A/N: So just a short one this evening. I apparently have come down with some stupid thing called uveitis. It means that it hurts to look at my computer screen. Or play video games. Or do anything involving my eyeballs. This, my lovely readers, is why I've not been posting chapters that frequently! Fortunately, it's going away, so I'll be able to post some longer chapters pretty soon.

In the meantime, here is this for you!


"So, Lola. You know her?"

"Yeah. Samara. She was part of my crew during our mission to take down the Collectors."

"She must be pretty badass to have negotiated all these Reaper troops alone. It's a gong show in here."

"She is pretty badass, James." Shepard supplies, signaling a halt. James and Liara stop abruptly behind their commander, and Shepard takes a moment to review the map of the monastery on her omni-tool. Samara had indicated that they meet her in a place called the Great Hall, and Shepard was eager to find it, detonate the bomb, and get out. Something about this monastery was off. She kept hearing a high-pitched wail, from some unseen abomination the Reapers have created, and it was unsettling. She half expected something to jump out at her from the shadows. She could feel that Liara was uneasy as well, which was just fueling her own discomfort.

With the nav-point established, the trio continue moving through the barren halls. Blood of varying colours painted the once-pristine floor, and the path to the Great Hall was darkened due to lack of power. Windows have been broken, walls smashed, and bullet holes littered every surface. There were shadows everywhere, and Shepard worked to keep her breathing steady. She knew that if she loses focus, it could mean death for any one of them. She couldn't help picturing a husk, or a cannibal, or even whatever was screaming crawling out from under a broken wall, and the thought made her shiver. It wasn't until they were back outside, breathing in the cold mountain air, that she felt herself calm down. Out in the open, she had escape routes, cover, places to position her squad. She didn't need to worry about being boxed in, stuck in a dark hallway while husks grabbed at her ankles.

"Lola?"

"What?" Shepard replies, subconsciously looking down to confirm there was nothing reaching for her.

"Just a thought: why couldn't the asari handle this? This is one of their monasteries, right? They need us to swoop in and save the day?"

"Asari High Command sent in a group of asari commando's. They thought the threat had been dealt with; I suspect they have no idea the situation was this bad." Liara replies quietly, looking up at the architecture that formed the once beautiful house of peace and refuge. Shepard watches Liara's emotions cross her face, as clear to her as if Liara was speaking them aloud. Sadness darkened her eyes, a mournful expression of grief and loss as her lover processed the thought of a multitude of peace-seeking asari were brutally murdered in their own sanctuary. Innocent victims in a war they wanted no part of, they were systematically destroyed. What Shepard found curious though, was that they had not come across any bodies. She empathized with Liara. She understood what it was like to witness the destruction of innocence. But something was off, and the cloud of menace she felt building was overshadowing her ability to provide comfort.

"Yeah, well it's probably going to get worse if we don't get a move on. We need to find that bomb and blow this place up. It's giving me the creeps."

As they navigate to the bottom of a long, sweeping staircase, Shepard feels goose bumps creep across her skin, as the hair on the back of her neck stands on end. She turns to face the middle of the courtyard, the delicate pathway leading to the doors of what she assumes is the Great Hall. She feels James and Liara come to a stop beside her, and the tension is palpable. It was as though the air was still, the same stillness that was present right before a thunderstorm. Electricity charged air surrounding her, a calm before the chaos of the storm.

"Something is really wrong here." James says as he scans the area for any sign of movement.

"Of course there is. I'm still on this fucking planet, instead of on my ship drinking a beer." She says, anxiety, fear, and irritation edging into her voice.

Shepard takes a tentative step forward, and the air explodes with a visceral scream. The same high pitched wail they had been hearing was no longer a distant sound. It was on a balcony above them, and it was coming from the foulest Reaper creature Shepard had yet seen. It takes a surprising amount of strength for Shepard to not cringe at the sound, and she instead shoves Liara to cover as she scrambles to the ground beside her.

"James! Throw a grenade at that damn thing! HUD reading high barriers and strong armour, so work away at those. Liara, throw in a warp for me." Shepard barks as her visor processes what's in front of her. Unsurprisingly, her HUD could only provide a question mark beside the species category, but it did let her know that it was organic and synthetic, and Shepard herself filled in the blanks. She knew it was an adulterated asari, and she figured out it was able to charge by the way it warped itself from the balcony to the ground to almost on top of them. It was only James' frag grenade that finally slowed it down, its aggression diverted to him instead of jumping towards herself and Liara.

It was then that Shepard made a mistake. Her usual tactic of 'charge and fire' has served her well for years, and even though the now faded bruising on her face was an indication that some enemies might be too powerful, she counted that a rarity. But it wasn't until her charge was over, and her biotics slammed against the grotesque body of the mutilated asari, that she realized it had claws.

She fired a round into its distended belly, its screams now ear-piercingly close. It reached forward with a menacing arm, intent on driving it right through her body. Shepard reacted marginally faster, and dodged to the side, but not before the creature had a chance to swing, its claws raking their way right through Shepard's barriers and a portion of her armour. She felt the familiar sting of torn flesh as she quickly backed away, finding the closest cover. Another grenade exploded, and the asari let out one final scream before falling to the ground, crying out as if in pain.

"Dios, Commander are you ok?" James asks as he makes his way to Shepard's side. She feels lightheaded, and her visor chirps a warning that she's losing more than the allowable amount of blood. She looks down at her right side, and notices the rivulets of blood making their way down her hip and leg. She mentally curses herself for her idiocy. She knows better; years of Alliance training have taught her to exercise caution when facing an unknown enemy, but instead she had thrown herself right in front of an unknown enemy. Twice in one week, Shep. Chakwas is going to be pissed.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replies as she administers a dose of medi-gel. The bleeding stops almost immediately, the medi-gel forming a second skin over the wound. James watches her skeptically, a frown forming on his face.

"Listen, we can radio the Normandy, get some more marines down here so you can…"

"I said I'm fine, lieutenant. Let's just finish this fucking show, shall we?" she says with a glare. It is only then that she realizes Liara is not with them. Panic rises in her chest, and she curses herself again for her stupidity. What if that thing blasted Liara with biotics, and she's unconscious somewhere? I just left her to get my stupid ass hurt. Fuck, she better be ok.

"Liara!" Shepard calls out, waiting for the reply. Silence follows, and her anxiety grows. Once she confirms there are no other hostiles surrounding them, she stands up and makes her way back to the bottom of the stairs. She finds Liara still tucked behind the same cover she had pushed her into, shaking and sobbing.

"God, Li. What happened? Are you ok?" Shepard asks anxiously, her brain switching from commander to partner. She kneels in front of Liara, but there's no response. A vacant, terrified look is resting on Liara's face as she huddles into herself, crying silently. Shepard inches closer, taking up Liara's entire field of vision. Still there is no acknowledgement. Shepard runs a scan with her omni-tool, the results advising that Liara is not physically injured. She also notices there are no spent thermal clips anywhere to be seen. It is then she realizes that Liara hadn't been part of that fight at all; she was in shock, and had been from the get-go.

"Cortez, what's your situation?"

"Waiting at the entrance of the monastery, Commander."

"I need a pick up at my coordinates, ASAP. Get Joker on the comm and get him to send the second shuttle down with Garrus and Kaidan in it. I need backup."

"Yes ma'am."

Shepard feels a wave of nausea, and knows that her wound needs to be tended to. But the scared feeling she has for Liara outweighs the pain, and she is momentarily torn. She needs to finish this mission. The bomb needs to be set, and the monastery needs to be destroyed. But by doing that, she's sending Liara back to the ship by herself, and if she snaps out of it and sees that Shepard isn't there, it might cause her to panic more.

Just once, I'd like things to go smoothly.

"Orders, Commander?" James asks quietly.

"We wait here until Garrus and Kaidan show up, and then we finish what we started."

Moments later, Shepard watches as Cortez lifts off, taking Liara back to the Normandy alone.