When Miranda said we would find a ship, well, I'm not sure what I had in mind, but a bog standard Kodiak probably wasn't it. Maybe I expected her to have some sort of super-secret dock at the bottom of the Citadel or something, or that we'd have a secret mission to steal a weird prototype from somewhere. Nope, just a kodiak.

Mind you, it was just three and the pilot, so it was roomy in there. And it was furnished rather comfortably too. Once we were on our way to Omega I took a minute to get into my envirosuit proper, and joined the other two. I definitely could have used some sleep, but I was far too tense at the moment.

"Morgan," Miranda greeted me.

"Miranda," I replied casually, getting comfortable on one of the seats. First class airline seats, at that.

"How exactly are you so familiar with me?" she said.

The tone was casual, her pose relaxed, but knowing her, she had to be burning with anger inside. I had no AI to hold me back now, nothing, I could say whatever I wanted to her.

I just didn't want to.

"I'm well informed with all things Shepard," I replied, and it was one hundred percent true. "You have been keeping tabs on her, so I got to know you."

"What's your source?"

I gave her my best 'you have to be kidding me' look, and she smiled back. Not a very nice smile, mind you.

"Figured I'd ask," she said. "What's your angle?"

"All I care about is Shepard and the Reapers," I replied. "They go hand in hand. So let's get her back before the Collectors take her home and doom the galaxy forever."

"That's a bit melodramatic."

"Happens to be the truth," I said.

She seemed to be done for the moment, so I laid back and made myself comfortable. I heard her rustle and stand up, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her make her way towards the pilot cabin. Good, one less headache to track.

"Hey Morgan," Jacob called.

"Yeah?"

"I get that you don't trust Miranda, but I think you should give her a chance."

I opened my eyes and looked at him. "She's a Cerberus cheerleader through and through," I replied. "She might have good intentions, but I doubt her higher ups do. And I don't see her questioning Cerberus anytime soon."

"You seem to trust me," he said, furrowing his brow.

Because you're solid, bro.

I wanted to say that, but I didn't. Instead, I looked at him for a bit, thinking. Maybe... Nah, he's solid, I better not spook him away just yet. After we get Shepard back, it might be worth peeling him off Cerberus for greener and better pastures.

"Why are you here man?" I said. "Not saying you shouldn't, just wondering. What's your reason?"

"Shepard obviously, we gotta get her back."

"Yeah but I mean, with Cerberus. I'm here until we get her back. You're staying, aren't you?"

He leaned back on his seat, crossing his arms in a gesture I must have seen a thousand times."I'm not sure yet. Been thinking about it."

"And that's got nothing to do with Eden Prime, right?"

At first he didn't answer, he just gave me this narrow eyed look which I couldn't tell whether it was annoyance or just trying to figure me out.

"How do you know about that?"

"Told ya, if it's Shepard, I know about it. I get it man, I was there for the attack too, but Cerberus isn't better than the Systems Alliance. Not by a long shot. You know the whole Humanity First thing they sell?"

"Yeah."

"It's incomplete. It's actually Humanity First, with Us on Top."

Jacob chucked at that, and shook his head. He didn't seem convinced one way or another, and truth to be told, I was probably coming across as a bit of a hypocrite. I was totally on board with Cerberus at the moment, and wasn't questioning where any of their credits were coming from.

"You also said earlier that this wasn't supposed to happen," he said.

Oh shit, did I? I did. Crap.

"Yeah?"

"What did you mean by that?"

Think fast, think fast...

"We were running stealth over Alchera, passive systems only, no transmissions, and the fuckers popped up out of nowhere right on top of us. I'd buy it if they had simply flown close by chance and caught us with some sort of active scan, but that? That stinks worse than three day old tuna casserole."

"So how did they find you?"

"Honestly? Not a fucking clue," I said, which was true.

It had bothered the hell out of me back in the day when playing the game, but now even more so. It had to be a plant of some sort, but what? That took me off a tangent thinking about what, exactly, had happened out there. The AI failing was weird as shit, but the fact that the Collectors had come to pick up the pods was even stranger. In the game they didn't stick around, and had to do a lot of legwork to get Shepard's body. It could always be the case that the whole "get the body back" idea was a brainfart from someone who just wanted an excuse for Liara and the Shadow Broker, but... Well, if it was canon, it was canon. Why stick around to get the pods, but not stick around to get the body?

And why had the AI malfunctioned?

Mercifully, Jacob let me have some shut-eye, which I was in desperate need of. The trip wasn't the longest out there; despite needing to go across the other side of the galactic core, the three jumps were through primary relays, and the flight time to Omega wasn't long enough for me to catch-up with proper sleep. But at least I wouldn't be a babbling, incoherent zombie. No more than usual at least.

I had never been to Omega, obviously, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I was in my envirosuit, and made a point to clip the helmet to the back in case we needed it. Jacob, too, changed into a hardsuit, but Miranda stayed in her all-too-tight uniform. Neither of us said a word about it. We docked somewhere in the outer ring of the station, and after a very long decon cycle, the shuttle dislodged us onto the bay.

And the first thing that hit me was the smell. Next to me, I heard Jacob gag and cough, covering his mouth and muttering.

"Oh god what's that... Ugh... It stinks in here..." he was saying.

Me? I had worked in the Citadel's sewers. This was close, but not quite there. There were definitely issues with the plumbing and the gotta keep them separated principle of mixed population waste disposal.

Miranda only made the smallest face of disgust, but didn't say a word.

"We should be going," she said, leading the way.

The place was dark, dirty, and crowded. Very crowded. There were vagrants everywhere, rubbish piled high, and skittish people who wouldn't look you in the eye as you passed them. I kept a hand on my pistol, more out of fear that someone would steal it than anything else, and so did Jacob. By the by we started making our way to the higher levels, and with our ascent, the dirt and misery seemed to subside. It looked like, inside Omega, shit sank to the bottom.

I heard afterlife much, much earlier than I saw it. We actually had to ascend two levels before we got there. The music was loud, bass thumping hard inside our ribcages, and that was even before we got inside.

"How are people not going deaf in this place?" I yelled.

"What makes you think they aren't?" Jacob retorted, laughing.

I covered one of my ears as we made our way in, and so, we were inside Afterlife proper. It was every bit as loud, gaudy, and crowded as the games portrayed it.

"Wait here," Miranda said, turning to us.

"You heard the lady," I added, turning to Jacob.

I followed Miranda, much to her annoyance, but other than a dirty look, she didn't say anything else. We exchanged looks with the guard in front of the stairs leading to Aria's little atrium, and after a significant enough second holding us in place, he stepped aside and grunted, gesturing with his head while keeping his hands on his rifle. Nice.

Aria wasn't even looking at us, she was sitting with her back to the glass pane overseeing her club, observing the patrons with her head turned over her shoulder. Up there, the infernal noise coming from the club was noticeably dampened. And I call it noise because music, that was not.

"Aria T'Loak," Miranda greeted. "I'm Miranda Lawson, with Cerberus."

"Roy Morgan," I added. "Not with Cerberus."

Miranda gave me a sideways glance, but didn't stir. By the by Aria turned around to give us a look, her expression never changing from her placid demeanour. I have to say, seeing her for the first time, she was a looker. Her wide pose with her arms over the back of the sofa, together with her very, very tight fitting clothes left little to the imagination. And while her facial markings always looked a little too over the top for me in-game, out here they looked rather striking instead. Definitely more attractive than how she was portrayed in-game.

Then again, I wasn't going to say a work about that. Are you kidding me?

"What brings the dogs to my doorstep?" Aria said.

"We have a problem that we need to deal with, and we don't want to step on your backyard without a proper forewarning," Miranda said.

"Oh?"

After letting us stand for all that, Aria finally gestured to the seats, and we sat down to talk. Miranda sat to the left of Aria, and I made a point to sit opposite of Miranda. Two guards stepped closer to us, hands not on their guns but close enough. Aria seemed rather unfazed by our choice of seats.

"Two weeks ago the Omega-4 Relay was activated," Miranda said. "The Collectors came through, and took something that belongs to us. We intend to stop them before they can go back."

"So?"

"We intend to place a large fleet guarding the Omega-4 Relay. I'm here to assure you that we have no intention of threatening this station or-"

Miranda's speech was interrupted by Aria's laughter. It might have been meant to be airy and light, but it broke through the air like shattered glass.

"Of course, a large fleet just outside our doors is not here to cause any trouble whatsoever. How naïve do you think we are, Cerberus?"

Whew.

For a second I thought she was going to call Miranda a bitch, in the sense of a female dog since that's what she had called us in the beginning. Not sure how she'd have taken it.

"Cerberus has no interest in Omega," Miranda said, resting her hands on her lap in an almost demure gesture.

"I have no interest in that relay either," Aria said, "so why poke the beehive? Whatever comes and goes through it has never bothered us."

"It could be a good exercise for bored crews," Miranda said. "We have no preference towards who commands the fleet we need, as long as they do their jobs. Would you rather have them here, idle and making trouble, or out there at least out of your hair? Metaphorically speaking, of course."

Aria took a moment to answer, taking the glass of wine that was on the table to give it a sip, enjoy the flavour, then set it down again.

"I take the security of my domain rather seriously, as any queen should," she said. "If you are going to threaten our safety, you can expect me to deploy appropriate countermeasures."

Miranda didn't answer at first, but I thought I caught the line Aria was casting, so I decided to give it a try.

"Sounds expensive," I said.

The two women turned to look at me. Yikes!

"Hideously," Aria agreed.

Miranda gave me a quick stink eye before relaxing her face again, and turning towards Aria. "Understandable. The fleet we need should be large and well equipped. A dreadnought wouldn't be out of the question."

Once again, Aria took her glass, gave it another sip, then started to swirl the wine inside, looking at the colour as the liquid turned around.

"If you send me the proposal, I might have a look later. Just remember the first rule of Omega." She stopped swirling the wine, and looked at us alternatively, her expression deadly serious and her eyes staring like a predator's. "Don't fuck with Aria."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Miranda replied, standing up. "Thank you for your time."

Aria gave her a dismissive wave with her hand, as if swatting away an unwanted bug in the air. Miranda looked at me, still sitting on the sofa, and I grinned.

"I'll be just a minute," I said.

Really?

That was her face, but she clearly didn't want to upset Aria, so she stormed off with as much dignity as she could muster. Aria gave me a curious glance, and went back to her wine, as if I wasn't there.

"I would like to propose an exchange," I said. "I think you will find it quite profitable."

"Oh? And what could you possibly have to offer me?" Not exchange, offer. Nice.

"Ever heard the name Paul Grayson?" I said. She didn't answer. "He's a Cerberus operative, might go under the alias Paul Johnson. I believe he's got his sights set on Omega."

"And?"

"I figured that either he's here or he's coming, and will try to join your organization. He'll probably try to hide who he is, so he'll probably just have nothing in terms of past or history. Point is, be careful with him. Not so much him, but rather that when Cerberus decides to dispose of him they'll probably send some seriously dangerous agents to do the job. The messy kind that love collateral damage."

How the fuck do you tell Aria that some Cerberus agent is going to get her daughter killed in the future by virtue of attracting the attention of a murderous psychopath? Well, I don't know how, but I was trying.

"If you keep talking, you're going to give me a headache," she said.

"Err..."

"I thought Cerberus had no interest in Omega."

She looked at me, and I gave her my best bitch, please look without saying a word. I mean, come on, I didn't believe for a second that she bought that any more than she bought anything else. She didn't trust anybody.

"So where's the trade? All I hear is some vague references to someone I've never met."

"Ah. There's a turian... Lantar Sidonis. Betrayed a friend of mine, got some people killed. He's somewhere in the station, or coming here soon."

"Never heard of him. Who knows, it's a big station."

With that, Aria went back to her wine. Conversation was over. I stood up awkwardly, and not sure what else to do, I gave her a nod and turned to leave. Before I hit the stairs, however, I heard her call.

"Morgan," she said. When I looked back, she was giving me a proper murderous glare. "First rule of Omega."

"Well aware," I replied, diverting more than average mental processes to keep control of my bodily fluids.

Miranda was waiting for us - Jacob and I - outside, pacing in a way that reminded me of a caged lion. Definitely not happy about the turn of events. She eyed me as we walked out, and started talking even before we had stopped.

"Morgan, let me make something clear. The Illusive Man has put me in charge of this operation. Me. If you have a problem with that, I'd like to hear it now. I cannot have you going around undercutting my position every chance you get."

"My problem is not with you," I replied. "Well, mostly. I don't trust Cerberus, that's all. I'm only interested-"

"-in Shepard," she finished for me. "You have made that abundantly clear. But if you cannot work with us, then it might be best for us to part ways here and now."

Somehow, this exchange reminded me of Jack and Miranda ducking it out aboard the Normandy. What did Shep-

Right.

"You know what? Fine. Want to table this until we get Shepard? I can do that. What I'm not going to do is sit back, shut up, and let this be the Miranda show. Are you capable of taking feedback in?"

"Are you capable of giving useful feedback?" she retorted. "Besides, what kind of experience exactly do you have with Cerberus, huh?"

"Oh I don't know. Finding bases all over the galaxy where horrible experiments were being done until they lost control of it, it killed everyone, and took over the base? That seems to-"

*FWWWWWEEEEEEEEEET*

An extremely loud whistling stopped my tirade, and both of us turned to look at Jacob.

"Enough of this shit!" he said. Or yelled. We were all yelling thanks to the loud music. "You have agreed to work together, haven't you? Can we leave it at that and move on?"

Goddammit Miranda pissed me off. I didn't know why. She really hadn't done anything yet to piss me off, so I attributed it to the ice queen persona we all learned to hate in the games. And the weird thing is that normally I just ignore people who piss me off - unhealthy as that is - but with her I just couldn't stop bitching.

"Let's go," Miranda said, leading the way.

I thought we were going to head for the shuttle, but instead we took a different turn and headed for one of the residential areas. Huh. Turns out Cerberus had a safehouse in Omega too. They seemed to be everywhere. This one, however, is dirty, messy, and barely habitable. Par for the course really.

Without even missing a step, Miranda headed to a back room, and I recognized the glow of the Illusive Man's holographic display coming to life.

"Morgan," she called, and for once, she didn't sound bitchy.

I headed in, and was greeted by the familiar sight of the Illusive Man sitting on his chair and smoking a cigarette.

"Mister Morgan," he greeted me. "I got Miranda's report."

"Already?" I said, looking at her in surprise. Must have sent it while I was inside talking with Aria.

"I work fast," Miranda said.

"Miranda is one of my most capable agents," TIM said. "I'm hoping that the two of you can work together."

Huh. Did she seriously go back to daddy to complain that I was being mean? Son of a- I bit my tongue and decided to bury the hatchet, and by that I didn't mean bury it in Miranda's back.

"I know she's capable," I replied. "As long as we concentrate on Shepard, we'll get along just fine."

"Good. Now that we've secured a fleet-"

"-which will cost us a fortune," Miranda interrupted.

I ignored her.

"We can move on to the next step. I have started collecting dossiers for appropriate biotics, as per your request. We're going to need to know what exactly it is we're going to be facing against."

I took a moment to think and, with a deep breath, I started to explain everything I knew about the Collectors. Remnant of the Prothean empire, twisted and evil - and loaded with reaper tech. How they were directly controlled by the reapers. How they used seeker swarms to immobilize their targets. How they collected people - hence the name - to take back through the Omega-4 Relay. That they seemed unusually interested in humanity.

Nevertheless, I left a few things out. No point giving more than necessary to the Illusive Man.

"So why the biotics?" TIM said after my explanation.

"The seeker swarms," I said. "I know for a fact that a large biotic barrier can keep them at bay and carry a team through them. While still allowing the people inside to shoot through it. Hm, that might be tricky," I added, looking at Miranda.

"It should be possible," she said with a shrug. "It would require a strong biotic to sustain it, but possible."

"The biggest problem I see is that there's a lot of seekers and collectors inside that damn ship."

"Additional boarding parties?" Miranda offered.

"They would also require biotics. They wouldn't make very good distractions if they can be put in stasis in five seconds."

"Are there any other countermeasures?"

"The Collectors don't get affected by their own swarms. But hard to know how they do it," I said. Yeah, so Mordin Solus could figure something out, IF you get him a seeker. Hm. "If we could get some of those seekers, maybe, but I don't see how we can manage that."

After the exchange, TIM and Miranda exchanged a look, but neither of them added anything else. Huh. My guess was that they were going to discuss what to do about this once I was out of earshot.

"I will look into this in more detail," TIM said. "In the meantime, you should be receiving dossiers about elite biotics soon, Miranda."

"Thank you."

With that, the call ended and we were left alone in that room. Miranda was looking at me, and she didn't seem like she was about to leave.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing. Just curious."

She didn't say anything else, so I didn't know if she was curious, or if she had found something I said curious. Her omni-tool pinged, so she brought it up, and started reading. Her expression was completely unreadable as she did. With a mental shrug, I walked off and headed for the kitchen, hoping to find something edible.

"Don't get too comfortable," I heard Miranda calling. "We'll be heading out soon."

"Oh? Where to?"

"Blue Suns facility in Osun." As she spoke, Miranda came out of the comms room, reading her omni-tool. "Apparently we're picking up a criminal."

"Lovely."

Cerberus really knows how to throw the best parties. Worse still? Only food I could find in that place were emergency ration bars. Those things would follow me to the end of time, it seemed.

Author's Notes: So here we are! First off, thank you all so much for welcoming back with open arms the way y'all have. Even if coming back means... The Return of the Cliffhanger™! (Dun Dun DUUUUN!). It's been a while, but man it actually feels good to be back. Lots of changes in my life in the last two years. Joined the ranks of the unemployed (and everything was going so well...), started a freelancing gig, and while it's not going brilliantly (it's hard to pick up work as a freelance Bioinformatician), I'm actually enjoying being my own boss. And if you're reading this you know me, I'm used to being broke so what the hell LOL

So, does this count as a cliffhanger when the reader knows what's coming but my idiot self in the fic doesn't? I thought I'd rather leave the next leg for the next chapter because it's going to be hard to do well and I'll need some time to figure it out. I've got a sketch in my head, just have to work the details.

Side effect of all the welcomes, not a lot of questions about last chapter! But to answer a few:

GVN . Chaos: What changed is that Shepard was in the life pod, alive and well! How did the Collectors find the Normandy originally? I don't think it's ever explained, usual headcanon is sabotage, but eh. So Shepard is in a life pod instead of plunging to his death on the surface of a planet (and yes, plunged to the surface, that's what we CLEARLY see in the cutscene, so I don't buy the whole "in orbit for 2 years" BS, then again, not disintegrating during re-entry? Seriously? I digress, the whole thing about the body has some serious issues but that's just me). Find the pod, or spend who knows how long trying to possibly find a body on the surface of a planet that'd be almost impossible to track.

Rainsfere: You will hate me in about... 5 chapters? Maybe a few more. Main purpose of this fic sometimes LOL. But yeah, Talitha kinda came out of the left field for me too, but it made so much sense she's staying in. More to come I assure you, though it messes with some stuff I had planned.

But seriously, thanks everyone for the welcome backs, reviews, and assorted support. Next time? You already know. Poor, poor Roy.

I've also realized that going into ME2 territory, with over 250,000 words, and I still don't have a picture/icon for this fic. I should probably use the Picard facepalm one, it'd fit.