Miranda wasn't happy. That much I already knew, it had been her default state since we had started working together. Now she was really unhappy. And she had gotten into her head that it was my fault.

Who could have given her that crazy idea?

To be fair, she had waited until the whole thing was over and my leg was properly patched up - which she did herself at the safehouse we had on Omega. Then she started grilling me. Yet, something was off.

"We just lost one of our strongest biotics, and all you have to say is sorry?" Miranda snapped.

"Yes? What am I supposed to do, not get shot from the back?"

"That would be a start, now we are a biotic short."

I heard Jack snort at that. She was standing in the kitchen area of the small apartment, eating instant noodles and still drinking way too much. Instant noodles were the answer to my complaint about the hard bar rations. And I rather stick to those, thank you very much.

Still, something Miranda said didn't add up.

"How are we a biotic short? Did they kill him or something? I thought there were no casualties," I said.

"There was a kidnapping," Miranda retorted.

"Wait a goddamn minute," Jack said, dropping the noodles on the counter and stalking towards Miranda. She was leaning forward in the aggressive posture I had come to identify as shit's going down pose. "Kidnapping? Who was kidnapped?"

"Our biotic," Miranda replied easily, and not elaborating any.

"Our biotic. Another one of your goddamn experiments?"

"No, a student of Grissom Academy," Miranda replied, her tone peppering up as she spoke. "And I see no reason to justify-"

"Oh the academy! And what was mine called, the fuck you in the ass academy?"

At this point, biotics were starting to flare, and I was just watching in awe at how quickly the whole damn thing had escalated. And already making an escape plan because I wanted to keep my leg attached where it was, thank you very much. But before blood was spilled there was a very loud whistling sound, and every shocked face in the apartment turned to Jacob.

"Enough of this!" he yelled. "We have bigger fish to fry. Can we stop the bitching for five minutes and get on with the mission already?"

Miranda took the words quick, straightened up, and dropped her biotic barrier. "You're right," she said.

"Jack?" I prodded, ever so gently.

She gave me a very weird look, and for a moment I wasn't sure whether she was going to slam me against the wall, or just call me a dumbass. She dropped her own biotics as well, to my relief. "Fine, I can wait," she said, eyeing Miranda out of the corner of her eye. "Until we're done at least." With that, she went back to the kitchen, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and I hear her mutter dumbass as she did.

Now I knew what that look meant.

"We do have Tela Vasir as well, and she's a damn fine biotic."

"I will contact the Illusive Man. There might be some other Cerberus resources we can tap."

"Resources," Jack snorted in the background.

I actually got to see Miranda look up and do a mental count to stop herself from snapping back. I call that progress. She disappeared into the comms room for about an hour, all said, and soon after we were all filing out for the shuttle. Again.

"Do we need to jump around half the galaxy to get people?" I asked Miranda as we walked. My leg was still sore, but no leaks fortunately. "Can't we get them to come to us? I'm starting to get sick of the shuttle."

"Don't worry," Miranda replied, smiling in a way that didn't seem to reach her eyes. "It's about to get better."

"Huh?"

"You'll see. Oh, there they are."

I followed her gaze and found not one, but two people waiting for us. One was Tela Vasir. The other I recognized immediately, Zaeed Massani. Both of them were standing on opposite sides of the shuttle, both with a very similar pose leaning onto the hull, arms crossed and giving each other glances out of the corner of their respective eyes, both armored and armed to the teeth, and I could almost swear both growling at each other to mark their territory. They both had what appeared to be piles of gear next to them.

"Massani," Miranda said as we arrived. She offered her hand and got a strong shake.

"You seriously bringing a Spectre with you?" the mercenary said, gesturing with his head at Vasir.

"That was Morgan's idea," Miranda replied.

She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder at me, Zaeed turned my way, and when I offered a hand to shake, he just shook his head and grabbed one of the crates.

"Let's just get this over with," he said, already heading for the shuttle door.

And leaving me to feel like an idiot with my hand out. Jack snorted a laugh and followed him, and the others did the same, except Miranda.

"Vasir. I assume we will not have any trouble," Miranda said.

"As long as you stick to the objective," she replied. "What do you have?"

"Nothing so far. Fleet's starting to move into place, but no sign of the Collectors anywhere near the relay. They're still on this side. And you?"

"A lot of unconfirmed sightings. Reports of ships with unknown configuration are a credit a dozen," Tela replied, and looked at me. "I was hoping you would help me narrow it down."

"Sure, if I can," I said, and shrugged.

Tela went to start grabbing her gear, and Miranda filed for the shuttle. When Tela passed me next, she stopped for a moment and gave me a very, very butt-clenching look.

"You better not be screwing with me," she said in a low voice, every word full of edges. "This is exposing the both of us far more than I like."

I was going to answer; with what, I didn't know, but she didn't wait for a response. She just made for the shuttle and damn near bumped Zaeed as he came out. Once again, a couple of dangerous beasts eyeing each other as they circled one another, very markedly avoiding any contact. He picked up another box and looked me up and down.

"If you're just going to stand there you could give me a fucking hand kid," he said.

I really bring the best out in people.

I had no idea where we were going this time, all I knew was that Miranda had more or less wanted to make it a surprise. Either that or she didn't feel like answering any questions, and that was a good way to avoid any. Regardless, the shuttle trip was even longer this time, and with a very crowded shuttle it was even more uncomfortable. Jack kept to the back room, while still drinking almost constantly, and everyone else kind of tried to pretend the kodiak wasn't a crowded tin of sardines at the time.

Vasir, I think, had an interest in talking with me, but it was probably not the ideal setting for it. She and Miranda spent some time talking after we took off from Omega, and both seemed satisfied with the outcome. From snatches of conversation I heard, it was all about what the intentions of the various parties involved. Vasir seemed to make it clear that she was just interested in Shepard, and too much "above" other petty things. Including Tasha, apparently. The ex-Spectre. The two of them had settled down on opposite sides of the shuttle, at least, but were constantly eyeing each other, and they both seemed to always have one hand close to their guns.

I don't think anyone got any sleep, other than Jack at least. I had no idea how we were going to manage, specially given that the shuttle was starting to feel very full, but my questions were answered when we arrived to our destination. It was a small docking station, no bitter than a repair dock and some attached life support. And in between its arms, a spaceship. It was somewhat reminiscent of the Normandy, but without the curved elegance of the SR1. The main body was a straight line, slightly wider at the back, where the main engines were, and with only two "side" arches, where the Normandy had had four. It was hard to judge size in space, however, but it did feel smaller, specially once I caught sight of the docking clamps on the side.

"What is that?" I said to no one in particular , looking out the window as we approached the station.

"That," Miranda said, coming to stand next to me, "is the Normandy's prototype."

"I thought the Normandy was the prototype."

"The first test of the Tantalus drive was made aboard this one. The Hibiscus. It was later decided to upgrade the size of it when the Council got its hands on the project."

"And Cerberus got it how?"

Miranda smiled, that smile of hers that never reached her eyes. "We borrowed it, for the time being. It was just sitting in a dock gathering dust, and we had a Tantalus drive ready to go." She looked at me. "Any more questions?"

"Err, yeah, but seriously, Hibiscus? I thought Alliance frigates were named after famous battles."

"They are." She turned to look out the window again. "This one is a scout ship. Technically a corvette, it's only half the size of the Normandy."

We didn't dock directly with the Hibiscus, we did so with the living area of the docks. A small crew was waiting outside already, but Miranda ignored them and just forged ahead, and I decided to do the same before anyone put me to work unloading boxes. I heard a yell of "where the hell is Morgan?" in the background as we turned the first corner, and did my best to ignore Miranda's look as we walked on. It took us all of two minutes to reach the entrance to the ship, and after an annoyingly long decon process - which somehow didn't even flick a single hair from Miranda's head, despite wearing nothing but her catsuit - we were allowed on board the ship.

The decon chamber opened to a corridor, and Miranda turned left towards the nose of the ship, taking us to the CIC. Unlike the Normandy, there was no big map in the middle of the room with a platform for the captain to stand on. It was a straight room comprising most of the width of the hull, and with the captain sitting close to the pilot and in the middle of the auxiliary posts along the walls. It was familiar but... different.

"Rasa," Miranda called. The Captain's chair spun, and I saw there was a woman sitting there. Dark skin, obviously fake light red hair, and narrow glasses. Looked familiar somehow, but I couldn't put my finger on who it was.

"Captain Channing, if you don't mind," she said, pointing at her... hair?

"Of course. Where are we?"

"We've brought the Tantalus drive online, only forty percent at the moment. It's three times the size of the original, and this ship is half the size of the Normandy."

"It's a good thing you have me at the helm!" a very familiar voice called from behind her.

I caught... Captain Channing, apparently, rolling her eyes before I stepped to the side and looked behind her. "Joker? Is that you?"

"Hey, the old flatmate's here," he said.

"Roy!"

A hand shot up in the air, and was quickly followed by a woman scrambling out of her seat and rushing me for a tackle hug. There was a loud clanking sound as harsuit plates collided, but she had thrown herself at my neck and pretty much forced me to grab her or we'd both have hit the deck. She didn't have a helmet on, so I identified her easily enough.

"Talitha," I said. She let go and jumped back, big smile on her face.

"Yes! The band is back!" she replied. "You're here too!"

"I.. am, yeah. What are you two doing here?" I said.

I looked at Joker, he was looking at me, he then glanced at Talitha, and Nazara as my witness he gave me this absolutely lecherous grin and wiggle of his eyebrows that pretty much screamed you lucky dog, you without even saying a single word. How the hell he had managed all that I had no idea, I didn't think I could even reproduce that look. Moreover, when Talitha turned to give him a quick glance, all that had disappeared as if by sublimation, leaving him with a placid, completely normal face.

It was a real struggle not to break in half containing my laughter.

"What do you think! We're going to get our people back!" Talitha said.

"Damn straight," Joker said. "Can you believe they're declaring them MIA? And they wanted to ground me too! I say nuts to that. If they don't have the balls to go looking I'm going to do it myself."

"You bet," Talitha added, nodding vigorously.

"You up for it Joker? How are you feeling?"

"As long as I can sit I can do it, it's not like I have to go running after them," he said. "With this baby I won't even let them scratch the paint."

"Come on, I'll show you around!" Talitha said. She grabbed my arm to pull me away, Joker gave me an even more lecherous look, and this time I just couldn't contain my laughter, which, fortunately, Talitha didn't even ask about.

The ship had only two decks. The main upper one, and a second lower one that only comprised half the ship, for Engineering and Weapons. It felt even more like a submarine than the Normandy had, with cramped corridors and small quarters. Sections were all connected by a single corridor running the length of the ship along the port side, with clearly marked emergency bulkheads that could be automatically closed along the way. There were also access hatches between all the sections, so one wouldn't necessarily need to depend on that corridor. CIC was at the front, the docking decon chamber opposite of the Captain's and XO's quarters, then the main living area/mess, medbay, the armory, living quarters, and a lab at the back. And at the very back, and taking both levels of the ship, was the Tantalus drive. I remembered the drive from the SR-2, and this one felt like it was a much, much tighter fit in the allocated area.

I claimed one of the bunks and headed for the armory to drop armor and weapons. There were clean uniforms available, luckily, but other than the symbols on said uniforms and in some of the supplies around us, there was no other sign that this was a Cerberus ship. Systems Alliance script and symbols were everywhere. I put on the uniform, a shield harness, and hung my trusty sidearm on it.

"You know," I told Talitha once I was decent, joining her in the corridor, "for an evil, secret organization of sorts, Cerberus spends a lot of effort with branding."

"I'm... hoping they're not as evil as people say," Talitha replied.

"Yeah," I said, without much conviction. To try and change the subject, I rapped my knuckles against the shoulderpad of her hardsuit and made an inquisitive lift of my eyebrows.

"Ah. It's..." she hesitated, and took a couple of seconds to gather her thoughts. "It was a bit hard to sit behind the console again. I... put the hardsuit on, and then everything was fine."

"Well, it worked didn't it?" I said.

"Yeah." She gave me a lopsided smile. "You still owe Shepard that report about it."

I chuckled at the reminder. The amount of hate I had gotten from the crew had been, in retrospective, hilarious. "We just have to make sure she's alive then, so I can tell her I was right," I said.

"You bet! And by the way," she punched me straight in the arm now, hard.

"Ouch!"

"Yeah, you left me hanging with the Council! I had to convince them that you had been debriefed and hadn't seen anything!"

"That's true," I replied. "And I just heard about Shepard, there was no time to waste!"

"I know that now," she said, and punched me again. "You could have told me you jerk."

We got out of the way while the rest of the team got to the ship, making room so they could go settle down too, and headed for CIC. Talitha was telling me all about her debriefing with the Council, which amounted to them asking the same things over and over and, apparently, making it feel like an interrogation. When we get to the front, Joker joins in and both Talitha and he veer off a tangent to start discussing their current ship, and right then and there I could have fallen off the face of the Earth and nobody would have noticed. She was as much into the geeky side of space flight as Joker was, only Joker actually got to fly.

I couldn't tell whether Joker was actually okay to fly or not. He'd been grounded pending evaluation, or so he told it, but he was itching to get back to the black. He had just had the Normandy reduced to scrap by the same collectors we were planning on attacking, and this time the ship might have been faster, but it was much more of an handful and with worse weapons to boot. At least it wasn't like in the game, where it's more or less inferred that he had a huge amount of guilt over Shepard's death. This time it wasn't that, everyone had gotten into pods, and the Collectors had stolen those pods. Sure, there could be guilt there, but it was very different than seeing Shepard die because she had gone to the cockpit to force Joker to jump.

All that was great until there was a ping from my omni-tool, the kind of ping I had set up to be loud, obnoxious, and set a vibration to the whole thing so I would get the message when it came no matter what, even if I was deep asleep or even in a coma.

Your date has arrived to Bekenstein, Messenger of Morgan. You don't want to be late.

"Shit. SHIT!" I yelled, bolting up from my seat. "Not now!"

"What? What is it?" Talitha said.

"SHIT! MIRANDA!" I yelled, looking around. Nowhere to be found. "Where is she?!"

"Her office I think," Talitha said. "Wha- Roy!"

I bolted out of there, nearly tripping on my haste, and bumping on people left and right as I did. I ignored their protests as I rushed past everyone to the XO's office, and started hitting the bell and banging on the door.

"Yes!" Miranda snapped, and the lock to the office turned green. "Wha-"

"Miranda! I need to get to Bekenstein! Right fucking now, I need to go! I need the shuttle, or-"

"Stop," she said, not yelling but loud enough, raising one hand and gesturing at me. She was sitting behind the lone desk in the office, and after looking at me for a moment, she brought up the console.

"Lawson?" Channing responded.

"Are we ready to move?"

"We're still getting supplies on board," the captain replied. "And we're waiting for some personnel. Engineering only has Gabby at the moment."

"So in other words, we're not missing anything vital," Miranda said. There was a rather rude noise on the other side of the comms, but no contradiction. "I want us out as soon as possible, give me a time to Bekenstein."

"Bekenstein? What in the blazes are we-"

"Channing," Miranda cut her off.

"Fine. Drive at forty percent, we're looking at about two hours."

"I can do it faster!" Joker's voice came through, calling from the cockpit.

"Moreau," Channing said, "I already told you we will do this as the specs require."

"And I'm just saying, you don't get the best pilot in the galaxy and then tell him to drive like grandma."

Miranda smiled, and for a moment, it looked as if the touch of the smile actually managed to disturb the rest of the otherwise frozen landscape that was the Ice Queen's countenance. She hit the comms again to switch channels.

"All right Moreau, give me a time."

"Forty minutes, tops. I might be able to squeeze it down to thirty if I line up a good planetary sling on the way in, which you now I will."

"Then make it happen." She cut the comms as a protest from Channing started to get loud, and gestured at the chair in front of her tiny desk. Any hint of a smile was completely gone. "All right Morgan, talk. I need to know why we are going to Bekenstein, of all places, and why out of the blue we are in such a hurry."

The fact that the alarm was blaring overhead was not the worst part of the whole affair. Oh no. For Kasumi, the real problem was that the silent alarms, plural, she had disabled had, apparently, not been the whole thing. She still wasn't sure which system she had missed. She had gone over the list, the security schematics, they all made sense, they all seemed complete. They had taken every system that was in those schematics, and hadn't seen anything that wasn't.

We should have never split for this, I shouldn't have left him alone.

She concentrated on not puffing up in any way and just continue to squeeze through the ventilation duct. It had been built narrow enough that people couldn't just use it to sneak in, or at least, normal people. One of the advantages of a petite frame. At least it was clean. Mostly. Probably something to do with the lack of spiders on the planet. She heard steps below her and she stopped moving, holding her breath. Biosign masking and stealth field, she should be damn near undetectable, but she couldn't exactly mask her warm breath or her actual, physical presence presing against the metallic wall of the ducts. The steps continued as if nothing was wrong, or rather, as if the loud alarm blaring overhead was wrong but the problem was not her.

It took her an eternity to reach the control room. It wasn't, it had barely been half an hour since they dropped from their shuttle, as her well trained internal clock let her know, but it felt much longer than that. Years of her life had passed by in the space of thirty minutes. But she was in position. She would have to be noisy, no way around it. Two people at the consoles. She punched through the vent, dropping in with a roll on the ground and activating her holographic decoy as she did, making it look like it had gone for cover behind the coffee table. Both targets turned, much to her delight. The feeling was still remote, crowded out by the needs of the here and now. She rushed the back target, coming up behind him, and placing her pistol at the back of his neck. Skin touch, impossible for the kinetic barrier to stop it. The touch and the bullet leaving her gun are one, too fast for the guard to react in any way. Without a moment's hesitation, she pushed the guard forward to crash onto the other guard. She dove low, knife in one hand and pistol in the other, and came up in a single, fluid motion to bury the knife into the soft underside of the helmet, right at the exposed joint.

Both guards hit the ground and she took a moment to recover her breath, and to slow down her hysterically fast beating heart.

"Keiji, can you hear me?"

Nothing but static. Comms had been coming and going since the alarm went off. She went to the console, desperately breaking through firewalls and trying to find a way to create a distraction, while keeping an eye on the security systems. The overhead map showed numerous guards heading for the mansion, green dots moving towards the red flashing rooms on the map. No red dots. They didn't know exactly where they were, but Keiji was going to be boxed in. As she worked, her attention wavered for a moment when red flashes appeared on the north and south side of the map.

Perimeter breach?

She was inside the auxiliary systems now. She could cut the noise of the alarm, but that would alert others of her presence. Could be useful, draw some people away from Keiji. Deep down, her other self was almost screaming in panic at the danger Keiji was in, at the very real possibility that she would lose him forever. Cold sweat had broken through her body. But her professional self had taken over. She needed to be as fast, accurate, and deadly as she could if she wanted to rescue him and made it out of there alive.

Secondary firewall was hardened. More precious time would be wasted. The map now showed three dots on the north side, and three dots on the south side. Red dots. They were advancing fast, and every green dot they came across became grey in very short order.

It was taking too long. She swore loudly, silenced the alarm, and took off at a run, gun in hand, towards the main building. She'd draw some attention, and kill whoever got in the way. There was no more time.

Outside, it had become a literal warzone. Automatic guns, explosives, it was chaos. Whoever was attacking the state was in a very big hurry, and they were dangerous too. She had to get to Keiji, and get to him fast. No more hesitation. Crossing a battlefield in a stealth cloak was not for the faint of heart. Not being seen didn't guarantee one wouldn't be caught in the crossfire. She rushed behind one of the statues for a better angle and surveyed the battle. Three people, one clearly an asari, biotics flaring and all, wearing full black armor that could only be Spectre-class. Strange, and worrying. The other one had the look of a seasoned mercenary, one big shoulderpad protecting the neck as he fired his assault rifle, delivering a bullet and a curse with every shot, and the third... Looked like a hardened envirosuit of-

No way.

It couldn't be. That just just her head doing wishful thinking. She shook her head and prepared to rush for the next cover, but she hadn't taken two steps before a voice she knew only too well filled the air.

"Kasumi!"

There she was. Stealth field up and rushing along the skirts of the battle towards the house. I yelled her name, saw her stumble, and saw her continue her run towards the statue.

"Over here Kasumi!" I yelled again, diving for cover.

We had caught absolutely everyone on the back foot. Literally, the guards had been, for reasons that should have been obvious for me had I not been high on adrenalin and not thinking straight, running towards the house, and we had got them with their pants down. I hadn't stopped to think, but later I realized I should have been glad that the guards were just Hock's personal guards, because in the game they had been Eclipse. Which would have put us rather at odds with them.

"Roy!" I nearly jumped out of my goddamn skin when Kasumi called me right from behind me. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Later! Where's Keiji!"

"Inside! I'm not sure where, he was heading-"

"North or South?" I interrupted.

"North!"

"So it's on us, come on!" I called. I hit the comms, and after getting some noise, my omnitool blinked green. "I have one target, second is inside the house, North side entrance." There was no response other than a gesture from Tela for us to push forward. "Let's go, stay close!" I called, turning halfway but not looking back, and pushed at the exact moment Zaeed did.

It was great because he cursed so loudly it made me almost invisible. Except for the fact that the shotgun I had bought on Omega was loud as shit and not particularly accurate. Well, it was accurate enough, but the spread was ridiculous. I had to get real close to the bastards to do real damage - and when I did, it did. Zaeed and I both went wide, each away from the other on our respective sides, and when the four guards we had been shooting at started to fall in back towards each other, there was a flare of biotics and they were lifted up, arms and legs flailing helplessly. Four guns rose in unison, and soon there were four bodies slamming on the ground.

"Which way?" I sad.

Kasumi took point, flashing out of stealth for a moment to work her omni-tool, and a moment later a false panel opened next to the entrance, revealing a set of stairs. They were narrow, and dark.

"I don't like this," Zaeed said. "Last time I saw a setup like this I left three good men bleeding at the bottom of the stairs."

"There are no good men here, so that'll help," I said.

Kasumi ignored us, dropping into stealth and pushing ahead. I followed in close, and with a grumble and a couple of curses, Zaeed fell in too, with Vasir bringing up the rear. The stairs dislodges us into a wide corridor, and I had barely set foot in it when I heard a yell.

"Contacts!"

And it was on again. I had enough presence of mind not to dive back the way I came, but jump across to the opposite corner, where a narrow corridor led away from the main building, and took cover behind it. I caught a shimmer in the main wide corridor as I went past so, not trusting the spread of my shotgun, I clipped it to my back and drew my pistol. I was about to come out when I saw Vasir rush out, biotics flaring, then... disappear.

A heartbeat later there was a crash as her biotic charge caught one of the peope shooting us square on the chest, and she was off to the races fighting his companion hand to hand. Yells, shooting, I was out of cover, pistol in hand, and advancing quick as the guards fell back, with three people running away to safety in the background. Kasumi came out of cover, burying a knife in someone's back and setting up a crossfire, while I concentrated on the guy in front of me. Shields were flaring, so were his, but luckily for me, his broke two shots before mine, and I put two bullets right through his hardsuit's faceplate.

"Keiji!"

"We're clear," Zaeed said, turning to cover the way we came in while Vasir stalked to the front of the group.

Kasumi had fallen to her knees next to-

Shit, that's a lot of blood.

I rushed to her side and fell to my knees, omni-tool already scanning. He was still alive, but he needed Help, with capital H.

"Miranda, we need a doctor. Target is down. Critical injuries."

"Acknowledged," Miranda replied. "Where are you?"

"Kasumi?" I said. She didn't answer, she was holding Keiji's hand and speaking Japanese softly to him. "Kasumi!"

She gave a startled yelp and looked up.

"Doctor needs to know where we are!"

I offered my omni-tool, and it was like someone else took over. Her anguished face smoothed, hands steadied, and she took my arm and started speaking with the quick, clipped tones of a professional at work.

"We're in the sub-basement, from the South side you need to enter the house, get to the library, and find the access hatch under the drinks globe. It's a Serrice 11 secure lock, can you open it?"

"Yes," Miranda replied, sounding unnervingly calm with so many sounds of battle in the background.

"Once you've come down, follow the corridor until you see us." As Kasumi spoke, she was tearing parts of her dress with her knife, and using the cloth to put pressure on two of the holes Keiji had. "Roy, hold this I need to make a tourniquet. Press firmly."

"I'm on my-" Whatever she was going to say was interrupted when the whole floor trembled around us, and outside we heard a strange rushing sound I didn't identify. "Gunship!" Miranda yelled.

"Shit!" I echoed. "Miranda, we need you here! I'll go and help!"

"Better hurry!"

I called Zaeed to come help Kasumi and rushed through the corridor, coming to the ladder where the access hatch was. Miranda had already opened it, and we crossed each other as we ran, neither of us saying a word or even acknowledging the other. Gunship. I should have known. That bastard Hock had a gunship in the mission with Kasumi. Shit! I ran up the ladder and quickly threw myself into cover as thick, chunky bullets tore through the walls and furniture. Hock was yelling trough the audio system of his gunship, and he sounded pissed. I came out of cover to unload my shotgun, but quickly realized it was going to be of little use at the range he was firing from.

"Shit! Do we have heavy weapons?" I yelled.

"I am the heavy weapon!" Tasha yelled back. "But we need to take the shields down!"

Another burst of automatic fire from the gunship. Crap. This was not going like I remembered in the game. Cover was useless, but being in the house meant I could move around practically unseen. I came by a fallen guard, and picked up the rifle he had been carrying. It was fucking heavy, but I hoped it would do better against the gunship. With a deep breath, I came out of cover at a different window and started shooting.

It kicked like a mule that thing. Single bullets, pure semi-auto, and I had to take a moment between shots, but it felt nice and meaty with every shot. I did half a dozen then got down as soon as the gunship started to turn towards me, rushing quickly in the opposite direction it had been turning and hoping to hell I wouldn't get caught in the fire.

More holes in the wall. More screams. More shooting from my teammates.

"We need to take those damn shields down!" Tasha yelled into the comms, the voice crackling with interference.

"I'm trying!"

"I need cover!" Jacob called. HUD showed me his position, he was behind a statue that the gunship had chewed through, and was damn near butt naked out there.

"Get ready to move!" I yelled.

Out of the main door, body half hidden by the doorframe, and rifle up. It was a big target. Each shot dug hard into my shoulder, but I kept at it, fighting the climb and trying hard to fire as fast as possible. A dozen shots all told, heat dangerously close to overheat. Then I caught a glimpse of the telltale shimmer of a stealth field in use rushing past me through the door, just as the gunship started to turn towards me. Us.

"Kasumi get to cover!" I yelled, diving back myself and taking refuge behind a large pillar and crouching as low as I could. Masonry, metal, and stone flew all over, and I even felt a heavy impact on my back that nearly threw me down on my face as a high caliber shot took a huge chunk of my geth shields down. It would have probably killed me if I hadn't had that particular upgrade. I didn't see if Kasumi had made it, but all I could concentrate on was not getting shot.

"Shields are down," a lightly accented, soft voice called through the comms.

Freaking hell Kasumi well done!

I could have asked how on earth she had broken through the Spectre grade encryptions we were using for our comms, courtesy of Tela Vasir, or how exactly she had managed to walk past a literal rain of fire coming from the gunship, but it didn't matter. The next thing I heard was a very loud call from Tasha.

"Aim high!" she yelled, and I looked out of cover to see her launch herself with a biotic charge at the gunship, crashing straight onto the cockpit and jumping down from it a moment later, wreathed in biotics and soon under a shower of glass as an explosive blew open the pilot's cabin on the vehicle.

Giving us a clear shot of the pilot.

Hock himself.

Yeah, it didn't matter that it kicked like an angry elephant, but that rifle I had taken put some real hurt exactly where I wanted the bullets to go. Between Jacob and I we made very short work of the pilot, which was the fastest way of getting rid of that damn gunship in the first place.

Presence. There was an art to it. Sending the right signals to the right people at the right moment could resolve a particular encounter even before it happened. Miranda knew that. She knew how to radiate power, and how to appear decorative. It was one of the reasons she loved her high heels. In the right environment, even the noise could be made into a disquieting signal for the unsuspecting victim. She could move fast with them, too, if need be. And if she really needed to, a simple command from her omni-tool and they would collapse into a much more practical pair of low-heeled flat shoes.

It was almost the same story with her suits. She knew fools would see her as nothing but decorative, a side effect of her father's quest for perfection that had included her body. Deep down, she sometimes allowed herself to think that she liked having that body. She had certainly trained hard enough for it. People who were no fools would realize there was more to her than being decorative. The few really smart people would go all the way and realize the statement that she was actually making with those outfits: she was confident enough that she didn't need any stronger protection.

But there was more to presence than presenting oneself in a particular manner. There was also the art of disappearing. Sometimes completely, and sometimes in plain sight. Like she was doing now. She had been watching Morgan and that woman, Kasumi, for some time. Arms crossed and leaning against the doorframe of her office, she had a full view of the scene. They had been sitting together facing the medbay since they had come on board, except for the few minutes they had spent cleaning themselves at her behest. They hadn't spoken a single word, and neither of them seemed particularly aware of what else was going on around them. There seemed to be a wordless understanding between the two of them. Obviously they had history together, but Miranda couldn't figure out what it was. Cerberus HQ were trying to dig up anything they could on her, although she already knew the most basic thing: a master thief.

Her right hand was holding Roy's left, fingers interlocked and knuckles whitening every so often. When that happened, there was always a reassuring squeeze back from Roy. Trust? Strange, they couldn't have known each other for long, if Morgan's apparent lack of contact with the rest of the galaxy before the events of Eden Prime was to be believed.

They had been there for a while, and it would be even longer, if they were lucky. The man, Keiji, had been shot five times. She actually had had to perform CPR during extraction, having had to stop and waste precious minutes exposed to try and bring him back. She had managed to restore a faint pulse, but she knew the odds weren't great. Even if the surgery went well, odds were he wouldn't last the night. If he did, he might be lucky enough to actually tell the tale.

It was two more hours before their doctor left the medbay. She was glad they had him onboard already, otherwise she'd have had to perform the surgery herself, and while she was quite capable of doing so, it was an exhausting job. She had had time to read some of the dossiers that HQ had sent her and plan their next steps, and even have some food. Neither Kasumi nor Roy ever looked back at her.

She studied the body language. She couldn't hear from where she was, but reading lips was easy enough. Had gone well, not out of danger, wait and see, basically the nice version of don't get your hopes up, and washing responsibility off himself if they did. Kasumi said something. Yes, you can go inside. Wouldn't do much good, but why not.

After Kasumi disappeared in the medbay, Roy stretched after his long sitting spell, turned around, and damn near fell down in surprise when he realized she had been standing there, watching.

Holy shit she's been there the whole time?

Miranda was looking at me from the entrance to her room, arms crossed and... yes, a faint smile on her face. I didn't react until she made to turn around, just staring at her dumbfounded the whole time.

"Miranda," I called. She stopped and turned again, and I made my way to her. "Err... thank you," I said lamely, scratching the back of my neck. Damn that felt uncomfortable. "If it wasn't for you..."

"Of course," she said, nodding slightly.

She wasn't particularly bitchy about it either. She was acting as if it had been the most natural thing in the world, telling her that I needed to go and save someone, and her just doing exactly that. Even her tiny, relaxed smile seemed genuine.

"Look. For what it's worth, my biggest problem is not you okay? It's just that... I can't trust Cerberus itself, there's-"

She raised her hand, gesturing for me to stop. "Let's not go into that now. Whatever misgivings you have, Cerberus has given me complete control of my operation. Can you trust me?"

Could I trust her? Not. But... Well, as far as getting Shepard back, the truth is that I probably should. The problem of what to do afterwards, however, remained unsolved. But she had just launched at full speed out of the line when I had asked, so at the very least I owed her that much. With a sigh, I offered my hand. She took it and we shook on it, wordlessly.

"Pity we never saw Jack in action," she said. Now her smile had edges.

"Well, we technically weren't expected to go into combat, so..." She had been drunk as a fish at the time. Which reminded me. "Next I need to figure out what Joker drinks and get him a bottle or two of the best of that."

"For what I've heard, his choice of poison starts with F and ends with X," Miranda said. "Just try not to hurt your tender sensibilities with it."

Author's Notes: Woo hoo! You know, technically, if one goes by strict canon, it's strongly hinted that Keiji died in 2175 during the heist of Hock's estate. The wiki sums it up: "Grayboxes were outlawed in 2175 CE due to an incident regarding Keiji Okuda", this is the kick-off for Mass Effect: Foundation comic Issue 10. It's kind of explained that it's when it happened, that the spying was what caused the box to be outlawed, when Keiji walked away from a trial for espionage, and that shortly afterwards the heist happened and Keiji died. However, if we squint real hard and stretch the canon (which is what I did when I originally showed Keiji as being alive), one can separate both points in time, and consider the incident that outlawed grayboxes to be separate from the trial where Keiji was acquitted (why not, a big case that took years to unravel), and that the heist of Hock's estate was delayed slightly when, before going to rob Hock, they got an offer, via the Shadow Broker, for the biggest job in galactic history.

It's a HUGE stretch, but screw it, it's my fic and I want Kasumi to be happy before I make her miserable as all hell as I always do with all characters.

Oh, and Rasa/Captain Channing, I assume you recognize her no? Also Mass Effect Foundation for all the clues (issue 3), but ME3:Citadel DLC for her in action. Yup, that's her! AFAIK she was a loyal Cerberus operative at the time, and only split after the whole Lazarus project and subsequent shenanigans from Timmy Boy.

And... I just realized, if you think about what just happened, Miranda just ran Roy's Loyalty Mission :D

Reviews! So many reviews, thank everyone! Couple of Q&A:

BJ Hanssen: If you paid attention, you might have realized how I specifically had Jack bring in the rear, and how quickly she showed up to kick Roy's leg after he was shot in it, right? :)

Uemei: Just being cautious! Accessing Cerberus files is how Shepard sold it in the game, and Roy is walking a fine line with Miranda so far. As for Morinth, can't use her now when I have a scene with her and Roy in the future. Muahahahaha!

Rainsfere: Yeah, I think I have to be careful with Miranda mostly because I don't like her character very much, so I've got to be careful not to let the dislike seep into the writing. Being a bit bitchy because Roy keeps throwing her off-balance is fun, but I suspect after this she'll find a better balance. As for the date, as you can see it went as well as expected! Okay, so I might have lied a little...

Tom712, buccheri: Date went as expected! Hahaha.

Next chapter! Well, next chapter Miranda will be trying to balance the team, and Tela Vasir might have a chat with Roy. Or a "chat". We'll see! Until then, thanks for reading, reviewing, following, favoriting (that's a word now, deal with it!), and otherwise supporting my stories! Ta-ta!