They hurry through the double doors, the wheels of the stretcher and my pounding footsteps are the only things I can hear.
"She is losing too much blood, her pulse is fading fast." I could hear Chakwa's voice.
Shepard stops me as I watch how Bellona getting carried away, out of my view.
"Miranda, you need to calm down!" Shepard shouted in my face. I look into her eyes, I know she is right. But I just can't stop seeing her broken body in front of me. Her blood is still on my hands.
"We need to finish the mission, why don't you stay behind and I'll take Garrus with me."
I nod my head, turning around and marching into my office. I need to get a hold of myself.
Shepard looked inside the window where the medical personal surrounded her bed, attaching IV's, heart monitors and oxygen tanks to her. She could see Chakwa was saying something to Bellona and see how her hand moves slightly.
Shepard cursed under her breath and turned to the soldier standing by the door. "If there any update on her, tell me." The soldier saluted as she walked away, they still had a mission to complete.
Shepard walked inside the room where Okeer was supposed to be. As the doors opened his voice echo's across the room.
"Here you are! I've watched your progress. It's about time. The batteries on these tanks will not wait while you play with those idiotic mercs." He barked at the Shepard.
Shepard crossed her arms, "I take it you're Okeer. You don't seem particularity caged…or grateful that I'm here."
"You may claim to be here to help, but the formerly deceased Shepard is not a sign of gentle change. Surprised? All krogan should know you. I'm sure Rana has already supervised your actions on Virmire."
"I'm sure you're eager to retell the story." Shepard was getting annoyed by this krogan.
"Such a tale! Saren, the Spectre traitor threatens the return of the krogan horde by curing the genophage, undoing the gentle genocide of the turians and salarians. But before Saren can deliver endless troops, in rides Shepard, securing victory through nuclear fire. I like that part. It has weight."
Shepard narrowed her eyes. "I make no apologies. It was the most efficient solution."
Warlord Okeer smirks, coming closer to Shepard. "But I approve. Saren's pale hordes were not true krogan. Numbers alone are nothing. The mistake of an outsider, one that these mercenaries have also made." He turned around to look out the window, throwing his arms wide showing the mighty tanks on other side of the window.
"I gave their leader my rejects for her army. But she grows impatient. It's time for you to take me out of here."
Mordin: "Personal issues irrelevant. Here for Collectors."
Okeer looked at them all. "I see. Yes. Collector attacks have increased. A human concern. My requests were focused elsewhere." He walked to the tank in the room that held a Krogan in it. "I acquired the knowledge to create one pure soldier. With that, I will inflict upon the genophage the greatest insults an enemy can suffer. To be ignored."
Shepard narrowed her eyes at him, she can't believe how cruel this Krogan is. "Your search for the perfect soldier created a lot of failures. You don't care about them?"
Okeer just shook his head. "I failed no one. My rejects are exactly what Jedore asked for. She simply tacks the ability to command. They are strong, healthy, and useless to me." He gazed out the window. "I need perfection if few thousand are rejected, so be it. My work will purify the krogan. We will not be restored. We will be renewed."
Shepard shook her head, rubbing her eyes. "I thought the krogan ideal was a return to the numbers that threatened the galaxy."
Okeer walked closer to Shepard. "We will not need numbers. My soldier is a template. It is a greater threat than all the phantom siblings that would have been as its flank. The galaxy still bears the scars of the horde. But it will learn to fear the lance."
Shepard didn't have time for this bullshit, she got a member of her team almost killed, and there was no news on her condition of yet. She needed to finish this soon, and then check up on Miranda and Rose.
"Your methods are extreme, but you know how to deconstruct a threat. Will you help us?"
Okeer nodded his head, thinking for a moment before answering. "Perhaps I can strike a deal to secure passage. But my prototype is not negotiable. It is the key to my legacy."
Jedore: Attention! I have traced the krogan release. Okeer, of course.
Okeer walked up to the window and looked at the Jedore, Shepard listened closely.
Jedore: I'm calling 'blank state' on this project. Gas these commandoes and star over from Okeer's data. Flush the tanks!
The room where the group was in the tank started flaying. Okeer looked at the tank, growing in his voice. "She's that weak willed? She'll kill my legacy with a damned valve!"
Shepard could help but smirk. This is getting better and better.
Miranda looked at Bellona's face, she could see swelling around her face and neck is interfering with her breathing.
Miranda looked over her heart monitor, who was showing a steady beating of her heart, but Miranda was no fool, if they planned to save Bellona, they need to boost her immune system.
Miranda analyzed every sound about Bellona made repeatedly, until something else demanded her attention. There were loud noises around her, but her blood was icy and her muscles tense. She had lost any sense of time. Not knowing how long she'd been here, each second was an eternity to her, and every second she used her skills to keep Bellona alive. However, she knows that there is no proper equipment to do the desperately required operation here.
"She had lost too much blood, we need more!"
"Shit, one bullet went into her rib cage, close to her heart! Try to take the bullet out!"
"Her pulse is fading!"
The dread creeps over her like an icy chill, numbing her brain. In this frozen state, her mind offers her only one thought. 'Hospital'. They need to go to Citadel, Bellona need more help, more meds, more staff to work on her, all she need her to do is to hold on until they get there.
Miranda bit her lip, narrowing her eyes. "She need more…" She whispered. She turned, dropping the data pad on the doctor table and rushed out of the med bay, she needed to contact Shepard.
Miranda knows she was a fool, for acting like she has, she want to apologies to Bellona, she couldn't believe what a fool, what a blind fool she had been.
She should have spent more time with her, talked more with her. Bellona can't die, not if she has to say something about it. She brought Commander Shepard back from the death. She could do it again.
But she know that, Shepard was a no one to her, there were no ties to her, no attachment to her. So she did The Project like an experiment, she did it because she was told to.
To Miranda, Shepard was no one, so it was easy. She didn't know her, sure she heard about her, but to her she was just another stranger, someone she didn't know. Someone she didn't care about.
But this was different, this was someone important to her, someone she know, someone she grow up with, someone she cared about more then she thought. Trying to distance her from those bonds only lead to heartbreak, to pain.
Love was a weakness, love was used to manipulate people, and love brought pain. Miranda didn't want to be hurt ever again, she once loved and she had to give it up, with brought so much pain.
Miranda, know that she can be a bit possessive, she didn't like to share, she would kill anyone wh o will try to take what hers. That why love never worked for her.
But now, everything changed, this was her best friend. The one who always was there, who stood by her, fight by her side, loved and cared about her, even though she didn't deserved it.
The best friend; who was in the operation table, trying to stay alive, to breathe.
She didn't want another to see her corpse on her table as she brought her back.
She didn't want her to stop breathing.
She didn't want her dead.
Miranda wants her best friend back.
Miranda wants her to stay alive and breathe.
Her mouth opened in a shout as she run towards the pilot.
"Joker! Connect me to Shepard!"