Chapter 7
Heat rose off the concrete making Liara feel as though she stepped into a batarian sauna. The midday sun blazed down on her, but she could find no shady shelter in sight amongst the dirty, metropolitan city. Terracotta buildings were lined up in rows, segmented by busy, clutter filled streets. Even the dry, dusty air felt suffocating, teeming with the stench of too many people packed into too small a space.
She knew this place, she had visited it once before. Shepard had grown up here: Mexico City, Earth.
Liara weaved her way adeptly through the poverty ridden crowd. She was looking for someone, sensed that they were close and let the energetic pull guide her path. She turned down a hauntingly familiar alleyway, sizing up the street thugs as she went. They didn't notice or paid no attention to her passing as though she was a ghost drifting by. She stopped in front of a red, metallic door, discreetly surveyed her surroundings, and then entered the building. Silently, she made her way up the stairs leading to the loft. She had never seen it before, but somehow knew it had been given the nickname Azure. As she neared the top, the rancorous odor of death was detected. Slowly, she continued her deliberate, wary ascent as each footfall echoed ominously through the stairwell below.
Reaching the loft entryway, Liara noticed the front door was slightly ajar, as if baiting her to proceed. She hesitantly nudged the door open allowing for a full view of the eerily quiet apartment. The atmosphere was lifeless. No voices. No music. No vids. The stench of death and decay drifted thickly in the stagnant, hot air. The hum of the ancient refrigerator acted as a base line for the loft's tenebrous mood while dust particles reflecting off the bay window's sunbeam provided the only movement.
Liara crossed quickly into the apartment and started her apprehensive search. She knew that what called to her was here, somewhere in this space. She glanced over the sparsely equipped kitchen, and then continued her advance through the dining room. Seeing nothing out of place, she moved to resume her hunt, but halted abruptly at the sight in the living room. Six young humans lay strewn around the area in misshapen, ragdoll forms. The room had been painted with rounds from a submachine gun and the kids had been the nauseating canvas. Liara shifted her eyes to the floor, biting back her revulsion. She knew this vision was from the past, that these children had been dead for years, but the scene was still potent in its garish brutality.
In the periphery of her gaze she caught a glimpse of another figure in the room, the one who had pulled her here, staring silently at the carnage—Commander Lakota Shepard. She was dressed in casual clothes: well-worn blue denim pants, red tank top and black boots. Her strong, tanned arms hung loosely at her sides and her long, wavy black hair, normally pulled back into a ponytail, draped easily across her shoulders.
"Shepard," said Liara.
The human didn't move, didn't respond, she just continued to stare in front of her looking as blank as stone.
"Leave this place."
Liara spun around, bracing herself for an attack. The words echoed menacingly through the room, bringing a chill to her bones. She didn't recognize the voice. It was low, a deep baritone, with no discernible accent and no point of origin.
She stepped toward Lakota, grabbing her arm, spinning her around and for the first time, was able to get a good look at her lover's face—expressionless, with unfocused eyes that betrayed no awareness of Liara's existence. Then without warning, Lakota launched into a sprint toward the kitchen.
"Shepard wait!" she screamed, her hand stretching out to the retreating form. The explosion that followed carried her in to the warm embrace of blackness…
The darkness shifted into a smoky haze as Liara walked through a thick grey fog rising from the ground. Chillness from the mist sank through the fabric of her white and blue jumpsuit burrowing into her core and she longed for warmer clothes. She proceeded to make her way cautiously through the desolate compound taking note of the abandoned, single story buildings surrounding her. Darkness continued to settle in around her, but fortunately the light from ground fires reflected off the misty air offering enough illumination to see by.
Tension eerily crept up her spine, and her pace slowed as she strained to catch a glimpse of what might lie ahead in the smoky distance.
A man's screams jumped out from the darkness to the right. Another scream sliced through the haze from the left. Gunfire erupted and flashed in the dense fog emulating a grim orchestra's death call.
She knew this place, too. Akuze. Thresher maws had attacked this human colony slaughtering the settlers and all but one member of a Marine unit sent there to investigate—Lakota Shepard.
Without a doubt, Liara knew this was a dream, but not her dream and not just any dream, this one was full of demons and dark regrets. She knew this to be true because she had been given the details of these images by her lover after becoming the new Shadow Broker, when they had firmly reestablished their romance.
This was Shepard's recurring nightmare.
The bitter weight of that knowledge fell heavily on Liara. Feeling the pull to her lover once again, she shrank down into the shadows, and quietly made her way to the outskirts of the colony. Screams echoed disjointedly throughout the dead settlement. Then the ground beneath her shook as a thresher maw broke through the surface, forty meters to her right, shrieking into the smoky, night sky. Liara dropped behind a row of cargo crates and hid from the beast's line of sight. Thresher maws could sense prey regardless of the environment they lurked. Lakota had once told her that they had some type of sonar sense which allowed them to track prey and tunnel through the ground, so she remained frozen in place until the quakes tapered off.
The pungency of charred flesh from thresher maw acid sifted thickly in the air making the asari gag. Moving methodically, Liara stole some packing cloth from the cargo box, and wrapped it around her face to shield her nose, throat and lungs from the acidic, stingy atmosphere. Her watering eyes would have to take care of themselves.
The sporadic screaming had turned into low moans littered throughout the area. Liara, following the pull that guided her, headed in the direction of the main community building; the best place to gather and fortify defenses. Her skills at infiltration were mediocre at best, but she made use of every trick that Lakota had taught her to keep her pace quick, quiet and unseen.
As expected, she came across them: Lakota's old platoon. They were strewn about like garbage over the center commons ground. Massacred. Bodies broken by thresher tentacles. Flesh and bone eaten away by acid. Lakota stood in the middle of the compound, dressed in armor, her old squad surrounding her in their open-air, unmarked graves. Her head turned back and forth as though scanning the area, but her face had the same empty expression as before.
Acid stung the researcher's eyes as she walked hesitantly over to Lakota.
"Shepard," said Liara, her hand reaching out to touch her lover's arm.
Lakota made no indication that she heard the asari's voice or felt her hand. Instead, she continued to stare blankly at a soldier lying on the ground. He would have had dark skin and been tall and muscular, even for a human, but now his body was battered and broken by tentacles, his flesh and bone eroded away by acid—a macabre remnant of what he use to be.
"Leave this place."
It was the same low-pitched, menacing voice, shapeless with the ability to penetrate the very air around her. Liara could feel its presence trying to burrow into her mind, influence her thoughts, like a thousand centipedes crawling across her skin. She stepped in front of Lakota, her body trembling involuntarily, and gazed into pale green eyes trying to find some semblance of recognition in their depths.
"Shepard," she repeated, her voice sounding more insistent. "It's me. It's Liara. I need you to wake up."
On Thessia, all asari were trained from an early age to meld with another for the sole purpose of sharing thoughts, without reproduction. By consciously attuning her nervous system to her partner's, an asari had the ability to send and receive electrical impulses directly through the skin and share images and memories. As teachers, Matriarchs guided Maidens through their first lessons thereby insuring the techniques were taught properly and the experience was rewarding. Those early lessons made it clear to Liara that this was a shared encounter and that she was on the receiving end of the images.
A sense of danger from an unknown source, something beyond the voice, propelled her urgency as she pressed her lover again. "Shepard! You need to wake up!"
Suddenly, a thresher maw erupted from the ground behind the asari and she was thrown sideways down a hill. Tumbling and rolling further into a black abyss…
Liara rose in a lush, tropical paradise. The noon sun scorched from above while a complementary, cooling breeze carried with it the fresh, salty air. She removed the cloth covering her face, discarding it haphazardly on the ground, and then walked along the sandy beach to the ocean's edge. Two defense towers jutted up in the skyline.
The scene was unmistakable. Virmire. The planet where Shepard set off a nuclear device annihilating Saren's cloned krogan army and consequently killed a member of her squad: Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. Dismayed, Liara took a deep breath and steeled herself to what she might find, but before she could turn around she heard someone speak out behind her.
"Commander?"
She recognized the voice immediately, and desperately fought the urge to look backward. Squeezing her eyes tightly, Liara took a deep breath and quickly swung around. When she opened her eyes, she was startled by the sight and stumbled back a step.
In front of her stood two figures, Lakota Shepard and Ashley Williams or what was left of the gunnery chief after a nuclear device had been detonated. The dead woman's flesh hung loosely from burned and blackened bones that were revealed through the holes in her armor. The complete left side of her face was peeled away so only skeletal frame showed while patches of skin and hair clung limply to her scalp. The only intact features in the ghoulish visage were her luminous dark brown eyes. They were definitely Ashley's eyes.
Even with a dead woman in front of her, Lakota's face still held the same blank expression and her eyes had the same eerily vacant look.
"Deceiver! Leave this place."
Before Liara could say anything, a mushroom cloud ignited the sky behind Ashley, and Lakota ran. Surprised by the swift movement, Liara took off after her. She ran past the beach, through the trees and into the forest where the heat and darkness engulfed her. Lakota was still in sight as the asari's foot caught on a root outcropping and she landed roughly in a thick bed of tall grass…
Liara lifted her head looking around at the misshapen, alien forms of bulkheads and space ship structure. The floor and walls were covered in a flesh-like film producing both heat and a nauseating, rotting smell.
She knew this place from Shepard's description. The Collector ship.
She lifted herself off the alien floor and rapidly assessed the surrounding, hostile environment. Still garbed in her blue and white body armor, she took immediate cover behind a low barricade and scanned the area for Shepard.
The invisible pull drew her in like a siren's call toward the center of the ship. Without any other thought than to get to her lover, she hurdled over the barricade quickly making her way down the narrow, lowly illuminated corridor. Leaping by terminals that controlled hatches within the thermal tunnels, Liara absently noticed they were all activated. From Shepard's stories, she knew Tali'zorah had traveled through those tunnels, bypassing the defenses and doors, in order to open the central gates. The hatches had needed to be opened, so Tali would not burn from the thermal buildup.
Turning back down the passageway, she navigated over more barricades and furthered her way through the ship's compound following the energetic link like breadcrumbs on an unfamiliar path. She stopped just before the entrance to a main chamber at the end of the corridor. Cautiously, she settled into a low crouch and peered into the room. She identified multiple open containment chambers that once held members of the Normandy's crew. They had been rescued, the space was empty.
Liara rose up diving headlong through the room, and then down a passageway leading to a secondary chamber. She made her way through the ship, continuing to negotiate her way over barricades and down corridors, until she entered upon a large open area. She stayed low, under cover, looking for signs of movement. Looking for signs of Shepard.
The collector ship rumbled and swayed. The sounds of tearing metal pierced the air as chunks of the ship showered down all around Liara. She took off running up the ramp in the direction where she knew the Normandy shuttle would be waiting and hopefully her lover, too. Sprinting up the incline, the alien ship continued to fall apart around her. An eerie sensation traveled down her spine as she somehow sensed the presence of another—something other—nearby. Looking ahead she saw the shuttle come into view thirty yards down the platform, but Shepard was still unaccounted for. Dodging the falling debris, the asari rolled to her left and started up the tottering ramp.
"Shepard!" screamed a shockingly familiar voice, piercing the air from behind.
In one smooth movement, Liara stopped sharply, spun around and stared dumbfounded at the unsettling sight down the ramp. She saw a copy of herself being held down by a Collector, one who she assumed to be the Collector General, Harbinger.
Then Liara became aware of a presence next to her and quickly turned to meet the newcomer.
"Shepard!" she cried in relief, stepping close to her lover.
The Spectre's face was still empty and hollow, vacant of any reaction or response to the chaos raining down around her.
"Leave this place."
The disembodied voice, dark and threatening, sent shivers through Liara's body, but she bravely pushed the foreboding sensation away, willing herself to focus on the woman in front of her.
"You need to wake up!" cried Liara as both of her hands grabbed her lover's shoulders, spinning her around so they were face to face. "Please! Shepard! Wake up!" Fear resonated within her voice.
Suddenly, Lakota broke from Liara grasp and raced back down the ramp towards her lookalike who had been thrown from the Collector General when the platform pitched sharply to the right. The human was able to maintain her balance as the platform shifted to the left and the ship's debris continued to rain down around her. She reached out her hand to grab the lookalike, but before contact could be made a metal fragment slammed into Lakota's chest, sending her toward the rim of the unstable platform.
Liara had followed closely behind her lover and when she was sent flying toward the edge, the asari tried to extend a biotic field but found her abilities didn't work. Without forethought, the researcher launched herself in the same direction as her lover effectively colliding with the human and sending her careening back toward the center of the platform. Liara wasn't so lucky and as her body slipped over the ledge, her hands desperately clawed at the floor finding a small ridge for her fingers to snare, her feet dangling into empty space.
"Shepard!" she shrieked. "Help me!"
Rising to her feet, Lakota stared at the asari with pale green eyes that were devoid of any feeling or thought or reaction.
"Shepard, please! Wake up!" Feeling her grip begin to slip, Liara cried out again hoping to break through whatever walls ensconced her lover. "Help me! Don't let me go!"
Lakota, making no move to assist, continued to watch with the same uninterested expression as Liara struggled futilely to maintain her grip. With each passing second the asari's hold weakened until she finally slid further over the edge.
"Shepard, please!" Unbidden tears fell from Liara's eyes as she watched her lover's vapid gaze take in her crisis. "Please don't leave me!"
The platform suddenly tilted to the left, forcibly shifting Liara's weight and jarring her left hand from its grip, leaving only the fingers of her right hand as her lifeline. Although appearing listless, Lakota's body had leaned into the ground's movement and remained standing in the same spot, unperturbed by the fragments of ship that continued to fall.
"No! Don't you dare leave me! Not again!" Liara demanded hotly, her fingertip grip weakening with each sway of the platform. "Shepard!" she screamed, pouring all of her strength into one last effort to meet her lover's empty, detached gaze. "Wake up! Come back to me!"
Just as the words escaped her mouth a piece of metal debris hammered solidly into the platform, forcing Liara to lose her grip. Her body slipped the rest of the way off the platform.
Unable to breathe, lungs fiercely burning, Liara free fell into the abysmal darkness below…
…
Twisting sharply, Liara grunted and savagely shoved herself away from solid metal, ultimately falling awkwardly onto a cold, hard surface. Instinctively, she rolled into a defensive crouch, left arm protectively in front, biotic energy coursing over her right, ready to be released. Lungs on fire, struggling for air, her eyes blinked rapidly as she attempted to gain a bearing on her surroundings.
Shepard's private recovery room.
Bluish tendrils of energy dissipated from the asari's right arm as she lowered her defenses and then fell heavily to her knees. The room's artificial light illuminated the myriad of emotions shifting across her face: dizzy confusion, bleak dread, and eventually, heavy-hearted discernment.
As Liara wrestled with the succession of jumbled imagery rapidly replaying in her mind, struggling with the sense of loss they produced, she attempted to sort through the chaos and decipher what actually happened. Somehow she had been in Shepard's dream. Somehow, while she slept, a connection had been forged with her lover's unconscious mind and she became a part in her lover's recurring nightmare.
Disoriented and uncertain, the researcher stood slowly, then shuffled forward moving the chair she'd been sitting on to the right so she could stand next to the bed.
Tension instantly drained from her body as she contemplated Shepard's immobile resting form. Deep blue eyes, brooding and turbulent, scanned her lover's peaceful visage taking note of her classical beauty. Symmetrical features mixed with dark hair. Smooth, naturally bronze colored skin with a clear complexion—excepting the current bruising that marred it. High cheek bones, solid, slightly arched eyebrows, a strong jaw and large, expressive, luminous green eyes—when open.
Smiling softly, Liara reassured herself that her lover hadn't been adversely affected by what had transpired, but then just as suddenly, those thoughts were replaced by another anxiety. How had the connection between them been established? She was sleeping, her lover unconscious. Could her innate ability to meld have been stimulated while not fully cognizant or in control of her actions? This thought troubled the researcher greatly. She had never heard of such a spontaneous act between asari partners, let alone between an asari and another species.
She looked down at her hands which were cradling her lover's right and wondered what had occurred and why. Sighing heavily, she pulled the chair back to the side of the bed and once again settled into a seated vigil. Given time, she knew she would unravel the mystery, but right now her main concern was for the woman who was lying in the hospital bed, so she pushed the troubling thoughts to the farthest recesses of her mind and locked them away for another time. Tightening her grip, she brought the back of her lover's hand to her lips, placing a reverent, lingering kiss on the soft skin. Even after the gentle caress ended, she kept the hand pressed against her lips surprised by the warmth it now imbued.
"Shepard," she whispered, blue eyes brimming with moisture, "come back to me."
A moment later, as if having heard the heartfelt request, her lover's chest rose taking in a breath deeper than one associated with slumber. When she exhaled, much like a prayer being answered, her fingers lightly flexed around Liara's hand.
