Liara taught me to die.
When I was a gang member on Earth, I learnt that to get what you want, you had to take it. That your superiors (I thought of them as my superiors) had literally no interest in protecting you or helping you. I broke my hand four times before I realized that punching people with your thumb inside your fist was wrong. When I was recruited into the military… I wanted to change that. I made the hard decisions nobody else wanted to make, and people died because of me, but I always did what I had to do in order to save the little people, the people that nobody cared about. The higher-ups would always take care of themselves, I figured. I wanted to make the council see that Humans weren't inferior.
It was simple with Kaiden and Ash. They were humans too, they wanted the best for us. They were so moral, I knew they'd die for me in a heartbeat - I thought it was because we shared an origin. They were just my crew, there to eye me with disapproval while I punched assholes in the face and informed the world that the first Human spectre wasn't just going to stand idly by while the Reapers subjugated us all. They argued like piranhas over a corpse while I was off saving the universe (but of course all those people who judged my methods were perfectly happy to devour the fruit of my results).
Galactic politics had… Never been my strong point. Having been running on instincts for so long, it actually became a running joke with Joker that I would cut off the Council whenever they called. Had they not been projections, I probably would have lashed out at them too. Udina was probably going crazy behind the scenes (Kaiden made a far better Spectre than me). But even though the Council were every bit the superior assholes I thought they would be, I couldn't say the same for all aliens. Garrus proved to me that doing the right thing wasn't the same thing as being moral, Tali proved that duty was greater than any one race, Wrex proved that anyone was redeemable.
Liara. Amongst the Salarians and the Turians, the Asari interested me the most. They weren't vicious (but they could be), they were calm and self-assured, and I envied them their millenium. I learnt that they listened to experience and that they accepted you - no matter what race you were. They found a use for everyone, they were the glue that held the galaxy together, and they proved that women could be strong. Like amazons, though they did not have a gender. I suppose it was growing up on Earth, but they always seemed like a race of women to me, and I'm sure, to the rest of the galaxy. And that was what mattered really, the strength they demonstrated to others.
When we rescued Liara on Therum, I was captivated by how calm Liara was, even while suspended in a force field. I knew that, had I been in a situation like her, I would have died fighting my way out before suspending myself, helpless. Perhaps it had been the only viable option to her, but it said something to me. Liara trusted - I don't know what, fate, other people, her Goddess, but I couldn't relate to it at all. But when you live as long as the Asari, you start to see patterns in things, the big picture I could never grasp because I was too busy fighting. Out of them all, she was the most valuable member of my team on the SR-1. Not because she too, could blow shit up, but because she gave me the perspective I so desperately needed, even while we fought the small fights. While the others gave me hope that every tiny thing I did would somehow have an impact on the galaxy, that I could make a difference, Liara grounded me. In my 150 years, I realised that no matter what I did, I would become a memory (sweet or bitter), and that I would die. I would die while Dr. Liara T'soni and our theoretical children lived on.
I could die for that.