Hey everyone! So… I really apologize for the delay on this chapter. My life has been a bit crazy here. Work has not increased our days to 9hr days (sometimes more) and all we get is a half hour for lunch; so, I have been a little tired when I get home. I did also get a little bit of writer's block at one section and I have actually had a social life lately, who knew? Anyway… I actually have a decent amount done for the next chapter because I just kept writing and writing and writing. Then when I looked at it, I realized that it was getting really long and that I would be making you guys wait even longer and I couldn't do that. I hope that the next chapter won't take as long and that you will all enjoy it. Sorry if this one isn't as riveting as the others, but trust me, the next ones will be. Thanks again for reading/following/favoriting and reviewing!

Chapter 25

She stood there fighting the desire to snap at her boss. "Sir, I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. If you allow me to implant the chip it would guarantee her loyalty. We don't exactly have the best track record with Shepard."

He took a long drag from his cigarette and tapped it into the ash tray. "Though that may be true, it wouldn't guarantee her success. I want Commander Shepard as she was. That is the only way I know that she would succeed."

Miranda shook her head. "She will be a loose cannon. There is no way to know if she will go along with our plans. Please let me implant the chip. It will insure our future investment. This is our last opportunity to install it."

"The decision has already been made, Lawson," the Illusive Man snapped. "You are not to alter Commander Shepard's will. That is final."

She clenched her jaw to hide her frustration and nodded, "Yes, sir."

"Now, you may want to head down to the docking bay or you might miss the first flight of the SR-2."

It was such an insult. It felt like he was scolding her like a child. But, instead of saying anything, she spun on her heel and left.

Smiling up at the beautiful ship before him, Joker ran his hand along the entryway. "I missed you, girl," he whispered as he entered into the airlock. He couldn't stop grinning as he limped towards the cockpit, admiring the sight like it was the first time he had seen her. Reaching his hand out, he slowly spun the chair so he could sit down and look into the CIC. Leaning back a bit, he sighed, Cerberus really puts up the money. This chair is amazing…

Joker turned back to the cockpit and prepped the ship for flight, unable to wipe the smile off his face. He could hear someone come up behind him but decided to ignore them; he knew it was Miranda acting as the Commander. She barked out a few orders to the crew, preparing them for their first flight but he was too excited to pay attention to her.

He began to increase power to the engines and the Normandy began to lift. They maneuvered out of the docking station and Joker took them farther and farther away. It was only supposed to be a short trip just to make sure everything was in working order, but it was better than nothing, and who said he had to follow orders? This wasn't the Alliance.

"Alright, all controls look good," Miranda said sharply. "Let's just stick to the itinerary and the routine maneuvers."

"Damn, what crawled up your ass and died? You seem crabbier than usual," Joker snorted. "And come on, 'routine'? You must know how some of our missions went. You know that there is nothing routine about Shepard." He never heard a response but grinned as he felt the anger seethe from her. Typing calmly on the console he peeked over at his current co-pilot, smirking at what he had planned. Before he could finish setting up the sequence a blue orb popped up right next to him.

"Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, this was designed to be a routine flight. I suggest that you halt your current course of actions so that we may follow protocol."

"Holy shit!" Joker shouted and jumped in his seat, almost slamming into the armrest and cracking a rib. He rubbed his side where he was sure a bruise was forming. "What the hell is this thing?"

"I am the Normandy's on board Artificial Intelligence system, known as an Enhanced Defense Intelligence."

"Lawson, what the hell is this thing doing on here? The previous Normandy was fine without it."

Miranda answered cooly, "Having an AI on board is more than beneficial. The system can do the work of several operatives in the crisis of a fight, both offensively and defensively."

"Uh huh… so the whole having an AI on board doesn't scare anyone? Nothing rings a bell? Geth? Reapers? You know, that old chestnut."

"There are several behavioral blocks installed in my operations and I cannot interface with the ship's systems."

Joker stared at the blue sphere next to him and turned his head to Miranda, not wanting to acknowledge the AI beside him, "Is this thing telling the truth?"

"She cannot lie. And we have taken many precautions to keep the AI from going rogue."

"Did you really just say 'she'?" He didn't know why it bothered him so much. Maybe he just felt like this computer was encroaching on his bond with the Normandy. "Does everyone just refer to it as 'AI' or 'computer'?"

"I do not have any other names associated with me," the computer inserted.

"Enhanced Defense Intelligence, huh? Why not just call it 'EDI'?" He had directed the question to Miranda but of course the computer had overheard.

"That is the phonetic pronunciation o and the acronym for my system. It would be a suitable alternative for me. I will make note of the change."

Oh great, Jeff, now you named it. It will never leave you alone now. "Yeah… great. Now, back on task."

"As I advised earlier, you should follow what has been set in the protocol."

"Yeah… I'll get right on that," Joker smirked as he gunned the engines and began flight maneuvers with the sound of EDI advising him.

"Wake him up."

An asari leaned next to Sidonis and injected him with a serum. It only took seconds before he woke up. His head rolled to the side as his senses slowly came back to him. The room was dark but he could easily see five figures and the faint outline of at least three more. His head was throbbing, his throat dry and his body sore. That was when he noticed the ache in his arms and discovered that they were bound at an awkward angle behind him and his legs were bound as well, all attached to a pole behind him.

"Well, Archangel, it looks like we have finally gotten to you," the batarian in blue armor sneered. "We have been after you for quite some time. Killed a lot of our men. Looks like we can finally rectify the situation."

"I – I don't know what you are talking about," Sidonis breathed heavily. His chest burned and it seemed that the longer he was awake, the more he became aware of smaller details of his body hurting; even the old scar on his upper thigh was hurting, but that had never bothered him before. He knew that he didn't really have a chance of getting out, but at least if he played a convincing innocent he could maybe squeak by, "What is going on? Why am I here? What did you do to me?"

"Don't play that, Archangel. You have caused enough trouble. Do you think we are stupid?"

Yes. "I just… I don't understand why I am here and why you are calling me that vigilante's name. I have never met him."

"Good try," a krogan grumbled from the side and came up thrusting the butt of his rifle against Sidonis's face.

The pain was intense. He had been hit like that before, but it had never hurt that much. Was it just because it was a krogan? It took Sidonis a few minutes to compose himself and he then realized that his subharmonics were groaning their pain. "What did you do to me?" he asked again.

The batarian moved closer to him and held up a vial, "My friend there," he motioned to the asari, "injected you with this serum. I don't exactly know how it works, but it woke you up and a pleasant side effect, for us anyway, is that it enhances your perceptions of the outside world. That includes pain." He finished his description with a swift kick in Sidonis's stomach. "Now, what should we do with you, Archangel? Keep you alive for several days torturing you? How about you just tell us where your base is? We know that you didn't come up with those sabotages all by yourself."

"I don't know anything!" Sidonis pleaded as pain radiated through his body.

"Rip off his plates," a krogan said from the back, it was almost a whisper. All heads turned to him. "It's the most effective form of torture against turians in my experience."

"Are you sure we shouldn't build up to that?" an asari said.

"We need to know his holdout. Even if we take down their leader, there is no guarantee they will stop when he is dead," the krogan answered dryly.

"Who knew? The krogan can think," the batarian smirked. The krogan growled at the insult as the batarian motioned to those behind him. "Shall we begin?" he smiled at the turian.

Sidonis tried to keep his breath steady as he mentally prepared himself. How would he keep his mouth shut during all of this?

He drummed his fingers along the desk, coming up with a tune while humming something completely different. Two entirely different tempos yet he was able to continue with each. It was his pastime; one of his, anyway. For now, he was burning time before he had to leave in an hour.

Opening the scanner, he noticed a tiny blip, something under codes and codes of decryption. "Now… what could this be?" As if he were bored, he typed a few buttons on the console. "Just a few more keys…" he mumbled, "Ah, there it is." He pressed one more button and the communication popped up before him.

"-nd what do I get as my guarantee?"

"Hello, Wilson," Kai Leng smiled at the monitor, "Fancy seeing you here."

"We have already discussed our terms," a mystery voice said in reply. "Besides, you work for us now. Give us the location of the facility. The information you have provided has been few and far between."

"What do you want me to do?" Wilson asked indignantly. "Do you realize how much time I had to spend covering up this message and all the messages before? Security is denser than a volus's enviro-suit. I forwarded you the coordinates to the facility. But you better hurry. We have already begun entering the final stages of the program."

"Location received. Stall them. We need to reach the facility before she wakes up."

"I have tried to stall. I swear there is nothing more I can do. Every time I slow the system down she makes a miraculous recovery and begins healing ten-fold! If I didn't know better I would say she is some kind of super-human. Like there is some force higher than us keeping her alive!"

"Surely they can't be speaking of you, love," Leng grinned and propped his chin in his hand. "It seems you are attracting all sorts of attention."

"I even tried waking her up before all of her systems had repaired themselves. At that critical of a stage her entire body should have shut down. Her organs should have fried along with her brain. But guess what happened… she woke up. Somehow she began to function long before it should have been possible."

"We will correct the situation," the voice said. "Stall." And the transmission cut out.

"Hmm…" Leng said to himself and began tapping his fingers on the desk again, "Wilson, you crafty dog. What will Miranda do to you when she finds out?" Standing up, he stretched until he heard several pops and sighed. "No need to jump to conclusions. Jane could use a challenge waking up. Can't make things too easy for her," he chuckled. Pulling a knife out from the holster on his leg he started to flip and spin it through his fingers.

Exiting the room he began to roam the hallways, not looking for anything in particular. What to do? What to do? He began whistling again but kept his ears open to the sounds around him. There weren't too many others around but he did hear someone heading in his direction. At the speed the other person was walking, Leng figured they would more than likely bump into each other. Might be fun to terrorize one of the hires. It was only a few more seconds until the other man brushed against his arm, causing him to drop the knife.

"Oops, sorry, man," he bent down and picked up the knife.

Leng looked down at the man with his hand still in position to catch the knife. What are the odds? he smirked to himself.

"I don't think we've met yet. I'm John," he put his hand out and held the knife out with the other.

"Kai Leng," he shook John's hand. Taking back his knife, he placed it back on his leg. "Thank you, John. Hmm, you wouldn't happen to be Shepard, would you?"

"Yes, that is me," John almost grimaced. "I guess good news gets around, huh?"

"Frankly, I don't see how anyone could not hear about you. Though, under the circumstances, I wouldn't say it is 'good' tidings that you are here." At John's slightly confused look, Leng gave a grin of understanding, "None of us would ever wish this on your sister. Cerberus wanted her but not quite like this."

John looked at the man, "Wait a minute… Leng? Kai Leng? You knew Jane, didn't you? She spoke about you once before."

Leng smirked, "Did she now? And what do you know of me?"

"She said that you were training the same year and that you taught her some fighting styles," John purposely left out the rest of what Jane had said. Maybe he has changed since then. "She also said that you were N7 as well."

"That was kind of her," he chuckled. "Though I am sure that was not all she said. Jane and I parted ways on… confrontational terms."

"Well, Jane never really got into any of that."

"Probably for the best then. She is an amazing fighter. A worthy adversary. Though we were quite close for a time."

John didn't particularly like the way that Leng said that last statement but he knew that Jane didn't want to be in the military. Maybe she and Leng simply shared their frustrations and regrets. Jane certainly seemed to know some of his.

"Now, John, I heard that you were out scouting dossiers. What are you doing here?"

"I normally tried to keep to regular transport, you know, trying to look normal and not attracting attention as a Cerberus operative. My next stop is Omega so I figured I better call in a real ship, just in case. As soon as I got on, they said that we had to stop by here first. Apparently, Miranda wanted a personal chat as well."

"Ah, Miranda and her 'talks'… Be careful with that one. Ice queen."

"Yeah, you're telling me. Well, hey, nice to meet you man."

"Nice to meet you, too. And if you go to see Jane, tell her I said hello," Leng smiled. "See you around."

John watched the man leave several questions rushing through his mind. Pushing them aside for now, he continued down the hallway and knocked on Miranda's door.

"Come in," she called out.

John smirked at the coldness in her voice; she was just always so uptight. "Hello, sweetness, it's so nice that you invited me to see you. You know how I have missed you. The vid chats are just not the same."

Miranda rolled her eyes as she looked up at him. "Yes, John… I agree, it just isn't the same. Now can we please get back to business?" She set down the datapad and folded her hands on the desk in front of her.

"Ah…" John placed his hand on his chest, "your words just warm my heart. So, what is it? I didn't think you would call me back until we had our final dossiers and Jane had woken up."

"You are right, that was the plan. Jane is doing quite well. I figured that you might want to see her."

John's mouth dropped open.

She stared back at him, "Contrary to popular belief, my heart is not made of stone or is it ice that they are saying?" A small smile crept onto her face as she stood up.

"I… Wow, thank you, Miranda," John smiled back at her and decided not to make a joke about her showing emotion. He followed her into the hallway and stayed quiet by her side until they were halfway there. "So, how is she doing?"

"Shepard is doing well. We haven't had any red flags and all of her wounds are healed, there is just the scarring left." Silence fell between them again but she could feel the hope and relief flooding off of John. Miranda put herself in John's shoes and wondered how she would be feeling if it were her own sister lying on that table, unsure if she would make it. Several times, the thought had crossed her but she had always pushed it aside, unable to deal with her emotions. Finally, it hit her. She could push it out of her mind, but John couldn't. It was happening to him ever since he started here. How could she have not realized it before? Maybe she really was heartless.

They reached the room and John paused at the overlook before realizing that Miranda continued to the other door. Once the door opened, she stood to the side, "You can go down. I'll call my associate up and I'll just stay in this room so you can have some privacy."

John smiled at her, "Thank you," was all he could manage to say. Going down the stairs, John turned the corner just as Miranda's voice sounded overhead.

"Dr. Schima, you are excused, please report to the observation room."

The man looked at John and then up at Miranda. He stopped his work, nodded at John and walked past him.

John walked over to the table slowly and scanned the machines around her. For a while, he just stared down at his sister, too afraid to touch her or do anything as if it were cause her to crash. There were no more tubes hooked up to her, and she was in what looked like a standard uniform. "Hey, little sis. I see that they finally put some clothes on you," he forced a laugh. Looking around the room, he grabbed a chair and placed it next to Jane. He sat down and ran a hand over his face. "You know, you had us all scared before. I almost thought that you wouldn't make it. Oh, come on, don't give me that look. I said 'almost'." He smiled at her and her steady breathing. "Who knew that it would all come to this, huh? I know that working for Cerberus is a little strange… not ideal in any manner but they did bring you back."

He sat next to her, silent for several minutes as if she were talking. "They gave me a new job. I was just working on weapons before but now I am out looking for new recruits. I think I found a few that you will like. They all have such… crazy backgrounds. I think you will be fond of the assassin I found. He is pretty good with a sniper rifle." John got really quiet for a moment and all laughter went out of his voice. "I know… I know you are probably wondering why I am looking at new people and not just getting the old gang back together. Well, they all kind of scattered. You were what kept us together. After we lost you, no one kept in touch anymore. Tali left… that was, uh, that was really rough. She has sent me messages, but I don't know what to say back. I mean, she left at my worst moment. You were gone, Garrus had just left… Do I forgive her?

"Oh yeah, you don't know about that… Garrus left. No one knows where he is… or if he is even alive… I'm sorry to tell you this way. I know you guys had gotten kind of close. Actually… I would very much like to ask you about that when you wake up. I hope that you weren't keeping secrets from me. Come on, we're family," he smiled. "Anyway… I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about when you do wake up. I've missed you," he smiled and, without thinking, took hold of her hand giving it a small squeeze. "It is good to see you again, Jane. I've missed you. We all have.

"Anyway… uh… what else? They built the Normandy. Good as new, maybe even better. Heh, you should see Joker. Well, I haven't gotten to see him since he first flew it but while they were constructing it, I think he fell in love. Actually, I am supposed to be meeting him for a bit now. I'll tell him you said 'hi'. I should be back long before you have to get up. See you later." He gave her hand another squeeze before looking up at the booth to see Miranda's eyes on him. "Oh yeah, and I don't know what role this Miranda woman plays, but give her a chance. And Leng says hi." By the time he reached the observation room, another individual had entered the room. John recognized him as the other lead doctor for Jane, Wilson.

"Wilson? I didn't think it was your shift until the morning," Miranda said.

"I took an earlier shift. I was also told that security needed to talk to you."

"That's odd," she brought up her omni-tool, "I don't have a message from them."

"Yes, they were saying that they were having a hard time getting through to you. I haven't been getting some messages either."

Miranda sighed, "I guess I'll have to swing by tech as well. Thank you, Wilson. John, it is time for us to leave."

John and Miranda made their way down the hallways, neither sharing a word or even a glance. They walked together until they reached the loading dock and awkwardly paused at the doorway.

"Well, um, thank you, Miranda. That really meant a lot."

"You're welcome, John." She took a deep breath and decided to say it, "I know if this had happened to my sister, I wouldn't want to leave her side."

"You have a sister?"

"Yes," Miranda smiled shyly, "Not many people know about her and I would like to keep it that way if you don't mind."

"Of course. It's your story to tell. It seems like a complicated issue, but if you ever need to talk, I'm here." His omni-tool pinged, drawing his attention, "Huh, looks like we are shipping out earlier than expected. Guess I won't be able to see Joker after all. Thanks again, Miranda."

"You're welcome. Have a safe trip."

Wilson looked down on the body of the once great Commander Shepard. She would be great again, if given the chance, but his real employer had other ideas. Wilson wasn't a killer, he had a hard enough time sabotaging her medical equipment and that still hadn't worked. The fact that she lived through being woken up early told him that he wasn't the one to kill her. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't play a part in her death.

Activating his comm, Wilson whispered into the device, "Mole to Shadow. Package is unattended and Ice Queen is in security. LOKI betrayals on countdown."

"Copy that. Closing in."

"I am beginning to think that he isn't Archangel, and that he doesn't know anything."

"I am not sure that he is Archangel either… but he does know something. That vigilante runs with a crew and this turian is part of that."

The asari looked over her shoulder at the slumped and bloody turian. "I think he needs motivation." The batarian looked at her. "The possibility of harm coming to someone he loves."

"You have someone in mind?"

"We don't know his family, but there was that girl we saw him with the other night."

The batarian nodded, "Let's see how he reacts."

The asari nodded and pulled up their surveillance on him from the night they grabbed him. They had seen him out with the human and had hoped to follow him back to their base of operations but they lost him after the two parted ways and he had gone into several access tunnels. Later, one of their scouts had found him and they rushed to the location just as he was entering his apartment. Pausing the vid, she strolled over to the male. "So, turian, are you willing to talk now?"

"I… I don't… know anything…" Sidonis huffed out.

She thought about dragging it out, but they didn't have time for that. "You have held out this long… maybe you are telling the truth. But, I guess that means that we should visit your friend." She looked at him for a moment and it seemed to catch his attention.

He lifted his head as she projected the image of him and Melanis. No… he thought and desperately tried to suppress the urge to scream and lunge at the asari in front of him. He stayed silent.

Looking to the krogan on her left she gave a nod, "Go get the human."

"Wait…" Sidonis whispered. "Leave her out of this."

"Then talk."

"She and I don't know anything. We don't know who this Archangel is and we don't know anything about his crew."

"That may be true, but we haven't heard it from her. And we know some very interesting ways of getting humans to talk. I doubt she has the same pain threshold that you do," the asari looked at the krogan again.

"Wait!" Sidonis strained. His subharmonics began to hum weakly, "Wait… please don't hurt her."

"Then tell us what we want to know. Who are you? Where is the base? Who is Archangel?"

He shouldn't… he knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't let them hurt Melanis. "Promise me you won't hurt her."

"Tell us what we want and we won't."

He gave a heavy sigh, "I am one of his crew…"

Miranda made her way down to the security office. She had been pulled in a hundred different directions before she could even begin getting there. Hopefully it hadn't been something too important, she thought to herself. Entering the room, she nodded to the men, "What is it?"

They exchanged a look, "Excuse me, ma'am?"

"I was told that you needed to see me."

He shook his head, "We didn't call for you, Lawson. Someone must be pulling your leg."

She stood there staring at them as things began to fall into place. No one would play a trick on her, they knew her better than that. "Pull up outside monitors!"

They paused for a split second at her mood swing but followed orders. Nothing was showing up. "What is it you are looking for?"

"Something is wrong."

"Fire in the cargo bay," the other operative stated. "Shit! Looks like all of the mechs have gone crazy."

"It's spreading through the station!" the first man exclaimed.

God dammit, Wilson. I am going to kill you. "Can you hack back into them?"

"No, the whole system is locked."

At that moment, the door opened and two LOKI mechs stood in the doorway. Miranda turned to the side drawing her pistol as the mechs began to open fire. She fired single shots into each of their heads and looked around the room at the rest of the dead men. Heaving out a sigh she typed on the console and linked herself to Shepard's medical room. There was no way she would be able to reach the commander in time. It was now or never.

Light and sound began to tickle the back of her mind. What was going on? Why did her body seem to ache so much? What was that noise? She couldn't focus on anything as she began to wince and turn her head from side to side and slowly began to test her limbs. Then, something so quiet it seemed like a whisper grabbed her attention; a voice. She felt compelled to listen.

"Wake up, Commander!"

It was a woman's voice. A woman's voice she had heard before.

"Shepard? Do you hear me? Get out of that bed now, this facility is under attack."