Summary:
Possible intro to my "Dark Liara" piece, something rattling around in my head for a while now.
Notes:
Challenge Yourself: A Month Of Fanfiction 2017
Sunday 8/20's Prompt: A Never Finished Fic
She pulled her cloak tight against the rain.
Damn the rain, warm and clinging. Damn the time spent meeting a contact, time she could have spent consolidating her assets in preparation of her flight. There were many holes in the Traverse. She intended to crawl into one and pull it shut behind her. The reapers were coming, and they weren't going to wait.
Damn Standard, so better suited to profanity than her native Attena. Damn her, for being the reason she'd learned it.
Especially damn her. Damn the reapers too. She'd been making progress on Therum. Progress that none would believe, but she'd long since resigned herself to that. Had Saren never targeted her, had Shepard never come, she might have lived out her life on the planet, never knowing why her scheduled transport never arrived. Nova Yekaterinburg was a tiny settlement, the only one on the planet. It would have been quickly obliterated, the lone asari on another continent likely overlooked by the advancing destroyers.
Now she knew. Knew her theories were accurate, the cyclic destruction of the galaxy's sentient species not only a fact, but a rushing force upon them. A force only she believed in, only she understood.
It was ironic that sharing consciousness with her had revealed so much. Led her to additional proof, to new facts that were still disbelieved by her peers, by her government. She had believed, had seen it as well. Had given Liara the vilest gift of all. Hope.
There was no hope to be had now. She would not be saving them. She couldn't even keep herself alive in the face of an insubordinate crewmember. Shepard was dead. More than that, the spirit of Shepard was dead. There would be no valiant battle, no hard won victory. There was only one person who could have led that war, and she was either space debris or a crater on Alchera. Liara gave her no thought, no concern. Shepard had abandoned them, had abandoned her. To hell with her then. Liara wasn't going to save the galaxy, but she could damn well save herself.
Her omni-tool buzzed. She shook it active with an annoyed glance, and a message displayed with the urgent flag. She tapped it open in anger.
"Shepard's body located on Omega. Shadow Broker involvement likely." There was no sender information.
She deleted the message with an angry gesture, as she continued walking.
She hadn't gone twenty steps before she slowed to a stop, lowering her head.
"Fuck."