Hi, Revan's Mask here. This story is a collaboration between myself and Rae D. Magdon, based on an idea of mine inspired by a scene in Rae's excellent novel, And Once More Saw the Stars. (Which you should definitely buy, btw). Before we get started, a few warnings are in order:

1. There is no rape/non-con here. HOWEVER, there are threats of such and people having to pretend they are engaged in non-con, so if that's a problem, you might want to skip this one.

2. There's as much smut as you might suspect if you're familiar with either of our work.

3. There's a rather shocking level of fluff too. With all that said, enjoy.

. . .

"You'll be stuck here for eternity with the rest of the relics."

The voice on the other end of Shepard's omni-tool sent a pulse of dread down Liara's spine. Superficially, it was identical to the real Shepard's. It had the same notes, the same timbre. But while her beloved's voice was warm with compassion and firm with strength, this one was filled with nothing but cold mockery.

"I wonder how much air you have in there. How long until it starts running out?" In the darkness of the vault, Liara couldn't see either of her companions, but she could hear their breathing. Wrex's was heavy and angry, but Shepard's remained calm and measured even as her clone kept taunting them. "I wonder if you'll turn on one other, clawing over each other's bodies for that last breath before you die."

"Not going to happen," the real Shepard replied. She began tapping on her omni-tool, ignoring the hard, cruel voice coming in through the connection.

"We can't call for help," Liara whispered to her. "The vaults are shielded. The signal wouldn't make it further than a few dozen meters."

"That's okay," Shepard murmured back. Liara could practically hear the smile in her voice. Even hushed, it was different than the clone's. "I told Glyph to let us out of here. All we have to do is keep her too busy to notice."

Liara's eyes widened in surprise, but she remained silent. Unfortunately, the clone wasn't similarly courteous. "I think I'm going to have a lot of fun being you, Shepard," she said. "Once I'm finished here, I'll have plenty of time to help my men finish off the rest of your squad. You and your asari are lucky. Suffocation isn't the worst way to die. At least, not the worst way I can think of…"

"Hey," Wrex grunted, slamming his bulky fists against the side of the vault. "Did you forget about the giant krogan battlemaster you locked up in here? I can tear my way through this vault with my bare hands!"

"Good job, Wrex," Shepard whispered beside him. "Keep it up. We just have to distract her for another minute."

Wrex turned to look at them in the darkness, and Liara could see the outline of his angry expression in the soft glow of Shepard's omni-tool. "I was being serious."

"I'd shoot him if I were you, Shepard," the clone said. Liara listened intently. Had their enemy heard their whispers, or was she merely taunting them? "Krogan need a lot of air. It'll buy you an extra five minutes. Eight if you shoot your blue whore, too. It might be easier on her."

Shepard's jaw bunched in the dim light. "Or I could shut off my omni-tool so I don't have to waste time listening to your stupid voice."

"Don't you mean your voice?" the clone reminded her. "Sure, you could turn it off, but you won't. It's your one connection to the outside world. You'll keep it on until the last possible second, waiting for help that won't come. Your foolish optimism has always been..."

The sound of grinding gears drowned out the rest of the clone's sentence. Everything began to shudder, and Liara clutched Shepard's elbow as the vault pulled out from the wall, moving through the air and back toward their enemy.

"Get ready," Shepard told them, drawing her shotgun and popping the heat sink. "Somehow, I don't think she's going to be very happy to see us again."

Liara took a deep breath, summoning up her barriers while Wrex and Shepard did the same. It was a good decision. As soon as the massive door in front of them rolled open, the clone struck. A small metal sphere flew toward them, and before they could get out of the vault, it exploded, sending a wave of heat into their path. Shepard and Wrex's shields shattered under the pressure, knocking them to the ground, but hers held. She gritted her teeth against the blast and stood in front of her squad, pouring everything she had into her defenses. Her barriers had always been her speciality.

Through the smoke of the grenade explosion, she heard the clone's voice taunting them. "Some escape. You're like fish in a barrel."

Liara heard the sound of a rifle being cocked, but the taunt had given her a good read on its location. She collapsed what was left of her shield into a ball of biotic power and hurled it at the clone.

A scream of pain echoed through the room, followed by the sound of an armored body hitting the hard floor. When no further attack came, Shepard had enough time to get back to her feet. A flash of energy surged around her body, and she crossed the room in a blink, slamming into the clone with a brilliant burst of light.

Behind her, Liara heard Wrex getting up as well. He bounded across the room, eager to join in the fight, but there was no need. The smoke had faded, and Liara could see Shepard standing over the clone. Their enemy's head lay limp on the deck, twisted at an unnatural angle.

"Nice job, Liara," Wrex said, giving her a hard clap on the shoulder. Liara barely managed to brace herself in time, but though she stumbled forward at the force, she managed to stay upright. "Ahhh, I've missed setting off biotic explosions with you two. Those were the days." He glanced down, prodding the clone's limp body with his boot. "Looks like she won't be causing us any more problems."

"The clone wasn't our only enemy," Liara reminded him. "The rest of our squad is still fighting the mercenaries..."

"And Maya Brooks went to take over my ship," Shepard finished. "We can't let her get away with it."

Wrex pulled out his gun and grinned at them. "Don't worry about the others. You two go after the ship. I'll bring the rest of the squad for back-up."

"But how are we going to get in?" Shepard asked. "Brooks probably has the ship locked down by now."

Liara thought for a moment. Her eyes drifted toward the crumpled figure on the floor. Although their attitudes couldn't have been more different, the clone's similarity to Shepard made her stomach clench. They had the same shape. The same red hair. The same freckled face. Looking at the corpse brought back painful memories from three years earlier, when she had rescued the real Shepard's body from the Shadow Broker…

"Wait," she said, shaking the haunting images away. She turned to face Shepard - the real, living, breathing Shepard - and a little of the tightness in her chest loosened. "I have an idea. Brooks will only lock down the Normandy if we try to break in and steal it back."

"That's what I'm saying," Shepard said. "As soon as she sees us coming, she'll…"

"No, you don't understand. Brooks thinks we're still trapped in the vault. The only person she'll be expecting to come back to the Normandy is…"

Shepard's face brightened with understanding. "The clone! Of course. She won't be able to tell us apart. Wait, but you're supposed to be dead. How will you get in?"

"We'll worry about that when we arrive. If you can delay them long enough, I'll figure something out."

Shepard began stripping the clone's armor off while Wrex gave them a farewell snort. "Go on," he said, shrugging his massive shoulders as he turned. "I'll pull the turian's ass out of the fire again. Just make sure to leave a few of the mercs for me this time."

. . .

"I'm back," Shepard announced across the connection. Fortunately, the similarities that could have enabled the clone to steal her life worked both ways. Biometric identification had allowed her use her enemy's omni-tool, and the stolen armor gave her the right look. She hoped it would prove equally easy to convince Brooks of who she "really" was.

"Good," came the crisp reply. "I take it they're dead, then?"

"Yup, all dead. Do you have full control of the ship?"

"The rest of the crew has been removed, and we've disabled the artificial intelligence. We can get underway immediately."

"No, not yet," she replied, perhaps too quickly as she walked up the gangplank and onto the Normandy. She headed for the CIC, trying not to be unsettled by all the empty stations. At least there weren't any bodies. Hopefully, 'removed' simply meant that Brooks had kicked her crew off the ship. "We're still waiting for the rest of our people to finish dealing with Shepard's flunkies."

"I thought you were going to go help them after you had your fun in the vaults?" Brooks asked. The call ended as the woman she'd been speaking to came into view, striding across the room with several heavily armed CAT-6 troopers on either side.

"They seemed to have things under control," Shepard said curtly. "I wanted to see my ship." Try to be arrogant, she reminded herself. The clone had oozed overconfidence in her own abilities. If she did the same, no one should question her identity.

"We can always find more soldiers if necessary," Brooks replied. Shepard's fingers twitched in an effort not to clench her fists. The double agent was wearing the same condescending smirk she'd been using ever since her true allegiance had been revealed. "After all, who wouldn't want to follow the great Commander Shepard?"

She followed Brooks past the star map, wincing internally. The whole area was infested with mercenaries, way too many for her to take out on her own. Even with Liara's help, it might be impossible. They were definitely going to need Wrex and the others. All she could do was stall for time and make sure the Normandy didn't take off.

For the next few minutes, she took in a series of reports from some of the mercenaries. She gritted her teeth in silent aggravation as she heard them making fun of her crew, her ship, and the Alliance. Only thinking of Liara and what they had to do helped her focus on nodding and sneering while she waited for backup to arrive.

"Commander Shepard?" The sound of her name interrupted her concentration. She turned to see another merc standing at her shoulder, his face blank and expressionless behind the tinted visor of his helmet. "We've got a situation. Our feeds have picked up images of a human and an asari trying to break in via the emergency escape hatch."

Shepard forced herself to look surprised. She knew immediately that it was Liara, trying to find a way onto the ship, but when they'd parted, her lover had been alone.

Brooks started asking questions before she could. "An asari? You can't mean Shepard's pet." Maya turned toward her, and Shepard nearly flinched under her glare. "I thought you dealt with them already?"

"I did," Shepard insisted, trying to sound affronted. "They'd stopped breathing when I left. What about the human? Is she a member of m - the other Shepard's crew?"

"She's wearing an Alliance uniform," the merc told her. "Thin, dark hair… holding some kind of weird glowing… wait, hold on." He lifted his omni-tool, double-checking the message. "Ma'am, apparently the people monitoring the cameras say she's holding some kind of toothbrush."

Shepard's heart sank. Of course. Traynor. Liara must have enlisted help while trying to access the Normandy. But she didn't have much time to worry. Brooks was staring at her, obviously waiting for her to give orders. She cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders, adopting a confident posture. "Bring them onto the ship. I'll deal with both of them personally."

The merc saluted before hurrying off, and Brooks gave her a small nod of approval. "Why am I not surprised?" she said, leaning against the edge of the railing by the galaxy map. Shepard looked at her in confusion. The tone seemed almost teasing, but she couldn't figure out why. "You never could say no to an asari. Maybe you've got a genetic predisposition."

Shepard couldn't come up with a suitable response, so she simply let out a short laugh and then remained silent. She folded her arms over her chest, pretending to be impatient as she waited. Meanwhile, her mind sifted through different scenarios, trying to come up with a plan. This wasn't exactly how she had expected to smuggle Liara onto the Normandy, but maybe it could work to their advantage.