throat down to her belly button. Shepard was down to her black bra and cotton briefs. She shivered again. It was kind of drafty.

Kamala cleaned her knife on the tattered remains of Shepard's shirt. "She's all yours, Tayir." Tayir. The krogan. The other two started to head out. Kamala got to the door, then turned to wink at Shepard. "Have fun, you two. We'll check back in a few." A few hours? Days?

Tayir didn't say anything at first. He turned off most of the lights in the room, leaving only a bright spotlight above Shepard. Then, he got to work behind her, hidden from her gaze since she was unable to turn her head very far. She heard metal clattering, like tools of some sort.

As the blood trickled down her legs, Shepard noticed that she was over a large metal grate. There was water underneath it. Possibly a drain. She swallowed hard. The implications were unpleasant. At the far end of the grate was a lever, attached to what appeared to be a pulley system. Presumably the one she was dangling from. She swiveled her head around. Of the one hundred eighty degree view she had, that was pretty much all there was to see. She assumed that there was more behind her, which was whatever was keeping Tayir busy.

"You're taking your time back there," Shepard said. The longer she waited, the larger the knot in her stomach grew. She didn't know if being tortured would make that knot bigger or smaller, but there was only one way to find out.

Tayir didn't answer. She hadn't really expected him to, figuring that whatever came out of his mouth wouldn't be too pleasant anyway. Shepard sighed, watching a neat red line travel over one of her knees. She cursed herself for getting into this mess, thinking back to when she was abducted on Illium. However, she didn't dwell on it for more than a few seconds. No use tearing herself up over what had already happened. Besides, she got the feeling that Tayir would be taking on that particular task himself.

What she had to concentrate on was... well, she wasn't sure, exactly. Escape didn't seem to be too likely an option. Even if she somehow managed to free herself from the metal cuffs, she'd still have the krogan to contend with. Her arms were going numb, and without the use of those, she wouldn't be able to rely on her biotics. Especially with her broken wrist, her escape attempt would very short-lived indeed. Not to mention her current lack of clothes. Shepard didn't fancy wandering around an enemy base in her underwear, and not just because it offered so little protection.

A moment later, Tayir returned. Shepard thought he was holding some sort of alien cactus. Then, she realized it was a wooden club with nails sticking out of it.

Garrus paced at the head of the table in the comm room. It was the position that Shepard usually occupied to brief the team. The change in perspective felt drastically different, but he did his best to push his discomfort to the back of his mind. The team Shepard had assembled was the finest the galaxy had ever seen, and he wouldn't impress them by standing there awkwardly like an idiot.

He gave them all the information they had up until that point as quickly and concisely as possible. They remained silent while Garrus spoke, a little reluctant to accept his words.

After he finished, Jack was the first one to speak up, putting to words what they were all feeling: "What the fuck are we still doing here? Let's go kill the bastards that did this. And, y'know, get the commander back."

"It won't be that simple," Liara said, moving forward into the space next to Garrus at the head of the table. Everyone's eyes were on her, scrutinizing her. Even though Liara had served on the original Normandy and had known Shepard longer than all of them except Tali and Garrus, to the others, she seemed like an outsider. They still weren't quite sure of what her part in all of this was. "The Shadow Broker will be expecting us to go after her. We need to plan out our moves carefully and avoid detection at all costs."

"She's right," Zaeed said. His arms were folded over his chest. "As soon as they figure out we're coming, they'll kill her so fast it'll make our heads spin."

Tali gave a quiet half-gasp, half-cough, almost as if her enviro-suit was malfunctioning. Kasumi put a hand on her shoulder, and Garrus glared at the thoughtless mercenary. That's not helping. Zaeed didn't seem to notice.

"Well, we're going to make sure that doesn't happen," Miranda said, giving Zaeed a chilly look. Garrus found relief in her confidence. He just hoped she wasn't jinxing it.

"And how're you going to do that?" Zaeed asked, his rough voice carrying loudly across the room.

"We have a plan in place," Miranda assured him.

Thane spoke up for the first time during the meeting. "'We?' Does this include all of the crew, Operative Lawson?" He was still angry that Miranda hadn't shared the news that Shepard was gone as soon as she found out. If Lawson thought she was going to exclude the rest of them in Shepard's rescue and center the operation around herself, she had another thing coming.

"Be at peace, Thane," Samara said softly to him, but his cold black eyes never wavered from Miranda for a moment.

Garrus intervened, noting the tension. "The first part of the plan only requires a small team. However, once we've acquired the necessary intel, we'll need everyone's assistance to proceed."

Thane backed off after that, accepting Garrus's assertion. He didn't trust Miranda. Or any of the Cerberus crew members, really. He was especially worried now that Shepard was absent. The only reason he was on a Cerberus vessel was because he was told that it wasn't a Cerberus mission, but a Shepard mission. With her gone, Thane was pretty sure it was still that way, but he was more interested in whether or not Miranda knew that.

Liara picked up where he left off, saying, "Garrus, Kaidan and I will be going into -"

"Hold on," Miranda said, interrupting her statement. She tossed her hair over her shoulder, straightening as she clasped her hands behind her back. "Since this mission will be funded by Cerberus, I insist that it is appropriately represented throughout all stages of it."

Fair enough. "Jacob, you're with us," Garrus said, nodding in his direction. Jacob started to take a step forward, but Miranda held out her arm, blocking his way.

"Actually, I'll be accompanying you," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"No, you won't," Liara said. She placed her hand on Garrus's shoulder, pulling him towards the door. "We're leaving, and you need to stay on the ship."

"Oh, really, T'Soni?"

"Your authority doesn't extend past the Normandy. Your place is here."

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. The last thing Miranda was going to do was sit back and nod her head while an asari told her what her place was. "I'm still the executive officer of the ship, and as such, it is well within my authority to have you ejected from the premises. I suggest you acclimate yourself to the idea."

"Eject me?" Liara laughed. "I dare you to try."

"Both of you, stop." Garrus had the attention of the whole room, his raised voice cutting through the heated argument like a shot fired from his pistol. Luckily, it hadn't come to that. Yet. "You can't even go ten minutes without jumping at each others' throats." He moved in between them, so that they easily fit into his line of vision. "Miranda, you'll come with us, and stay rear guard the whole time. Liara will take point. Spirits help me if I have to separate you two. And if there's any question about who's in charge here, let me make it simple for you: I am leading this mission." He glared at the two of them. "Are we clear?"

They both offered a reluctant "yes." Garrus sighed. It would have been less complicated to tell Miranda to just stay back on the ship, but he couldn't get away with that like Shepard could. He couldn't afford to jeopardize Lawson's loyalty. She was too powerful an ally, too formidable an adversary. Garrus would just have to tread as carefully as possible when it came to dealing with her and Liara, lest he offend either one of them. This is gonna be lots of fun, I can already tell.

"Good," he said sternly.

From the back of the room, he heard Jack cheer, "You tell 'em, Blue!" He felt like smiling. At least she's not fighting with the others. For now.

"We'll be back in a few hours. Until then, Tali and Jacob are in charge. You're dismissed."

A few of them started to move towards the door. Others, however, hung around to see if there was a mutiny, or perhaps a good girl-fight, in the works.

"So, Liara," Garrus said. "This contact of yours. Who is she? Where do we find her?"

"My secretary. She's back at my office."

"Wait," Miranda said. "I thought you said that your secretary was an agent of the Shadow Broker. How can we trust her? She was the one who sold out Shepard, wasn't she?"

"Yes. She's still where I left her, tied up and passed out. By the time we get there, she will have probably come around." Garrus was impressed by her foresight. Once Liara had discovered that her secretary was feeding information to the enemy, she must have known that she would be a valuable source of intel. A snitch could work both ways, which was a valuable lesson Garrus had learned back at C-Sec. "But there's a catch. The last time we spoke, Nyxeris was rather... unwilling to tell me anything. Perhaps the four of us will have more success."

Garrus had an idea of how he could get her to talk. "Better make that five." His eyes fell almost immediately upon who he was searching for. After all, he was rather hard to miss. "Grunt?"

The krogan stepped forward. At close range, his size was terrifying. Definitely not someone Garrus would want to piss off. Hopefully our informant will feel the same way. "Feel like getting some air?"