Whole, Part 2 (a Mass Effect fanfiction)

Nobody's Perfect

In the tower, they found Miranda on the floor, bleeding from a wound in her side. Henry Lawson stood over her, holding Oriana, a gun in his hand.

Shepard and her team immediately pulled their weapons, and Lawson pointed his gun at Oriana's head in response. "Commander Shepard. Excellent timing."

She didn't think so. Clearly she had missed Kai Leng, which had been the most important part of this mission, and if she had missed Kai Leng, that meant he also had the Cerberus data from Sanctuary, on top of the Prothean data from Thessia. All Shepard wanted, the only thing she really asked for, before this war ended, was the opportunity to rip Kai Leng's throat out with her bare hands. In a lifetime of being a soldier, she had never wanted to destroy someone as badly as she wanted to destroy him. Possibly she should be concerned about that—but there would be time to worry about her humanity later.

For now, she had to get out of this situation with Oriana Lawson still alive. She owed Miranda that much and more. "Put the gun down," she said in her calmest, most reasonable voice.

"No. Oriana tried to shoot me." Lawson pressed the gun more firmly against her temple. "Miranda's poisonous influence, no doubt."

"Miranda, can you hear me?" Shepard asked.

Her former shipmate didn't look good, but she pushed herself up off the floor anyway. "Yes, Shepard."

"That's close enough," Henry Lawson snapped. "Both of you! Kai Leng may not have finished the job, but I will."

"No. This ends here," Shepard told him. "Let her go." Oriana Lawson was sensibly standing very still and keeping quiet, but there was only so long this standoff could last before she got hurt.

"Shepard ..." Miranda's voice was weak. "Don't let him take her."

Leveling her gun more firmly, its sights trained on Henry Lawson's head, Shepard offered him a way out. "You try to leave with her, you die." She gestured with her head toward Garrus, whose sniper rifle was also trained on Henry Lawson's head. "He doesn't miss. But let her go, and maybe you walk."

Lawson shifted his feet, glancing quickly toward the door. "I've done nothing to you."

"This isn't about you and me. Let her go, and walk away. I won't say it again."

He considered the offer, and eventually decided it was the best deal he was going to get. He pushed Oriana away from him, turning his gun on Shepard instead. "Fine. Take her. But I want out alive. Deal?"

Shepard didn't bother to respond. As she had expected, the moment her sister was clear of the gun, Miranda's biotics activated, and her father was lifted into the air and thrown through a window into the depths of the facility as if a giant hand had come along and batted him away. "No deal," Miranda said grimly. She swayed, reaching for the nearest surface to hold herself up.

Oriana rushed to her side, her arm around her sister to hold her up. "Are you all right?"

"Me? Are you all right? Did he hurt you?" The two sisters embraced. Then Miranda turned to Shepard, smiling through her pain. "Fancy meeting you here."

"You looked like you could use a hand. You all right?"

Miranda put a hand over the wound at her side, smiling. "I'll be fine. Really. I don't know how you managed it, but I'm grateful you're here."

Shepard returned the smile. "I'm grateful I'm here, too. I owe you—everything."

"Paid in full, Shepard. Several times over."

"This whole thing was a huge risk. You should have told me; I would have helped."

"I know. Maybe next time."

"Hopefully there won't be one."

"Right. Hopefully not." Miranda chuckled. "For now, you have a war to win." She looked around at the room, at the window through which her father had gone. "This was my fight. It's been a long time coming."

"About your father ..."

"I'm glad he's gone, Shepard. I'm sorry if that sounds cold."

"It sounds like what he deserved. I understand."

Miranda nodded. "It's finally over. For both of us. We can stop running."

Garrus was busy at one of the terminals, Kaidan looking over his shoulder. Shepard glanced at them. "What's our status? Any intel we can use from this place?"

"Research data is gone, but we've got basic facility information. Shuttle arrivals and departures—Cerberus included. No direct links, but it's a start."

"Grab anything you can. We'll take it back to be analyzed."

Miranda reached out, touching Shepard's arm. "I can do better than that."

"You can? How?"

"Before Kai Leng took off, I planted a tracer on him. If you act fast, you can track him right to the Illusive Man."

A surge of excitement swept through Shepard. She was going to get her hands on that bastard after all. "Sounds like you thought of everything."

"Not quite, but ..." The corner of Miranda's mouth turned up in a wry smile. "Nobody's perfect."

"You come damned close," Shepard told her. "What about the two of you? You going to be okay?"

"We'll be fine," Oriana answered for her sister. "We're going to get her someplace safe and get this wound tended to. You go ahead, Commander Shepard, follow up this lead. End the war—for all of us."

Miranda sagged against her sister's shoulder. "I'll be in touch, Shepard."

"You take care of yourself." Shepard signaled to Kaidan and Garrus. "Let's pull out. It's time to take the fight to the Illusive Man."

Kaidan nodded. "I like the sound of that. But before we go, let's make sure everyone knows about this place." He bent over the console, tapping at the keys, and soon Miranda's voice came from it, broadcasting the truth about Sanctuary.