Chapter 4

By the time Miranda found Jack again, her ostensible commanding officer had already caught up with the patrol. Jack stood with her hand on her hips in front of the three soldiers, whose uniforms confirmed their Cerberus allegiance. All of them were armed, but they'd relaxed their posture somewhat, not seeming concerned about one small, wet woman. Miranda decided not reveal herself just yet, instead hanging back in the tree line and watching to see how this scene played out.

The Cerberus woman, a tall brunette with a face lined from must have been years of hard living, gave a derisive snort in Jack's direction. "Well, would you look at that? There's a survivor, after all. And a human too, even if she does look like more of a drowned rat."

Jack said nothing in response, but Miranda recognized the tell-tale signs of her rage building: the quivering in her body, the narrowing of her eyes, the clenching of the fists. The patrol didn't seem to notice though, more intent on making fun of the convict. The younger man chuckled. "Doesn't look like she'd be good for much of a fight. Maybe a chase then. Hey, rat, why don't you run? At least give us a little sport."

The older man, a bald, beefy specimen with one eye, was a little more cautious. "Not so fast," he told his comrade before turning back to Jack. "What happened to the rest of your crew? What were you doing here?"

At last, Jack spoke. "Fucking your mother. What of it?"

The younger man flicked his blonde hair out of his face and smirked. "You've got some attitude, huh? I like that. It'll make it more fun when we finally break you."

"This one won't last long in the kennels, boys," the woman said. "Maybe we should keep her for ourselves."

Miranda was getting ready to interject herself, but Jack beat her to the punch. Light shone all around her body, a sudden corona of biotic energy that told the Cerberus patrol they had made a terrible mistake. They tried to level the guns they'd let hang at their sides, but it was too late. A massive wave of force erupted out from Jack's body and the three soldiers were thrown off of their feet, crashing into the dense foliage surrounding them.

The woman was the first to try and rise, but she only made it as far as her knees when Jack's biotics seized her. She was yanked off the ground with a strong tug. The woman squirmed in air, throwing her limbs about in a desperate attempt to free herself from the biotic field.

"Wait!", she cried out but Jack didn't listen. The woman's neck snapped with a sudden motion, her head twisted so far around that Miranda was surprised it didn't come clean off. The other two soldiers only fared slightly better. They managed to squeeze off a few shots, but Jack's barriers were at full strength, and in her rage, she didn't even flinch at the impacts. Jack tossed the woman's corpse at the younger man, knocking him off his feet before Jack set her sights on the oldest of the bunch.

The one-eyed man raised his gun with quivering hands but before he could even fire off another round, Jack raised her arms. A biotic bubble enveloped the man, and with a gesture, the convict sent him flying up through the tree cover before letting him drop back to the ground. He screamed as his legs shattered on impact, but his pain was short-lived. A biotic blast punched a hole through his chest, leaving his bloody remains laying on the forest floor.

The younger man finally crawled out from underneath the corpse of the Cerberus woman and fled for the cover of the trees. He didn't make it. Instead, a pull field yanked him off of his feet and left him dangling in the air with his gun laying just out of reach.

"So," Jack snarled as she stalked over towards her captive, "You were gonna break me? You look like the kind of asshole who'd enjoy that. Rape or torture? Or maybe both. Is there even a difference to you?"

"No, please," he begged, all the bravado drained out of him, "It was a joke. We were here to help."

"Hah, hah." Jack gave him a vicious backhand that shattered his nose, his blood dripping down his face. "Your sense of humor sucks balls."

Miranda had seen enough. She stepped out of the shadows, and at the sound of her approach, Jack turned around. "There you are, cheerleader. Didn't feel like helping out, I see."

"I knew you could handle the fight and I wanted to see what you'd do. Effective maybe, but a little extreme, don't you think?"

"Screw you." She slapped the trapped man again. "You think this piece of trash deserves some kind of mercy? All the good people who died in this war, and he gets to walk around here doing whatever sick shit he wants? Fuck that!"

"I'm not defending him," Miranda replied, trying to keep calm.

One of us has to be mature, after all. This is a mission, not just a rampage of revenge.

"I'm just saying that we need information and supplies, not to torture pathetic sadists." She snatched a pistol from the dead woman. Unlike Jack, her biotics were a compliment in a fight, not her primary means of killing.

Jack rolled her eyes but seemed to hear the wisdom in her partner's words, not responding but simply planting her foot solidly on the soldier's chest to keep him immobilized. Miranda took that as her cue and walked over to the bleeding man. "Start talking."

"Talking? About what? Who the hell are you two?"

She gave him her best disapproving glare. "I ask the questions."

"W-What do you wanna know?" The man's voice quivered with fear. For all his earlier bravado, he seemed green and Miranda wondered what he'd been doing this time last year.

Probably just an ordinary kid until the world fell apart. These times do turn some men cruel.

"Ford. Where can we find him?"

"How should I know?!" The man's voice turned into a high pitched squeal when Jack's biotics took hold of his pinky and snapped it like a twig.

"Answer the question," Jack hissed through clenched teeth. Her hate was palpable, her earlier bout of violence having clearly not sated her bloodlust.

"I've only ever seen Father Ford on the vids! I swear!"

"Father Ford?" Miranda wondered aloud. That man had never gone by that name before. "What were you doing out here?"

"We were on a hunting trip when we got orders to investigate the crash! Guess that was you two. What are you? Alliance?"

The man screamed again as Jack snapped another finger. "Shut the fuck up unless somebody asks you another question."

"How would we find Ford?", Miranda demanded again.

For a moment, the man found some small reserve of courage. "Fuck you. I won't betray the savior."

His defiance quickly turned into squeals of agony as a stronger burst of energy snapped his wrist and bent his hand back unnaturally as it split the flesh, and Miranda asked, "Savior?"

After a few moments of painful sobbing the man spoke once more. "Father Ford delivered our salvation when you pathetic Alliance cowards left us to die! He saved us from those filthy aliens, and made sure they saw justice for what they did to us!"

Their captive's breath was coming in short, shallow gasps as his eyes fluttered open and closed. The pain was becoming too much for him and so Miranda pushed Jack away to give him a moment to recover.

She realized that with Jack she was clearly going to be playing the good cop, a role she'd seldom filled in the past. The ruthless ice queen suited her best, but Miranda also knew how to adapt when necessary. She knelt down beside their prisoner, softening her voice. "Come now, it's a simple question. Just answer it and your pain will stop. Is Ford in the city?" The man only nodded. "Good. Now, what's the fastest way of getting there?"

He pointed a quivering finger behind Miranda, "Head north….k-keep on the path and you can't miss it. Not that it'll matter..."

"How's that?"

"You'll never lay a finger on Ford. Every man and woman on Typhon knows who humanity's true savior is. And it's not that traitorous bastard Commander Shepard! Cerberus will rise-"

Before the man could finish, Miranda stood and unloaded two quick shots into the scout's head. It head erupted in a fountain of blood and Jack stumbled back two steps, looking over at Miranda with a mixture of surprise and newfound respect on her face.

"Damn, that was cold cheerleader! I thought you wanted information. That asshole didn't tell us shit."

"He told us enough. We weren't going to find out everything about Ford's plans some disposable lackey." Miranda holstered her gun with a cold detachment on her face." It seems Ford has manipulated this world's population into thinking Cerberus is their savior. It's a clever play, given the sudden end to the Reaper attacks, and now these people won't be impressed by the fact that we're with the Alliance."

"So?"

"So we'll need to play this smart. We can't move on Ford until we really know what we're up against." Miranda picked up another gun from the corpse of the younger man and handed it to her partner. "Ready to be a spy, Jack?"

"A spy? Screw that. I'm giving the orders here, Cerberus. And we're not playing this like a bunch of pussies."

"By all means, Jack, charge into the city with your gun drawn and see how far it gets you."

"Maybe I will."

"Even you can't be that stupid. We need to gather intel so we can develop a plan that doesn't get us both killed immediately. Suicide mission or not I've never botched an operation before and I don't intend to start now."

"So long as Cerberus burns I don't give a shit about an escape plan," Jack declared as she shoved her new pistol in the waistband of her pants before marching off towards the path they'd been told about.

At least we're on the same page about one thing.

The path to the city was longer than Miranda had anticipated. They had been hiking for a couple of hours, trekking over a seemingly endless and ever-steepening series of foothills. Even though she'd tied her hair back in a bun, it had still gotten sweaty, her new pistol kept rubbing against her hip, and her white catsuit was filled with sand and dirt in the worst possible places. Miranda was a tough woman, but she had never been a very outdoorsy one. As she swatted a bug away from her face, the sound of thunder cracked in the distance and she spared a glance at the woman hiking beside her.

Jack seemed entirely unfazed by the trek. Miranda had to admit, there was something admirable about the convict's strength. The girl had nearly drowned a few hours prior and single-handedly killed a Cerberus patrol, yet she still clambered up the dirt hill with an almost youthful energy. The apex was still a little ways away and so Miranda decided she was bored enough to try and stimulate yet another conversation with Jack. It wasn't that she liked talking to her, but there was something off about her partner and she intended on finding out what it was.

"I meant what I said back there."

Jack grunted before she replied. "What?

"That I never had a choice. Joining Cerberus was the only option I had. It was the only way I could ensure my sister's safety."

"You expect me to believe you did all that shit for Cerberus because of that girl? You said you never even met her before Shepard forced you to grow a pair. Tell yourself whatever the fuck you want, Cheerleader, but you stuck around because you wanted to. So what if your sister would have been raised by your rich-ass father?"

Miranda came to a sudden stop, Jack having touched one one of the few sensitive spots she had left. "You have no idea what my father was like!"

Jack spun around. "Oh yeah? So what did he do? Did he hit you, princess? Did he strap you to a chair and stick needles in your perfect skin?!"

"There are other kinds of abuse, Jack."

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?"

"Of course not. Clearly you're too busy feeling sorry for yourself."

Her reply had dripped with contempt and Miranda braced herself for the other woman's inevitable comeback but instead, Jack only rolled her eyes and resumed their climb.

They scaled the remainder of the hill in silence until at last they reached it's summit. Below them, a massive urban sprawl stretched out for nearly as far as the eye could see in every direction, and at its center, a towering spire rose high above the rest of the buildings. The size of the capital was a surprise, but even from a distance the devastation to it was also clear.

A pair of dead Reapers lay sprawled across the city streets, their massive corpses leaning up against the wreckage of the buildings they had knocked over in their fall. A few other broken ships were also strewn about, including one larger frigate that seemed more intact than most. Smoke still billowed into the air and Miranda saw very few sky cars soaring through it's streets. Despite the damage though, the center of the city appeared to be in good enough condition and the power appeared to be at least partially up and running, lights still illuminating some of the windows in the valley below.

"Thought it would look worse than this," Jack remarked.

"I did as well. This is odd."

"Odd?"

"If the city's this well off then, why had the Alliance not heard anything from Typhon until now? There must be thousands of survivors down there."

Jack shrugged. "Guess we'll find out." She took her first step down the hill but before she could travel further, a loud clap of thunder sounded and seconds later, a heavy rain began to pour from the sky.

The perfect end to a perfect day.

The city was still a couple of miles out and the path down the hill and into the valley was too steep to safely travel in a thunderstorm. Miranda scanned their surroundings, pleased when she found a small cave nestled into the hillside just a few meters to the right.

"This way!", Miranda ordered over the pouring rain.

She didn't wait for Jack's response before she made a run for the cave. Evidently, the convict had had enough of being soaked for one day too, because she scrambled into the shelter without any protest.

"I guess we'll have to wait this out," Miranda said as she loosened her bun and rang out her hair with both hands.

Jack didn't answer; instead she just sat down in the dirt by the cave's mouth. Seeing no other way to pass the time, Miranda took a seat herself on the opposite side and watched the rain pour down.

For almost an hour they sat in silence until Miranda spoke again.

"You were right."

"Huh?" Jack didn't face her when she spoke, but the surprise in her voice was eminently clear.

"I did enjoy working for Cerberus."

"No shit."

Miranda stared off at the city in the distance for a moment before she continued. "I used to be so bloody desperate to know where I fit in the galaxy. For years, I thought it was with Cerberus. I'd never been a part of something like that before. Something I believed in, where my talents were put to use, respected, and even challenged. I had a purpose then. We were doing great work, innovating in fields the other races were too scared to explore, creating things nobody else would have thought possible. The Illusive Man was a man of vision, a genius… and most of all he believed in me." She looked down to the puddle forming outside the mouth of the cave. "I wanted to believe in Cerberus so badly… believe in him as well. I wasn't able to see what was really going on. Perhaps I just didn't want to."

Jack narrowed her eyes. "Oh yeah? And what did it take to get it through your perfect little head? Shepard and his magic dick?"

Miranda's voice came out in a whisper. "No."

"Then what?"

"You."

An awkward pause hung in the air before Jack turned away from her once more. "Bullshit."

"When I saw what they did to you on Pragia. What they did to those other children… It wasn't Shepard that made me quit, Jack. He might have helped me to take the final steps, but it was you. I thought you should know that."

Miranda spared a glance over at Jack and found that the woman staring at her without the usual hate in her eyes. As soon as the convict realized Miranda was returning her gaze though, she turned away. Miranda fully expected it to be the end of their brief exchange until Jack spoke.

"I guess I should say thanks and all that shit," she mumbled under her breath.

"Excuse me?"

"You saved my ass back at the lake. So fuck it, I owe you one, cheerleader."

Miranda crossed her arms and tried not to sound as surprised as she was by the thank-you. "I suppose if it wasn't for you I never would have been given this chance. So you can consider us even."

Gratitude. How about that? Perhaps there's hope for her after all.

Notes- Next time our heroes venture into Typhon's capital city. Thanks for reading, please feel free to share your thoughts with us in the reviews. The next chapter of Rise of the Asari (And the final chapter of Book 2) will be coming VERY soon. In the meantime I suggest you all check out some of Revan's Mask's fantastic stories!