A/N: Ahhh. My first draft has been in, I've moved to my new apartment, things are good.

I'm posting two chapters tonight, and I'll hopefully be updating occasionally in the next couple weeks. If I get my edits back soon then I obviously will have to slow down. But possibly a chapter every couple of days, considering I'm gaming and writing and working on cosplay at the same time.

As always thanks so much for your patience and ... shall we?

A Sole Lead

About two days later, nothing had changed.

Miranda had left a message for Kaidan saying that she had a meeting before disappearing that morning, and no one had heard from Kasumi since she had disappeared during the first meeting. Jack, Grunt, and Javik were essentially skeet-shooting empty crates in the cargo hold with nothing else to do, while everyone else hunted for information.

It was indeed the information hunt that drew Chakwas up into the war room, finding the conference room dark and Kaidan slumped over the table, head resting on his folded arms. She sighed and stepped in quietly, receiving a groan just from her quiet footfalls.

"How bad?" she asked quietly, carefully setting down the glass of water she'd brought with her. He winced away from the noise.

"Seven."

Chakwas set down a small vial of medication near the water. "We'll find her."

"I told her to stay on the Normandy. I knew she'd hate it. We fought about it, but she stayed. I thought . . ."

"You thought it would keep her safe. We had no way to know this would happen, Kaidan."

"I should have taken her with me."

"You couldn't have kept her any safer. They would have found a way to separate you. Cerberus knows her, Kaidan, possibly as well as you do. Maybe more."

"He must have had this planned." Chakwas nodded, knowing Kaidan had probably been working on this without sleep since the disappearance. "Shepard was afraid that there was a failsafe. She worried about a kill-switch, or a secret cloning plan - hell we saw that - or even that there was a control chip that Miranda didn't know about . . . What if this was it?"

"If it was, it was stupid. There was no guarantee that she would survive the Reapers — though, if she had not, I doubt many of us would have — or that you would resume your relationship, or that you would even keep a conceived child."

"But she doesn't deserve whatever they're doing to her."

"I know. Shepard has done more for the galaxy than any other sentient being in existence." Chakwas moved up next to him and gently rested a hand on his arm. "We'll find her, Kaidan."

He didn't answer, and she nudged the pills and water closer. "Don't do this to yourself." Kaidan grunted and fumbled for the bottle. "I'll let Willschek know he has the ship and to report to Garrus for anything he needs."

"Thanks," he mumbled, dry-swallowing the pills.

#

Joker's terminal was the easy one. Apparently, taking him along with Shepard had been a secondary decision, likely made relatively quickly after they'd realized he was with her. Because of that, all his terminal needed was some speedy rerouting and hacking so that the power drain wouldn't go into the base's notes, a quick kill-switch so the terminal's usage couldn't be investigated if anyone started to ask questions, and a little jumping around firewalls and passwords through back doors before he had access to the base itself, though most of it was more in the sense of "text only" than the "welcome to the mainframe, feel free to fuck around" he had hoped for.

After his took only a couple hours of dedicated work, he spent another day hacking around as he tried to determine how to remotely activate Shepard's. That one was posing far more difficulties. Due to the fact that she had been an ... expected guest ... someone had taken the time to manually disconnect and remove the terminal, leaving only the structural components. But he was certain that, as a disconnected terminal could also be used as a weapon in certain desperate circumstances by certain desperate supersoldiers, there had to have been a reason to leave it there. Which meant it also had to have the capability of being turned back on.

It was late the second day when he actually had the idea to use the system against itself.

It'd been solid datamining for the first two. While unable to download or save any of the data he had a pretty solid idea what they wanted with Shepard, the pending kids, and who was behind Echidna, at least in a very general sense. He also managed to get a solid video feed of Shepard's cell, which meant he was able to keep an eye on her while she paced aimlessly and occasionally yelled at the camera.

Joker navigated to one of the documents he had found earlier, which was essentially a checklist of do's and don't's when it came to Shepard's treatment. He scratched at the back of his neck as he tried to figure out just where to put the new do he was looking to add.

"Don't speak to subject or allow subject to talk her way out of custody ..." He mumbled to himself. "Don't needlessly agitate subject ... do not give subject anything that may be turned into a weapon in any imaginable form, even if you aren't sure if it can be (addendum: just don't give subject anything to be safe) ... don't let subject near firearms ... don't leave subject in a position to physically harm you ... come on."

The 'do' section was surprisingly short, as most of the things had been covered under the extensive don'ts, and he navigated down to the bottom.

[Add. 16 May] Mental status of subject in question. Minimal functionality of terminal to be restored by end of day.

That should do it. Minimal functionality would mean that the terminal would be marginally online with the rest of the base — marginally enough that he would be able to sneak through and contact her. And editing this document would cause an alert to go to the team that was tasked with guarding her, and he knew it'd be enough. He did a bit more hacking before saving, making it look as though it was the head of Echidna who had authorized the change before closing the window.

It was a damn good thing he'd spent half of his life hacking things out of boredom.

"And maybe they'll give her a solitaire game or something," he muttered, glancing back at the terminal window where Shepard was again pacing the floor of her cell the same way she had been for the past two days.

#

Shepard jumped back as her door opened, immediately falling into a defensive stance as several of the men likely guarding her cell stepped in, guns drawn on her. They were apparently escorting a technician, who after a wary glance at her set about working on the terminal by the door.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

"Shut up," one of them ordered.

"No," she replied. "What's going on?"

"Routine maintenance."

"Oh, yes, just routine maintenance." She frowned, eying the open door behind them. Almost as if the head commando knew what she was thinking she suddenly found herself pushed solidly back against the wall, the barrel of the large gun he was carrying pressing into her chest.

"I'd stop looking in a marginally hopeful way at that door," he said.

"Just a frankly curious question here," she asked as she caught her breath, one hand resting protectively over her abdomen. "Are you working for what's his face because you want to, or because he's paying you? Because if he's paying you-" He sighed heavily and pointedly clicked the safety off on his gun. "Point taken. So, is he letting you fire real ammo now?" He glared at her. "It's an interesting gun. I've never seen one like it before. No, before you ask, I'm not going to ask to hold it."

"New model," he said, voice short. "Just authorized it. Fires tranquilizer rounds."

". . . oh." She cleared her throat. "What sort of tran—"

"All done," the technician called. Immediately he was ushered out, and the guards left with the weapons still pointed directly at her until the door's three locks chimed. Shepard warily peeled herself off the wall and padded over to the terminal suspiciously, eying it. Settling herself down, she clicked a few buttons just for the background to come on, revealing an image of a powerful-looking woman with the tail of a snake for legs. Shepard curled her lip slightly before a window popped up.

Welcome back, Commander. Glad to see that little trick worked.

She stared at the screen blankly for a second.

Oh yeah, sorry. It's me, Joker. I may have worked some magic.

Right. She typed back. Prove it.

Do you seriously want me to tell you how many times I had to shut off the surveillance in Starboard Obs? For the record, it was probably thirty. Or something. Cause you and Alenko had to ruin it for everyone.

All right, fine.

Also, your drink of choice is bourbon and you slammed an admiral's kid into a wall in school for threatening to see how far I could crawl without my crutches.

Shepard closed her eyes in relief. Point taken. Are you all right?

I'm fine. Nothing's happened so far. Open a solitaire game or something, make it look convincing.

She did, then pulled open that window again. Give me a rundown.

I'm editing your terminal. Pressing the power button will kill your active programs and open something unassuming in about five seconds. Don't try it yet though, we should probably talk.

Yeah. About how we're getting out of here.

Exactly. How are you feeling?

Tired as fuck but no different.

Good. I've been doing some poking, got some good and bad news. Good news is we're planetside, in an old abandoned base in the Terminus systems. Bad news - we're on opposite sides of the base.

How big?

Pretty big. Don't think we ever found this one - it must have remained operational through the war.

So what does this mean?

It's going to be tricky. I do have a map of the base. There's more though.

Oh?

I have access to the base records. I don't think you're gonna like it very much.

Just spit it out.

I don't have all of it. I just know that unless you 'prove useful' you're gonna be killed as soon as you have the twins. I'm pretty much fucked one way or the other but I think we both realized that.

Yeah.

Also all the orders are being given by a guy signing off as -L.

Shepard frowned and glanced up at the camera before looking back down at the terminal and replying. Just -L?

Yep. Or someone named Oxley. Looks like he might be the Miranda to the TIM if you ask me.

Shepard's frown deepened. Any idea how they're connected to Cerberus?

Nope. Apart from having Cerberus records, I don't know.

She sighed. So what's our next move?

Search me. I'm just your snarky pilot.

Shepard sighed again, heavily, and stared at the screen.

Well, she finally typed. They're using some sort of tranq guns over here. I'm sure they're mostly leaving you alone.

Mostly.

We need to find out how fast that tranq works on me. If he has access to Cerberus records I'm sure he knows it's only a matter of time before I decide to try and escape even with you here. If it's long enough to still get you and get to the shuttles then that's one thing but if it's a matter of seconds then we may have a problem.

I doubt it'll work that slow.

Me too but we need to find out. I don't want to try anything, though.

Cause of me? Shit Shepard we need to know how long it takes to work. Maybe they'll go easy on me if it's your first try or something.

Joker they'll fucking kill you.

Not like I didn't routinely get shit broken for most my life or anything. You know that. Now listen dumbass I'm pretty much stuck doing shit on this terminal anyway so it's up to you. It isn't like me being able to walk for a bit is gonna change much anyway.

You're sure.

Not like we have much of a choice if we ever wanna get out of here.

With a heavy sigh, she shook her head. Let me think.

K.

Shepard stood and started to pace, folding her hands behind her as she did so. He was right, of course, but she didn't want to think about the consequences of him being right. But one or both of them could possibly talk their way out of it — and besides, it wasn't as if they wouldn't be able to find out the other's condition once their guards had left.

She returned to the terminal and typed out her reply. All right. I'll make a move whenever they pull me out for an exam, all right?

Good. I'll work on getting my pouty 'please don't murder me' face on.

Jesus, Joker, don't fuck around with that okay?

Calm down, Shep. I'll be fine. Pinky promise.

She shook her head. I hate you.

Aww, that cuts deep, Shep. Start pacing or something again, you don't want them to get suspicious.

#

Miranda tapped her foot impatiently as she studied her omni-tool, ignoring the shimmering light of the Presidium as it reflected off the water by the Conduit. It wasn't the most private area to have a meeting, but it was the only one her contact would agree to meet her in. Years of in-bred distrust of her own network hadn't helped - if there was one thing Cerberus was good at, it was inducing paranoia.

"Nice day in space, ain't it." She barely flinched when the man she was waiting for leaned on the railing next to her, studying the miniature mass relay.

"Hartwell."

"Lawson." Pleasantries aside, he stepped into business. The pressed suit he wore blended in perfectly with the businessmen and diplomats scurrying around the area. "And just what services of mine do you require today?"

"Nothing exciting," she answered, handing him a datapad. "Have you heard of a group calling itself Echidna?"

Hartwell grunted, scanning the datapad. "A bit."

"They took over for Cerberus. I'm looking to track them down."

"What for?"

"That is none of your concern."

"Ain't for your little pet project, is it?"

Miranda resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Information, Hartwell. Either you have it, and are useful, or you do not, and are not."

"Cool your pretty tits, Lawson."

"If you think that, just because we are in public, I will not shoot you, you are sorely mistaken." Miranda was waiting to pull out the fact that Hartwell owed her a favor from the war, and knew things that would make him very valuable to certain interested parties.

"Relax, Lawson. Just having some fun."

"I do not have a lot of time, Hartwell. Either you have information, or you don't."

"'Course I have some. It'll cost though."

"You owe me."

He was silent for a moment before handing the datapad back, then huffed. "Don't know where the head chap's operating out of. Mosta your bases are gonna be planet-side, save a few stations out in the Horsehead. And they're mostly in the Terminus. Far as I know they've got themselves a pretty little network already, with more than a few ex-Cerberus. Ones that survived the implanting and the indoctrination, of course."

"Where are they getting their new recruits?"

"Probably the same place everyone else is. People who don't have much left to lose."

"Are they still pro-human?"

"Far as I know."

"Do you know what bases they're using?"

"Only a couple. Had one on Chasca, but I hear the Alliance hit it and a couple others."

"Do you know of any other bases?" Miranda resisted the urge to throw him over the railing. But that would cause a scene, and as they were currently still leaning nonchalantly on the railing and seemed to be holding a simple conversation, she did not want to draw attention to herself.

"Mm. Heard they reopened one o'the bases out on Binthu, and maybe the one on Nepheron. 'Bout all I know though. What you lookin' for, anyway?"

"I need access to a communications terminal before their data is wiped," she replied simply, tucking the datapad under her arm. "That is all you need to know."

"Welp, that's all I do know. Guess you're shit outta luck then."

Miranda delicately rolled her eyes. "Thank you for very little, Hartwell," she replied sharply.

Hopefully Kasumi, with whatever she was doing, would have better luck.

Guest: Um ... -shifty eyes- Possibly.

wanttoreadforev: Aww well the planning stages are beginning. Soon! :3

Anyone whose reviews I haven't actually replied to: Thanks so much for reading, guys, and I hope you enjoy these two updates!