DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything Bioware related. I wish I did though :)
I wrote this after ME2 and had to re-tweak it to fit ME3. It may seem a little odd but I wanted to write something that had to do with Liara and Female Shepard going through the happiness and hardships of raising a family together after all the chaos of ME3. I know it says "liara and (f) shep" as the characters but they don't really show up in this first chapter but they will later on. Please, enjoy.
It was all too frightening.
The air was dank and moldy, leaving a bad taste in her little mouth and the people exuded nothing but cruelty. Snarling Vorcha and hard jawed Turians eyed her with suspicion, like as if she were there to tear out their beating hearts and devour it. She could feel her own heart beat within her fragile chest as it fluttered around in absolute panic. Perhaps this was doom that she was feeling, and the very end of her young existence. With loneliness gripping her heart, the child of Commander Sylvana Shepard and Dr. Liara T'Soni gaped at the flashing entrance to an edifice with the name "Afterlife" emblazoned above it in brightly undulating letters.
The lavender Asari doll she held in her hand, that her grandparent, Aethyta, had made for her before her birth, was clutched tightly to her chest. She knew she had to call her parents and something told her that the flashy building before her, that seemed to be engulfed by digital flames, was the best place she would ever find a means of communication. With a stout heart, she scurried along the side of the building and waited for the doors to open and tumbled in as quickly as she could as an immense Krogan was being thrown out. Loud, booming music slapped her in the face the moment she entered and she lost herself within a sea of clubbers.
She navigated as best as she could, with her doll clutched tightly in her hand, and weaved her little body between the throng of crowds that knotted the dance floor. The music seemed to have reached a fever pitch and the lights wreaked sheer havoc upon her innocent senses. She looked up, trying to scan for a less crowded place but her eyes caught the sight of grinding Asari hips as Asari strippers danced precariously upon a suspended platform. Some of them resembled her mother but the little one knew that none of them were; her mother was the most beautiful Asari there ever lived and her father sire agreed whole-heartedly.
As the child was lost in the comforting thoughts of her mother, she accidentally stumbled upon stairs and bumped her head against the armored leg of an angry Batarian. Instant fear gripped her heart as the Batarian stared at the child quizzically and adjusted his assault rifle. The child began to charge up her biotics in a futile attempt to at least fight for her life so her parents would be proud but the Batarian scratched the side of his head with the nuzzle of his rifle and began to laugh.
"What the hell you doing here, kid? How did you get in?" The Batarian asked in a low grumble.
The little one said nothing and stared at the Batarian's many eyes.
"Maybe you should go see Aria, she might want to fetch a nice price for you instead." Gruffly, the Batarian grabbed the little one by the collar of her pink, cotton pajamas and lifted her up like a bag of stinking trash.
He carried her up a few stairs and plopped her down in front of a brooding Asari. The Asari was beautiful, of course not as beautiful as her mother, but she was unique and elegant in her own way. She sat arrogantly upon a lavish couch, with her arms crossed and a stone-cold expression across her stoic face. The moment Aria T'Loak saw the child, her eyes lit up and her arms unwound to her side. Curiosity had piqued her interest immediately.
"A child? Really, Anto, where the hell did you get that?" Aria sounded annoyed and Anto could feel the sweat begin to form on the back of his neck.
"This thing ran into my leg. I have no idea how she got past security but she did. What you want me to do with her?" Anto asked, almost timidly.
Aria rose from her seat, like a regal queen from her throne, and walked closer to the child. She noticed the little one clutched a doll to her chest but she showed no expression of fear upon her face; only curiosity. Aria kept her eyes focused on the child as she waved Anto away.
"What is your name, little one?" Aria asked as she stared intently at the child.
"Adrasteia Shepard." The child said with a soft but solid tone to her voice.
Aria began to laugh wholeheartedly, causing the strippers around her to stop dancing momentarily. The queen of Omega returned to her seat and studied the child with sizzling eyes.
"My reports say that you're barely 6 years old. What are you doing on Omega? Aren't your parents ready to tear the universe apart due to your disappearance?" Aria asked, clearly too amused with the situation.
"I need to call them, I got lost."
"6 years old and already rebelling against the system. You truly are Shepard's little spawn of havoc." Aria said as she turned on her heel and resumed her seat upon the couch. "I know that you came here with an uptight Turian named Garrus Vakarian and a mangled human by the name of Zaeed Massani. However, you being with them is a trivia in itself. The two males came here to purchase weapons but why did they have you?" Aria asked coolly as she crossed her arms.
Adrasteia felt like as if she were being scolded by her parents and Aria's laser-like gaze was not helping.
"Papa had to buy an anniversary gift for mommy and she couldn't find a babysitter. The only people who were free were Garrus and Zaeed and..."The child stopped to catch her breath.
"You call Shepard 'papa'?"
"Mommy says it sounds cute and since she's my father sire, it seemed appropriate."
"You're a little too articulate for a 6 year old."
"I'm in the Gifted Program for Exceptional Biotic Children. My IQ is really high."
"Don't show off."
"You're a little rude."
A stripper near Aria stumbled for a second as she gaped at the child's boldness. Aria narrowed her eyes and stealthily rose from her seat.
"Little one, do you know the one rule of Omega?" Aria hissed as she began to slowly circle the child with the predatory fix of a hungry feline.
Andrasteia hugged her limp doll against her cheek as she tried to find comfort in the lifeless touch of the stuffed cloth. She stared down at her fuzzy pink slippers and closed her eyes as the fear of imminent punishment dawned upon her.
"I just want to go home...I miss my mommy and papa..." Andrasteia whispered softly as she crumpled to the floor into a tiny ball of pink and blue and began to cry quietly into her doll.
A stinging sensation tore sharply through Aria's usually frozen heart as she witnessed the child's emotional break. This little one was only 6, practically an infant in human terms and here she was, being interrogated like a common thug by the brutish Asari queen. In any other circumstance, Aria would have found it within her logic to have Anto shoot a few rounds into the child and euthanize it but she unconsciously rose from her seat and knelt beside the quivering ball of pale blue skin within trembling pink pajamas.
"There, there, little Andra. Please, do not cry." Aria's voice took upon a motherly tone as she uneasily rubbed the back of the sobbing child.
Watery, cyan eyes looked up into comforting blue eyes of Aria T'Loak.
"My papa calls me Andra...mommy says it's lazy to cut a person's name in half but I like it." Andrasteia sniffed and wiped away excess mucus from her nose with the back of her doll.
Aria's eyes softened and she cracked a small smile for the child. Before she could reply, a crackle of sniper fire and the crunching blast of a shotgun tore through Omega, inciting immediate chaos. Aria's bodyguards were quickly on the defensive as they struggled to hold their position against the unknown attackers. Strippers fled into varying directions and clubbers tried to find their way to the nearest exits as they screamed for mercy. Aria instinctively reached down and cradled the child into one arm as she rose to her feet and pulled out a heavily modified handgun from her belt.
A cloud of smoke billowed out from the side entrances to her 'headquarters' and occasional bursts of light shone through as weapons replied to each other blindly. Aria slowly stepped back towards her couch, with the child carefully faced away from the open entrances and her handgun poised to shoot anything that moved. A few seconds later, an eerie calm enveloped the atmosphere and Aria tried to access her communications but the only report she received was Anto's painful groans.
"If you're smart, you'll put the child down." The overlapping pitches in high and low tones that marked the voice of a Turian, crawled out of the mist.
Aria engulfed her and Andrasteia in a protective barrier and her biotics were teeming to be unleashed.
"Ah, Garrus Vakarian. You've finally come. Took you long enough, didn't it?" Aria's arrogant voice slapped Garrus in the face as he emerged from the smoke with a sniper rifle securely gripped within his clawed hands.
"This don't have to get ugly, you Asari bitch." Zaeed Massani said gruffly as he followed Garrus and pointed a stout shotgun at Aria.
"Nothing can get as ugly as your half-chewed face or Garrus's rachni-kissed mandible." Aria spat out as she pointed her gun at Zaeed and primed her biotics to slam Garrus with a singularity.
"Just give us the child and we'll let you live. If you were planning on selling her, you can take a step back right here and walk away with your sorry life." Garrus was in no mood to play as he said his words and his jaws became hard-locked in anger.
"Garrus and Zaeed are my uncles, they won't hurt me." Andrasteia said with her face nuzzled against Aria's shoulder.
"It's okay, sweetie plum, we'll get you out of there and blow that octopus's head off at the same time." Zaeed growled as he reloaded his shotgun.
"Sweetie plum?" Aria asked quizzically.
"It's a nickname we came up with because she's as cute and sweet as a plum." Garrus answered back as he smiled at Andrasteia, causing the child to nod at him in acknowledging love.
"Really? That's the best you idiots could come up with? Absolutely pathetic!"
"Can we shoot her already, her tentacles are annoying me more than they usually do." Zaeed quipped.
"Can you not be so insensitive...I'm an Asari too..." Andraestia said glumly as she stared daggers at Zaeed.
"Sorry."
"Alright, enough! She came into MY club because you two morons couldn't babysit correctly."
"I'm pretty sure you knew she was with us. The least you could have done was return her back to the rightful ship instead of throwing us into a panic!" Garrus shouted back.
"Who brings a baby to OMEGA for weapons dealing?"
"There was a good, one-time buy for mods out here and it was only going to be a few minutes!"
"Typical male response!"
"I'm pretty sure the filthy bitch of Omega was willing to sell little plum to the highest bidder. You forget who her parents are, you damned whore-turned-Omega queen?" Zaeed added in.
"Language!" Aria and Garrus shouted at the scarred mercenary which caused Zaeed to grumble in frustration.
Andrasteia dropped her forehead against Aria's shoulder and shook her head.
"I think I'll go home now..." Andrasteia said as she looked up into Aria's face.
"Are you sure you feel safe with these two...imbeciles?" Aria gritted her teeth as she looked at the old human and the scarred Turian.
"They're my uncles and they won't hurt me." Andrasteia hugged Aria tightly and smiled lovingly at the beautiful Asari. "You can be my new auntie! Auntie Aria! Promise to visit me when you can?"
Aria couldn't stop herself from nodding at the child while Zaeed growled profanities at the floor. Andrasteia was gently placed upon the ground and she scurried over to Garrus who picked her up carefully and wrapped an arm protectively around the child. He nodded at Aria and turned on his heel to leave. Zaeed followed Garrus into the rubble of what was Afterlife and Aria followed them with her eyes.
Before the trio disappeared out of an exit, Andrasteia's sparkling cyan eyes were gleaming with smiles as she waved sweet goodbyes to Aria. Aria felt an emotion of bitter sadness sweep across her but she managed to force a smile to the child and waved back bereaved but stoically, like a lone queen left all alone to the broken remnants of her throne.
"...and that was what happened and Auntie Aria promised to visit me! Isn't that so fun, granny poo?" Andrasteia exclaimed excitedly as she hugged Matriarch Aethyta around the neck.
They were back on Armali, the beautiful city that Liara T'Soni grew up in Thessia. The rebuilding process was still in effect even after all the years that had passed by but Armali was beginning to flourish and return to its once beautiful self again. The Shepard family had decided to spread their roots there and raise little Andrasteia within a world that her own mother, and grandparents, had grew up in.
Now here they were, in the quaint kitchen of the Shepard household. Garrus and Zaeed had planned to wait at the house with the little one until Shepard and Liara returned but they were greeted with Matriarch Aethyta, who had returned from grocery shopping. They had aptly forgotten that the matriarch now resided with the Shepards and before they could stop her, little Andrasteia had vomited her whole ordeal out to the stunned Matriarch like as if all she did was take an every-day walk in the park.
The tough matriarch felt a twitch begin at her temple as she stared down Garrus and Zaeed from behind the kitchen counter with her groceries sprawled about haphazardly.
"You idiots really took a baby to Omega." Aethyta began after she examined Andrasteia for any injury and gingerly put her on the floor.
"It was only for a few minutes..." Garrus began.
"It's OMEGA! The filth of the galaxy! A Krogan's waste is cleaner than that place!" Aethyta roared as she primed her biotics.
Andrasteia scurried out of the room and went to go play with her doll.
"Hey there, granny poo, at least the little plum didn't get hurt-" Zaeed was cut off as Aethyta threw him against the wall with a flourish of blue biotic power streaming from her body.
The hot-tempered matriarch pinched the bridge of her nose and took in a sharp breath.
"Her parents will be home later tonight. So you two better be prepared to explain why their first born daughter was swimming around the muck of Omega."
Garrus rubbed the back of his neck while Zaeed groaned as he peeled himself off the ground.
"I know things like this shouldn't be kept as secrets but can't we keep this one...classified?" Garrus purred as he smiled at Aethyta.
"Her mother is the shadow broker, you think you can keep this from her forever? I bet you her 'people' keep her informed if her little one so much as passes gas." Aethyta cackled as she returned to unloading her groceries onto the kitchen counter.
"The little plum is alright and no harm was done. Me and Garrus here took down Afterlife without much trouble to get her back. You can at least vouch for us if sweetie plum says anything to her parents." Zaeed said as he cracked his back and stretched out his arm.
Before Aethyta could respond, the front door creaked open and Andrasteia's fluttery voice burst out into excitement as she greeted her mother. Liara walked into the kitchen, with her daughter nuzzling her face into her mother's neck, and greeted the three. She eyed Garrus and Zaeed suspiciously as they failed to make eye contact with her and she stared quizzically at her Dad as she smiled toothily at Liara.
"Is something the matter?" Liara asked softly as she hugged her daughter tightly.
"Nope, nothing...nope." Garrus quickly answered as Zaeed smiled and shook his head.
Liara looked at her child and Andrasteia's eyes were bright and exuberant.
"How was your day, my little darling?" Liara asked.
Andrasteia opened her mouth and began to tell the tale of her day as Garrus and Zaeed squeamishly prepared for the Asari mother to flay them alive while Matriarch Aethyta laughed as she resumed organizing the groceries.
The day was going fine, indeed.