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ME2 17 - Rescue, Revenge, Reconciliaton
🕑 Added 2025-10-26 17:01:46 +0000 UTCIllium
Miranda’s father, or rather genetic donor, Henry Lawson, was a certified dirtbag. Not only did he create Miranda and her genetic twin for his perfect dynasty, but he was also knee-deep in crime.
Shepard would bring down Henry Lawson, but for now, there were more important matters.
The location of Miranda’s sister was discovered by their father.
Miranda had made arrangements to have her sister and her adopted family moved out of Illium with the help of someone named Niket, but mercs were swarming the area, and they had just opened fire on the taxi he was using.
“Since you are not firing, I trust you know who I am.” Miranda asked the leader of the mercs. The man had a cocky look on his face, so assured of his chances.
“Yeah. They said you’d be in the car. You’re the bitch that kidnapped our boss’ little girl.” Going by what the merc claimed, Henry Lawson was acting like a father trying to find his long-lost daughter.
“Did they tell you I was going to be in that car too?” Shepard glared at the merc, who quivered in his boots.
“Oh, fuck.”
“Take your men and get the fuck out of here, or I am going to declare war on Eclipse as a whole.”
The mercenary captain weighed his options, looking around wildly before running away. Seeing their commander gone, the rest of the mercs did not hang around.
—
Without facing any resistance, Shepard, Samara, and Miranda moved quickly to find Orianna and her family, coming across Niket in the process, who was working with Captain Enyala, the leader of the mercs in here.
“This should be fun.” The asari captain pointed her shotgun at the team before a condensed biotic energy tore through her head, leaving nothing but a bleeding stump.
“M-Miri.” Niket was surprised to see Miranda here and was terrified that she had brought Commander Shepard as backup.
It did not get any worse than that.
“Niket. You sold me out.” Miranda pointed her SMG at Niket, both sad and furious at the betrayal.
With the death of their captain at the hands of Shepard, the mercs ran away, seeing no victory to be had here, and he lowered his weapon. “How do you want to handle this, Miranda?”
“Why, Niket? You were my friend. You helped me get away from my father.” Miranda, who preferred to keep her emotions bottled up, looked truly vulnerable now.
“Yes! Because you wanted to leave. That was your choice. But if I’d known you’d stolen a baby—” He was right about the angle Henry had chosen, and it explained why Niket had betrayed Miranda.
“I didn’t steal her. I rescued her,” she insisted, fully aware of the dark reality concealed behind Henry Lawson’s public persona.
“From a life of wealth and happiness? You weren’t saving her. You were getting back at your father.”
The following heated conversation was on how and why Niket had sold Miranda out and what to do with Orianna now that Niket knew everything.
Miranda wanted to kill Niket to tie any loose ends, but seeing how miserable she was, Shepard stopped her.
“Listen, Henry is going to die, and if you don’t stay away from Orianna, so will you. Seeing as you helped Miranda before, I am letting you go this time.” Shepard only offered to spare Niket because Miranda could not handle the situation with a clear head and might do something regrettable.
“Thank you, I swear you won’t hear from me again.”
—
“I can’t believe Niket sold me out. I didn’t even see it coming.” Miranda lamented while they were on the elevator. Samara had chosen to stand aside, preferring to let Shepard handle the issue.
“Betrayal never comes from the enemy.” Shepard responded, but it did not seem to help Miranda.
“I let it get personal and screwed up.”
“Miranda, that is life. It has its ups and downs, twists and turns. There will be loyal friends, just as there will be traitors, and it will hurt, but that doesn’t mean you are not allowed to make mistakes. What you can do is to learn and move forward.” His words got through this time, and Miranda took a deep breath to calm down.
“You should have let me kill him.”
Shepard shook his head. “You would have regretted it.”
“You are right. And my father knew it. He used that against me. It’s always been like this. My father gave me anything I ever wanted, but there was always a hook, an angle for his long-term plan. I threw away everything he ever gave me when I ran. Except Niket. Weakness on my part.” Trust was not a weakness but an endeavor in finding the correct people to confide in.
Just because the glass broke once does not mean you have to stop drinking water.
“Safety must not come at the price of cowering in fear.”
“It’s okay, Shepard. My father hurt me, but he didn’t break me. As much as he tried to turn me into what he wanted… I’m my own person.” The whole situation had left an acrid taste in Miranda’s mouth, but she would not let her past control her.
“Good. Any other old friends we might have to worry about?”
“No. I cut ties with everyone else. Anyone I’m close to now works for Cerberus… or you. My father’s powerful, but he won’t cross you or the Illusive Man.” Miranda may not agree with some of Shepard’s methods, but his results could not be argued against.
—
“Go talk to her.” Shepard ordered Miranda, who watched her sister with a forlorn look. She, with the help of Cerberus, had prepared a new life for the family, away from Illium and Henry Lawson.
“But…” Miranda hesitated, unwilling to disturb her sister’s life, while in reality, she was just afraid of how it would go.
“No buts. Orianna deserves to know she has a sister watching out for her. Now go.”
“Yes, thank you.”
—
The conversation between the siblings had apparently gone well, and Miranda even learned a thing or two about Orianna while Shepard was busy returning a medallion to an asari who had lost a memento from her mate.
Oriana had even sent him a message, apparently having found his address from an information broker—Shepard hoped it was Liara; otherwise, there was going to be a purge across the galaxy—thanking him for his help and leaving a note telling Miranda to not go through Shepard’s messages.
—
Ismar Frontier
Faia
Zorya
From the very first moment Zaeed uttered Vido Santiago’s name, Shepard knew it was personal.
“Tapping into Blue Suns communications. Stay tight and look out for ambushes.” That was not a simple thing to do unless you were an AI or very experienced with the enemy encryptions.
This was definitely more than just a contract to Zaeed.
“Squad Bravo, a shuttle landed near your location. Check it out.” The Blue Suns commander ordered with a voice that sounded like the result of a very dry throat.
“Here we go. Keep close.”
Corpses were found ahead, and they definitely didn’t look like soldiers or mercs. “Shot in the back and left to rot. That’s definitely Vido’s style. Let’s push ahead.”
With mechs, flamethrowers, and rocket launchers, the Blue Suns did not pull their punches.
Not that it meant much against laser weapons.
“This is Commander Santiago. If any of you retreat while the intruders are alive, I’ll kill you myself. Now get the hell back out there.” So that voice belonged to Vido.
“Vido. Sounds like he hasn’t changed.” Zaeed looked to be getting angrier with each step towards the refinery, and before things escalated out of control, Shepard decided to have a talk with his teammate while Kasumi handled the bridge.
“How personal is this?”
“When we started the Blue Suns, I knew Vigo was a sadistic little bastard. The Suns only got meaner after he staged his little coup twenty years ago. So, yeah, really personal.” Shepard did not really delve into the histories of mercenary groups, more concerned about ensuring they did not have a future, but learning Zaeed was a founder of the Blue Suns was an eye-opener.
Shepard walked up to Zaeed, looking him dead in the eyes. “Next time, don’t keep vital information from me, Zaeed.” It was one thing to have a personal life; it was another to keep information that may affect a mission.
“Understood.” Zaeed conceded.
“One other thing. This is a fuel refinery, meaning you’ll let me handle this. After that, you can do whatever you want to Vido; I don’t really care.” Laser weapons plus highly flammable fuel meant that there wouldn’t be a refinery left if Zaeed was allowed to run amok.
“If it’s you, fine.”
—
“Zaeed Massani, you finally tracked me down.” Vido greeted them at the catwalk on the entrance, looking down at the team while his men took position.
Santiago was quick to scurry back upon seeing who Zaeed had brought with him. “Fucking hell. Shepard?! What the hell are you doing here?”
The situation had just turned into a disaster.
“Helping him get revenge.” That had the mercs looking to the exit, because this was a battle they could not win.
There was enough fear among the Blue Suns that this situation could be resolved without a shootout in a refinery. “Hey, dumbasses, here is an offer for you. Hand Santiago over, release the prisoners, and leave the refinery, and I’ll let you go in one piece. Otherwise, I am going to barbecue you, and there is more than enough fuel for everyone.” Shepard threatened the mercs.
Without even weighing the offer, the Blue Suns mercenaries raised their weapons, not at the enemy, but at their commander.
“Don’t you fucking even think…” Vido spat at his men, raising his gun in case of betrayal, but was too late. One of the mercs behind him slammed the stock of his rifle to Vido’s face, sending him down the catwalk, right in front of Shepard and his team.
“Smart choice. Gather your men, leave all the valuables behind, and scram.”
“Yeah, okay.” Vido might be stupid enough to think about fighting Shepard, but they were not. The mercs ran away, preferring their lives over their paychecks, calling everyone in the refinery to leave as well.
Shepard nodded to Zaeed, and the veteran mercenary holstered his weapon. “All yours.”
“No, wait, mercy!” Vido begged, but Zaeed advanced on him, ready to tear Santiago apart.
—
“Vicious.” Thane commented from the side while Zaeed kept beating Vido within an inch of his life.
“Zaeed survived having half his face blown off; I think he deserves a little bit of revenge.” The mercs had loaded into the gunships used to take the refinery in the first place and abandoned the planet.
Halfway through, after most of his teeth were knocked out and he was screaming too much to speak, Vido ceased his futile cries, gurgling on his blood and convulsing on the ground.
Zaeed stomped on Vido’s head, putting an end to the Commander of the Blue Suns.
“Burn in hell.” The grizzly merc spat on Vido’s corpse.
“Satisfied?” Shepard knew the answer was going to be a resounding no.
“No. But at least I am done with him.”
Shepard shrugged. If Zaeed had closed this chapter of his life, then good for him. “Good enough. All focused and ready now?”
“Yeah, yeah, boss, just tell me what needs to die.”
“Commander Shepard?! You rescued us?” Workers came running, most likely to abandon the refinery as well, though it was forgotten in an effort to get an autograph from Shepard.
“Just helping a friend finish his contract; you guys are welcome.”
—
Nubian Expanse
Dakka System
Prague
Shepard regularly conversed with his teammates to know the people he was fighting with.
His conversations with Jack so far showed that she was violent, not because of her power, but because she had been tortured, experimented on, and mistreated at a Cerberus facility. Her prospects after escaping Pragia were not stellar either, having drifted from one place to another, among criminals, cultists, and whatnot.
She had no one to care about except herself, and so, saw no reason not to do whatever she wanted, including an impressive list of felonies that had landed her in the Purgatory.
But now, she had discovered the location of the base where she had been kept and wanted to blow it to kingdom come.
Believing it would help soothe her scars, Shepard took Normandy to Pragia.
Twisted by time and perception, Jack’s memories of the base did not always match the facts. The other children in the base—the ones she had been forced to fight in gladiator arenas, whom she had thought ignored her while Jack was banging on the glass—did not even know she was here, as it was a one-way glass.
Though, it wasn’t a ghost base, as mercs on a scavenging mission had gathered in the abandoned secret site, led by Aresh Agdashloo, another child kidnapped and experimented on by Cerberus on Pragia.
He too had been haunted by the memories of his time in captivity, though his reason for returning to the base was not to destroy it. Aresh desperately wanted to see that their suffering and all the dead children were not for nothing, that the search for the perfect human biotic actually succeeded.
It was a twisted way to cope with the scars Pragia left on him, to ensure that something good came out of it.
Jack could have shot Aresh and even considered it strongly, but Shepard made her reconsider.
Aresh was stuck in the past; Jack had the chance to move forward.
—
His volatile teammate spared Aresh and blew up the base, though it wasn’t the end of it.
She and Miranda had gotten into a rather heated argument that quickly turned violent, and had Joker not informed him, there definitely would be blood.
Shepard found the girls with their biotics clashing and slammed a stasis on both, overpowering two of the strongest human biotics in an instant.
Surveying the damage done to the room, Shepard turned to the frozen girls.
“I am going to let you go now.” He said, and released the stasis, dropping Jack and Miranda to the ground.
Just in time, Garrus handed him the item he asked for, and after the turian left, Shepard rummaged through Miranda’s desk. “Here.”
“My toothbrush?” Miranda took the toothbrush, wondering what Shepard wanted them to do, while miffed that he had gone through her personal belongings like that.
“Both your toothbrushes.” Shepard said, handing Jack her toothbrush too.
“What the hell? Are you a dentist now?” The volatile biotic scowled, still angry.
Shepard took a step forward, and both girls froze up. “No, but you two seem to forget that we are teammates, and any disagreement that you cannot solve yourselves will be brought to me, your friend and commander. We are fighting for the survival of the whole galaxy; your spat cannot throw it into jeopardy by tearing my ship apart.” He warned, watching both girls for any sign of refusal.
Miranda nodded, agreeing in her mind that their fight was unseemly, regardless of who started it. “I understand, Shepard.”
Shepard turned to Jack, who kept quiet. “And you?”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, boyscout.” She gave in too.
“Great, now go and scrub the toilets. It will be some quality bonding time for both of you.” He ordered, shocking both that they would be punished with cleaning the toilets.
“What?! I am not doing this shit.” Jack looked ready to start a fight again, but Shepard just raised an eyebrow, daring her to do so.
“That wasn’t a question.”
“Fuck. Fine.” Jack growled, leaving the office while swearing under her breath.
Sighing, Miranda followed Jack to the toilets, knowing better than to argue with Shepard while under his command. “Very well, you are the commander.”
—
