With the Thessian team on site, patching and repairing the computer systems moved much faster. Though Irie could have surrendered the job to the others, she stayed and kept working- rather surprised that Athena and Red stayed and kept working as well.

Though Irie had never had the depth of anger and hatred toward Athena that Melara did, her feelings toward the other asari were less than warm. Irie was not hateful by nature. Even as a small child, she enjoyed a peacefulness and serenity of spirit that was almost directly counterpoint to her sister's. She suffered pain of course; felt love, betrayal, heartbreak, and even anger- but she did not hold on to the negative emotions or allow herself to stew in them. She did what she needed to do in a given situation, suffered through its trials, and coped by taking a philosophical view of the events.

You cannot blame the ocean for being the ocean, her parents had often told her when she was young. She had taken that advice to heart. There was no use in getting angry at the random chaos of the universe. Pain was a necessary part of living- it influenced growth and change. Pain had turned her father and mother into the people they were.

Still, Athena had nearly killed her sister, even though Irie knew intellectually that was not her fault, a complete accident for which she clearly felt remorse and regret. Had that been the only incident, Irie may have managed more warmth toward her cousin, but sadly that was not all. Athena had also taken on her mother and caused her harm- and that incident was purposeful and incredibly deliberate.

Liara had known that someone was gunning for her- rather, the Shadow Broker- for some time. She had let Del know, of course, but neither were aware of the true scope of the threat. It was actually not that uncommon for individuals or even groups to start hunting for the Shadow Broker. The same measures that had kept the last one hidden from Liara for so long also masked her- that someone may discover her identity or whereabouts was an accepted risk of the job. Usually when a group was gunning for her she kept their activities closely monitored and, if necessary, used her resources to gently and anonymously throw a wrench into their efforts, or simply dissuade them altogether- at times even making them think it was their own idea.

This newest threat wasn't so easily dissuaded, and was nearly as elusive as Liara herself was.

In the end, the invasion took her completely by surprise.

While the hub of her network was run out of their home on Earth- secure not only in its own right, but also with the Alliance's unwitting help, since they lived on the largest Alliance base in Brazil at the time- it was not her only base of operations, and at times her work necessitated her leaving that safe sanctuary.

Athena was smart. She made no attempt to hit the Broker at home. How long she had bided her time, none of them could be sure. The plan- like most of the best plans- ended up being utterly simple.

Del was off on maneuvers with her N7 class in the Traverse. She was scheduled to be gone two months, and would not be able to return home quickly even in case of emergency. She was less than a year from her planned full and final retirement-plans that would be shattered far sooner than either of them expected. At this time, Melara was a private in the Alliance, just over a year recovered from her own encounter with Athena. She was serving aboard the Prestigious- a heavy cruiser in the Fourth Fleet.

Irie was in Corsica, two degrees under her belt- one in applied mathematics, the other in basic astrophysics- and the third being well under way. She was already structuring plans to nurture her burgeoning music career.

With her mate on the other side of the galaxy and her daughters out of the house - Liara saw little reason not to take a quick trip to Omega to see her sister, who had left her an urgent message.

The message, of course, was a farce. Eír had no knowledge that her daughter had used her name and login idents to send the message under false pretenses. When she had found out later, she had been understandably angry- though the way mother and daughter were interacting now it appeared all had been long forgiven.

Arriving at Omega, Liara had been surprised to find not her sister, but an ambush. She had never met Athena face to face before this time. After Melara's attack, she had used her resources in Aria's own network to try and track the young asari that had harmed her. She knew her name. She knew her face. The trail had gone inexplicably cold once the maiden had left Omega, but Liara knew enough to immediately recognize her in that closed hotel room.

The confrontation was not physical. Liara was no fool. She was trapped in a sealed hotel room with Athena and a small handful of other biotics- trusted mercs who would later become agents under the new Broker. Discussion, not attack, was the wisest course.

Athena revealed that she knew Liara's identity as the Broker. She also revealed that she had evidence that Liara had runtimes in Aria's own Omega network. She laid out the deal quite succinctly- Liara would step down as Broker and would be allowed to quietly lead her life, or Athena would reveal to Aria Liara's secret, bringing the murderous wrath of Omega's own Queen down on not only Liara, but her entire family.

Threatening her family brought out Liara's ire. She told Athena her position was not so secure as she thought. She told her that if she turned Aria's formidable wrath against her family, she would be on the receiving end of a lesson that many powerful people throughout the galaxy had learned to their detriment- that threats to her family were a sure way to release the wrath of Shepard herself.

"She took down Cerberus. She took down my predecessor. She took down the Reapers. Aria is powerful but if you send her on us, Shepard will end her. And then she will hunt you down, and end you as well."

Athena did not so much as blink in hesitation or fear. At the same time, she neither smiled nor gloated as she calmly informed Liara that she had an assassin right now with his crosshairs directly on Shepard's skull- explosive rounds. She then activated a data pad and projected a live feed, fed from the assassin's own rifle site. Liara's entire body went cold as she saw her bondmate talking with two of her N7 recruits. They were in some public place, in uniform though not armored and bearing only minimal arms. It was clearly a casual location. There was no reason at all Del would even suspect she'd be under the sites of an assassin.

"Surrender the Brokerage, and you walk out of here unscratched. Your kids and your wife…safe and sound. If you refuse, a signal will be sent to that assassin and he will pull the trigger, and you will watch Shepard's head vanish. Then I will inform Aria who you are and sit back and watch her erase you and both your daughters in the most painful and horrible manner she can devise. Trust me, Aria is quite imaginative. In the end, I will still be there to pick up the pieces of your Brokerage. Honestly, Liara, I don't want to hurt you or your family. I'd rather do this civilly. Tell me, is the Brokerage really worth that much to you that you'd watch your own bondmate die, right here and right now, and set the wolves on your kids just to keep it for a short while longer? Be honest…you're actually relieved I'm here. You're relieved at the idea of getting rid of it. It was a necessity once but having all that information, all that power…it's tiresome as well. Seeing the seedy underbelly of the galaxy, having to constantly be watching, be on alert, be making hard decisions so that something hopefully good can come out of them…"

"Yet you seek to pick up that same power. How do I know that you will not use it to corrupt purposes, to the detriment of this galaxy, rather than her preservation?"

"You don't," Athena admitted. "You have only the fact that I am here talking to you, face to face, offering you a deal rather than just murdering you and your loved ones to claim it anyway."

"But why do you want it?" she asked, pressing for more. "If there is something you seek to know, perhaps I can help you to find-"

"That is my business," Athena said, getting terse for the first time in the conversation. "The offer is as it stands, Liara. Give up the Brokerage and live. Don't, and you know the consequences. Choose."

There really was no choice to be made. Liara obeyed Athena's directive, surrendering the Brokerage and all her access codes, transmission protocols, and primary contacts. Honestly, transferring the information did seem as if it lifted a weight off of her, relieving a deeply set pressure she wasn't even truly aware she had been carrying around. When it was done, Athena signaled the assassin and Liara watched as the crosshairs left Del's skull and the assassin started to pack up his gear.

She had honestly been somewhat afraid that Athena would simply kill Del anyway, once she had what she wanted. Seeing the assassin retreat seemed to restart her heart, and her legs felt weak. She sat down in a nearby chair, cradling her head and praying that she did not faint.

Athena directed her men out, then walked over to where Liara was. "I'm sorry this happened like this, Liara. I can only ask you to trust me when I say it was necessary. But, I can't have you alerting anyone about what's happened until I'm well away from here, so…I'm sorry for this, too."

As Liara looked up all she saw was a wave of blue. She felt pain such as she did not know had even existed…but only for a moment, before darkness swallowed her.

She woke in a medical facility on Omega, confused and sore but not permanently hurt. It seemed someone had sent out an anonymous alert that she was in need of medical attention, and where to find her. It took her two days before she was able to regain her strength enough to even speak. It took Shepard another two days to get to her.

Liara never told Shepard the whole story. She never breathed a word about how an assassin had had her directly in his sites. It was all she could do, even so, to talk Del out of chasing Athena down for what she'd done- and later, she had to put the same effort into preventing Melara from doing the same.

Del had even briefly entertained the notion of doing precisely what Athena had threatened, and telling Aria about the new Broker and her runtimes in Omega's network. Fortunately, common sense won out over fury; revealing that information would send Aria's dogs after Athena, it was true…but if Aria traced the runtimes themselves she'd quickly learn who Athena had won the Brokerage from. It was not worth the hassle or the risk.

Liara hadn't told Irie the whole story until years after Del had passed away, and the elder T'Soni daughter was unsure Melara knew as much herself. She never discussed it with her, and given Melara's already rampant hatred of Athena, it was likely Liara had never discussed it with her either. It would only have stoked the fires and perhaps would have led Mel to doing something they would all regret.

Though Irie could not be sure without asking, of course-and she doubted Athena would even give her an honest answer if she did ask- she suspected her wresting of the Brokerage away from Liara was directly related to what was happening now.

Perhaps she had already gotten inklings of this threat and needed the resources to more fully define or address it. Perhaps she knew it was only a matter of time before Mama found the traces herself and began to dig into them, and…in her own rather twisted way, this was her way of protecting Mama and Bába from that news. Her way of giving them the gift to live in peace for as long as possible, in the only way she could.

"I think I… I have it. I have it, it's compiling," Red said abruptly, interrupting Irie's thoughts and refocusing her full attention on the here and now. Her fingers swiftly moving, she nodded.

"Yes, that is it. I am getting it now. I have computer records and the data stream from internal surveillance."

"Ma'am, perhaps it is better if we take over now," one of the asari techs helping them said from nearby. "These were your people, your friends. You should not put yourself through-"

Irie gave her a look; sad but resolute. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I must see. I am loading up the footage now."

The holographic projectors turned on, casting their beams of light around the room and rendering soft-light images of her team, where they had been standing at the beginning of the relevant segment. In the center of the room, a holographic overlay appeared on the silent anchor that Leanne had constructed to run the test she had been describing to Irie when the attack had occurred.

Two geth chassis stood nearby, Leanne herself not too far from where Irie was. She was frozen in position, holding her activated omni-tool up and looking at it. The other team members were at various work stations.

Irie stepped away from her console and went over to the image of Leanne, looking at her sadly. The asari tech inclined her head.

"Are you absolutely sure-?"

"Yes. I am sorry, I am…I will be all right," Irie told her, stepping away to the wall so as not to interfere with the playback.

As it began, the images suddenly animated and she heard her own voice coming from Leanne's omni-tool.

{"What is it, Leanne? What have you found?"}

"As you directed we have been looking for ways to make the power draw more efficient for the Fold." She looked toward the anchor in the middle of the room as she spoke. The excitement on her face was obvious. "We've erected a much larger anchor on the lower level to use to experiment to see how to the power draw can be tweaked, and it looks like our theory about the wavelength focalization actually worked! When we fluctuated the focalization at specific points we were able to create a Fold using a third of the direct power draw that it would normally take!"

{Wait, Leanne…how big was the anchor you constructed?}

"About four feet in diameter."

This was in error. The anchor itself was much larger, but when powered, it would result in a Fold that was itself about four feet in diameter. In her excitement, it seemed Leanne had misheard the question, thinking Irie was asking about the size of the Fold itself and not its anchor.

"The Fold was only stable for .32 nanoseconds but it was there. The geth believe that with minor adjustments we should be able to sustain that Fold for at least three or four seconds. Of course, with no connecting anchor point and with a Fold this size, we can't actually test and confirm as of yet, but the data looks solid."

As she spoke she walked across toward the main data console. There was a flicker in the archway of the anchor they had constructed, catching her attention. She slowed to a halt and looked over at it as the Fold suddenly appeared in the arch. It was hard to tell with the holographic projection, which translated it into a simple shimmering curtain of energy, but Irie had seen a Fold in person before. She knew that in truth, it was an endless sheet of infinite black.

{Leanne, that is fantastic news. We-}

Leanne suddenly interrupted her, expressing alarm at the sudden appearance of the Fold in the anchor. "What are you doing? We can't run the test now! Shut it down! You can't-"

Something lunged out of the Fold. One of the geth opened fire on it but it was too fast. Though they could not see color in the soft-light projections, it was clear the form was a Jabberwocky. Even as it tackled the geth who had fired on it, another was springing out of the blackness, and another. Leanne barely had time to get her hands up in defense before one had her on the ground. The impact slammed her hand down and shut off her omni-tool. Irie, tears in her eyes, looked away as the thing savaged her screaming assistant, the others tearing in to everyone else.

Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to look back, to be analytical. The four Jabberwocks cleared the room, then started poking about a bit, their behavior almost curious. One seemed especially fascinated with a geth chassis, moving it cautiously.

A moment later, something else came out of the Fold, moving on all fours to fit through the relatively small opening before pushing itself upright. It was one of the winged creatures, followed by a second. Then, Irie's eyes widened.

Yet another creature came through. This one had a slightly harder time of it, and appeared to be almost too large to pass through. It looked insectile, and as it inched its way inside Irie moved closer, crouching as she regarded it.

"It is actually altering its form somewhat, pulling it inward- here, along the edge of the Fold, so that it can fit."

Then the creature was through, the last length of its body mostly a wicked looking tail that it lashed slightly, as if annoyed. It began making noise, high-pitched and rapid, gesturing. As it did the Jabberwocks turned and headed out the door, deeper into the facility. More winged creatures crawled through, then more Jabberwocks. Irie finally shook her head, gesturing for the feed to halt.

"We must dismantle this anchor immediately," she said, gesturing at the techs. "We must hurry."

"Why?" Red asked. "So long as we don't switch it on-"

"We did not switch it on in the first place," Irie replied. "Thomas was standing at the controls, but I was watching. He did nothing necessary to power on this anchor. Even if he had done so, our power reserves would only have allowed a Fold of this size to exist for mere fractions of a second. No. That Fold was not opened by us, but by them…and that is how they also left this base. They turned it on again and went back through it. Clearly, they have established Fold technology in their space. They simply linked their anchor to ours to give them a gateway right into this room. So long as this anchor exists it can be established again at any time from their side. It needs to be dismantled immediately."

Irie quickly directed the techs on how to safely take the anchor down and as they started to work, she headed back to Red's side and took over the computer controls, clearing the current recording. Her stormy eyes were intent as she worked.

"They did not use this console to open the Fold again when they retreated back. It looks like the Fold itself did not shut off completely, merely narrowed its scope to atomic size, possibly to allow signals between them and their people to still pass through without the massive power draw. A signal must have been sent to the other side to widen the Fold again for their retreat-then they shut it off completely."

"What are you doing?" Red asked as Irie began selecting more surveillance data.

"My sister said something strange before she lost consciousness. She mentioned Brasa, but also something…else. I am willing to bet that odd insect that forced its way in was Brasa- or that Mel logically took it for one, but-"

She selected the wanted feed and the holographic projectors shimmered into life again. This time, several wounded jabberwocks and one very angry looking winged alien appeared, frozen in the process of approaching or passing through the Fold back to their own region of space. As well, a figure appeared near the door, caught mid-stride toward the Fold as well.

"What in the actual ruddy gutbusting Hell…" Red said under her breath, staring at the thing. Irie, feeling cold, moved toward it.

"This tail…some of these structures…they are the same as the Brasa that passed into this room," she said softly, staring at the image. "But it has changed most of its form somehow. This looks-"

"It looks asari," Athena said, voice thick with disgust. "It looks like a perverted form of one of us."

"Yes," Irie replied. "This is what Melara meant. She saw this creature, possibly saw its transformation. The Brasa…dark asari."