Location: Cerberus safehouse—Citadel
Failure. Everywhere she turned there was more of it ready to greet her. Miranda crushed the fake greybox in her hands with biotics that almost flared ultraviolet over her fist.
"You had one job," she seethed. "And you bring me this?"
"It was extracted directly from her skull," the drell replied, picking the spent slug from the heavy weave of his suit. "This is not my area of expertise, but I'm told that a graybox cannot be swapped once inserted."
"You're right." Miranda nodded, walking a half-circle past a smirking Banes. "This is NOT your area of expertise! Now your incompetence is going to cost us!"
The drell buttoned up his shirt with the languid pace of someone who had all the time in the world. It was unnerving, but Miranda wasn't ready to loosen the barest grip of restraint she had left. "If there is nothing else I can do. I should leave."
"You're not going anywhere, frog boy," Banes spoke up, pushing away from the counter he was leaning against. "I think you owe us some details."
The drell bowed. "Of course. The target was in the company of a Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy. She approached him. I waited, thinking it was going to be a hand off so that perhaps I could steal the information from him later. But then she struck. I had no choice but to intervene before she killed him and disappeared."
Miranda watched Banes as he shook his head slowly. His head hung and his shoulders quaked. The few cackles that he tried to suppress escaped him, then came the full blown laughter of a madman.
The drell glanced to Miranda who offered no eye contact in return.
"Is that all?" the drell asked, eyes widening in disbelief as Banes wrapped an arm over his shoulders, still hysterical.
"You should be thankful that Cerberus now has bigger priorities than wiping you off the face of the galaxy," Miranda replied, watching Banes begrudgingly as his laughter made it harder to hear. "Banes!"
The mad scientist raised a dramatic hand to her direction. His face fell to a serious expression she couldn't read, as he pressed a still stoic Thane to his side. "Hang on my dear Lawson. Froggy is going to pay us back."
"I have completed all of my services to Cerberus," the drell replied, expertly moving away from Bane's grasp with the speed of light. "Should you require more, you know where to find me." The drell gave one final bow and began to walk away.
Banes clapped and took a few steps to put himself between Miranda and the retreating assassin. "Oh we know where to find you AND Kolyat."
Thane stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder. Miranda squashed the urge to raise a brow and kept her face devoid of emotion, all the while thinking of how much of this was still pertaining to their current problems. He was hardly a worthwhile asset. Assassins were a dime a dozen, Cerberus employed nearly eighty percent of them. She only used Thane because all other Cerberus assets were engaged.
Thane Krios wasn't quick to anger. Instead he faced his only escape but stood still. "Threats are words of desperation."
"Froggy, froggy, froggy," Banes chided, "you're absolutely right! But you of all people should know that desperate people take desperate actions. Especially those with powers."
Miranda watched in wonder as Banes closed the distance between him and Thane. She had the utmost confidence in her skillset, despite Thane's impressive abilities. But if he struck down Banes and killed one of the most powerful biotics in the world, she wasn't sure what odds would be in her favor. The feeling of tightness in her chest intensified as Banes came within striking distance. Thane knew all the kill points a human possessed, one strike could drop a cocky scientist before he could raise a hand.
"I did as you asked," Thane replied, voice still even without a trace of worry or intimidation.
"Yes you did," Banes cocked his head to the side, now towering over the drell. "Yet I don't want you leaving here thinking you're off the hook, froggy. You owe Cerberus and one day we will come to collect."
"Very well." Thane turned on his heel and continued toward the door.
"Think of him," Banes called.
Thane stopped once again, hand hovering over the door panel.
"On the day when we will surely ask for your assistance again, on that day when you're thinking of just saying no, of challenging Cerberus' reach and patience...think of Kolyat."
The drell disappeared through the door. Miranda would've missed it if she hadn't had the perfect view, but the slight mis-step in his left leg was the only sign that Banes' words had actually disturbed the drell.
Banes ran a lazy hand through his short blonde hair and faced her with a devious grin.
"We won't be needing him," Miranda informed as she walked back towards their conference desk.
"You can't know that, Lawson," Banes replied, stretching his hands high above his head like a lion. "I like to keep my assassins close and their families closer. You will see that it's a perfectly symbiotic relationship."
She chose to ignore that and brought up their operational list of retrieved grayboxes. The one beside Jeremy Roberts was blacked out, the one in blue was Selina York's, the last two in play hung over Mark Kassel and Elena Flore's heads. Her finger hovered over Jin Xiang's as she reflected on its contents. "A decade's worth of Artificial Intelligence research could be anywhere by now," she muttered.
Banes frowned as he flicked through the surveillance footage Thane picked up from the premises. "That doesn't sound like you. I thought you never gave up, Lawson?" Miranda bit her lower lip, knowing he was just stalling towards the obvious next step. She tasted copper when his omni-tool zoomed in on Shepard's face. "If the data is not with her graybox, that means she passed if off to our friend here," Banes replied, watching her. "Of course, you already knew that."
"We don't have any confirmation of the fact that he has the intel." Miranda crossed her arms and stared at Shepard's bloody face. That annoying N7 had a knack of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But what enraged her most was how her hands were tied when it came to his well being.
"I'm not arguing with you because we both know I'm right," Banes said, flicking his omni-tool blank as he stood hunched over the table, watching her like a hawk. "What are you not telling me?"
Miranda moved away and brought up another map of the galaxy. This one had circular arrays around every batarian landing port. "We're going to double our efforts in search of Kassel and Flores. I've had—"
Banes blasted the screen with charcoal tendrils of dark energy. As it sparked its last bits of life, Miranda glared at her partner.
"Do you know why I'm here, Lawson?" Banes asked, crows feet of dark veins started converging around his eyes slowly. "I want to save humanity. I want to see it grow, evolve, transcend this pathetic state of simply being human!"
"Enough!" Miranda yelled back, standing toe-to-toe with him. "You say these things but then act like a spoiled child. The answer is with the research. We need to FIND it NOW! Not resort to temper tantrums at each turn!"
The black matrix had crept up the entire right side of his face to his temple. As it pulsed with dark energy, Miranda focused on keeping contact with the baby blues of his corneas as if it were his last link to humanity.
At the height of his anger the room seemed to grow colder. She could feel his influence all around her, just like the time he had her in his biotic grasp. But this time, the feeling was just that, a feeling.
For as soon as he broke eye contact, Banes collapsed into a chair and laughed to himself. Somebody must have turned on the lights because suddenly it was brighter, less cold as the atmosphere returned to normal. The veins at the side of his face disappeared, leaving smooth clean shaven skin behind.
Banes leaned on his palm and watched her from the corner of his eye. "Did you think I wouldn't find out?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, genuinely confused and not caring if she sounded like it. With Banes, there was no default mode, no secrets, no masks. He could read her like a book and she knew it.
"Shepard," he said simply, looking defeated and tired if not for the remnants of mirth in his eyes. "Just because he's Ivan's son-in-law—excuse me, ex-son-in-law—doesn't affect us."
Miranda sighed and ran her fingers through her raven hair. She had been found out. The only directive she gave Thane was to step in if Shepard was in the line of fire. In that instance, the mission's failure was squarely her fault. "It was not pertinent to our efforts. That's why I didn't disclose it."
Banes nodded, but they both knew he didn't believe that. As he looked around the mess he created, for a brief moment she swore she saw surprise in his expression. But it must have been the lights because he rose silently and came to stand before her, only a breath away. She forced herself not to close her eyes when his heated breath met the nape of her neck as he whispered in her ear. "I don't need Cerberus to save humanity. I'm here because I see something in you, something amazing and powerful, Miranda. Don't let your loyalty to a spineless organization take that away from you."
"You're wrong," Miranda replied, speaking directly to his ear like he did to her. "Cerberus is our best hope. You will come to see that in time."
She heard his smirk but only saw it as he pulled away to look her in the eye. "Prove it. Show me that Cerberus will put humanity's advancement before anything else."
He was baiting her and she knew it. But he was also right. If Jin Xian had managed to slip Shepard her intel, then they had to retrieve it no matter what. Petrovsky would have to understand.
"Let's pay Shepard a visit." Miranda stepped away and headed for the armory, walking in step to Banes' clap. "But you won't touch a hair on him," she warned over her shoulder.
"I wouldn't dream of it, my dear Lawson. That honor, should it arise, will be all yours."
o~O~o
Location: Liam Shepard's residence—Presidium condo's—Citadel
Liam leafed through the data packet extracted from the wound in his hip. Enhanced Defence Intelligence, also known as a shackled A.I. It's as if Cerberus wanted the processing power of an entire comm battalion under one construct. Yet after spending all morning tracing codenames to theories, Liam didn't see any signs of progress on their part or his own. The graybox was just one big data dump and unlike Selina's case, there was no prototype to tear down. EDI was essentially a very powerful theory.
He slumped back in his couch and scrubbed a hand over his lightly beat up face. Images of Hunter wouldn't leave him alone. The kid was too young to be lying on a slab and yet that's where his body was. It hurt bad to see another brother in blue go down, but he couldn't imagine what it felt like to those he worked with the most. To people like Glen, Casey, Ellie and the Captain.
He lifted his omni-tool to a blank inbox. Everyone was grieving, but it hurt more to know that there was nothing he could do to ease their pain. Nothing except dig through the garbage he died for.
"This research is fascinating," Sam spoke into his ear via comm implant. "I've seen theoretical outputs of this scale, but never using a GUI bypass and quantum entanglements contained within a single A.I core. If it works, it'll be revolutionary."
Liam smiled at her enthusiasm, glad to be one of few people in the world who cared about high tech on this level. But it was the Cerberus label on the documents that made him uneasy. They had to have a purpose for building this thing. Cerberus wasn't some think tank that could drop that much credits on something benign. This A.I was some sort of weapon. One they couldn't control if the shackles were an indication.
"Keep decrypting the sub-folders I sent," Liam replied, tapping his data pad blank when he heard the door open. "I'll drop the rest of them off in-person. Let me know if you find anything."
"Will do, Commander," she chirped and signed off. At least someone had a strategy for dealing with grief, just pile on the work.
Liam rose as Sasha walked into his living room. She looked like an angel as the lights from the citadel lake glimmered around her. That's when he recognized what was so different about her, her cheeks seemed fuller and more plump than he remembered and she had a certain humble fullness about her despite it being so early in her pregnancy. She still looked gorgeous, especially when she smiled.
"Hey," she greeted, sweeping dark locks from her eyes as she took in the cuts and bruises lining his face.
"Hi," he replied, moving closer but stopping a few feet away. It was just like the party, awkward yet somehow right. "What's up?"
"Oh, I...thought I should give these back." She raised a spare keycard dangling on a loop around her index finger.
Liam took the keys but couldn't stop his gaze from dropping to the slightest bulb at her belly. It terrified him, but when their fingers brushed he caught her eyes and the fear evaporated. She hadn't been this happy since Michael was born. Sasha always wanted a big family, but her medical condition was supposed to kill that dream.
"Thanks," he replied, not moving away as they watched eachother.
She reached out and brushed a finger to the light scar on his cheek. "How are you feeling?"
"I should be asking you that question." He smirked, gaze dropping to her stomach.
Her gaze swept his neck and jaw before her hand fell away. "Bloated, sleepy, the usual." Her grin widened, as she glanced to the lake then back to him. "I can feel her kicking."
"Her?" Liam asked, breaking out with a matching grin.
"We haven't picked a name yet," Sasha admitted.
He shook his head playfully. "You're barely showing and It was months before Michael started kicking. Are you sure?"
"No joke," she urged, taking his hand in hers. "Feel."
She placed his palm over her stomach and Liam froze. The tiny person inside tapped against the elastic wall of skin. Tiny little bops that made him chuckle. The little kicks felt like a pulse, since they continued more frequently.
Sasha's fingers danced over his hand as she watched his joy play out. Liam didn't think as he drew her into a loose hug and felt her grab fistfuls of his shirt, burying her head in his neck. "I'm so happy for you," he whispered into her hair. "I know how much we wanted this...you wanted this."
She didn't say anything as one of her hands let loose and slid over his chest, kneading the fabric in slow circles like she always did when they spent hours just talking long into the night. As the memories flooded his brain, something in his heart broke. He didn't know what, but even her soothing touch wasn't enough to make it go away.
Soon it became too painful to hang on and he stepped back, giving her room to do the same. When they parted she couldn't even look at him.
"I also think we should talk about yesterday," she said softly, crossing her arms around herself.
He smirked. Sasha really was pregnant. Normally there'd be a yelling match, not this meek show where she couldn't even look him in the eye. "What's there to talk about?"
"I'm having this baby," she said, raising that edge in her tone which he had grown used to near the end of their relationship.
"At what cost?" Liam leaned a hand against the couch, trying to keep himself grounded if he was going to have this conversation. "Sasha, I know how much this means to both of you. But...if you don't make it."
"I'm going to make it, Li," she almost begged, but the undeniable conviction was right there in her eyes, even if her voice told him she was scared shitless. "I know it. But I need you to believe in me...for Michael's sake at least."
Liam took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. "You haven't told him about your cond—?"
"There's nothing to say."
"I would want to know if my mother was risking her life."
"So that he can grow up to resent his little sister?" She shook her head and stepped forward, rubbing her arms along her sides. "I know I have no right to ask anything of you, but please just believe in me...Please."
He hated seeing her this way, but he was scared shitless. Sure they weren't together anymore, but a world without Sasha wasn't a world he wanted to live in. She was still the mother of his child and a great friend.
His hands moved on their own and came to rest on either side of her hips. The supposed baby didn't do anything that he could feel. "I believe in you, Sash," he said slowly, swallowing the lump in his throat. "But you better get off that bed alive. You hear me?"
She smiled, encircling both arms around his neck and planting a soft peck on his forehead. "Deal."
They stayed like that for a moment, but broke apart at the blast. The steel door burst from its hinges and shot across the hall, out the window and into the lake below. Liam was quick to dive for his gun as Sasha shrieked and clung to him tighter. But with the added weight of a pregnant woman he didn't want to hurt, he missed the gun on the table by a mile and grasped the furniture to steady both of them.
"What a view," the familiar voice came from the door as footsteps shuffled in.
He couldn't see through the smoke, but managed to claw his way up and position Sasha behind him as a special ops team surrounded them. Two soldiers wearing orange, white and black had their rifles on him, their helmets covered their faces.
The one that spoke strode down the middle, wearing a muscle shirt and white pants in the same color. Liam grit his teeth, recognizing his friend from Ontarom.
The intruder twirled around the living room, as if he was considering the place. "This place is magnificent!" He exclaimed, swiping a finger across the bookshelf. "Clean too!"
"Focus," another voice, feminine said from behind him as she walked in. The SMG at her side clapped against her white catsuit, but those cerulean eyes only swept the vicinity, searching for something.
Liam wanted to move over to the table and cover the datapad from view, but that would mean exposing a trembling Sasha to gunfire. Not an option.
"It's alright," he whispered, trying to get her to loosen her death grip on the back of his shirt.
"How do you know that?" Banes challenged, turning his demented glee their way.
Liam tried to look anywhere but his overturned coffee table, which the woman was getting closer to as she dug around for the box.
"Take what you want and get out," Liam said, "this doesn't have to get ugly."
"No, it doesn't." The woman turned to him, hands on hip and demanded. "Where is the graybox?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Liam replied.
Banes snorted and turned to his partner. "You hear that? I hear lies." His smile morphed into a grin. "I despise liars."
"The graybox. Where is it?" the woman repeated, adding more weight to her words. Liam found it funny that her SMG stayed at her side. Bargains usually happened over a barrel.
A stack of books was flung biotical their way. Liam smacked the hardcovers away, but one hit Sasha in she yelled in pain.
Banes cackled in triumph. "Knowledge is power."
"Leave her out of this!" Liam yelled, getting up only to have a book crush his gut. He went down hard, falling right beside the table and hearing Sasha shriek.
"Shhhhhh," Banes soothed, "you just want to sit down and enjoy the show."
"Please...don't hurt him," she begged, but backed away when one of the helmeted soldiers motioned her to a chair.
"My bedroom," Liam croaked, not ready to have anything happen to Sasha because of some stupid graybox. "Over there."
He pointed and it was enough to distract the two soldiers. Flicking his arm sideways unleashed a double overload and the two suits stumbled away, fried. Liam popped up, just as Banes brought his hands together, creating that same ball of dark energy he did on Ontarom.
The woman with the SMG rose hers at the same time. It all happened in slow motion as Liam switched targets and fired a shot into her chest just as he felt a puncture in his front.
Watching Banes' look of horror was the best final image as Liam hit the floor. His head lolled to Sasha who cowered on the couch, trying to shield herself. One of the soldiers lifted the datapad in his hand before smashing his face with the butt of his rifle.