So the format of this chapter is a little bit different than the others. It covers the first half of LotSB, but only shows specific scenes. I don't like novelizations of the game (you can just play the game if you want line by line dialogue after all). So I skipped any scenes that I didn't plan to alter and chose ones that I wanted to expand, change, or poke fun at. I only use a few lines from the game and only briefly since it wasn't worth skipping that small section. If you're like me, then hopefully you won't find those lines too boring and you can understand why I went ahead and included them. The rest of the content is tailored towards this particular Shep and her relationship with Liara. Like always, I may change Shep's reaction and how certain scenes play out (i.e. Vasir - god, it was so obvious that she was evil), but I never alter canon facts of what happened in the game.

Real quick: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm glad to know that people who enjoyed "All Thing Pass" are sticking around to see what happens in this story. I enjoyed all the flattering comments (who doesn't, right?), and if anyone has constructive criticism I would be more than happy to hear it as well. Any and all feedback is appreciated.

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Sub Specie Humanitatis

Shepard read the email twice, then pinched herself just to make sure it was real. After muttering a harsh "Ow!" as she sank her nails into the skin of her forearm, and attracting a curious glance from the yeoman, the commander decided that the email was legitimate. Her next thought was: what did Cerberus have to gain from this? She doubted that The Illusive Man would just pass along vital information regarding the Shadow Broker out of the goodness of his heart. Did he hope that Shepard would kill the Shadow Broker, thus eliminating the most powerful competitor in the information business? Was he trying to get on her good side by giving her a reason to reunite with Liara?

Shaking her head, Shepard realized that she didn't really care. Whatever his reasons, she was more than happy to play along this time. Liara was stuck on revenge, there was nothing Shepard could do but help her complete her quest for vengeance. She would ensure that Liara was safe, and when this was all over then maybe she would have a place in Liara's life again.

Pressing a finger against the intercom button at her terminal, she said, "Hey, Joker, I need you to set a course for Illium."

When his voice answered back there was a notably sarcastic quality to it. "Oh wow, Commander, I'm surprised you even asked. You probably should have just waited till I was off duty to change our course so that you could meet with Liara in secret. You know, since that's what you prefer to do and all."

Shepard rolled her eyes, but otherwise didn't give any sign that the words bothered her. He'd been cracking jokes like that ever since Garrus and Tali told him the truth. As long as none of them were angry with her for the deception she figured she'd let him have his laugh. "Ha ha, very funny, Joker," she said with a sigh before releasing the button. Now she had to gather Garrus and Tali and tell them about the information The Illusive Man had passed on. There was no one else she would rather have on this mission with her.

As she headed towards the elevator, Kelly called after her. "Commander? Could I have a moment of your time?"

Stopping and grinding her teeth, Shepard tried to plaster a neutral expression on her face before walking back over to the yeoman. She hated that the woman already had access to her emails and personal files, not to mention that she had been ordered to analyze Shepard's behavior for Cerberus. What really irked the commander though, was that Kelly insisted on asking personal questions that she had not earned the right to ask. Shepard was not the type of person to be forthcoming with private information, especially to individuals she hardly knew.

"What is it, Ms. Chambers?" she asked.

"I overheard your conversation with Joker," she began. Shepard noted that the woman chose not to mention that she had also read the email The Illusive Man had sent. What a pointless lie of omission, Shepard thought. We both know that you are familiar with my messages and my relationship with Liara. "I thought I should ask about - well, are you planning to visit Dr. T'soni?"

You know the answer to that. If you can't ask me directly, then don't expect a direct answer. "Perhaps."

The red headed woman frowned. "I know your last meeting with Dr. T'soni didn't go very well. Are you nervous about seeing her again?"

Trying to suppress her irritation, Shepard shifted her gaze away from the yeoman and stared at a bolt on the far wall. She couldn't bite back her harsh reply though. "You know, I'd really like to read the report you wrote for The Illusive Man after our last visit to Illium. I'm sure you had all kinds of things to say about why I chose to keep my personal life personal. Perhaps I'm harboring psychological problems from Mindoir?" She returned her gaze to the woman to see that her face had gone rather pale and she looked stricken. Though Shepard was normally brusque with the yeoman she had never called her out on her spying. While it felt good to put Kelly on the spot, the commander also had to kick herself for getting defensive. It only gave the woman more to analyze. Sighing, she said, "I should go." She walked back to the elevator and this time Kelly didn't stop her.

~.~.~.~.~

Vasir. The asari commando claimed to be a spectre and investigating the assassination attempt on Liara. Shepard couldn't shake a feeling of unease about the woman. As the cops scurried out of the apartment at the spectre's order, Shepard looked around, studying the room. A few prothean artifacts were on display, but the place did not feel particularly like Liara. It seemed as if her old lover rarely spent time here at all. Likely, she spent more time in her office.

Stalking towards her with a cat-like grace, Vasir examined the commander with dark green eyes. Both women openly sized one another up, noting apparent weaknesses and plotting tactics in case a fire-fight broke out.

Shepard said, "What's the situation?"

"Someone took a shot at your friend, T'soni, but missed. However, T'soni stuck around for nearly fifteen minutes before escaping, so whatever she was doing must have been important. I don't know where she is now though."

"Liara was expecting me. She probably left a message for me. I'll take it from here, Vasir." Shepard stood aside so the other spectre could access the door, but to her disappointment Vasir didn't budge.

"Not so fast, Commander," she replied with forced diplomacy. "This is my investigation. T'soni had information on the Shadow Broker, and I'm also working against the Broker in the interest of the council. Now, if you want to help me out that's fine - I won't turn down the help of one of our best agents - but this is still my show and I took it over from the Illium police. If you don't want to work with me, then I can step down, but then you'll have to work with the police on this one."

Shepard ground her teeth as she considered her options. She didn't like trusting Vasir, especially when Liara's safety was at stake, but she knew that working with the police would mean being bogged down with bureaucracy. Forcefully kicking Vasir off this mission was an option, but perhaps not the wisest in the long run since Shepard's relationship with the council was shaky at best anyway. She didn't need to burn bridges with them. That left working with the spectre. At least she could keep an eye on her that way.

"Fine, I'll play along," Shepard answered, but with her tone of voice she tried to imply, Just remember what happened to the last spectre who crossed me.

~.~.~.~.~

"Get in the car," Liara shouted, jumping into the passenger seat. "She's getting away!" Only seconds before, Vasir had sped off after betraying and trying to kill them. Still feeling the jolt of pain from when she had been slammed into the ground by Vasir's biotic throw after grappling with the spectre mid-air, Shepard begrudgingly leapt into the driver's seat.

"I'm fine by the way. Thanks for asking," she muttered to Liara sarcastically.

There was one more seat in the back for either Tali or Garrus, who came running up to join them and stopped when they realized one would have to stay behind. Both looked from the empty seat, to Shepard in the driver's seat, and then at one another. Tali wrung her hands nervously and Garrus's mandibles twitched downward as neither made a move towards the car.

At first, Shepard was confused as to why they seemed so suddenly anxious, then Garrus asked, "Uh, you're driving?"

Obviously her friends were thinking about their time spent in the Mako with Shepard. Rolling her eyes, the commander said, "Come on, guys, I'm not that bad of a driver."

Both gave her a skeptical look. Although her head was turned away from Liara, she heard the sudden quick reeling of the seatbelt and the clicking into place. Sighing she added, "Oh for the love of - Garrus, just be a man and get in the god damn car!"

The turian gave Tali a look that said I wish I was a woman right now, and with slumped shoulders hopped into the back seat. Tali looked both relieved that she'd dodged a bullet and sorry for Garrus.

~.~.~.~.~

"You're dead," Vasir spat as she sat against the wall while she bled out. "The Shadow Broker has been in power for decades. He's stronger than anything you've ever faced! Killing me changes nothing!"

Liara had already walked away to analyze the data retrieved from the spectre, but Shepard turned back around and studied the dying woman with no pity in her violet eyes. "Is that what you think, Vasir?" she asked harshly. "You think I killed you because you work for the Shadow Broker? Because I think you betrayed the council? Hell, do you think I killed you for that data?"

The asari looked up at the commander with a confused expression, breathing heavily and wincing from the bullets in her side.

Shepard shook her head. "No, Vasir, I killed you for one very simple reason. You tried to kill the person I care the most about in this galaxy. I killed you for revenge. Don't try to pretend that this was some moral battle. You will die because I want you dead. No one crosses me, Vasir, and no one hurts Liara. Doing so is a death sentence." Wrinkling her nose with disgust, Shepard watched as the woman processed those words. Turning her head to see that Liara had walked off a good distance away, Shepard murmured, "We're done here, Vasir." Then as a quick after thought she added, "I hope you find peace in the embrace of the goddess." Without a backward glance, she stepped away from the spectre's body and headed off after Liara.

Garrus fell into step beside her and slung his sniper rifle onto his back. "What's our next move, Commander?" he asked.

"I need to talk to Liara about that data," she answered, though they both knew she intended to talk about more than just that. "Radio Joker and tell him to send the shuttle to pick us up. That landing pad where we crashed the car should be a good pickup spot," she said with a hint of humor.

"Next time we're in a situation like that again it's Tali's turn to ride with you," he muttered as he marched off to call Joker. Shepard kept on heading towards Liara and reached her just as the asari turned off her omni-tool.

"Vasir's dead," the commander informed her, trying to start on neutral ground before pushing towards what she really wanted to talk about.

"I am putting the data through to the Normandy's computers. We can be at the Shadow Broker's base in a few hours," Liara answered. Then she started heading back in the direction they'd come chasing Vasir. Shepard followed warily. "He will know about Vasir before long," Liara continued. "If he decides to kill Feron..."

Seeing an opportunity to be supportive and show Liara that she understood what she going through, Shepard offered, "We'll get Feron out of there alive, Liara. I promise." She rested a hand on Liara's arm.

But Liara shrugged away from her and continued walking on. With a surprisingly bitter tone she answered, "I know. You are here to help. Just like always."

"That's not a good thing?" Shepard asked, halting their progress. She could already feel the conversation slipping away from where she had wanted to direct it.

Liara stopped as well and turned to face Shepard. "When we first met on Therum, you saved me from the geth. You fought a krogan battlemaster while I cowered. Now you are doing it again. And I am still leaning on you for help."

Put on the defensive, Shepard said, "Liara, you had been trapped for days. You were in no condition to fight. You've saved my ass plenty of times. I want to help you whenever I can."

Liara might have suspected where Shepard was trying to steer the conversation, and she evasively turned back around and started walking again. As if to distract the commander she said, "I can get us there, based on Sekat's data. The Normandy's stealth drive will keep them from detecting us. The Shadow Broker's agents are still shooting their way through Illium. With luck, they won't notice we've left until it is too late."

"That's a little cold, don't you think?" Shepard said harshly, and she didn't just mean leaving the Broker's agents to shoot up Illium; she hardly appreciated the evasive tactic either.

"I have to do whatever it takes to get the Shadow Broker," Liara answered in a low growl.

"You know I don't support that at all costs attitude," Shepard said. This woman didn't sound like the Liara she knew at all. She had never held those beliefs before; she had been the embodiment of the innocence Shepard had lost. "If you're going to do something you need to make sure it's worth it."

Liara looked over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at the commander. "You may be able to get results without sacrificing things, Shepard, but not all of us can. I have had to get my hands dirty while you were gone. You do not know the half of what I have done."

"You could tell me," Shepard offered, trying not to sound threatening.

With a scoff, Liara said, "I already know what you would say. But it is already done. All of it. I cannot take any of it back even if I wanted to."

"I want to listen," Shepard insisted, trying to catch up to the asari, but the woman managed to keep just a step ahead of her. "I want to help you any way I can."

"All I need help with is the Shadow Broker. Nothing else."

"God damn it, Liara! Just talk to me for a minute! Please!" Shepard felt waves of fury surging forth from her mind to her body. The fire of her temper radiated out into her limbs, sparking her to reach out and seize the asari roughly by the bicep and force her to halt. Shepard knew that she had a wicked angry streak; her enemies experienced her wrath on a daily basis; she worked hard to make sure her friend rarely saw it, but now she couldn't hold back the conflagration of her rage. The embers had been in her heart for a long time, and though she tried to smother them, a wisp of smoke always lingered. Now the flames were roaring to life and each evasive maneuver from Liara only served to fan them higher.

The asari looked shocked by the aggressive gesture and glanced down anxiously at Shepard's hand on her arm. If the grip hurt her, she didn't show it. Blue eyes slowly rose to meet the commander's piercing violet, and a frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. "We have to go to the Shadow Broker's liar. Time is of the essence, Shepard." Her tone was level and contradicted the look in her eyes.

"Garrus is calling the Normandy to pick us up now," Shepard answered, trying to swallow back some of her anger. She managed to keep the heat out of her voice, but she maintained the grip on Liara's arm. "We have the location of the base. We'll head there immediately. But we have a few minutes until the shuttle arrives. We need to talk."

"About what?" Liara spat back in an exasperated tone.

"About us." She could feel her face twisting up into a snarl, could feel her fingers digging down into the muscle of Liara's arm. She had to force herself to release the asari before she lost control and accidentally hurt her.

"There is nothing to say about us." Liara raised a hand to her forehead, as if to rub her temple; Shepard found the action infuriating.

"What do you mean, there's nothing to say?" Shepard asked, her mouth hanging open in confusion. "We were a god damn couple, Liara! I thought you -"

Before she could finish that statement, Liara cut in hastily. "It has been two years, Shepard. We are different people. We have moved on."

Her words were like a gust of air that gave the flames in the commander's heart enough fuel to climb up her throat and erupt from her mouth. "What is this we?" Shepard demanded, spreading her arms wide as if she could encompass the entire galaxy in their fight. "It's been a couple of months for me. I haven't changed at all, Liara! You're the only one who has changed! Don't act like we just grew apart in some casual way! I'm the same person I was two years ago. You're the one who decided that we moved on!"

Liara jabbed an accusing finger at Shepard and shouted back with equal bitterness. "I watched you die, Shepard! Do you remember that? I had to watch you die because I was keeping my promise that I made to you: following your orders, no matter how suicidal they turned out to be! You expect me to be the same person after that? You expect me to come running back to you and possibly watch you die again?" They stared hard at one another for a long time before Liara averted her eyes and turned her body to lean on the edge of the railing that overlooked the city. When she spoke again her voice was quieter, but the tone carried even more weight than before. "No, I had to move on, Shepard. I cannot do that again."

Liara's words did nothing to abate Shepard's temper. The fire in her blood caused a pounding in her ears and her entire body shook with the force of her rage. After Liara's softening of her voice, Shepard's voice cracked the air like a whip. "Then tell me something: why the hell did you even bother to bring me back? If you didn't want me - if you didn't want someone other than Commander Shepard, Savior of the Citadel, first human spectre, then why go through all the trouble? Are you like Cerberus? You just want me to stop the Reapers? You're hoping I can accomplish a miracle? You're hoping I'll throw myself into the fire so that you can save your own ass?"

Liara recoiled from the words as if she'd been cut. Her blue eyes were pools that reflected just how deeply the words had wounded her. Normally Shepard would have faltered, would have regretted lashing out with words that she didn't even fully believe, but at the moment it felt good. The fire burning through her demanded vengeance, commanded that she purge herself of every, half-thought insecurity.

"Inquiring minds need to know, Liara!" she shouted, raising her arms in a theatrical display. "Why the hell did you bring me back? Was it so that I could get the pleasure of dying twice? I already know what it's like to be blown apart by an explosion and suffocate to death! Maybe this time I'll get my throat slit, or take a bullet and bleed out." The dark haired woman was aware that she was being overly dramatic, but she couldn't stop herself. Liara stared at her wide eyed, and it only prompted her to continue on. Every fiber of her being wanted to rage against Liara, against the galaxy, against her fate. "Or maybe I'll get made into a slave for the Reapers. Wouldn't that be wonderful? So, thank you for bringing me back, Liara. I'm thrilled to see that everything good about my life is gone and everything shitty is still here."

She stood there, breathing heavily, still shaking with fervor. In contradiction, Liara's shoulders were hunched as if she were nursing a chest wound, and she stared at Shepard with an immensely melancholy expression. A tense silence followed, seeming especially poignant next to Shepard's outburst. The lull allowed a little time for Shepard's temper to leech away until the conflagration became a soft fire in her heart. While it prevented her from being able to regret anything she had said, she was able to think more clearly and choose her next words more carefully.

With a deliberate calmness, Shepard said, "Not that long ago I thought my biggest mistake was when I told you that we couldn't be together because our lives were so uncertain. Because I was worried about compromising my command." She paused, taking a slow, deep breath. "Now I look at you and I think that you agree with that statement. And maybe it's all my fault. Maybe I should have stuck to my guns then. And maybe you're mad at me because I took you away from the life you enjoyed, studying the protheans, and threw you into this whole mess and now you can't go back. Maybe it's all my fault, and now I just have to deal with the consequences of my actions."

Liara's face was a mixture of confusion and distress, as if she were torn between disagreeing with Shepard and hearing truth in her words.

"And I won't pretend that I'm not frustrated and angry," Shepard continued. Her shoulders sagged with an invisible weight. "But there's no going back for me either. I gave up running away from you a long time ago. In that note I gave you... I made a promise. I promised to come back to you." She turned her hands palms up and shrugged slightly, as if surrendering everything. "Well, here I am. I kept my promise. And I still love you. Maybe you don't love me anymore, but I can't stop being in love with you."

There were so many facets of expression on Liara's face that Shepard couldn't pick out any particular emotion. She had no idea if her words were making the correct impact on the asari.

Sighing, the commander said, "I just want to say that I'm going to keep my promise. I came back and I'm staying. If that means that I can't be with you, then I'll try to be the friend that you need me to be. It may take me some time to get use to it, but I won't press the issue." With a sad look at Liara, she added, "But I won't stop loving you. I can't. I hope you can forgive me for that."

Another long spell of silence permeated the air. Blue eyes connected with violet ones and the inaudible messages seemed almost apparent between them. At last the silence was broken by Garrus's voice over the radio.

"Commander, the shuttle is here to take us to the Normandy. Joker says we can leave as soon as we arrive."

Putting two fingers to her ear, Shepard answered, "Thank you, Garrus. We're on our way." She cut the connection and gave Liara one last look before walking past her in order to head towards Garrus's location.

"Shepard... I..." Liara's voice called after her.

Shepard turned and studied the troubled features of the woman's face. So much uncertainty. Shaking her head, the commander replied, "Unless you're going to say 'I love you,' there's nothing left to say, Liara." She waited for a response, but Liara remained silent, obviously not able to summon up the words.

After averting her eyes and turning back around, Shepard said, "Let's go. They're waiting for us."