Chapter 29 – Closer Than Friends, More Than Lovers
Azure Hotel
Nos Astra Spaceport
Ilium
Every graduate of the Alliance's N7 programme is expected to lead. It doesn't automatically come with a commission, and neither does the N7 select only officers. A private could just as easily be recommended as a Major. But when people see the N7 logo, they assume you can lead.
My experience in N7 was unique, as was the case with every graduate. I might get around to telling you the story of my final exam, so to speak. But every N7 comes out trained how to lead a small, elite fire-team, able to punch behind enemy lines and survive against overwhelming odds. In short, it was the best preparation I could have asked for before going up against the likes of Saren and Harbinger.
In addition to learning how to think like an officer, every N7 eventually develops their own unique style of operations. That's the gift of the programme, they give you the freedom to develop your own way of doing things. We don't follow the manual because there isn't one, we're expected to write our own. This results in every N7 being slightly different. One N7 might specialise in stealth and demolitions. Another might go for underwater operations. Still others don't focus on combat at all, instead preferring diplomacy and high-stakes negotiations. Anything goes, as long as it got the job done.
I favoured a degree of showmanship. I know a lot of the Alliance brass thought I could use a bit more subtlety. But after the Skyllian Blitz and becoming a household name, I reasoned there was no way I could remain black ops and under cover. So I decided to use my fame instead of running away from it. The operations I ran made use of overwhelming force and firepower. Other N7s were the scalpel, I was a battering ram. And with every successful mission, my name and reputation grew to the point where pirates and slavers would rather surrender than risk having me airdrop in on them. I suppose that's the reason why I was considered for Spectrehood in the first place.
After the Illusive Man gave me my own team, I worked hard at turning them into my team. Everybody I picked up quickly learned how I liked to do things. Hard and fast, with lots of explosions. No one caught on more quickly than Jack.
Fighting side by side more times than I could count, we had developed a certain style every time we went into battle. Jack was even more of a battering ram than I was, so she ripped into our enemies with first contact using her biotic shockwave. Once they were dazed and scattered, I'd mop up with quick precise shots that made sure those who went down stayed dead. Against a much larger force, like say a Collector attack, I switched to using the Revenant machine gun. Then Jack and I would provide the destructive wave, while someone else like Garrus or Thane would do the precise sniping.
We'd faced down armies. A handful of mercs didn't stand a chance.
"She's very powerful," muttered Liara, crouching down behind a car next to me. Jack was a little bit further ahead of us, wreaking havoc.
"That she is," I said, ejecting a thermal clip and snapping a fresh one in.
"Is she always like this?"
"Pretty much."
A merc sailed above our heads and crashed through a windshield. Jack was laughing. "Come on! COME ON!"
"Jack, she's not the most stable person around."
"I know that Liara." I ducked out of cover, fired a shot. A merc choked and died. I ducked back down. "But then again, neither are we. Plus her biotics are as good as yours."
"So I noticed."
Another shockwave brought a wall crashing down. Suddenly the mercs stopped firing. I risked a look. Jack was standing in the middle of the Azure hotel parking lot, breathing heavily. Bodies were scattered around her.
"All done?"
"All dead while you were hiding back there."
"Alright, let's go."
xxxx
"Please don't kill me!" screamed the asari in the hotel room when we barged in. "I'll stop dancing, I'll say the mantras every day, I'll go to the Citadel and get a better job, I swear! Please just don't kill me!"
"We're not going to kill you," huffed Jack. "Just tell us if you saw an asari in blue armour come by here."
But the asari had screamed louder upon seeing Jack and dove behind the sofa. I stepped in.
"Ma'am? I'm Captain Shepard, Citadel Spectre. I'm chasing down a dangerous criminal and I need your help."
"She went that way," said the asari, pointing. "Please don't hurt me."
"We won't hurt you. I'll send someone up to help. Liara? Call someone to help this young lady, would you?" Liara glared at me, but did as asked.
Jack was staring at a large vid screen that covered most of one wall. It showed a bunch of asari dancers wearing next to nothing dancing in an extremely suggestive manner.
"Uh, Liara? What kind of a hotel is this?"
"Azure is a luxury resort with an...exotic edge," she said. "Azure is slang for a part of the asari body in some areas of Ilium."
"Where?"
"Mainly the lower reaches, near the bottom."
"I meant where on the asari body."
"So did I."
Jack broke out laughing. "Well well. Have you trimmed the hedge in Azure lately, Liara? Do you even have a hedge?"
Liara looked to me for an explanation I sure as hell wasn't willing to give.
"Come on, let's check out Vasir's car," I said. Jack pouted.
Her crashed skycar was a flaming wreck on a balcony near the hotel room. A trail of blood led away from it.
"Hell, even Zaeed could follow this yellow brick road," muttered Jack. We ran through what seemed like dozens of rooms, eyes peeled of a hint of the shining purple blood trail.
"She's lost a lot of blood," said Liara. "She'll surely be weak."
"Let's not get our hopes up."
There was an alfresco restaurant outside, with elegant white cloths on the table, candles in wine bottles, sharp dressed waiters and waitresses. The kind of classy, quiet place you'd go for a nice night out. The kind of place that surely had never seen a limping, bleeding, wounded asari Spectre before.
Liara drew her submachine gun and aimed carefully. "It's over Vasir! You can't run any longer."
She turned around, eyes wide with anger. She glowed blue with biotic energy, and in the blink of an eye she had a waitress in her grip.
"Vanguard charge," whispered Liara. I nodded grimly.
"Hey you! What's your name?"
"Mariana," she whimpered.
"Mariana, you want to live, don't you? Tell those people that you want to live."
"Please..." she said, looking helplessly at me.
"We'll get you out of here safely, Mariana," I said as calmly as I could.
"All you had to do was walk away Shepard. Now it gets ugly." She laid the barrel of her pistol against the side of Mariana's head.
"Please...I have a son..."
"A son? I hope he gets to see you again. I heard losing a parent is horrific for a child. Scars them for life," Vasir said mockingly.
"You fucking bitch," snarled Jack.
"I'm going to end you Vasir," Liara said quietly. But I knew that tone. Liara didn't like fighting, but she was perfectly capable of tearing Vasir apart with her bare hands if it came down to it right now.
"It's okay Liara, we'll handle this." I said, my voice steady.
"You want Mariana's little boy to grow up without a mommy Shepard? Thermal clips and power cells on the ground. Now."
I wondered what the hell to do next. And then it hit me.
"We'll handle this, the usual way," I repeated. "Is that it Vasir?" I added, as casually as I could. It worked. Vasir looked confused.
"What?"
"Vasir, I sacrificed hundreds of human lives to save the Council, a group of people whom I really don't like very much. I unleashed the rachni on the galaxy because I felt like it. So for your sake, I hope your escape plan doesn't hinge on me refusing to shoot one damn hostage!"
"You're bluffing!"
"Now, Jackie."
A huge stone table smacked into Tela Vasir's head, sending her flying into a fountain. Mariana broke free and ran for her life.
"Thanks."
"No problemo."
"I actually thought you were serious there for a moment, Jack," Liara said. She sounded a little frightened.
"Jackie knows whenever I say 'the usual way', it means I distract them while she moves heavy objects around."
Jack smirked. "Hell yeah. Comes in handy more often than you'd think."
Vasir erupted screaming from the fountain. Her body was bathed in biotic energy, and she looked enraged.
"I'LL KILL YOU SHEPARD!"
xxxx
I dived behind a nearby wall and paused for a moment to curse Council Spectre Tela Vasir with every single profanity, epithet and vulgarity known to humanity, asari, turians, salarians, and krogans. It was cut short by another biotic blast, and only by leaping clear across to another pillar did I avoid getting my brains splattered on the floor.
I'd fought biotics before, some of the Eclipse commandos weren't easy to take down. But Vasir was a different kettle of fish entirely. For a start, her biotic barriers were immensely, infuriatingly strong. I emptied entire clips at her, without doing any noticeable damage. Although this meant that she couldn't launch any substantial biotic attacks while she had her shields up, she still had one ace up her sleeve. The Vanguard Charge.
Mordin had explained the technicalities one day, when Garrus, Jacob, Zaeed and I were laid up in the infirmary after a raid on an Eclipse merc base.
"Biotic's manipulation of mass effect field in effect creates a miniaturised, localised, highly specialised mass relay across an infinitesimal distance in astronomical terms but able to phase through solid objects in an almost neglible amount of time."
We stared. Jacob eventually spoke up. "Doc, do you want to play Skyllian-5 poker or not?"
"Would be most obliged." He then proceeded to take most of what I had looted...um, earned...from the raid in the first place.
While this was running through my head, Vasir mass-shifted to a point just behind me and opened fire. My shields fizzled and died, and I managed to roll away to save myself only by the barest of inches. A wave of anger rose up in me. I hated running. But I didn't have anything capable of bringing Vasir down short of heavy weapons, and that would result in bringing down the roof on innocent civilians.
Jack intervened, as always. Mouth open in a wordless yell of fury, she aimed a shockwave that hit Vasir a glancing blow and knocked her off balance. I took advantage of the opportunity to draw a bead on her and open up with my Revenant machine gun. Vasir quickly recovered and shifted to a spot a few metres away, out of range.
"She is starting to piss me off," I growled.
"Maybe we should try a different approach," suggested Liara.
"Anything's good at this point," snapped Jack, firing off another blast that kept Vasir hiding behind cover.
"Jack, you provide a distraction."
"Ok."
"Ok."
"Wait no, I meant Jack."
"Alright."
"Alright – damnit Liara, who do you mean?"
"Biotic Jack!"
"Fine, whatever. What do you want me to do?"
"Keep sending shockwaves at her."
"I'm already doing that!" said Jack, demonstrating.
"Ok, good, good, keep it up...first chance I get, I'll create a singularity. Jack, you keep her off balance with your biotic pull. The singularity should strip away her biotic barriers piece by piece."
"What do I do?"
"Shoot her dead."
"That I can do."
Jack caught my eye and shot me a grin. "Here goes nothing!" Then she thrust both her arms forward and a massive wave of biotic energy burst from her and flooded the entire balcony. Sweat broke out on her brow and I was immediately reminded of what Mordin had said to me in the bar.
If pushed too hard...if pushed too far...was I risking my girlfriend's life? No time to think about that now. But we had to talk about it soon.
Another wave of energy set my teeth on edge as Liara created a miniature black hole out of nowhere simply by using her biotics. It was a sharp reminder of how the asari were usually peaceful, artistic, sensitive people – until you made them angry. Vasir was sent hurtling into the air and spun slowly around the singularity. She tried to reach for her gun but couldn't. Jack's biotic pull kept her arms locked in place.
"Now!"
I took aim and lit it up, firing until the muzzle flash half blinded me and the gun barrel grew hot to the touch, even through my gloved hands. Only the high-pitched whine of the thermal vents brought me to my senses. I snapped another clip into the Revenant, but Liara's hand on my arm made me stop. The gunfire had punched clear through her barriers and also her armour. Vasir was dying. It was only a matter of time.
"Damnit," she coughed weakly, crawling on her hands and knees in a pathetic attempt to escape. Liara walked over and calmly removed a datapad from her side without resistance.
"This was Sekat's. We can use this to find the Shadow Broker."
"You're all dead," rasped Vasir, slumping against a wall. "The Shadow Broker has been in power for decades. He's stronger than anything you've ever faced!"
"I've faced Reapers," I said, wiping the vengeful look off her face. "Is that why you sold out the Council to work for him though?"
"You think I betrayed the Council? Like Saren? Go to hell!" said Vasir with surprising vehemence. I had fully expected Vasir to be a traitor. Yet even now, on the verge of death, she expressed disgust at being compared to Saren Arterius.
"The Broker's given me damn good intel over the years. Intel that saved thousands of lives and kept the Citadel safe!"
I trained my gun on her, but a bit more hesitantly this time. What if she was right, what if we were only making things worse by going after the Broker?
I glanced at Liara, noted her cool gaze as she stared down Vasir, and felt my doubts wash away. I was doing this for her. For a friend. For someone who had walked through hell to find me after everyone else had given me up for lost. Least I could do was to return the favour.
"So if the Broker needs a few people to disappear, I'll pay that price without hesitation!" Vasir went on. I let out a sigh of exasperation.
"You know, you really had me for a moment there. But turns out you're just like all the rest. One of those 'Kill the few to save others' types. What you have got to learn Vasir, is that it's never a good enough excuse. There's always another way."
"Spectres get their hands dirty so the councillors don't have to," Vasir raged. "They might complain about our methods, but they make sure never to look too closely. Besides, you're with Cerberus. Do you have any idea what your terrorist friends have done?"
"I metaphorically banged the Illusive Man's wife while wearing his pyjamas and smoking his cigars, you blind idiot," I said. "Cerberus hates me more than anything in the galaxy right now."
"You want to judge me? Look in a mirror!" she yelled. "Kidnapping kids for biotic death camps, don't you dare judge – URK."
Jack had snapped her fingers, and Vasir's neck snapped at the same time. Quick and clean.
"Sorry," she said, when Liara and I looked at her. "She was getting on my tits." I grinned and holstered my gun.
"Mine too. Let's call Ilium Police, have them clean up. And then we get the heck out of here."
"What about the Shadow Broker?"
"Liara, the Normandy, her captain and her crew are at your disposal." I tapped my communicator. "EDI? Do you copy?"
"Yes captain. Several squad cars are en route to your current location at this moment."
"Never mind that. Contact the crew and tell them shore leave's been cut short. We're going after the Shadow Broker."
"They won't like that, sir."
"I know. But this is important. I'll make it up to them later."
"Aye aye, captain."
Liara was fiddling with the data she took from Vasir. A guttural, distorted voice blared from her omni-tool.
"Find and eliminate T'soni. No survivors."
"Cheerful kind of fellow, isn't he?"
"He'll know about Vasir before too long. If he decides to kill Feron..."
I put a hand on her shoulder. Liara looked up at me with those wonderful violet eyes of hers. "We'll rescue Feron. I promise."
She smiled. "I know. You're here to help, as always."
"Don't I ever?"
"When we first met on Therum, you saved me from a geth squadron. You fought a krogan battlemaster while I just sat there and cowered."
I chuckled at the memory. "Hell of a fight. Ash saved our asses that day."
"Now you're doing it again. And I'm still leaning on you for help."
"I'd do anything for you Liara. You know that."
Jack coughed suddenly, a little less than subtle perhaps but remarkable for someone whose idea of a tactful farewell was the finger. I quickly stepped away from Liara. She turned on her heel and headed in the direction of the elevator, her tone changing from wistful to professional.
"Sekat's data will get us there, and the Normandy's stealth drive will make sure we're undetected. The Shadow Broker's agents are still shooting their way through Ilium. With luck they won't notice we're gone until sometime later."
"That's a little cold, these are innocent people we're talking about."
Liara rounded on me, her eyes flashing.
"You know what I mean!"
"Do I? When I hit the ground back at the trade centre, you went after Vasir without a second look."
"A little fall wasn't going to kill you Jack. I had to stay rational, make the right call. Like I did with Sekat."
"His death was her fault. Not yours."
Liara leaned against a balcony wall, gazing at the city-scape of Ilium and the setting sun.
"Sekat had no idea what the stakes were. I put his life in danger to get the data I needed, and he died. I'd do it again."
I was a little disheartened at how cold and driven she sounded all of a sudden. What was wrong with her? Where was the kind-hearted and sensitive Liara that I knew?
"But from here on out, it will be simpler," she continued. "Get in, get Feron, get out."
"That's it?"
"And kill anyone who gets in our way."
Jack laughed. "Sounds like a plan!"
Normandy Bridge
Hagalaz
"Greetings ladies and gentlemen of the Normandy, this is your flight lieutenant speaking. If you look out of your window, you'd see a beautiful view of a planet with nothing but kilometer-wide lightning storms, a stray hit from which could fry us all alive. Records indicate that Hagalaz is a garden world, but if so it looks like the kind of garden that was first poisoned by too much DDT and then set on fire. The nearest bar, pub, club and hotel is approximately hundreds of light years away."
"Joker, that's enough."
"The captain wishes me to stop speaking, so enjoy your flight and have a pleasant day with imagining all the things you could be doing on Ilium had our shore leave not been cut short."
"Joker."
"All right, all right. Really, Captain. Of all the planets we could visit, you come here? It's nothing but lightning storms and hail!"
"Don't blame me, blame the Shadow Broker. He set up his base of operations here."
"How? Get any closer to atmo and your ship's fried. You need cruiser-grade armour to even make it through the cloud cover."
"It's not an underground base."
"Really? Cos I was picturing one. A huge underground base with pools for sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads and a volcano that doubles as a rocket to the moon."
"It's a ship, Joker," explained Liara. "Designed specifically to chase Hagalaz's day-night dividing line. It also makes use of the lightning storms to hide signal feed."
"The Shadow Broker lives on a ship?"
"Yes."
"No AA defenses or anything?"
"I don't think so. His main defense is secrecy."
"I want one."
"You can have it if you want," I joked. "After I shove him out of an airlock."
"Thanks captain, but I think I'll pass. Besides, you'd probably blow it up anyway."
"Hey!"
"Oh please, I know your style."
"I do not go around blowing up random mobile sky-bases!"
"How's this. Fifty thousand credits say you end up blowing the Shadow Broker's base out of the sky."
"You don't have fifty thousand credits."
"How would you know?"
"The captain is right, Jeff. Records indicate after your recent credit bills on Ilium your personal fortune stands at two hundred and seven credits."
"Gee thanks EDI."
"See? You can't make that bet."
"Alright captain, what else is worth fifty thousand credits to you? I'm so confident I'll bet anything you please."
"Let's see...if I don't blow up the Shadow Broker's base, you wear a dress for a month. Otherwise I pay you fifty grand hand over fist."
Liara cracked up laughing. It was the first time she'd laughed ever since we'd started this crazy mission, and I was glad to hear it.
"No!"
"Chicken. Not enough you have their hollow bones, you wanna act like one too?"
"Oh that does it, captain. Deal. No one calls Mama Moreau's little boy a chicken and gets away with it. I'm gonna enjoy spending your money."
"And I'm gonna enjoy seeing you in a dress. Remember to take good pictures, EDI."
xxxx
True to his skill, Joker got us in close enough without being detected. We loaded up into a shuttle and floated towards the Broker's ship. Joker laughed when he saw who I was bringing along.
"Jack, Grunt, Garrus? Give up commander. That ship is going to go up in smoke."
"We'll see. Miranda? You have the deck. Give us a couple of hours. Make sure the Broker doesn't realise the Normandy is paying a call."
"Understood, Jack," she said. "Good luck."
The Broker's ship was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. A huge panel of engines burned at the back, with a long, flat bridge section studded with lightning breakers. The whole thing reminded me of an electric eel, predatory and dangerous in more ways than one.
"That's one ugly ship," observed Garrus.
"I don't have any memories of a ship like this," said Grunt slowly, as if berating himself for his lack of knowledge.
"Don't worry," said Jack amiably. "All we need to do is kill everyone on board."
"I can do that."
"Except Feron," reminded Liara.
"Except Feron."
"Hagalaz," she said distantly. "The oceans boil during the day, then snap-freeze ten minutes after sundown."
"Nice place."
"His ship follows the sunset. Completely undetectable in the storm, unless you know where to look."
"How are we getting inside?" asked Garrus.
"The shuttle bay is locked down. We need to land on the ship, and then find an open hatch."
"We're landing on the ship?"
"Yes."
"In the middle of the lightning storm?"
"Yes, we can't stay outside for long. The hot and cold air collide and creates the lightning."
"You know, Liara, when I said I was happy to see you again, I was kidding. Can I go back and calibrate the main guns?"
"Quit complaining Garrus," I said. "We won't fall off. At least I hope not."
"This will be a most interesting fight," said Grunt happily. "A battle in the most dangerous conditions imaginable."
"Maybe I can lift any guards on that thing directly into the path of a lightning bolt!" said Jack, and high-fived Grunt.
"That would be a sight to see indeed!"
Garrus was staring at them, open-mouthed. He caught my eye and shook his head.
"Alright, get ready. Let's land and hope the Broker hasn't prepared a welcoming committee."
xxxx
I've fought in a few hostile environments in my time. Jungle, arctic, desert, lava, outer space. But fighting on the outside of the Shadow Broker's ship isn't something I'd like to repeat. I still see it sometimes in my dreams.
Imagine you're on a platform no wider than a few metres across. Add wind-force gales, and more lightning than you've ever seen in a year's worth of thunderstorms crackling all around your head. The static and noise is so bad even radio communication isn't reliable. And the sky overhead is a tortured, hellish expanse of boiling black clouds shot through with immense golden rays of burning sunlight. And the whole thing is shaking, as if at any moment you can be thrown off to be sent crashing into the dark planet below, screaming all the way.
It wasn't pleasant.
"It's all maintenance equipment here!" yelled Liara. "We need to find an entrance near the back shielding!"
I followed her lead, happy not to be charting a path for once. It was enough just to keep my balance. A couple of glowing orange orbs suddenly rose up in front of me, and started firing. They reminded me of Tali's defense drones.
"Maintenance drones!"
"Why are they attacking?" said Grunt.
"They must think we're debris from the storm!"
"I am no debris!" he shouted, and aimed his shotgun, firing one-handed. The drones exploded in mid-air.
"Nice one!"
We inched closer to the back shielding, when a gesture from Garrus made us stop. He'd spotted something.
"Enemy patrol up ahead."
"The Shadow Broker sends his people to patrol the outside of his ship?"
"Apparently."
"Why haven't they killed him themselves already?"
"Good question. Maybe they're really scared of him."
"Hey if I told you to stand guard on the outside of the Normandy, would you?"
"I'd kill you myself," said Jack helpfully.
"Thanks darling. Good to know."
We then proceeded to kill every last Broker patrol on the outside of the ship. Even if the wind played merry hell with Garrus's aiming, he still managed to get a few of his headshots in. Jack was having the time of her life, flinging Broker agents off the side of the ship to their deaths. Liara was helping, if with less enthusiasm. Grunt and I mopped up the rest. He discovered that shooting out the lightning capacitors made deadly arcs of energy flare around them, killing everyone within range and soon we were just waiting for the agents to draw near the capacitors before frying them alive.
"Not even a guardrail. I bet the Broker's agents just love patrolling the hull."
"At least the view is nice," commented Liara wryly.
We emerged near the back shielding, where an inviting-looking door beckoned.
"There! That hatch leads directly to the communications signals!"
Garrus tried it. "It's locked. What a surprise. We should get Tali down here."
"I have a bypass shunt program that can get it open," offered Liara.
"How long will it take?"
"I don't know, Jack. I've never broken into the Shadow Broker's base before. At least, not this one."
"Here come more of the Broker's agents," warned Grunt.
"Take them. Liara, you sure that shunt is working?"
"I think so. It's illegal even on Ilium. It didn't exactly come with a warranty."
A shot flew past my head.
"But you tested it right?"
"There's more of them, to the left!"
"Liara! Tell me you tested it!"
"No time to talk!" she said, almost gaily. I swore under my breath and shot a Broker engineer in the throat. Beside me, Jack glowed blue and hurled an agent directly into a lightning capacitor. His screams of agony and the pop of his armour as it cracked from the heat was nightmarish.
"Liara?"
"I'm sure it won't be much longer!"
"Remember the old days when you could just slap omni-gel on everything?"
"That security upgrade made a lot of people angry," commented Garrus.
A swarm of rocket drones rose up to meet us. Grunt went directly for them, shotgun blasting each one out of the sky. His barriers were upgraded to the point where he could shrug off a rocket blast or two, and he made full use of it.
"I AM KROGAN!"
"Their attacks are disorganised," said Liara. "They'd be more effective if they all attacked at once."
"Please don't give the mercs ideas!" I yelled.
"More coming up on the left flank, Jack!" said Garrus urgently. He aimed and fired, aimed and fired, but had to duck down to reload.
"It looks like a big wave!"
"You just had to give them tactical advice."
"Look on the bright side, that means there'll be less to deal with inside," said Liara.
"Keep dreaming, T'soni!"
The hatch door suddenly blared a warning. "There, the hatch is open!" yelled Liara.
"Everyone inside! On the double, move!"
xxxx
The Shadow Broker's lair was pretty much as you'd expect. Full of creepy dark hallways, mysterious passages that led to god knows where, and crawling with guards.
Garrus saved my hide, just as he had so many times before. While I was more comfortable with warfare out in the open, he had racked up two years of experience fighting through the seedy underbelly of Omega. In fact Omega had so much seedy underbelly it was practically a sumo wrestler that had rolled around in a wheat field, but all that meant Garrus was probably the person most familiar with close-quarters combat in the entire Verse. Cramped corridors with no safety railings and no lighting was practically his second home. I let him take the lead with no fuss, and we carved a bloody path through the hordes of Broker agents.
"There'll be less of them inside eh?" I reminded Liara.
"Sorry."
"Scoped and dropped!" Garrus yelled joyfully. The scarred bastard was having fun.
"Nice one Vakarian."
"What would you do without me Shepard? Hey Grunt, if I fight better than your Battlemaster does that make me your new Battlemaster?"
"No," rumbled Grunt ominously.
"Just kidding."
We turned into the prison block and our playful banter died on our lips at the sight. A drell was strapped into a chair, hooked up to some kind of elaborate device that put thoughts of electro-shock therapy in mind. He looked frail and weak, his eyes closed and his breathing thin and reedy. I didn't know enough about drell physiology to compare, but his skin looked pale to me. Whatever the Shadow Broker had been doing to him, it wasn't pleasant.
Jack had clenched her fists. I knew what must be going through her mind. The sight of the chair, those restraints...it looked remarkably similar to the set-up on Pragia where she was experimented on, over and over, without hope of escape.
"Relax Jackie," I murmured. She looked repulsed but took a deep breath, and little by little visibly fought down her mounting disgust.
Liara however, was horrified. "Feron!" she cried. This was her friend then. The one who had apparently sacrificed himself to save Liara's life and mine, after a fashion. I felt a surge of anger for the Shadow Broker.
"Hold on, we're getting you out of here!" Liara raced to a console and started punching buttons. But instead of popping free the restraints an arc of electricity shot from the machine and ran through Feron, making him scream in agony. Jack winced. Liara backed away from the console as though it had grown red-hot.
"The equipment...is sensitive to tampering," panted Feron, in the incredibly laconic way all drell seemed to have. Wait no, that was insensitive, I'd only met two before Feron. But it reminded me of Thane all the same.
"Grunt, keep an eye on the entrance in case there are more squads lurking about," I said quietly. The big lizard nodded assent and went away.
"This chair is plugged directly into the Broker's information network," said Feron, every word seeming like a monumental effort. "Pull me out now and my brain cooks. You have to cut off the power."
"Where can we do that?"
"It won't be easy. You have to get to the operations centre."
"What do you know of the Broker?" asked Garrus. "What does he look like?"
"I never got a good look. He's huge though. The guards are scared to death of him."
"A krogan?" ventured Liara.
But Feron shook his head limply, as if saying anything more would cause him more pain.
"Central operations is just down that hallway," he said at last, eyes closed. "You know the Broker is waiting for you, right?"
Liara raised her submachine gun, her eyes growing darker. "I'm counting on it. We're coming back for you Feron."
"I'll try not to go anywhere," he said with a tired chuckle.
"Come on," said Liara, heading down the hall. "I want this man dead."
"You're learning, Blue. You're learning," said Jack, following her.
xxxx
Liara hit the door access panel so hard it cracked under her fist, and the door slid open silently. We were inside the most secret place in the entire galaxy.
It was a round room, with four pillars arranged in equidistant locations in the middle. At the far end, hidden in shadow, sat the Shadow Broker behind a console panel. Oh, very funny. Whoever he was, he clearly loved theatrics. Feron was right, he was huge. But the silhouette didn't resemble a krogan's. Something that looked suspiciously like twisting horns rose from his skull. I had no idea what the heck he was.
"Here for the drell?" asked the Broker. His voice, as expected, was deep, ominous, and guttural.
"No, I'm selling girl scout cookies. I have Thin Mint and Chocolate Chip. Want a box, mister?"
There was a pause as everyone in the room looked at me. I kept my gun steady on the Broker, never taking my eyes off him however.
"Amusing, Commander," he said finally. "But reckless. As usual."
"Yeah? The bombing on Ilium wasn't exactly subtle."
"Extreme, but necessary."
"No it wasn't!" snapped Liara suddenly. "And neither was caging and torturing Feron for two years!"
"The drell betrayed me when he handed over the Commander's body to you instead of me. He is simply paying the price."
"You were working with the Collectors," said Garrus. "They would sell you out sooner or later."
"Yeah and it'll be pretty hard to run a base like this with no crew," said Jack sweetly. "They're all dead, in case you didn't know."
"Enough talk," said the Broker abruptly. "My operations are too delicate to be compromised by the likes of you."
"You're confident for someone with no one left to hide," challenged Liara.
"You travel with fascinating companions, doctor," said the Broker, changing tack. "It is good that you brought along Archangel. The bounty on his head is still outstanding."
"It is? Oh joy," said Garrus.
"And Subject Zero. Her body will be worth almost as much as Shepard's."
"Just try and take it, you son of a bitch!" snarled Jack.
"Yeah, I think your body should be worth more than mine."
"Shut up, Jack! Now's not the time!"
"Shutting up now."
"You're not putting a hand on anyone!" cried Liara.
"It's pointless to challenge me, doctor. I know every secret in this galaxy while you fumble in the dark."
"Oh? Is that right? I happen to know everything about you, Broker," said Liara. Now it was our turn to stare at her.
"You're a yahg," she continued. "A pre-spaceflight species quarantined to their homeworld for massacring the Council's first contact teams. This base is older than your planet's discovery, which probably means you killed the original Broker sixty years ago and took over. I'm guessing you were taken from your world by a trophy hunter for a slave...or a pet."
She had a small smile on her face, the one I associated with her quietly absorbed in Prothean research work or enjoying a nice cup of tea. It was a little scary to see it now.
"How am I doing?"
The Broker stood up. At his full height, his head scraped the ceiling. Then roaring, he smashed his console to bits with a single handand tossed a huge piece of the wreckage at Liara. I rugby tackled her to the floor, with the chunk of metal missing our heads by inches. He roared in fury, a sound that seemed to go on forever. Oh dear God, his mouth split open three ways, with each lined with needle sharp teeth. He produced a Revenant machine gun from behind his back and opened fire, one-handed at us.
I returned fire, but observed that it didn't seem to be doing much damage. My bullets were simply bouncing off his shield, the likes of which that I had never seen before.
"It's kinetically sensitive!" yelled Liara. "Projectiles and energy just bounce off!"
I looked at her in despair. How the hell were we going to take him down? Then a lightbulb flicked on in my head.
"Then we do this the hard way! Jackie! Fastball special!"
"Huh?" she said, a little groggy. She caught a glancing blow off the wreckage of the Broker's control panel. But she understood what I wanted. She whipped her arm forward in a short, sharp motion, like a pitcher throwing a softball pitch. I felt myself being lifted off my feet, then arrowing straight towards the Shadow Broker. I caught him a good sock on the jaw, and his head snapped back. He sure as hell wasn't expecting that.
I swung a few more times, making sure to keep him off balance. I was glad to have kept up with Jacob with our little sparring sessions in the ring, and with Jack's little fight club on the Citadel. I wouldn't win any prizes for style, but at least I was rocking the Broker off his feet.
Garrus saw what I was trying to do and rushed to my aid, but the Broker got lucky and swiped him away with one massive tree-trunk arm. Garrus hit the wall, hard.
"You're dead, Broker!" raged Liara, waving her gun ineffectively. "If I have to blow up your whole ship to do it, you're dead!"
"Don't do it, I don't have the fifty grand!"
I ducked and bobbed and weaved and got a few good shots in, but I had to be lucky all the time. The Broker only needed to be lucky once. I was fast running out of ideas. Luckily, Jack had one more.
"GRUNT!" she screamed. "GRUNT!"
I'd forgotten all about him. Then I heard the thudding, thunderous footsteps. And then a roar of rage as five hundred pounds of krogan sailed through the air and landed smack on the Broker. As he flailed about, reeling from this unexpected attack, Grunt shoved the barrel into the Broker's mouth and fired. I had specially designed that Claymore for him. It packed more punch than the average missile launcher. At this sort of range...the Broker's head dissolved into a fine mist.
I lay on my back, trying to catch my breath. "Thanks."
"What did I just kill?"
"Yahg. Ugly. Nasty. Big."
Grunt snorted. "Smaller now."
"You ok?" asked Jack, bending over me. She looked concerned. I sat up and gave her a reassuring smile.
"Never better."
She put her arms around me and I allowed my head to rest on her shoulder.
Garrus hauled himself to his feet with some effort, and began fiddling with a control box. The lights flickered and dimmed. A cacophony of voices suddenly rose from a communications panel alongside one wall.
"Shadow Broker, this is operative Murat. We experienced a temporary blackout and are awaiting further instructives."
"Shadow Broker, this is operative Shura. I am back online now."
"Shadow Broker, should I continue as planned?"
"Shadow Broker?"
"Shadow Broker?"
I looked at Liara, but she was already walking towards the panel. Her head was lowered, and I knew she was making a huge decision. Then she suddenly opened a wide-range broadcast and spoke into it.
"This is the Shadow Broker. We experienced a momentary power surge while upgrading hardware and are back online. Resume standard operating procedures. I want a full report on all operations within one standard day."
Jack laughed. "Nice. Very nice."
Liara smiled guiltily. "I just thought...why not? Everyone who's ever seen him in person is dead."
The hallway door opened again, and Feron staggered through. His eyes widened when he saw us, and the corpse of the former Shadow Broker on the floor.
"I heard...I thought...you're the new Shadow Broker, Liara!"
"Is taking over really a good thing?" asked Garrus.
"We should be able to make use of all his contacts, his resources, his intel. With it I can give you anything you want. I can even..." Liara trailed off in mid-sentence, her arms falling limp by her sides. Garrus gave me a sideways look.
"I'll uh, go calibrate the power systems. And Feron, let's get you to a medbay."
"Certainly," said Feron, catching on. Grunt followed him. Jack was the last to leave.
"You'll be ok?"
"I'm fine," I said. "Go on ahead. I'll catch up with you."
For a moment Jack stood there, unsure. Would she leave? After all this time, would she trust me to be alone in a room with another woman? And if she did, would I have the heart to tell her to go? I wasn't so sure.
Then she nodded, and walked out. "See you later." The relief was enormous. She really trusted me, at long last.
Tears streamed down Liara's face, her breath hitching as she struggled to regain composure. "It's over, finally. After two years."
"Hey, come here." I spread my arms and pulled her close. She began to cry against my chest as I patted her on the back.
"It's over. It's all right."
"I spent two years mourning you and Feron. And now I've got you both back. Oh, goddess..."
She broke away, but her hands were still in mine.
"All I wanted was to rescue Feron. But is it wrong that a part of me wants this? With the Broker's files, I could help you. I could turn this network into something better."
"I'm sure you could...Shadow Broker," I said. Liara laughed. It was as if two years of mourning had never happened. I had my friend back, safe and whole.
Captain's Cabin
Normandy
Red wine for two. A little soft music to set the mood. Jazz, for preference. EDI's databanks were extensive. I had on my best suit, an impressive looking black one that Kasumi had gotten for me way back when for Donovan Hock's party.
I had talked things over with Jack. It took some persuasion, but she understood. I still had friends, close friends I was willing to die for even if I was dating her now. And part of any good relationship is not to deny your partner opportunities to interact with his friends.
"Do you trust me?"
"Always have," she said firmly. One hand of hers traced the line of my jaw, while both of mine were around her waist, resting on her slim hips.
"I need to sort things out with Liara. It'll take some time. She might not like what I have to hear. But I owe her this much, at least."
"I know."
"Thank you." Ah hell, I decided to take the plunge.
"I need to talk to you too. It's important. When this is over."
"Oh? What about?"
"Later. It's private. About the two of us."
"Ok Jack. Ok."
I was lost in my thoughts when Liara walked into my quarters. She was wearing a beautiful lilac gown that showed off her generous curves. I suddenly felt glad about wearing a suit. She turned her head slowly, this way and that, taking in every inch of my room. The colourful fish in their tank, the soft blue glow that permeated the entire room. My toy starship collection, safe behind their glass cover. My pet hamster on the shelf beside my work desk. Its eyes were bright and inquisitive as it waddled over to the side of the glass to catch a glimpse of the new visitor. My work desk, scattered with datapads and reports. My picture of Jack.
Her touch was obvious in the room too, having moved here. Her boots were lined up along one wall. Her jacket peeking out of my closet. It was no longer strictly just my quarters. It was her home now as well.
"Enjoy the tour?"
"Yes indeed. It's a beautiful ship. And I ran into Joker, he seemed happy to see me."
"That's nice."
"It's good to see he takes his bets seriously."
"Surprised me too." The tale of Joker stoically flying the Normandy while wearing a cheery yellow cotton summer dress with a flared skirt and a big pink bow was already legend among the crew. EDI had surreptitiously distributed a few photos, with my permission, on the Extranet.
"He did ask if I'd embraced eternity lately."
"Ignore him. Sore loser."
"I also spoke with Dr Chakwas. I'm glad she's doing well." Liara handed me the box she was carrying. "I have a gift for you. Your Alliance service dog tags. I recovered them from the crash."
I took it, touched. "Thank you Liara. I never thought I'd see this again." I placed them beside Jack's picture on my desk. She looked at it for a long moment. Then she turned back to me.
"So how are you doing, Jack?"
I opened my mouth.
"I mean honestly. Not what you tell your squad to keep their morale up. Please, you can tell me."
I let out a long sigh as I mulled it over. But she was right. I could tell her anything. After all, she was good at keeping a secret.
"Honestly? I'm tired. I'm tired of dealing with Cerberus. They've done some evil, messed-up things. They'd gladly kill every last asari, turian and salarian if they could. And what they did to Jack..."
I rubbed my eyes.
"She still dreams about it sometimes, Liara. I wake up and I hear her crying out. All I can do is to hold her close until it goes away. And these are the people I had to work with. These are the people whom I owe my life. It's frustrating."
I thought Liara would say something but instead she kept silent, allowing me to release all of my pent up emotion and anger. I poured everything out to her.
"I'm tired of the Council ignoring me. They say they're preparing for the Reapers, but what have they done so far? Not much. Instead they send me off to chase down Cerberus. I did that for them. I killed Ransom Foley. But we're no closer to the Illusive Man. And I have no idea how much time I wasted."
Liara nodded.
"But most of all, I'm tired of my closest friends not believing me. To look into someone's eyes and see that they think you're a monster...I wouldn't wish that on anyone."
"Yes, I heard about what Ashley said on Horizon," she said. "But their short sightedness doesn't diminish what you've accomplished. You destroyed the Collectors! You saved entire human colonies from a fate worse than death."
"Not enough," I said, my voice hollow. "I didn't save them all."
"You've done more than anyone could expect of you," said Liara. She looked at Jack's picture again.
"And you rescued her," she continued. "You gave her a chance at a new life. You must really love her, don't you?"
I nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I do." She looked a little wistful.
"When we first met back on Therum, after defeating Saren...you touched something in me, Jack."
"I did?"
"Yes. And get your mind out of the gutter."
"I wasn't thinking it," I lied.
"Yes you were. Damnit, shut up and listen to me. I care about you. More than I ever thought possible. But first you were with Ashley and then you weren't with her anymore. And then she just gave up when she heard you were dead. I refused to believe it. I tried so hard to get you back."
"I know."
"But it looks like you found love again, on your own," said Liara, smiling sadly.
"I love her, Liara," I said. "But I also love you. Maybe not in a romantic way, but you are one of the closest friends I've ever made. You know everything about me. We've saved each other's lives more than once. I'd trust you with anything in the galaxy."
"Except your heart."
"I'm sorry. I really am. But I can't give you that, Liara."
"I know. I understand," said Liara, looking as though it was the hardest thing she ever had to say. But she did say it, and she looked as though she meant it.
"Everything else I have, everything else that I am...it's yours. Anytime. I care about you more than I can say. And that will never change."
Liara hugged me, and we didn't say anything for a long moment.
"Is that what you're fighting for, Jack? Are you fighting for her? To give her faith in something else rather than anger?"
"I suppose so. She is getting better, relatively speaking. Day by day. Bit by bit. I just want to spend whatever time I have with her."
"I don't know if she can ever be truly free of Pragia."
"I know. But I don't care. She's important to me. Just as you are."
Liara wiped away a tear and kissed me on the cheek. Delicately. Chastely.
"I know that too. And that's why you are going to win. As long as you're fighting for her, you'll do whatever it takes to make this galaxy safe for the future you'll have together."
"Thank you," I whispered.
Liara produced a small datapad, and left it on my desk.
"I have some files you might be interested in. They concern your crew. The Broker had some information on Jack you might want to discuss with her."
"I'll look through it later."
"I hope you find happiness with her, Jack. I truly do."
"You know Liara, I think I already have."
