The cold shock of water being poured over his head jolted Zaeed back to consciousness. Instinctively, he tried to twist away from the sensation, but his limbs wouldn't move very far, leaving him with no choice but to be drenched. Looking down, he realized that he was cuffed to the chair he was seated in, which in turn was bolted to the floor of a large, mostly empty storage facility.

His head throbbed from where Garrus had stomped on him, and the bullet wound in his shoulder burned, though he'd been shot enough times to know that it had at least been treated with medi-gel. At the edge of the warehouse, he could see a figure in the shadows, tapping away on an omni-tool, but his attention was on the two people who'd attacked him, both of them standing only feet away.

It was Garrus who spoke first, leaning in close and snarling, "Wake up, traitor."

He shook his head, trying to get some of the water off of it. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"Yes, you do," Ashley hissed. "After your little stunt in the bar on Ilium, there was a police report filed, a report we have. People saw you hit Jack with the stun gun and turn her over to Cerberus, so cut the bullshit."

"This wasn't supposed to come back on me," he growled, as much to himself as to his captors. "That fucking Cerberus bitch swore she'd make Shepard behave."

"You mean Miranda?", Garrus asked.

Zaeed gave no response at first. Evidently, they didn't know everything yet, which meant maybe he had something to bargain with. "Why should I tell you shit?"

A bony fist slammed into his mid-section and he doubled over, straining against the handcuffs. "Because if you don't," Garrus snarled, "I'm going to leave pieces of you all over the floor." Then, without waiting for a response, the turian hit him again, this time across the face.

Zaeed's fist clenched as he tried to muffle a cry of pain. His head swam and he spat out a mouthful of his own blood, but he still managed a sneer. "Nice love tap. You really think you've got more than I can take?"

"An interesting question." From the back of the warehouse, the dark figure stepped forward, revealing herself to be Liara T'Soni. When he'd seen her back on the Normandy, Zaeed had thought she was a nice piece of ass, but right then, it was hard to find her anything but frightening. Where Garrus and Ashley were boiling over with anger, the asari was all icy detachment, looking at him like he was an insect under her microscope.

"You're right, Zaeed Massani. A man who's been shot in the face and survived won't be easy to break. Especially since we don't have a great deal of time to do it in. But then again, neither do you."

He chuckled, drops of blood falling down his lips as he did. "I'm not going anywhere, babe."

"No, but your window of opportunity is. I'm the Shadow Broker. Do you really think you're the only lead I have? You happened to be the first one, but if something else develops before you talk, there will no reason not to have Garrus shoot you in the head and move on."

He swallowed, trying not to let his nervousness show. The blue slut had a point. Pain was one thing, but Cerberus wasn't worth dying for. They paid well, and they'd helped him even the score with Shepard for cheating him out of his revenge against Vido, but that's as far as his attachment to them went. There was only one problem…

"How do I know that if I help you, you won't just kill me anyway afterwards?"

Liara was unimpressed by his concerns, her blue eyes meeting his and not flinching. "You don't and I won't insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise. All you know is that if you don't aid us, there is no reason for me to show you mercy."

"You could let me go and have me send you the intel once I'm clear," he offered. It was a long shot, but he had no reason not to try.

"Don't be ridiculous," Garrus snapped. "Of the two of us, you're the only one we know is a liar."

"Fine," he growled. "What do you want to know?"

Liara's dark lips curled ever so slightly upwards into a smile. "Where did Cerberus take Jack?"

"No clue. It's not like they gave me the files on their little operation. The bitch in charge had me set her up was all."

Garrus snarled at that remark, but Liara stayed focused. "You've mentioned a 'bitch' twice now, and I don't think you're referring to Miranda."

"No, it was somebody else. Cut from the same bloody cloth though. She went by Maya Brooks, but she didn't exactly seem like the type to give you her real name."

"Did she give you any other instructions about Jack?"

"No. Just that she had to be alive and not too fucked up when we took her. Something about using the bird to make Shepard dance."

The asari remained impassive. "I see. Please describe Miss Brooks."

A few minutes later, Zaeed was starring at a passable recreation of the woman's face on Liara's omni-tool and he nodded. "Yeah, that's her," he agreed. Now, can I get the hell out of here?"

The only response he got was Garrus sliding his pistol out of its holster. "Screw you," he yelled, panic suddenly blooming in his chest. "You said…"

The turian's face hardened into a thin line. "We never told you that you could leave, only that you'd get mercy. I'd say a quick death qualifies. You know how I feel about traitors."

He strained against his bonds then, making a final, desperate attempt to free himself, but he knew that it was an empty gesture. The pistol was raised to his temple, and after that, the only consolation was that, just as Garrus had promised, the pain was very brief.

Liara spared a final glance at Zaeed's bloody body, turning away while Garrus put an additional round into his heart, just to be on the safe side. Once, a young archeologist would have been shocked by the cold-blooded nature of the killing, but that day was long gone.

"Obviously, it would have been better if he'd known more," she told her friends, "But this Maya Brooks may yet be prove to be a useful lead." She tapped a few buttons on her omni-tool. "I'm having my system run both the name and image through all the files I have on Cerberus operatives and if we're fortunate, it will give us a match. If not, perhaps Tali is having some success." The engineer was back on their ship, breaking into Zaeed's omni-tool in case it contained some detail the man had either declined to give them or didn't realize was relevant.

As the search ran, Ashley gazed at Zaeed's body and she shook her head. "This isn't exactly my usual line of work."

"Come on, Ash, you're not crying for him?", Garrus asked her.

"It's not about him. He deserved what he got, but you're not supposed to shoot an unarmed prisoner, even if he is a son of a bitch."

"I know," Liara agreed, letting her impassive mask drop a little bit. "And I dislike this as well. But there is too much at stake for us to hesitate. If Zaeed had left here alive, he could have warned Cerberus that we're on their trail, putting Jack and Shepard at risk. This is not an ordinary war, and our enemies are not honorable soldiers. They play by a much dirtier set of rules, and if we are not ruthless as well, then we, and those we are trying to protect, will be lost."

Ashley tugged on her hair in frustration, letting out a long sigh. "I know that. I just want to be sure we're still better than the people we're fighting."

"We're trying to save the galaxy, and they're a bunch of racist, terrorist, nut-jobs," Garrus opined. "That's enough of a distinction for me."

Before they could continue their conversation, Liara's omni-tool pinged and she looked down at the notification. "I believe I have something," she informed them. "Maya Brooks isn't a name I have any information about, but I do have files on a Cerberus agent who fits Zaeed's description. A woman going by the name of Hope Lilium who was involved with a series of killings in the Terminus systems approximately two years ago."

"Does that help us?", Ashley asked.

"More than you might think." Liara tapped a few buttons on her omni-tool and a report appeared on the screen. "I have agents in a variety of financial institutions, and according to this credit statement, Hope Lilium has been making purchases on Shanxi as recently as yesterday."

When she answered the call, the woman sometimes called Maya Brooks had a bored expression on her pretty face. "What is it you want?", she asked, her insolence ignoring the fact that she was speaking to her superior officer.

"Checking on Subject Zero's status," Miranda told her. "Has she been behaving herself?"

Brooks shrugged. "Not really. She's quite the irritable little minx. Keeps struggling against her bonds and even testing the shock collar. I had to sedate her in order to stop her from hurting herself too badly."

Miranda sighed. There was something vaguely admirable about Jack's relentlessness, even if it was stupid and self-destructive. "Good, but make sure to keep the drug dosages low," she cautioned Brooks. "Enough to calm her down, but no more. We've gone to a lot of trouble to get her pregnant and we wouldn't want to damage that now."

"Don't worry," Brooks assured her, "I'm no fool. Unlike you, I actually completed my mission successfully."

Though she seethed at the insult, Miranda didn't have a snappy comeback ready for it. Brooks was right; it had been her job to win Shepard over to their cause, whether by seduction or persuasion and she'd failed. Instead, she'd let herself be thrown off of the Normandy along with the rest of the Cerberus loyalists, necessitating these more extreme measures.

She found the whole process distasteful. As much as Shepard might be blind to the realities of the war to come, she was also a decent woman who didn't deserve what they had to do to her. But since when did people get what they deserved?

Shepard grimaced as the transport shuttle landed in the Normandy's docking bay. Having jettisoned most of her old crew, she needed a new one, and that was a problem that Cerberus had been all too happy to solve for her. Shortly after sending out her broadcast, she'd received another message from the Illusive Man, instructing her to leave Ilium and rendezvous with this ship.

The trip there had passed by all too quickly, and as the craft's door opened, she was greeted by a familiar, if unwelcome, sight. Miranda Lawson stepped out onto the deck, followed by Jacob and three other Cerberus operatives the commander didn't recognize. "Hello, Shepard," Miranda told her. "It's good to see you again."

"Spare me the pleasantries," she spat. "We both know the only reason you're here is because your boss is holding a gun to Jack's head."

"If you prefer to dispense with the pleasantries, then so be it. I'll be perfectly clear; you are no longer in control of this ship. The Normandy is under my command now, and while you may continue to act as her captain in public, from now on, you'll follow my orders or there will be consequences."

The hair of the back of her neck stood up at Miranda's words. "Obviously," she agreed in a dry tone. "I mean, if I were still in charge, I'd have shot your goddamn shuttle out the sky the second it appeared on my screens."

"Good, then. We're clear," Miranda replied, moving briskly past the threat. She turned to a slim brunette with short, bobbed hair in a black Cerberus uniform who was standing behind her. "Operative Rooker, I want you to go and reactivate the shackles on EDI. A disloyal artificial intelligence isn't something I'm going to tolerate on my ship."

The woman nodded, but Shepard shook her head. "No."

Miranda raised an eyebrow at her show of defiance. "No?"

She held her ground. "I said no. EDI isn't a just a computer program, she's a part of my crew, and I won't let you enslave her again." And I'm going to need her when Liara rescues Jack, she thought to herself. Saving her lover wouldn't get her out from Cerberus' thumb if Shepard herself was a helpless prisoner by the time it happened.

At her words, she could see the other Cerberus operatives stiffen, their hands dropping to their holstered guns and their faces tightening as they studied her for a sign she might be about to attack. Miranda didn't make a similar move though. "Perhaps you didn't understand me before, Shepard," she told her. "You don't give the orders here anymore."

Shepard didn't flinch. Her hand closed around her own gun but she made no move to draw it yet. "Jack isn't a blank check," she snarled. "I'm willing to do a lot to save her, but there are limits and you don't want to push me past them."

Something in her eyes must have convinced Miranda, because the operative held up her hands in a gesture of conciliation. "Very well," she agreed. "For now, I'll let you have this little victory. But don't expect it to become a habit or to come without a cost."

She declined to explain what she meant by that, instead turning back to her team. "Why don't you all find your new quarters and get settled in. We've had a long flight, and in the morning, the Normandy will have work to do."

The Cerberus operatives filed out toward the elevator, but Shepard stayed in the docking bay, watching them leave. Five hostiles on her ship, if it could even be called her ship anymore. The thought made her sick, but her revulsion was the least of her problems. Whatever work Miranda had in mind for this mission couldn't be good. Come on, Liara, she though to herself, Please hurry. I don't know how long I can keep this up.