Bioware Owns All.

Chapter 22

She Said

I'd handed my weapons to Garrus, ordering him to stay out of sight. I had no desire to lose my Cain, or him. Kaidan followed me to help Miranda to safety. I knew I was more valuable to Cerberus than their former operative. And I suspected this whole capturing Miranda thing was a ruse to get their claws back into me. The Illusive Man's obsession with me was almost flattering when it wasn't terrifying.

Two YMIR mechs flanked a small group of soldiers in the black, white and gold armor of Cerberus stooges. I was briefly glad I hadn't bet Garrus anything. I approached with my hands up, palms out and said, "If you let her go, I'll go quietly." Miranda hung limply between two of them, her head lolling drunkenly. I couldn't see the rest of her, though. How were they keeping her under control?

One of them stepped forward, "I think you misunderstood our intentions, Commander. Our orders are for both of you."

I heard Kaidan swear behind me and his footsteps as he came to stand next to me. "Now this, I wouldn't have bet on," he muttered.

I hoped Garrus was close enough to hear us. I'd shown him how to fire the Cain, and he'd laughed at me when I'd done so since he could use anything vaguely gun-shaped. But they still had Miranda as a hostage. "Get Jack," I whispered. "Don't bring Jacob, Joker or Chakwas anywhere near this. Cerberus will want them back, too." I didn't even glance at him before I said aloud, "Fine. Don't hurt her further and I'll come quietly."

A puffy-faced man with a close-cropped grey buzz-cut stepped forward, the glow of pulse restraints in his hand. They were designed to interrupt the flow of a biotic's energy with random pulses of electromagnetism. I heard a sharp intake of breath from Kaidan. The restraints were highly illegal, considered cruel and unusual punishment for biotics. Didn't stop them from being widely used against us from the less scrupulous elements of galactic society. They probably had a set on Miranda's wrists already. I hope they hadn't had them on her for too long. Long term use could turn us both in to vegetables, which would completely defeat the purpose of The Illusive Man re-acquiring us.

Kaidan spun me to look at him, "You don't have to do this. There has to be another way." The pain in his voice brought tears to my eyes and a lump around my heart that made it hard to breathe.

"She's my friend, Kaidan. I can't let her be hurt because of me." I held out my wrists for the restraints.

"Don't do this, Avery. Please." He pulled my mouth to his, this time, kissing me with bruising force. I felt the restraints slapped on me and wrenched my mouth away, keeping the pulses from him. The first shock brought me to my knees and I was hauled roughly to my feet by the grounding tether that attached to the cuffs. I looked over my shoulder at him and saw that Garrus was standing next to him, one hand on Kaidan's shoulder, restraining him.

"Take care of him. I'll get out of th—!" I grunted as the next pulse hit me with the force of an atomic explosion in the back of my head, my implant buzzed in throughout my brain. I stumbled as they yanked me back on my feet. Garrus was holding Kaidan back with both hands. I prayed he wouldn't use a biotic attack on them. It would just cause them to retaliate and they may have a third set of restraints somewhere. This agony is something I would spare him.

I was thrown into a transport nearly on top of Miranda. She roused long enough to blink blearily at me. "Shepard? What are you-?" She grunted and her pretty eyes glazed over at the impact of a pulse from her restraints. "You should have – ugh – let me go."

I pulled myself away from her so we wouldn't share each other's shocks. I'd gotten light versions of the two she'd just had and my eyes felt crossed. "Not a chance, Miranda. I don't leave people behind who walk through hell with me." Breath hissed through my teeth as another shock bounced around my nervous system.

The muscles in her jaw worked as another pulse hit her, "Thanks, Shepard, but – ugh!—next time, don't be so – gallant."

I laughed around the next pulse, "I have a – oof! – plan, I promise."

Amusement shone around the pain in her blue eyes, "I hope it, ugh, goes better than most of your plans."

I grinned through the next shock, tears springing into my own eyes, "I promise. We'll be fine." If Kaidan did what I told him to with EDI as soon as he got back to the ship, there wouldn't be a problem. With the restraints on me, I was glad I'd had the foresight to get the 'Tool off me. EDI might have been fried since the 'Tools ran on the users' own bioelectric impulses and these things were the equivalent of a series of lightning strikes for the fragile interfaces. If they hadn't removed her 'Tool, Miranda's was probably fried.

She turned her head to look at me, "I'm sorry I didn't anticipate this."

I nodded, "Would it, ugh, make you feel better, to know that, oof! I did anticipate this?"

"Not really, no." She leaned her head back against the seat. "It doesn't excuse my failing. That damned volus!"

"He probably wasn't the volus you set the contact up with, you know. Those suits hide a multitude of sins and their voices are all synthesized."

"Not helping, Shepard."

I leaned my head back against the seat, too. "I know. Just, ugh, hang on. We won't be leaving Illium."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I am."

The ride to wherever they were taking us was long. I wondered if we'd left Nos Astra entirely. Not that it mattered. The harmless irradiated fluid I'd had Doctor Chakwas inject me with before getting into my armor could be tracked from orbit. At least, it was harmless to me with all my mechanical upgrades. I wouldn't recommend it for a non-cybernetically enhanced individual. They could track me as long as Joker got EDI to interface with the Concord's computers. I just hope they didn't scan me and find the isotope in my blood stream. They should only detect it if they knew what they were looking for, though.

Miranda and I were herded into a narrow hallway with cells on either side, before stripping me of my armor and leaving me in the thin, form fitting body suit that went underneath. The walls facing the hallway were a clear force field. I'd seen cells like this, most recently on the station called Purgatory. It was one of the few ways to imprison biotics. The shield was impervious to dark energy and the walls were usually far too thick to be broken by your average biotic. The cells were usually soundproofed.

Good thing Miranda and I were not average biotics.

The restraints were removed, but before either of us could martial a mnemonic, we were unceremoniously shoved into cells on opposite sides of the hall. The shield flared to life as I spun on my heels, prepared to fight. But the shield was impenetrable. I paced and I cursed. Miranda sat primly on her bed and crossed her legs, linking her fingers together across her knee. I got the message, it would only waste our energy to behave like caged jungle cats. I flung myself on the narrow cot and started counting ceiling tiles. Or, rather, since the whole thing seemed to be made out of overlapping solid steel, plates.

What seemed a few hours later, when my stomach was roiling in nauseated hunger, a panel slid aside in the floor and up popped a plate of steaming food, plastic utensils, and high calorie energy drink. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Miranda fall on the food like a starving lion, but I was more cautious. I approached and examined it, despite my immediate urged to just throw the food down my throat. I really didn't want to wake up on an operating table again. A wave of dizziness hit me. I had been using my biotics nearly non-stop today, after all. During the first fight when the volus broker betrayed us, and later in the rush to get to Miranda. I'd only munched a protein bar in the interim while getting the injection and climbing into my armor. I decided to risk the food. If they found us, we needed to be ready.

Jack was right. Time does go funny in a cell. I dozed at intervals and alternated with staring at Miranda and trying to read her lips as she read mine. Didn't work, there was no way to be sure whether we'd understood each other. I'm also fairly certain I just sucked at lip reading. I was bored out of my mind. Biotics would work within the cell, but not on the cell. I amused myself by sending pulses against the wall as if I were bouncing a tennis ball. I tried to make each one stronger and stronger, see how far the ricochet would travel before it dissipated. I caught Miranda watching me out of the corner of my eye and grinned. I wondered how long it would take until she decided to compete against me for the longest bounce or strongest pulse. It didn't take long.

By the time the explosions hit, Miranda and I were bouncing biotic pulses off every surface in our cells. The muffled thuds in the distance weren't easily identified at first, but when the klaxon started, Miranda and I stopped our game and simply waited. If it was our team, they'd be cutting the power to the cell block any minute now. And then we'd be free. I met Miranda's eyes. She nodded and I recognized the signs of her readying a mnemonic. I did the same, waiting.

Like clockwork, the fields dropped. And Miranda and I stepped out of our cells. "Which way?" she asked, shouting over the din of the alarm.

I shrugged. "We came in that way," I shouted back and pointed. "But do we go out the same way?"

"Depends on where our people are coming in, doesn't it?"

I jerked my thumb in the opposite direction, "Let's go that way. Maybe if we're lucky, we can find out where they might have taken the Normandy."

"Good idea. Also, guns would be nice."

"Yes, they would. But we're biotics, Miranda. We're never unarmed," I grinned at her. We started walking, the hallway lit by strobing red emergency lights. We stayed alert, ready for any guards that happened to have stayed behind, not drawn away by the boarding alarms. We rounded every corner cautiously with me taking point since I was the stronger biotic. I felt naked without my armor and wondered what they'd done with it. "I don't suppose your 'Tool still works?"

She shook her head, "No, they confiscated it when they captured me. Fortunately, I'd already backed everything up last night." I spared a brief thank you to any deity listening for Miranda's anal retentive nature.

"Suddenly, I'm grateful for your OCD." I grinned at her.

She smiled back, "Me, too."

We hunted for a map of the facility, finding nothing until we ran into an elevator. Miranda and I glanced at each other. "Up or down?" She asked.

"Eenie, meenie, miney, mo?"

She looked at me, "Cute, Shepard."

"I try. You're the one familiar with Cerberus facilities. Which way is more likely?"

Miranda shrugged, "For us to escape or to run into our people?"

I frowned. "Good point." Who was the most likely to be leading the team? Garrus, since Miranda was here and Jacob was still likely in medbay with the gut shot he'd gotten. Unless Kaidan . . . would he really try to take charge of the crazy misfits who followed me? Would they let him? Doubtful. Though I doubted Garrus would be able to leave him behind, Kaidan would have to follow the turian's orders.

I did not look forward to that conversation later.

Just to match the sinking feeling in my stomach, I said, "Let's try down."