It was the scream that brought Rogers running out of her quarters, the excited, terrified babble that led her to the bank of escape pods nearest to Jack's hidey-hole. Anger burned in her chest as she realized something had gone terribly wrong.

Tonya knelt at the far end of the room, her twin brother cradled in her arms. She sobbed so hard it shook them both, broken babbled pleas for Trey to talk to her pouring forth like the tears.

Rogers bit the inside of her lip: Trey was clearly dead. The secondary ramifications were immediately apparent: Tonya was now virtually useless. It was something of which she'd been aware since first meeting the twins. They were intensely powerful together, but separate them and they were noticeably untalented. Their codependence was their strength and their weakness.

"VI: Lock down this ship. We are in a state of emergency. Have Security Officer Morgan wait for me at the briefing room. Open channels to Arcturus: we are in the middle of a crisis, and will report in as soon as the situation is fully contained."

"Orders relayed."

"Are all evacuation pods accounted for?" She already knew the answer, and it made her angry. How could this have happened?!

"There has been one jettison, but the rest of the evacuation measures are still in their cradles."

Damn. "Tell Arcturus they may be receiving a fugitive directly associated with my Corsair activity. She is an extremely dangerous biotic." For a moment Rogers toyed with trying the killswitch in Jack's favorite amp—it might still be in range—but decided against it.

Let Jack show up on Arcturus raging and snarling: with any luck she'd end up very dead. That would solve a lot of problems.

Setting her mouth in a thin line, Rogers strode to her locker, grabbed her pistol, and headed down to Jack's living space.

She found d'Angelo on the floor, dazed, clearly the victim of a biotic attack. She knew what had happened as soon as d'Angelo met her eyes, the way he lifted his chin.

His entire attitude was one of sheer defiance.

She was not controlling her biotics as rigidly as she ought, but found herself unable to stop the flare of power in the air around her. He…let the girl go? He let the girl go?! He couldn't! He wasn't allowed! He was hers, her creature! As long as they were 'saving the galaxy' he was supposed to be on her side! He saw the brutal necessities as clearly as she did…so why…

…emotional involvement. That shattered little bitch had somehow suborned one of the coldest pragmatists she, Rogers, had ever met! It was enough to make her want to twist d'Angelo into a pretzel and throw him out the airlock!

The horrible thing was that he clearly knew what he'd done. It showed as he got to his feet, shaking off the impact with the wall and straightening his clothes.

"I thought we were saving the galaxy," Rogers snarled. Had she ever been this angry? Ever? Her self-control continued fraying as she looked at this traitor. There was no room for treachery on this ship! Damn him! He'd potentially ruined everything!

As long as Capt. Cameron enjoyed success (and safety), he'd let Rogers run his ship. Cameron's spine was one of toothpaste; if he thought for one minute that Rogers had pulled him in over his head…

…she had, of course, but he didn't know that. She'd taken pains for him not to know that.

"So did I."

Rogers, looking as deranged as she actually was, raised her pistol, shooting him directly below his breastbone. She would contend with d'Angelo later, if he didn't bleed out. Right now, she had damage control to run.

He showed no surprise when she shot him—hopefully he would suffer for the inconvenience he'd caused her.

Heading back to the crew deck, Rogers passed Sato and Dr. Kramer, who'd apparently heard the gunshot and followed the sound.

"What happened?" Sato asked, dark eyes wide.

Rogers quelled her biotic field. "We've had trouble; I'm trying to rectify it." With that, she continued towards the crew deck.

Cameron was there, obviously having just been called out of bed.

Of course, emergency protocols demanded the Captain's presence for something like this. The first thing he would do was have the ship's VI tell him where she, Rogers, was. The second thing would be for him to find Rogers to demand an explanation.

The Victoria had not seen this level of alert since Cameron had assumed command with Rogers as his second.

Trust d'Angelo to stack the dominoes like this! Scheming bastard!

"Rogers! What the hell is going on?!" Cameron demanded.

"There's been a little trouble with Browne and Jack. I'm dealing with it now."

"I thought you had her under control!"

Panic. The fool was panicking. Rogers gritted her teeth. "The situation aboard ship has been contained, Captain. I'm about to report to Arcturus, who will take our psychotic biotic into custody. Or shoot her if she refuses to come sweetly."

"You call that 'contained'?! How did this happen?"

Rogers closed her eyes. "I gave Browne orders, preparatory to having Jack removed from your ship. He…felt they were not ethical."

"Your pick? One of your picks felt your orders weren't ethical? They're zealots!" Cameron shouted. "They don't disobey your orders! Ever! So what was so wrong with this one?!"

"I suppose he found me the greater of two evils." This was getting tiresome. It was fortunate that, by now, the crew were her creatures to the last man. Except Cameron.

And d'Angelo but he scarcely mattered, now.

"Who was the other evil…?" Cameron asked quietly, disquiet and horror growing in his eyes as he realized what kind of devil had run his ship since she joined his crew. He immediately knew that he was in so far over his head he might never come out.

Rogers exhaled sharply, her course of action clear. "Cerberus."