Liara took one last look at the stasis pod hovering next to her as she waited for the exchange to happen. She risked opening the physical container, not breaking the field itself inside, at the remains of Wednesday Shepard. She let herself go as memories of not so long ago drifted across her mind. Their first real kiss on Mindoir. Thinking she was a hallucination on Therum. Talking to her mother through the communicator on Wednesday's wrist. That last thought brought her back to focus on the sight before her. She reached through the stasis field and took a small disc out from the remains of Wednesday's omni-tool, steadfastly refusing to look at Wednesday's uncovered face. She saw the thin metal chain holding her dog tags, and remembered Wednesday telling her that they went to soldier's families when they died. She took them off almost reverentially, still fighting the urge to see Wednesday's face one last time. The sound of the door opening forced her to pocket the metal devices quickly, before resealing the container and turning to face the person she was here to do business with.
ONE WEEK EARLIER
Liara was en route to Thessia to tie up loose ends with the University of Serrice when a call was forwarded to her cabin. She enquired to the communications officer about the caller, but the asari officer replied that it was private, origin unknown. Liara thought for a moment, then accepted the incoming channel request. Once connected, a miniature hologram appeared of a woman wearing a bodysuit that accentuated all her curves, topped with long black hair flowing down her shoulders and a face that human men would fawn over.
"Dr T'Soni, thank you for taking my call. My name is Miranda Lawson and I need your help."
"What exactly do you need my help for, Miss Lawson?"
"I've recently come across information that Commander Shepard's body has been recovered." If the holographic representation of Miranda was hoping this would get some sort of reaction out of Liara, she was too late. A month ago she might have managed it, when the pain of losing Wednesday was still fresh. Now though, with Morticia's lessons behind her and a mind fully corrupted by Addams thinking, she did little more than raise a curious eyebrow.
"Then why call me and not the Alliance? Indeed, why isn't the Alliance already moving?"
"Because I only just received the information. Her remains were found on Alchera, and the Blue Suns are taking them to Omega to sell them."
"I've yet to see where you need my help with this, Miss Lawson," Liara replied, irritation starting to show on her face.
"Because I, and the organisation I work for, have a bad reputation on Omega. You are an unknown, and you have a personal attachment to the Commander. Tell me that doesn't motivate you even the slightest." Much as Liara would like to argue, Miranda was right about one thing. News about Wednesday did motivate her, even if was only about her remains. She deserved to be buried alongside her ancestors.
"Fine, you have my attention Miss Lawson, but please indulge my curiosity. Why, even if I do get Shepard's body, do you care?"
"Because Shepard is an icon, a symbol of humanity. And if we're to have any hope against the Reapers, we need her."
"A dead woman is hardly an ideal figurehead," Liara replied flippantly.
"What if I told you we could bring her back?"
Liara was about to laugh at the ridiculousness of Miranda's statement, but then stopped herself. It wasn't totally impossible, Lurch had been a prime example. But even if that could be done, would the result be Wednesday as she had known her? And did she want it to be, to give her hope? It was a tough question for the maiden, one she couldn't answer right now.
"Assuming I believe your somewhat laughable claim, what are you asking of me?" Liara asked.
"I know you're currently on route to Thessia. If you can get to Omega within 24 hours, you'll have a chance at bringing back Shepard," Miranda replied. Liara bit her lip, considering her options. She could refuse and allow Wednesday's remains to be sold like common salvage. She could retrieve the remains so they could be buried in Wednesday's empty grave. Or she could give them to the mysterious Miranda, and put faith in her claim of bringing Wednesday back to life.
She knew the first wasn't an option. What kind of person would she be if she didn't give her girlfriend's body the respect it deserved?
"Fine, I'll head to Omega. I assume you have a plan for when I get there?"
"You'll be contacted by one of our agents on Omega shortly after you arrive. Thank you Doctor."
"Don't thank me yet, Miss Lawson," Liara replied, and there was enough of Wednesday's shade in her voice to make Miranda feel the need to swallow nervously.
After a disagreement about her fare, which lead her to rather violently remind her turian and batarian fellows why asari weren't to be messed with, Liara had docked on Omega. Miranda's agent contacted her not long after she had disembarked, telling her to meet him outside Afterlife when she arrived. She asked how he would know when to be there and he cryptically replied that he had ways of knowing – typical showy intelligence prick.
So as Liara wandered through the crowded, dirty and sleazy thoroughfares to Afterlife, she kept an eye out for her contact. She made it all the way to the queue when she felt a hand on her arm. She turned, biotics flaring to paste the offender like she had the unfortunate turians on the transport, before the hand was removed and she looked under the hood he was wearing to the reptilian drell features underneath.
"Let's take a walk," he suggested, stalking away from the entrance and the crowds. Liara followed him a second later.
"Feron, I assume?"
"Yes, come quickly. The Blue Suns have Shepard's body in a dock on the lower levels, they are waiting for whoever they are here to sell it to."
"Who would possibly want to buy her body?"
"I don't know, and that's the scary part."
He lead her through narrow alleyways until they could look down at the docking bay where a Blue Suns corvette and a small squad surrounded a stasis pod, obviously waiting for someone to arrive. They didn't have to wait long, as soon a second, similarly sized ship arrived. After it landed and the cargo hatch opened, Feron let out a gasp at the person revealed. As the various gasses cleared, a salarian silhouette that was roughly the size of a turian stepped forward. Feron ducked down as the hulking salarian walked over to the waiting Blue Suns, hiding from sight even though none of them had even looked their way since they had taken up this position.
"Crap, this is bad," Feron muttered, his eyes darting around as he thought.
"Why, who is that?" Liara whispered.
"That is Tazzik. And that means this just got a lot more complicated."
"Who is Tazzik?"
"Tazzik is an enforcer for the Shadow Broker. Looks like we've found who wants Shepard's body so badly." Liara's body lit up as her biotics flared and her eyes narrowed.
"They will not get away with this," she hissed, readying herself to charge down and kill anyone who tried to stop her. Before she could, a grip of iron latched on to her arm, and she followed it to look at Feron holding her. "Remove your hand before I remove your arm," she hissed at him.
"Wait Liara, think about this for a minute. There are a dozen of them, including a krogan and Tazzik. There's only two of us, if you include me, which I usually don't. We have to think, not just act."
"Then what do you suggest?" Liara snarled quietly, watching as the stasis pod was moved from the Blue Suns and given to Tazzik, who was scanning it.
"I have an idea," said Feron, looking towards one of the old station defence turrets nearby. He walked over to it and inspected it, finding the power still on and the gun itself functional. "Alright, be ready to move. We'll probably only get one shot," he said, fingers flying over the controls.
Liara was already moving when the whine of the mass accelerator sliced through the air, followed shortly after by a massive explosion. Liara watched with eyes wide as the Blue Suns' ship, along with most of the mercenaries, was engulfed in the explosion.
The remaining mercenaries picked themselves up, Tazzik already reaching for the grenade launcher on his back, eyes searching. It didn't take them long to figure out Feron's position and start returning fire. Liara used their second of distraction to close in and kill the first mercenary with a single biotic punch. Unfortunately, this gave away her element of surprise.
As the mercs shifted their fire to her, Tazzik turned to the hovering stasis pod, manoeuvring it into his ship. Liara tried to fight her way towards it, but the mercs kept her pinned. She watched helplessly as Wednesday was taken away from her after being so close, before she turned back to the mercs, eyes aflame with purple energy.
Once she finished tearing apart the mercenaries with an Addams-worthy level of sheer malice, Feron crept back into her field of vision. She turned on him with vicious intent in her eyes.
"You!" is all she managed to say, abandoning words for the far more visceral response of taking his neck in her hands and throttling him.
"Wait... Tracking device... Tazzik's ship... follow him!" he manages to rasp, desperately trying to pry loose Liara's biotic grip on his throat. Liara relaxed her grip enough for him to speak freely.
"Start talking Feron, and you better hope it's something I want to hear!" she whispered sweetly and terrifyingly..
"Look, Tazzik is an agent of the Shadow Broker, so that's who really wants Shepard. I've been paid by Cerberus to track the body, find out who wants it and why. I only learned about you yesterday."
"She was right there! You could have helped, could have stopped him taking her!" she replied, starting to squeeze again.
"Wait! Tazzik's just a meathead, he does what he's told. He'll take the body somewhere else! I put a tracking beacon on his ship so we can follow him, but we have to hurry!" Liara squeezed a little more, before removing her hands and shoving him backwards, making a sound of disgust.
"Fine, but we better find Shepard," she said, seething. "Wait, what's this about Cerberus? I was contacted by Miranda Lawson about this."
"Exactly, she's with Cerberus. They made me a better offer to help them get back Shepard's body."
"A better offer than who?" she asked, a dangerous edge to her voice.
"The Shadow Broker," he replied meekly, ready for a renewed attack. When it didn't come, he was shocked to see Liara looking thoughtful rather than murderous.
"Interesting double-agent lines there Feron. So, you are going to take me to your ship, and we are going to go and get Shepard," She turned around, the scenes of carnage at odds with her serene composition. She threw him a look over her shoulder, almost like an afterthought.
"Oh, and if you betray me, I'm going to make what's left of your life a living hell!" As Feron looked into her eyes, he knew that she wasn't making a joke.
Setting down his ship, Feron turned to the asari who'd been meditating on the floor of his small and cramped ship for the entire ride.
"We're here," he said simply. Liara opened her eyes and stood, stretching.
"What is your plan?"
"I'm known at this base, I can get us in. Once we're inside, we find Shepard, find a ship, and get the hell out of there before we find more trouble than we can handle," he said quickly. Liara just tilted her head to the side, all the more menacing for her hard stare.
"I can handle quite a bit of trouble," she said with a predatory smirk.
"I'll bet," Feron said under his breath, before leading them out.
He walked up to the turian guards at the door, giving them his best charming smile as he explained that Liara was a new agent recruit, and he was here to bring her to the Broker to assess her. Though slightly sceptical, this had obviously happened before since they let them in without much fuss, just a lecherous leer from one of the guards at Liara's chest. Once inside, Feron led the two of them quickly through the halls towards a communications hub.
As they got close, a pair of voices and accompanying footsteps announced others in the corridor ahead. They pushed themselves into an alcove, listening as the pair passed them by. Liara was going to ignore them completely when the volus mentioned the word 'Shepard'. Then her focus was entirely on the conversation, risking jutting her head around the corner to see the speakers. The corridor held only two of them; a squat, rotund volus whose legs were working quickly to keep up with the tall, insectoid biped he was guiding. Liara's subsconcious screamed a single word at her: Collector!
"...have you verified the remains?" the carapaced alien asked.
"-hiss- we had performed all the necessary tests. -hiss- It's her, without a doubt." Liara was about to launch herself at them, biotics at the ready, when Feron once again stopped her.
"There are a hundred heavily-armed guards in this facility. We don't want to risk a fight until we've secured Shepard. In here," he said, dragging her behind him into a room. He immediately went towards one of the interfaces, saying this was the information hub of the base, and they could use it to find Shepard. As he started, a hologram turned on, the sheer amount of light obscuring the subject.
"Dr T'Soni, you are becoming an annoyance." Liara flared her biotics and strode towards the hologram, which was now starting to appear vaguely humanoid.
"And you are a horrible person, selling bodies like some kind of ghoul."
"You made this personal T'Soni. To me, this is nothing more than a business deal, one you have tried to derail once already. I will not allow you to do so again."
"What do you even want with her body? What do the Collectors want?"
"What the Collectors want it for, I don't care. They have been interested in odd specimens for centuries, maybe Shepard is just another one of them. As for me, all I care is that they are offering one of the largest payments of advanced technology in centuries, and I intend to cash in."
"I will find you," Liara began, getting closer to the hologram to threaten it, only to find that it was some featureless avatar she was threatening, not the Shadow Broker himself.
"I've got it Liara," Feron said, overloading the console with his omni-tool. "That should slow them down without surveillance and communications to the Broker. Now, let's move," he said, leading her back down the featureless grey corridors. They quickly came upon the Collector again, this time in one of the cargo bays. Its skin and carapace were cracked now, and yellow fire seemed to push through the cracks. It was looking down at the stasis pod that Tazzik had brought from Omega, the one containing Shepard's body. The door closed behind them and Liara flared her biotics again, ready to jump into the fight. But Feron put a restraining hand on her shoulder, before walking over jauntily and clapping Tazzik on the shoulder like an old friend.
"Tazzik, hey, good to see you. And you," he gestured at the glowing Collector, "Uh, nice to meet. Anyway, boss has an update for this exchange. Says to tell you the price has doubled, since we've brought another one of the Normandy crew," he said, pointing to Liara. She and Tazzik both looked at him with murder in their eyes, momentarily too stunned to move.
"You pretend to be everywhere at once – I already am," the Collecter droned, before Liara attacked. She and the Collector traded blows, both martial and biotic, until Liara cracked open the Collector's armoured head, sending it lifeless to the floor. Meanwhile, Tazzik had already knocked down Feron and was moving the stasis pod back to his ship, intending to leave until this mess was sorted out.
Liara attacked him with such ferocity that even the massive salarian was surprised, stepping back just as the stasis pod cleared into the cargo bay of his ship. He grabbed her arms, intending to throw her back when Feron jumped at him from behind, knocking both of them down and sending Liara sprawling. She got up, finding herself in the cargo bay of Tazzik's ship, his omni-tool held in her fist. She realised she must have taken it when he grabbed her, and looked up to see Feron and Tazzik wrestling on the floor, Tazzik easily gaining the advantage due to his size. Deciding that his numerous attempts to deceive her merited some kind of a reprisal, Liara just walked over to the cargo door controls, taking one last look at Feron's unbelieving face before it was gone. She walked up to the flight controls, using the authentication from Tazzik's omni-tool to start the ship and fly it far away from the planet.
As she flew, she thought back on her most recent adventure and began to see a pattern. Feron couldn't have intentionally missed Tazzik's ship on Omega, not from that distance. He had stopped her numerous times from attacking her enemies, even when it would have been to their advantage. She began to see that he hadn't been working with her, he had been working against her this whole time. By now he would probably be the Shadow Broker's prisoner, if Tazzik hadn't already killed him. The question then was, who had he been working for?
Which brought up the question of the Shadow Broker himself. In the past, he had always kept himself aggressively neutral, willing to give any information to anyone for the right price. But working with the Collectors was a new low, along with grave-robbing and the rest of the crimes he had committed. Her newfound sense of Addams justice craved to bring it to him at the edge of a sword, but you couldn't fight smoke and mirrors. She needed time, resources and plans if she was to give him the retribution he so richly deserved, things she didn't have right now.
Then there was the question of what to do with Wednesday herself. The woman's body was down in the cargo hold right now, still held in perfect stasis. She contemplated the offer floated to her by Miranda, what seemed like ages ago. They would try to revive her, bring her back to be the leader the galaxy needed to fight the Reapers. She thought hard about it, feeling the crime against nature it would be to even try. But then she remembered Lurch, and the last words she had ever heard Wednesday speak.
Sic gorgiamus allos subiectatos nunc.
"We gladly feast on those who would subdue us. How right you are, Wednesday. Death took you too soon from this place, and he will not subdue you. Not if I have anything to say about it." She turned to the communication terminal, typing in the details she had been given by Miranda. Moments later, the woman's face appeared on the viewscreen.
"Dr T'Soni, a pleasure," said Miranda, her face sporting a small smile.
"I'm sure. I have Wednesday's body, and I left your double agent to the Shadow Broker's tender mercies."
"Well, that is certainly unexpected."
"Yes, and now I'm in the position of completely ignoring your offer."
"I would urge you to reconsider, Doctor. My employer isn't tolerant of people not accepting his offers."
"You mean the Illusive Man and Cerberus?" Miranda winced a little, she had hoped it wouldn't come to that.
"Yes, exactly."
"Well then, it's probably good for everyone that I'm agreeing to hand over her body. On one condition," Liara said, her tone serious.
"I'm listening," Miranda replied eagerly.
"I'm going to want a favour from you someday, Miss Lawson. And I want your word, in writing, that no matter how big or small, urgent or not, you will hold yourself to that."
"Not that I have a lot of choice in the matter, but I accept your terms. Meet me at the following coordinates as soon as possible so we can take custody of the body." There was a beep as the additional data was received.
"I'll be there Miss Lawson. Liara out."
PRESENT
Miranda came in just as Liara closed the container, understanding why the asari did it, but still annoyed she would risk possible contamination.
"Dr T'Soni," she greeted, extending a hand before thinking the asari might not know this particular human custom.
"Miss Lawson," Liara replied, taking the offered hand firmly, her eyes flicking over Miranda's bodysuit.
"I don't need to ask you what's in there," Miranda said, flicking her eyes at the stasis pod. "But I wouldn't hold it against you if you didn't want to go through with this." But I have my orders to eliminate her and take the body if she resists, she thought privately. Given what she's been up against recently, I'm not sure I'd succeed.
"We had a bargain, Miss Lawson. You would be given Wednesday so you can bring her back, in return, you owe me a favour to be called in the future."
"Very well then. If I may ask, what are your plans now?"
"None of your concern Miss Lawson, nor that of Cerberus," Liara replied tersely. "Good day. Expect to hear from me in the future." She turned and left, leaving the human with the stasis pod and a concerned look on her face. Liara didn't care though, she had a new goal to work towards.
The Shadow Broker thought that just because of who he was, he was immune from Addams justice. He had taken Feron, a toy that she had earned the right to torture, not him. So now she would find the Shadow Broker, kill him if necessary, and reclaim Feron so she could torture him herself for his betrayal of her and Wednesday. To do this though, she needed help. She knew just who to call, the cool, comforting weight of Wednesday's QEC hidden in her pocket. She waited until she was on her new ship, now repainted and rebranded so no lingering trace of Tazzik's presence remained, before pressing the button she knew would connect her to the woman she wanted to talk to.
"Morticia, do you have time to talk? I need a little assistance, and I feel you would be best placed to give it to me."
"Liara my dear, I would be delighted. So, what can I do for you?"
"I was hoping you could help me set up an information brokering business."
"I think I can help you there Liara. So tell me..."
