AN - thanks to Reikson and Drake for their tireless support.


"Aethyta, Matriarch and bartender. What can I get for you, honey?"

Aethyta chided herself mentally. She wanted to sound world-weary and streetwise, not unconscious.

Plastering a thin smile on her face, she looked at the human woman, who flushed.

"Just two beers, please," the woman sighed, glancing over at her companion.

"Congratulations, honey," Aethyta drawled. "That one's much better than the sorry-looking dolt that you were with, last night."

"That man was my husband," the woman responded dryly.

"Really?" Aethyta chuckled. "Did the dancer he left here with, know that? 'Cuz if not, you know, my sympathies."

"Thanks," the woman grimaced. She was good at hiding it, but she was obviously no stranger to her husband's infidelities or the unflattering comments made about him.

It no longer fazed her; that said a lot in and of itself.

The human produced a credstick and paid for the drinks. Aethyta accepted the payment while surreptitiously running the woman's information through Illium's databases.

Mariana Phillips? That made her the daughter-in-law of that human Alliance Senator, which made the young man that she was with, last night, to be Trevor Phillips Junior.

The recognition software had a tougher time with her companion because of his lengthy facial scarring, but it eventually produced a name.

Toombs, the human Alliance Soldier at the heart of a fairly controversial set of hearings concerning the terrorist organization Cerberus and their role in the events on the colony world of Akuze some years back.

Aethyta monitored the conversation going on at their table. She couldn't hear them of course, but the captioning software would take care of that.

"You gotta hand it to the Asari," Toombs was saying, as Marina rejoined him. "Hundreds of light years from Earth, and yet they not only have decent beer but it's as good as the stuff back home."

Mariana grunted noncommittally.

"So, Miss Phillips, what's going on, if you don't mind my asking? Why is old man Phillips' boy wanting to talk to me?"

"Trevor is putting together an action team," Mariana explained. "We intend to strike at a Cerberus facility. Our hope is to obtain enough evidence of what they've been doing there to hurt the Illusive Man badly."

"Yeah, I've been hearing about them all over Council space," the newly-discovered survivor of Akuze said coldly. "Why is everyone acting like they're heroes?"

"A surprisingly large group of Cerberus operatives, made up of former Alliance Marines, rescued Jonah Ashland's granddaughter from Blue Suns Mercs on Zorya. The tactical specialists who tore apart the strategic aspects of the available vid footage all say that getting as many people out as they did was a Goddamn miracle."

"A well-trained Alliance Marine does the impossible for breakfast, the unlikely for lunch, and the improbable for dinner," Toombs said, clearly proud of his fellows.

The statement had that familiarity to it. Mariana grimaced at the memories in the back of her mind.

Warm nights…

A smooth, confident hand caressing her…

Her back arching in a pleasure that she rarely felt in her own marriage bed these days…

"I sense Gunny Ellison's training in that statement," Mari sighed.

"Say what you will about Ballbreaker Ellison, but he does turn out a damn fine Marine."

At last, an opening. One that she'd been hoping for.

"…some with colorful pasts and careers," Phillips replied carefully. "You know one of them, don't you? Xander L. Harris?"

Toombs smiled, apparently finding small comfort in old memories. "Yeah, I knew him, sort of."

"What do you mean, sort of?"

"Lady, nobody really KNOWS Xander Harris," Toombs snorted. "At best, you know OF him."

Noticing the confused look on Mariana's face, he shrugged as he tried to explain.

"With Xander, you're an acquaintance. At best, you're someone that he plays cards with, eats chow with… guy's a pretty good shot and he's aces with the tech stuff."

"…but you don't know anyone who knows anything personal about him," Mariana guessed.

Toombs nodded. "I know that he hates drinking. He's not exactly a teetotaler, but he gets weird around people who drink a lot. I think that maybe he used to have family that drank too much, but he doesn't talk about that at all."

Mariana sighed. Another dead end; she couldn't help hoping that this meeting with Toombs might produce some answers to the many questions that surrounded Shepard and her team of operatives.

"There is ONE thing," Toombs mused. "I think he had family at Shanxi. He gets way huge defensive whenever anybody tries to talk trash about General Williams."

"General Williams? THE General Williams?"

"Oh, we snuck into the CO's office once and got a look at his personal files and transcripts; the hardcopy stuff," Toombs shrugged. "He apparently got a personal letter of recommendation from Old Man Williams his-own-damn-self."

"General Williams? Didn't he spend the rest of his life working on a construction crew in the colonies?"

"According to Harris' file at the base, that was what Xander was doing," Toombs explained, rubbing the back of his neck. "He was working for the Old Man on his construction crew and was badgered into going back to the military."

"Back into the military?"

"That's what I said, back into. His file shows says his enlistment was a reactivation, but there's no mention of what he was doing," the scarred Marine sighed. "It's like his history before joining up is classified. Either that, or it's nonexistent."

"Interesting…"

"Why are you so curious about Xander, Miss Phillips?"

"Harris has been with Commander Shepard ever since the Eden Prime War," she explained, taking a gulp from her beer. "They've been tear-assing their way throughout all of Council space and beyond. But, for all that, Harris' file seems pretty light. I get the impression that if he hadn't been at Akuze, we'd know nothing about him."

Toombs examined Mariana speculatively. "I'll admit that Harris plays things close to the vest with his details, but why be so concerned?"

"You know what I told you about Zorya?" Mariana asked.

Toombs nodded.

Mariana continued. "That was their work. Shepard and Harris have been hitting remote planets all across the borders of Council space. No one's sure what Cerberus is up to; our job will be to find out."

"Wait, what? You're telling me that Xander… JOINED Cerberus?" Toombs demanded. "It doesn't seem possible."

"It's not only possible, Corporal, it's fact," Mariana replied assertively. "Shepard and Harris are here on Illium right now, and if their pattern of action holds up, we can expect reports of major action and a great deal of property damage soon."

Aethyta stiffened. Cerberus?

Had Liara gotten mixed up with human supremacists?

Aethyta filed their conversation away. She'd review the whole thing later, passing the relevant details along to the Matriarchs if necessary.

Toombs seemed reluctant to believe Mariana's words, demanding proof. Mariana assured him that she had documentation that he could look at.

The two of them were headed to the door when two figures with the rough look of mercs strolled in. Aethyta would've dismissed them until the recognition software kicked in.

Goddess, could it be? Shepard and Harris?

In what had to be a set-up by the Goddess her-own-damned-self, Mariana looked up to see Shepard striding into the room.

Aethyta could feel the electrical crackle of emotion flaring as Shepard and Mariana saw each other.

"Mariana?" Shepard sputtered, "What are you doing on Illium?"

Aethyta could see a thousand thoughts play across Mariana's face. She honestly had no words for this moment.

Toombs, however? He had no such problem.

"Shepard?!" Toombs yelled. "How could you do it, huh?"

So loud was his shout that every one looked up from their drinks to to view the real life show going on. Even a small group of three reluctantly dragged their eyes away from the lithe Asari Dancer grinding on their table.

Even the Dancer herself slowed her movements to take in the spectacle.

"Amateur" Aethyta sneered in her head, In her long-gone days stripping, a Goddess damned war might break out at the next table and she'd have kept dancing.

"You'll have to be more specific, Corporal," Shepard sneered, "I've done a lot of things lately"

Shepard was obviously not in the mood for someone's rushed and erroneous judgment.

Toombs' eyes flashed with rage and he reared back, obviously about to spit on the Commander.

Aethyta marveled as Harris' hand suddenly shot forward and latched itself around Toombs' face.

"Toombs, this is your only warning. " Harris hissed coldly. "I've hurt people, that I like a lot more than you, for doing shit a lot less stupid than that,"

"Hey!" Aethyta yelled to them. "Anybody starts a fight in my bar, gets to go round with a real matriarch, get me?!"

"I thought Asari Matriarchs were revered and wise counselors?" Shepard asked, taken off-guard by Aethyta's declaration.

"They are," Aethyta grinned wolfishly. "You want some wise counsel? Calm your asses down or someone's getting their butt slammed with a singularity."

"Sounds like good advice to me," Harris muttered, releasing Toombs face.

"Mari," Shepard snapped, "...what are you doing with this cat-six wannabe, anyway?"

Mariana had a look that Aethyta know all-too-well, the look of someone trying hard to forget how good it'd been to be in someone's arms.

"Sorry, Shepard," Mariana finally responded, "that's on a need to know basis, and your loyalties are... a little too... divided right now."

Shepard looked for all the world like she'd been kicked in the stomach. "So that's the way it is?" she whispered.

Toombs scoffed. "You're a goddamn terrorist, you think anyone's going to trust you?"

"Toombs, you don't know the whole story so back off," Harris snapped off a warning.

Shepard cut him off. "Tech Sergeant Harris, Miss Phillips just informed us that need-to-know is in effect. They don't need to know."

"They'll find out eventually," Harris protested.

"Until then," Shepard hissed, "...they can think whatever they want. I could care less."

Turning on her heel, Shepard marched to the bar without looking back.

"Guess we're done here," Harris grumbled.

"Yeah," Toombs hissed. "Guess we are at that."

Xander joined Shepard at the bar, where they sat in silence for a while.

Neither Shepard or Harris looked anything like a human supremacist; the sad smile Shepard directed her way was friendly and genuine.

Finally, Harris asked, "Ex-girlfriend?"

"Yup," Shepard replied blandly.

"Kind of a pill, if you ask me."

"By the end? Yeah, she kinda was."

"You definitely traded up with Liara."

"That supposed to make me feel better?"

'It damn well better,' Aethyta thought to herself.

"Damn well ought to," Harris chuckled.

Goddess, Shepard, she could take or leave, but Harris... ooh, if she was still a Maiden and he had a little bit more meat on his bones..She hated the lean skinny look, probably due to the whole Krogan father-thing.

"I'm Aethyta, Asari Matriarch and bartender," the Asari announced, "What can I get for you both?"

"Asari honey wine for me and something tasty and nonalcoholic for him," Shepard shrugged, jerking a thumb at Xander as he sat down next to her.

"How do you know that I don't want to drink?" he demanded.

"Xander, I've known you for… what, two and a half ... three years now? You drink only when you have to."

He grunted noncommittally. Aethyta could tell, from his sour face, that he was clearly annoyed by something.

Aethyta produced the drinks and then retreated to a discreet distance, far enough away that the humans would feel safe in talking but enough that she could read the captioning monitors. THIS was one conversation that she definitely wanted to monitor.

"You know, Xander, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that something was bothering you pretty bad," Shepard was saying, obviously continuing a conversation that they'd been having as they entered the bar.

"She hasn't seen either of us for about two years," Harris was complaining. "Then the first thing she asks you is if you can do a damn fetch quest?"

"I'm sorry," Shepard seemed confused, "…a what quest?"

"Oh, yeah, you never knew the sweet and hellish time-waster that was World of Warcraft."

"Is that anything like that stupid Galaxy of fantasy extranet thing casue that seems like a waste of time."

Harris scoffed. "You have no idea. Someday, I'll tell you about the month that I spent playing World of Warcraft, and I mean that literally. I did nothing for an entire month except playing that game; no sleep, no food,

just grinding away at quests, getting gold, farming, raiding and all that other stuff, nonstop for twenty-four hours a day."

"That seems a little insane," Shepard sputtered. "Not to mention dangerous."

"Oh, yeah, big time," Xander nodded. "They actually tried to ban me, the Server Techs couldn't figured out how I could actually play non-stop twenty-four hours a day."

Shepard gaped at her companion before shaking her head in exasperation. "Sometimes I seriously wonder at the sanity of a galaxy that's allowed you to have so much time on your hands that you could play a video game for a month nonstop, just to see if you could do it."

Xander grimaced. "Yeah, well, this was just after Dawn died. I was in a weird place. Trust me, JL, indulging your obsessive-compulsive tendencies takes on a whole new world of meaning when little things like eating and sleeping become optional extras instead of requirements for living."

Aethyta was surprised to see the cold gray seep from the Commander's eyes to be replaced by something warmer.

"If it means anything," Shepard said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I think that she'd be proud of what you're doing now."

"Finally getting some use out of all that book-learning she nagged me into doing," he smiled sadly before changing the subject. "So, are you going to tell me what you saw in Liara's head yet? The two of you looked like you were seeing the Prothean visions all over again."

Liara had melded with this human… Aethyta had to fight the urge to march over there and biotically pin the woman to the wall.

Staring moodily into her glass, Shepard sighed. "I'm not sure, but I think I turned Liara into a killer."

Aethyta was far enough away that neither of them noticed when the bartender shot a careful glance at the two of them.

"So Gianna was right," Harris snorted. "Liara did order that hit on Dantius. I'm impressed."

"Impressed?!" Shepard growled, turning on the man in a towering rage. "Xander, Liara is… was… the most gentle and noble person that I've ever met!"

How… worrying.

"Now she's kicking ass and taking names," the human Alliance technician shrugged nonchalantly.

Aethyta felt a perverse surge of pride. 'Nezzy's little girl was only just past her first century and had already done her Krogan grandfather proud, both at the Battle of the Citadel and now here on Illium.

"Look, boss, not to sound clichéd and all, but the call of the dark side is strong." Aethyta had no idea what Harris was talking about, but the obscure human reference was apparently appropriate for the subject of conversation.

"Liara spent six months around some pretty badass people." Shepard seemed almost reluctant to agree.

Damn straight she had, Aethyta mused. She'd read through all the mission reports that the Matriarchs has gotten their hands on.; even the stuff the Earth Systems Alliance thought had been destroyed, some pretty twisted stuff.

Harris seemed to be pressing his argument. "I'd have been more surprised if she didn't start bringing her A-game to the table."

Aethyta nodded to herself. After her parents had killed each other after that stupid argument, she'd quit being a stripper and instead joined up with the first Commando group that would have her. They'd taught her a lot about everything, especially where fighting was involved.

"The fact that she's still trying to kill your friend doesn't distress you in any way?" Shepard asked sardonically.

"Naw, scares the crap out of me, but…"

Here, Aethyta was intrigued with Harris' response. The Matriarch's surveillance said there was only one person in Liara's life that she was Hellbent on killing.

The Shadow Broker.

If Harris knew the identity of the Broker… Hell, he'd just implied that he was friends with the Shadow Broker, then the list of people who'd want him captured or killed read like a who's who of the galaxy's power brokers.

But there was something about his body language that screamed that he was worried FOR Liara rather than the Broker, implying a far-greater power at work behind this little war.

There had been simmering rumors of a war in the shadows, that the Broker's vast information network was in some kind of internal civil war, which Liara's determined attacks had only exacerbated these last few years.

She found herself very unnerved by the implications of a possible conspiracy at work.

"But given what we're going up against, where this road of ours tends to lead…" Shepard muttered brokenly, draining her glass. Aethyta refilled the humans drink with a mildly-quirked eyebrow at the Commander.

She was fascinated. The human didn't speak like a fanatical terrorist, but like a soldier with a duty that weighed heavily upon her.

Xander rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm not going to pretend that I'm not at least a little happy to see Liara taking things seriously. Besides, you heard Parasini back there. Liara's been seriously punching above her weight class."

Draining his drink, he added, "If she's been dealing with the same kind of scumbags here, that I've seen on Omega, then she's had to do some pretty nasty things in order to get to where she is now. You know that."

"But… killing people?" Shepard mumbled weakly.

"Walk on the dark side, remember? Everybody has one eventually. Plus, at least she's still on our side, more or less. I mean, would you say that Jack was a paragon of sweetness and light?"

"Liara had a good home, a loving mother… a nice boring life," Shepard mumbled. "Now… well, you heard her in her office. She sounded just like her mother. Just like Benezia."

Aethyta was intrigued. She'd have to review her surveillance tapes of Liara's office conversations.

She idly wondered if Benezia had gotten her act together after leaving.

"Oh, please, Benezia wasn't exactly June Cleaver or Mother of the Year before she was indoctrinated," Xander argued.

Well, that answered THAT question, Then again…

"The way Liara used to describe her-" Shepard was insisting.

"If you read between the lines of Liara's rose-colored memories, you'll notice that she leaves out her mom's most obvious traits." Xander snapped.

"If you say her rack, I'll smack you so hard you'll bounce." Shepard snarled.

Aethyta only just kept herself from exploding with a loud snort of laughter, and why not, Benezia did have some impressive tits, after all.

"As I was saying…" he continued, glaring at his charge for interrupting him and smiling slightly as she flinched back reflexively, "…Liara also conveniently forgets to tell you about whatever happened between her and her mom that lead to the two of them not speaking to each for over fifty years. Take that to mean whatever you want."

Aethyta frowned at this. 'Damn it, 'Nezzy,' she groaned to herself. 'I told you not to try and force her to be what YOU wanted, I begged you. Fifty years? Goddess forgive me but if you weren't already dead…'

Still… standing up to Benezia at such a young age… damn if that wasn't impressive.

Then Harris' next words instantly made her twitch in suppressed irritation. "Plus, Benezia went thirty-one flavors of crazy after Saren screwed with her and she got herself indoctrinated by Sovereign for her trouble."

Blithely ignoring the bartender now glaring at him, Harris added, "As for the rest of it, boss, Liara spent fifty years digging around in ruins across the Skyllian Verge and throughout the Terminus Systems."

Then everything suddenly fell into place. Screwing around in the Terminus was not for the faint of heart.

Harris was being encouraging. "She might not have had to kill anyone, but she had to have gotten in her share of fights and survived. You don't do that unless you've got a very particular skill set."

Damn right, you don't.

"Fine," Shepard grumbled. "I guess I'm worrying for nothing," she observed sarcastically.

"You didn't see her on Omega, boss. Liara was scared that she'd lost you and it got pretty hairy a few times. The Shadow Broker was out to snatch your body and trade your corpse to the Collectors."

"What for?"

"Well, I wasn't really in any position to get details on the whole master plan. Far as I know, he wanted power and to sever ties with Willow. Trading you to the Collectors was part of it, but he was a little vague on HOW that was supposed to work. "

"I'm starting to wonder if this is what being around me brings out in the people that I care about."

"Is that really what's been bothering you? About Liara, I mean?"

"Why wouldn't that bother me? The woman I love only seems Hellbent on transforming herself into some kind of-"

Harris interrupted her. "She's trying to become who she needs to be, in order to protect you. She wants to stand WITH you when you go to war against the Reapers."

Aethyta frowned. Shepard had been barking about the Reapers months before Sovereign had showed up. Liara had taken up the call in-between her war with the Shadow Broker, not to mention all of the rumors that she'd heard about the Council's collaborative reverse-engineering Sovereign's salvaged remains. What little data they'd managed to accrue was worrying.

"I don't need her to BECOME me, in order to fight the Reapers WITH me," Shepard snapped.

"Of course not," Harris snapped coldly, making the revived Slayer flinch again. "You need her to be good because, as long as someone as good and sweet as Liara could still find something to love in the Butcher of Torfan, then you could tell yourself that there's more to you than just the monster everybody likes to think you are."

Aethyta blinked. Part of her didn't like that her little girl was being used as something of a mental crutch by her bondmate.

Then the irritatingly-mouthy Harris guy gave voice to exactly the words that Aethyta herself wanted to yell at that moment.

"Thing is, boss… if, after everything we've done, you haven't figured out that there's more to you than just the Butcher of Torfan yet, then Liara loving you won't make a damn bit of difference one way or the other."

Wow. The kid seemed to know just how to talk someone into their place.

"Fine. What about Garrus?" Shepard shot back. "He was ready to kill Sidonis in cold blood because he thinks that's how I roll."

"Unless that was another Commander Shepard that I saw ready to put a bullet in Zaeed's head back on Zorya, then… yes, that's exactly how you roll."

Shepard turned her sour face away from Xander.

The boy sighed heavily. "Long past time we had THIS discussion anyway…" he grumbled.

"What are you talking about? What conversation?"

"Boss," Harris started delicately, "Garrus is a big boy and he was butting heads with Chellick and Pallin long before he met you. He wanted a way to make a difference and you gave him that opportunity."

"Morinth's a ruthless and unrepentant serial killer with a death fetish, and she thinks that we have so much in common." Shepard sneered back, draining her glass.

"Morinth was killing people for over four hundred years before we met her," Xander said dryly, draining his own glass. "Right now, she's killing people in order to protect the team and the crew, and doing a damn good job of it too. Rub that in a Justicar's face if we ever meet one."

Why would the Justicars care about a single Asari, unless… no, it couldn't be.

No human, not even the notoriously danger-prone Commander Shepard, would be THAT reckless. What in Creation made them think that they could trust a rampant Ardat-Yakshi?

"What about me?" Harris was still complaining.

"What about you?"

"You aren't seriously going to pretend that the guy born about two hundred years before you, is the way he is because of you, are you?"

That last comment got Aethyta's attention focused on the smart-mouthed human with all the intensity of an exploding nuke.

Shepard's head whipped around and caught sight of Aethyta looking at them both.

'Oh, yes, human…' Aethyta thought to herself, '…I heard.' A man born over two hundred years ago? Could he be…?

"Fine," Shepard grumbled. "I guess that I've been worrying for nothing," she was obviously trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, pretty much," Harris shrugged, too focused on making his point to notice the Commander's fervent desire for discretion.

"Maturity's like forging a katana; sixty-four million creds worth of exacting patience. You never know if the blade's gonna snap or come out all right."

"You're comparing my girlfriend to a sword?"

"For good reason, boss," Harris answered. "Liara's trying to become who she needs to be to protect you, to stand WITH you when you go to war against the Reapers."

Shepard stared at her best friend icily. Finally, however, she folded. "I hate it when you're right," she grumbled.

"Don't worry, boss; happens so rarely that you won't have to endure it long," he chuckled.

Shepard chuckled bitterly before sighing. "So… you're the voice of experience. What do I do while I wait for Liara's whole 'walk on the dark side' thing to blow over? I mean, it's obvious that she doesn't want anything to do with me until it does."

"Well, first off, you're looking at this the wrong way, as though this is a phase that she's going through," he lectured.

"That's because of how you're talking about it," Shepard complained.

"To you…" Harris insisted. "If you talk to her, you can't treat her like she's a little kid who's obsessed with a singer or actor. What she feels is real to her; absolutely real."

"So what do I do?" Shepard demanded, running her fingers through her long and oddly-styled hair.

"Well, fortunately for us, she's on a standard 'obsessive revenge' trip," he shrugged. "As soon as the Shadow Broker's dead, she'll snap out of it."

"Good news for us, not so much for the Broker or anyone who gets in her way, including this Willow-person, assuming that she's really involved in all of this."

"My guess is that she's not going to snap out of this until the Broker's dead. Considering that the Broker's tried to kill all of us at one point or another on this trip, that's a goal that maybe we can ALL get behind."

"…and if we find out it was your friend Willow, the woman who saved my life?"

"It isn't. Period. Willow can be pretty badass when she wants to be, but to go full-blown super-villain, I'm going to need a Hell of a lot more proof before I buy that."

Shepard nodded. "Then we take care of business. Can I leave the terminal hacking in your capable hands?"

"What?!" Xander protested. "Liara's YOUR girlfriend!"

"…and you've proven that you're far and away better at technical tasks than I am. I shoot things, you fix 'em. Hacking terminals comes firmly under the fixing-things banner. Take Jack with you, make sure she doesn't get into any trouble we can't get her out of again."

"So what are you going to be doing with your newfound free time while I'm hacking terminals around Nos Astra?"

"Well, Seryna won't be ready to move on Dantius until later tonight so I'm eventually heading back to the ship to talk with Morinth and find out why she's playing hermit all of a sudden. But first…" Shepard jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Well, Conrad Verner just walked into this bar wearing a full set of N7 armor. So, unless the ops program standards have really fallen in the last few years, I suspect that I'm going to have to deal with some trouble before long."

Xander looked at the goofy-looking guy working his way in their direction.

"He means well, so could you maybe avoid hitting him this time?"

"I make no promises."