It was easy enough for Shepard to escape from the auditorium with the chaos contained inside and find her way into one of the nearby waiting taxis. With the bottle of Noverian Rum clutched tightly in her arms, she was grateful for the layout of the taxi. This particular vehicle was one of the newer, but increasingly popular privacy models that were built without any sort of separator window between the driver and the passenger. Only a small speaker in the back connected the two. That very same speaker crackled the life the moment Shepard had settled in her seat.

"Where to?" the driver asked, his deep, rough voice identifying him as a Turian.

"What's the farthest you can get from here on…?" She paused to reach into her pocket to pull out her wallet. An irritated sigh burst forth from the Commander when she saw how little remained on her credit chit. "50 credits?" Exactly half of what she had on her chit.

"I can't get you very far on that," the driver said apologetically. "I'll take as many back roads as I can. That should get you a little farther than just following the main roads would."

"Thanks," Shepard replied. "I appreciate it." The hover car lurched to a start and quickly began to speed through the open space between the buildings that was designated as the road. The driver was not a hesitant one though, as he moved rapidly from lane to lane in order to stay ahead of the other drivers. A driving style that reminded her much of her own.

The speaker made another crackling noise as the driver began to speak again. "So where do you plan to go once we reach 'the farthest you can get from here.' Is there a place I should be looking for to drop you off at?"

She went with the first place that popped into her head, a place where she could be alone. "A hotel."

"For 50 credits? Lady, you're not going to get a very nice place for that much. You sure you don't have any more?"

"That's all I have. I don't care if the place is a dump."

"Alright then. Were you in there listening to Commander Shepard speak?"

Shepard was both surprised and incredibly relieved that the driver didn't recognize her. But the speaking engagement was the last thing she wanted to talk about right now. "I, uh, didn't get to see her. I wasn't feeling that well so I decided to leave early."

"That's a shame. You know it's funny. A lot of my species don't like humans that much but they sure as hell respect that woman. She's a hell of a hero. Wish we had a Turian like her."

Shepard's eyes dropped to her lap as she rolled the bottle of rum in her hands. It was an odd experience to hear herself described in this manner. As she reflected on this odd situation, she felt the hover car grind to a halt. "Here it is," the driver said. "One of the cheapest motels on Illium; The Blue Rose."

"Sounds nice."

"It isn't."

She heard a beeping noise coming from the speaker before a panel with a chit slot in it revealed itself in front of her. She slid her card into the slot and left it there until the panel gave a beep. When she pulled it out she watched the numbers on the front of the chit change from 100 to 50.

"Thank you, uh, Commander Shepard?" Shit. She had forgotten about the identifier on the card. The driver sounded excited. "I'm so sorry. I didn't realize it was you. I-"

"Just forget that I was here." she grumbled as she exited the cab, holding onto the bottle of rum as she slammed the car door behind her. She was sick of recognition. And how stupid of her to think that she had some amount of anonymity left. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She looked up at The Blue Rose. It was a dump. Peeling paint on the walls, broken windows, and scattered cigarettes lay everywhere in front of the entrance. Shepard gave an exhausted sigh and entered the building, bottle swinging from her right hand.

The inside was in the same state of disorder. A different shade of peeling paint coated the walls but otherwise the room was bare, save for a desk in the middle under a flickering light. A dark blue asari sat behind the desk, looking bored. As Shepard closed the door behind her, the asari sat up in attention. "Welcome to The Blue Rose," she called out.

"One room please," Shepard said.

The asari nodded. "That'll be 50 credits." As Shepard handed over her chit, the asari spoke up again. She noticed the surprise in the attendant's eyes over her name so the question the followed surprised her. "What name should I put you under?"

"Put me down as unlisted."

Again the asari nodded. Apparently this was a common thing at an establishment like this one. She reached down into a drawer in her desk and pulled out a keycard. "Here you are. The room is on the right and down the hall at the very end."

The marine nodded in acknowledgement and took the keycard with her unoccupied left hand. She entered the hallway on the right and began her descent down the hall to her room at the end. As she walked, Shepard noticed that her hands had begun to shake in anticipation of finally getting that drink. She had never felt such a feeling of anticipation when it had come to drinking but perhaps the combination of her five days sober and the event that had just transpired would make the alcohol taste all the better.

Most of the rooms she passed by were silent. A few had odd chemical smells emitting from them while others produced sounds, moans and groans that made Shepard hurry past even faster. Eventually she reached her hotel room; Room 183. Fumbling for the keycard, she held it up to the scanner above the door handle and waited a moment for the code on the back of the card to scan. The door unlocked with a loud thumping noise and swung open to reveal her temporary living arrangements. Water stained wallpaper that was coming loose occupied the walls. The room was sparsely furnished with only a Queen sized bed in the middle with an end table on the left side. On top of the table sat a lamp, turned on but shadeless.

Shepard entered the room, turning briefly to shut and lock the door behind her. She took off the jacket of her dress blues and laid it over the blankets on the bed that were stained with god knows what. Sitting on the jacket, she knelt and uncapped the bottle, placing the cap on the side table. She titled the bottle up and took a big swig, savoring the sugary taste and the burn from the alcohol. Delicious. She immediately took another. And another.


"Where is she?" Liara demanded from the two soldiers she had cornered backstage.

"We have no idea," Moore said. "We came back here to find her after the crowd started going crazy but she was already gone. "

Liara felt herself quickly growing hysterical and though she tried her best to calm the rising tide of emotion, some panic managed to seep out into her voice. "How could she be gone? Wasn't it your job to watch her? How could you let her out your sight?"

"Ma'am," Frost started. "We're sorry. It's just that in all of the chaos she managed to get away from us."

The asari passed a hand in front of her face and breathed deeply. "I know," she said, her voice significantly calmer. "It's not your fault. I apologize for yelling at the two of you."

"We understand ma'am," Moore said. "Honestly, I think both of us would be much louder and angrier then you are if something like this happened to one of our loved ones."

Liara was about to open her mouth in response when she noticed an object lying on the floor. "What's that?"

"It is, well was, a gift basket for the Commander. A gift from the higher ups."

She bent down to inspect it. "It looks like it was torn apart. What's missing from here?"

Frost crouched next to Liara to look over the basket. "If I remember correctly," he said "there was a bottle of Noverian Rum in here. Looks like someone took it."

"Shit."

Liara surprised herself with her own uttering of a curse word, and a human one at that. But there had never been a more appropriate time for her to use it. Shepard had taken the bottle of alcohol and gone, goddess knows where, in order to cope with the events that had transpired. She stood up and activated her Omni-tool. It rang and rang until finally a miniature, holographic figure of Tali appeared.

"Hi Liara," the figure said. "How did the speech go?"

"Horribly. Listen Tali, do you know how to use my consoles?"

"Your Shadow Broker consoles? No, but I'm sure I could figure it out. What do you need?"

"I need you to pull up the tracking data for Shepard's credit chit to see if she's made any purchases. I would do it but I don't have the capabilities on my Omni-tool." She pressed a few buttons in order to pull up the file that container the chit number. "The number is 8235-4825-9283-2831"

"Got it," Tali replied. Liara could see the figure walking for a few seconds. She used those seconds to try to continue calming herself. Eventually the figure of Tali sat down at Liara's consoles.

"Now what do I do?" Tali asked.

"Activate the central console," Liara commanded. "You'll get to a display with several icons on it. Select the one on the far right and enter the number on the prompt screen." She watched the hologram Tali follow her instructions.

"Got it. It's pulling up the tracking information."

"What does it say?"

"I'm getting two results; one for a taxi company and the other for something called The Blue Rose. Do you know what that is?"

Liara did. The hotel was popular with the sort of criminals and low-lifes that it was her job to track during her time as an information broker on Illium. "I'm familiar with it. Grab Garrus and go to the address that's listed. I'll meet you there."


When Liara arrived at the hotel, Tali and Garrus were already at the front desk, arguing with the attendant. "I'm sorry but there is no one under that name at this establishment," she was saying.

"But there has to be," Tali shot back.

"Miss, with all due respect I think I would remember is someone as famous as Commander Shepard came in here."

Tali began to speak again before Garrus cut her off. "Fine. We'll find some other way in." He turned upon seeing Liara enter. "Liara!"

"No success getting in, I take it?"

"No," Tali pouted. "This bosh'tet won't give us Shepard's room number."

"She must have checked in as unlisted," Liara noted. "If you do that than any hotel staff is obliged not to give out your information."

At that moment, a distant crash was heard, followed by hysterical laughter. It sounded far too familiar to disregard and seemed to be coming from a room at the far end of the right hallway. Liara began walking down it, going towards the sound.

"You can't go down there!" the attendant called after her, making her way out from behind the desk.

Liara spun around to face her and saw Tali and Garrus looking at her, demanding some sort of explanation. "It's Shepard," she said. "I know it is. You have to trust me."

Garrus gave a nod and pushed past the asari attendant, Tali following behind. The three made their way down the hallway, increasing their speed from a walk into a run as they ignored the attendant's threats to call the police. When they reached the door, Liara reached out and banged on it with her fist. There was no response.

"What do we do?"

"Only one thing to do," Liara responded as her biotics flared to life.