A/N: This one's a bit of a fragmented chapter and far from my best, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Next up will likely be a few bits with Naylor and Tevos or the Nasurn mission that feeds into this. Happy reading

"CHRIST!" Shepard stood in the rain, dumbfounded as she watched the embers fall from the building above her. Around her, people screamed as they ran for cover, others running forward to drag wounded civilians away from the blast zone.

"They just took out three floors to get to her!" Tela's expression of shock was accentuated by the sound of falling glass smashing to the floor. The screams and moans of the wounded could be heard over all of it. On a first guess, Shepard reckoned that, just on the outside of the building, two dozen or so asari were wounded, and half a dozen others lay motionless in pools of their own purple blood, the liquid shimmering in the moonlight. Inside, she feared that things would be far worse.

"Bastards."

"Keelah, Shepard, we need to make sure Liara is okay!"

"I know. Tali, do what you can to help these people. Samara, Spectre Vasir and I will find Liara."

"Stay safe, Shepard," Tali rested her helmet up against Shepard's, the only gesture of intimacy that the pair could manage in the situation. "Now go. Liara needs your help!"

Shepard drew her shotgun and Samara her assault rifle as they walked forwards into the entrance hall of the trading centre. Tela moved to follow them, unshipping her Vindicator, but soon turned around as she noticed something in amongst the smoke, heading back to the skycar landing pad while shouting back to her fellow Spectre and the Justicar who were standing at the door.

"I'll take my skycar up to the top floor, head down and try and see whether I can find Doctor T'Soni. If she's survived that is."

"We'll go in the main entrance, meet you in the Baria Frontiers office."

As the door opened, Shepard quickly began guiding them out of the building. Samara walked forward into the smoke-filled reception of the building, disappearing into the inky greyness until she was little more than a silhouette. Shepard quickly followed as the last of the wounded civilians exited the area.

"Baria Frontiers is on the third office, Commander. I'm currently on the fifth."

"Keep looking for Liara. We're moving up into the offices now." Shepard began walking towards the elevator, but as she neared the elevator lobby she saw the red hologram and the sparks that gave her a clear message. "Damn, the elevator's out."

"Shepard, I sense trouble in your voice. You do not trust Spectre Vasir?"

"She suddenly turns up out of the blue at Liara's apartment after there's been an assassination attempt on one of my friends and now there's an explosion at the place that we're supposed to find said friend after she's made a run for it from the assassin. I'm incredibly concerned."

"I would agree, Commander. I share similar suspicions."

Tela ran down the stairs, tossing one of the white-armoured mercenaries in the Shadow Broker's employ out of her way as she bolted for the third floor. Her biotics were the only think keeping her from being riddled by shots, her armour's kinetic barriers having been taken out moments earlier. Two more mercenaries stepped out in her path, but a shockwave sent them smashing down the stairs to their deaths.

"Shepard better get here soon. There are dozens of these bastards." Tela mused out loud to herself as she exited the stairwell on the third floor, and immediately was taken in by the sheer devastation that could be seen around the place. The entire area was a wasteland, burnt and warped by the force of the explosion. But the lack of cover gave her enough time to see another mercenary duck around a corner, catching a glimpse of blue skin as the figure moved. "Asari."

Tela primed her biotics, flashing forward around the corner and throwing the asari back with a shockwave before the mercenary was able to react. As the asari crashed into a filing cabinet, Tela saw her adversary fully, realising that the face belonged to one of the three infamous Sederis sisters. Less well known than her older sibling Jona, and cast out of the Eclipse unlike her younger sister Tashya, Ise Sederis was the most crazy of the three, but in combat was one of the most striking symbols of how well asari commandos were trained and how well they fought.

Ise pulled herself over the filing cabinet, avoiding Tela's follow-up Warp before pirouetting around to move behind a wall, unleashing her own warp field towards the Spectre. Tela responded with the same grace, sliding effortlessly into the cover of an overturned desk and quickly reassessed her plans. Her adversary had recovered faster than she had hoped, and now it was something close to a fair fight. Except Tela wasn't one for a fair fight.

Quickly moving from cover to cover, the Spectre dropped her Vindicator and sent warp after warp towards the mercenary, dropping her biotic barriers to fuel her strikes. None hit, but the barrage kept Ise off guard for long enough to allow Tela a chance to change direction and head straight at the asari without a response. A quick biotic charge later and Tela had Ise by her throat. A second later and the mercenary's throat was crushed, her lifeless body tossed against a wall.

With the office free of mercenaries for the time being, Tela gave herself a moment to breathe, keeping an eye on all the entrances that the mercenaries could arrive by while retrieving her assault rifle. A flash of off-white and the bang of an assault rifle discharging caught the Spectre's eye and Tela followed the glimpse up, running into an office to suddenly see a mercenary stand over the dead body of a salarian. Following the bark of her assault rifle and the crash of the mercenary falling dead to the floor, a flash of black armour heralded the sudden arrival of Shepard in the same room.

"Damn. A few seconds earlier and I'd have had him."

"I suppose."

"Given the devastation, I doubt that Doctor T'Soni could have survived. Did you find her in your search?"

"If by that you mean did I find her body, then no." Shepard and Samara drew their weapons and pointed towards the asari Spectre, both with the same resolve as the other. "The game's up, Vasir. You're one of the Shadow Broker's agents. What did you do with Liara and the data?"

"You mean this data?" Liara suddenly came around the same corner that Shepard had, holding a data disc in her hand. "Shepard, you can trust Spectre Vasir. She's an ally in this chase."

"Liara, are you certain. Becuase this doesn't stack well for her."

"What do you mean?"

"Vasir arrives at your apartment following an assassination attempt and your disappearance. She uses me to get your location and calls in a bomb to kill you and then the mercenaries to distract me while she makes sure that you are truly dead. I don't buy a word of this supposed help she's giving you."

"Shepard, Spectre Vasir is hunting the Shadow Broker, just like I am. She came to me at the end of trading today with data that can find his location for us. You have to believe me."

"Fine. But if we die and our cause of death is listed as "Death by asari Spectre, don't blame me for not being aware."

The Shadow Broker was dead. Liara stood out of the way of the pool of plasma that had rained down on the yagh's form and incinerated him to the bone. Tela had been true to the word that she had given Shepard on the Normandy after they had left Illium - she was on the human Spectre's side until the end of the Shadow Broker.

But none of them had forseen how the death of the galaxy's biggest information broker would end.

"Doctor."

"Spectre Vasir. Your help was invaluable. I have a friend back thanks to you."

"I could say the same. I have killed the man that tried to order the killing of innocent people because of my refusal to help him."

"So what then do you think of what happened afterwards then?"

"You are doing what you have to do. The Reapers can be stopped, but we need people to do that. You can do that for us, and you have my support."

"You do not hold a grudge against me becoming the man you wanted to kill?"

"You are a far better person than he is, and I trust you will do the right thing with the power." Tela put an arm around Liara's shoulder, and the maiden shifted slightly away from the touch, only for the Spectre to lean in closer again. "I will keep your secret a secret. The Council will not know, nobody apart from those here will know."

"And you can guarantee that?"

"Yes. I am not saying that I will work for the Shadow Broker like your predecessor wanted me to, but I will support you in this. Good luck, Liara. Give the Reapers something to think about then."

Report Number 21167545:
Report of Spectre Vasir to Councillor Tevos, July 4th, 2185 (human standard calendar)

Councillor Tevos,

Operations against the Shadow Broker have been successful, although the man himself remains out of reach. Key control centres for his network have been destroyed and his operations severely damaged. Conclusion of measures against the network is imminent.

If at all possible, I will clear time to attend the funeral for the ten dead commandos that died in your service. After that, I will be available for further assignments.

Spectre Tela Vasir.