Author's Disclaimer: I don't own anything belonging to "Mass Effect 2."
Author's notes: I love "Lair of the Shadow Broker" dlc :P Liara's place didn't have a washroom, apparently. So, I put it upstairs.
"Attachments"
Chapter six "Lair of the Shadow Broker"
"Let me see what you've got!" Liara's excitement was infectious, and Shepard handed over the data pad personally. "This is….. it looks like a leaked transmission between Shadow Broker operatives. Some hints as to the location…."
Liara stared as the image of a drell scrolled on the datapad. Shepard had no idea what that had been about when she'd received it, but Liara stared at the picture as if she knew him. Her words established that. "It's about Feron. He's still alive?"
Shepard felt her stomach dropping to her feet. She swallowed. 'Keep it in, you're on a mission…. You'll have time to go over things later.' But she couldn't help feeling jealous as she asked "Who's Feron? "
"He was a friend," Liara went on and Shepard tried not to frown or seethe.
'Please let him be a friend of yours….'
"He helped me recover your body from the Shadow Broker."
Shepard's heart panged. There was a lot there in what Liara had said. About her feelings toward her. "Why did the Shadow broker want my corpse?"
Liara gave a rueful look. "He was going to sell you to the Collectors but Feron and I stopped him. Feron sacrificed himself to save me."
A vague picture was becoming clearer to Shepard. This Feron very well just may be in the friend category, and after doing something huge to enable Liara to rescue her remains… well , it was clear her ex-lover had suffered. At having a friend captured and having to let her go a second time to an unknown outcome.
"So, you rescued me. Then how did I end up with Cerberus?" Shepard had to admit, she hadn't figured out that angle. Liara turned toward her, and Shepard's heart ached at the insecurity on the asari's face.
"They gave me intel to help recover you. They actually put Feron with me in the first place. And after I got out….I gave you to them. They said…..they could bring you back."
Shepard's heart swelled at the feelings twining Liara's last words. All her hope for that was apparent and she longed to bring her into her arms.
"You kept me out of the Collector's hands. Without you, I couldn't have come back. Thank you…"
Liara ducked her head, a blush purpling her cheeks. "I didn't know how you'd feel when Cerberus restored you. If you'd feel betrayed or…"
'She may know,' Shepard thought as her cock twinged between her legs. Luckily her armor wouldn't show an erection, but she could feel one coming. She gave a deep sigh.
Liara continued to smile at her, like it was the old days. "They brought you back. And now they're giving me a chance to find Feron. After two years, I hadn't even dreamed…."
Shepard looked away and she couldn't help her next words. "Sounds like you and Feron were close."
'There, I'm jealous, T'Soni. You gotta give me more to work with over here…'
"It's funny," Liara said. "He betrayed me more than once. He was double-dealing for Cerberus, and the Shadow Broker….. But in the end, he sacrificed himself for me. I owe him."
'Well, we can't leave him to rot,' Shepard thought. It just wasn't right. She was here and alive and he was in who knows what tortured condition.
"Any friend of yours is a friend of mine," Shepard said, trying to sound upbeat. Behind her, Tali and Garrus exchanged a look. They knew she was trying not to be jealous. "What's the next step?"
"I….I don't know." Liara looked deeply unsure, shaken. It shocked Shepard. Even if she had been on the virgin side of battle when they'd first met, she still had tried to pull her weight on missions. Now it looked like a mess of secrets were swarming to find their way out of her personal closet. "I need to prepare, to think. I'm going home."
Just when Shepard was resigned to another trip back to the Normandy to wait, Liara urged her to use her private terminal. Then all but began to rush out of her office. Garrus and Tali dodged her erratic path.
"You okay?" Shepard was confused.
"I've spent two years plotting revenge. Now I have the chance to make it a rescue."
"Let me help," Shepard urged. "I'll come by your apartment?"
Thankfully, Liara didn't shoot her down this time. "Okay. Hopefully I'll have a plan by then. Thank you, Shepard." With a final smile that sent shivers down Shepard's spine, she walked out of her office.
Tali had already been looking over Liara's private console. "There's nothing here. Nothing for this mission anyway," She announced. Garrus just shrugged.
Shepard sighed. "Let's get over to Liara's place. If we have to wait, we may as well do it there."
Her oldest friends knew she wanted to be close to her ex-lover, and only shared a look between them and a nod.
"Yes, Commander," Garrus said.
"Whatever you say," Tali added.
"Stifle it," Shepard groaned. "Let's get to the cab transit."
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Shepard's stomach flipped upside down as she and her comrades approached Liara's address. The hallway was filled with police officers, a smattering of asari and turian. Her front door was wide open and there was police tape barring the way.
"Multiple shots fired….Yeah, techs are going over the place now," one of the officers murmured.
"Central, we got an open carrier on this end. Switching to a coded relay."
"What's going on here?" Shepard demanded of one of the officers. She couldn't help peering over the woman's shoulder. Where was Liara?
"This area is sealed off. Please step back, ma'am." One of the asari officers made to block Shepard's path.
"Kheelah, this is bad," Tali murmured. Shepard could barely make out how upscale Liara's apartment was, the bedroom upstairs and the kitchen and office area in front of her. Everything looked shiny and new, but Shepard couldn't process that when her ex-lover was missing, and her place was an apparent crime scene.
"Sealed off? Why?" Shepard asked.
"Someone tried to kill your friend, Commander Shepard." An asari in blue leathers sauntered down the circular staircase leading upstairs, giving her a perfunctory nod. "Thank you, officer, your people are dismissed."
Shepard walked through the glowing police tape, the boundary beeping in protest as Garrus and Tali filed in after her.
"You can't do that!" The asari officer protested. Her turian partner bristled, mandibles twitching.
The asari in blue barely spared a glance at her, eyes roving over Liara's furniture and possessions. "Already done."
Shepard didn't know whether to be glad the officers were leaving or call them back. Everything was off and she was trying to discover her equilibrium. Liara was still gone. That was the foremost concern in her mind.
"Tela Vasir. Special Tactics and Recon," the asari in blue introduced herself. Shepard latched onto that.
"A Spectre?" Good. Shepard felt the sense of familiarity rush in.
"I heard your status was reinstated," Vasir went on. "Good. You're one of our most famous operatives. Might even get you to sign my chest plate."
The slight dig at respect made Shepard relax involuntarily.
"I assume you had business with your friend this evening, Commander?"
"Liara was following a lead on the Shadow Broker," Shepard said.
"The Shadow Broker? Dangerous enemy to have," Vasir frowned.
Shepard was deeply afraid for her ex-lover, but she had to cover the bases. Solve the case. Find the girl. Check. "What do we know here?"
"About twenty-five minutes ago, someone took a shot at T-Soni. Note the bullet holes. She stuck around for almost four minutes before leaving the building. Whatever she was doing was important," Vasir said.
Shepard's lips tightened into a thin line as she glanced at the bullet holes punctured through the glass window of the apartment living room. She glanced around from the sofa and furniture to an overturned lamp, a glass case containing a piece of armor….focus on that later, and a side office area where papers and desk contents were completely overturned. By Liara or the unknown assailant?
"If Liara isn't here, where is she?"
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be sifting through her crap," Vasir said shortly. Shepard bristled involuntarily. There was something about Vasir's tone that was rubbing her the wrong way, but her Spectre evaluation continued, and Shepard latched onto that. "There's no blood, no body. It looks like T'Soni got away. The sniper didn't plan on her kinetic barrier. Clever girl. Paranoid, but clever."
Shepard's stomach turned over at that. Was Ilium so dangerous Liara couldn't walk around her own apartment without maintaining a barrier? She had to find her.
"Did the police find anything when they arrived?" Shepard went on.
"Just the mess and bullet holes," Vasir sighed. "I gave them a gold star for finding the bullet holes."
"Liara was expecting me. She would have left a message here; her office wasn't safe." Of that Shepard was certain.
"I'm not surprised," Vasir said. "Ilium is just Omega with expensive shoes. I haven't found anything useful for tracking her down yet. You knew T'Soni better than I do. Where would she have hidden her backups?"
"Let me take a look around," Shepard said. She was itching to start as it was. Shepard scanned the open living room area. The rain beat relentlessly against the tall panel windows. She made her way past the overturned lamp to the glass case in the corner by the office area. Leaning in closer she could make out the tell-tale N7 logo over the chest plate. It looked battered, as if it had entered atmosphere and burned considerably. Considering how she'd died, Shepard knew what this was. "It's part of my old armor…"
"Looks like someone didn't like you much either." Vasir's tone was curt. Shepard ignored her and ducked into the tiny almost hidden office area. A desk sat residence with a few monitors on the wall, scattered papers all over the floor. The chair had been turned over in a hurry as if the resident had jumped back. Shepard didn't like the implications. Vasir cut a thumb up toward the frame on the wall behind them.
"A doctorate from the University of Serrice, back on Thessia. She's getting good use out of all that education."
What was her problem? Shepard was getting a nagging feeling about Vasir. Having a negative opinion about a case was one thing, voicing it completely another. Shepard wandered out, past the front door and to the side where a large painting hung in an apparently important position. Shepard didn't know much about art, but she could see Liara had hung it so she could see it from the small table in the kitchen.
"That's not the asari homeworld," Vasir announced. "I'm not sure what planet that is…."
"….It's Ilos." Shepard was certain. Her heart lifted, knowing Liara must have bought it with her in mind, their touch down on the almost mythical planet no one could reach for who knows how many millenia. The night before, Liara coming to her cabin. Asking almost shyly for more. How they'd fallen into each other's arms, their kisses growing hot and fevered. It was a good memory, but Shepard felt a twinge of sadness. If Liara looked at this painting over her morning meal every day, she would have ached for her. Shepard wanted to take that ache away.
Shepard gave Garrus and Tali a nod as they looked at the strange artifacts encased in secure glass displays.
"She sure was into ugly," Vasir offered snidely. Shepard gave her a glance over her shoulder and strode up the circular staircase. Up here, just the sleeping area and a small side washroom. The wall of glass behind Liara's bed housed a large fish tank and the reminder of her own cabin filled Shepard with a strange feeling. She glanced at Liara's bed and her emotions spiked. Was it a lonely bed or did Liara share it with anyone while she was dead? Could she complain? Did she even want to know?
Shepard moved on toward the nightstand where a framed picture of the Normandy sat. That was a symbol right there. She picked up the frame and the picture changed upon her contact. Shepard quirked a smile at that. Clever girl, Liara.
Vasir moved up behind her and Shepard offered the picture. "The picture changed when you touched it. It must be keyed to your ID. What does it show now?"
Shepard cast another look. "It's a Prothean dig site." Referring to how they'd first met? Shepard's heart twinged. "Liara did leave a message."
"There are a few Prothean-looking objects around the apartment. Let's see what we can find."
Shepard hurried down the staircase and moved with Garrus toward one of the glass cases in the living room.
"Those things must be worth a fortune," Vasir murmured to herself. Shepard wasn't thinking about cost as she examined the bottoms of the glass cases. The one at the bottom of the staircase pushed out a disc on a silver tray when her gloved fingers grazed a point of contact along the base. Shepard raised an eyebrow, taking the disc.
"Vasir, I've got something here."
"Thank the spirits," Tali said to Garrus.
"Back-up disc. Let's try it on her terminal," Vasir suggested. She and Shepard moved toward the office area and Shepard pushed the disc into her computer's hard drive. It was a recording of a vid call between Liara and a nervous looking salarian who fidgeted openly on the feed.
"Gotta say, T'Soni, you're making me alittle nervous. How big is the trouble that could come out of this?"
"Relax, Sekat, I'll see you in a few hours," Liara said, and the feed was cut.
"This must be important," Shepard murmured. "The Shadow Broker's people already tried to kill her once."
"I know where the Dracon Trade Center is," Vasir offered. "My car's outside."
"Let's go!" Shepard said. Garrus and Tali looked up from the scattered papers around Liara's desk almost guiltily and hurried to leave the apartment. Shepard had a location, now she just had to find her ex-lover. We're coming, Liara….
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Touching down in front of the tall buildings, Shepard hurried out of Vasir's sky car. The four made their way briskly up the concrete steps toward the Dracon Trade Center's front doors.
"The Baria Frontier's offices are located on the third floor. I don't hear police chatter; we must have missed the party," Vasir said. Suddenly, as if to belie her words, an explosion rang out in the building above them.
Shepard was bowed over by the tremor of the impact, the building shaking as several floors were detonated by some kind of bomb. Tali and Garrus went down too and the random office workers and pedestrians milling around the front of the lobby went down like bowling pins.
"Liara's in there!" Shepard yelped to her teammates. They climbed to their feet and Shepard rushed forward to the lobby doors.
"They just took out three floors to make sure she's dead!" Vasir called. Shepard had to admit that made sense. "I'll grab the skycar and seal off the building from the top!"
Shepard nodded.
"I'll start down here and work my way up!" she yelled, her squad mates racing after her.
"Just leave some for me!" Vasir retorted and took off.
Shepard pointed to a few of the people and Tali and Garrus began to administer medi-gel as they hurried up the broken steps.
"What's going on? I don't understand…."
"Help! Terrorist attack…."
Shepard was alarmed to note most of the fallen bodies wouldn't be rising. They had to hurry. They couldn't save everyone….
Shepard, Garrus, and Tali jogged toward the central staircase and made their way up. Shepard shook her head as Garrus hacked a monitor to pick up some credits but didn't stop him. They needed every credit they could scavenge. She found a few military-grade bombs left out and reported it to Vasir. Similarly, Shepard raised Vasir on the comm again when she found the door to Baria Frontier's offices.
"Vasir, I'm at Baria Frontiers. Liara signed in just a few minutes ago." Shepard could barely keep the excitement out of her voice. Liara was here, somewhere. She could be around the next corner….
"Understood, Commander." But Vasir didn't give any further indication to her next step. Shepard charged into the lobby of Baria Frontiers. The mess the bombs had made was everywhere, wires hanging from the ceiling, sprinklers having gone off, leaving puddles for them to splash through. Baria's hokey announcement VI greeted them as they charged in.
"Welcome to Baria Frontiers! Let us be your guide to limitless possibilities…."
Before Shepard could snort at the enthusiastic tone, she heard a low grumbling, not VI, human, around the corner.
"Flash bang grenade….." was the mumble and even as Shepard's mind was scrambling over those words, an item was tossed near her feet. Shepard stopped, Garrus and Tali behind her as they tried to cover their eyes. Too late, the flash bang went off, their vision and hearing distorted as if they'd been plunked directly into a pool and water was in their ears and eyes. The three of them ducked down behind a low column as they heard distorted bootsteps filing into the conference room across from them.
"Vasir! I'm pinned down. Mercs! And they're well-armed!" Shepard hissed through her comm.
"Say hello to the Shadow Broker's private army, Commander!" Vasir said sarcastically. Garrus grunted beside her and leaned up to aim his sniper rifle. He gave a grunt of satisfaction as his shot went off, the heat sink flying out of the rifle beside them.
"And stay down!" Garrus added. He moved up to the next column of cover. Tali was on her left, kneeling down and fiddling with her omni-tool. Shepard smiled when she saw a drone rise up from its stationary position and fly toward the mercs across the room, spewing destruction.
"That's it, good girl!" Tali urged her drone and pulled her pistol out of its holster to add a few shots into the fray. Shepard summoned her biotics, tugged it all toward her and let it out in a charge toward the furthest merc. She made the distance in the span of a breath and her fist dented the surprised turian's helmet, before she danced back a step or two to finish him off with her assault rifle.
"Enemy combat drone!" Garrus called out behind her. Shepard whirled and ducked down behind a row of desks. The monitors were all pushed over in disarray. Tali's chuckle rose up further down the line of desks.
"I got it!" she announced. Her own combat drone intercepted the enemy's crashing into it in an array of sparks. Shepard smirked and smacked her assault rifle to drop the last heat sink.
"And we got them," she agreed. "Let's go!" Shepard sprang out from behind the desks, diving for cover along the column past them. She heard Tali and Garrus move up behind her and they took out the mercs scattered across the offices. The fact there were mercs didn't alarm Shepard. Not really. If they were out and about in this much force, Liara still had to be alive.
The party of three made it to the large doors opposite the offices and scattered inside.
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Shepard had to admit the corpse of a salarian wasn't what she was expecting on the other side. He was freshly killed, the blood splatter the one bullet to his brow caused still bright red and wet. Shepard made a face and stalked further in, noting Vasir inside.
"Damn it. If I'd been a few seconds faster, I couldn't stopped them." Vasir nudged the body of a merc that was close by with her boot. Shepard couldn't help feeling she didn't sound very repentant.
Shepard knelt down opposite the salarian. "Is this Sekat?" The informant Liara had been coming to meet. If he was here, where was she?
"Must have been," Vasir shrugged.
A quick scan of the salarian's body told her nothing. "No sign of that data Liara talked about. Looks like a dead end."
"Damn, there has to be something," Garrus mumbled behind her. Shepard wished there was.
"Speaking of which, did you find your friend's body?" Vasir wondered suddenly. Shepard frowned slightly. Before she could answer, a familiar voice rang out from the room's entrance.
"You mean this body?" Liara entered, looking none the worse for wear and sporting a mean looking pistol in both hands. She had changed, Shepard noticed, no longer in the formal long dress from her information broker office. Her blue and white outfit was better equipped to move fast in, and the lab coat on top had a few pieces of armor attached for added security. Shepard's heart thumped seeing her so suddenly and her happy thoughts were misplaced with confusion. Liara had her gun aimed at Vasir and she wasn't lowering it.
"Liara!...Something I should know?" Tell me, what's going on? Her eyes searched her ex-lover's face hurriedly. She knew Liara, if she could give her a hint…..
Liara moved up beside her but didn't relax her stance. "This is the woman who tried to kill me!" she told her, and Shepard turned toward Vasir, confused. Liara may have changed in the past two years, but she knew if she said something this serious, there was cause for it.
"You've had a rough day, so I'll let that slide," Vasir tried to laugh, but she was subtly backing up. "Why don't you put that gun down?"
"I saw you!" Liara went on. "I doubled back after I left. I watched you break into my apartment!"
Shepard raised her assault rifle. Her teammates lined up beside them and all four held Vasir at gun point. "You didn't know where Liara went because she hid the message. You needed me to find it for you!"
Vasir shrugged, seeming nonchalant for having four guns trained on her. "Thanks for the help."
"Once she had my location, she signaled the Shadow Broker's forces. They bombed the building to take me out. She found Sekat, took his data, and killed him. I'm guessing she's still got the disc on her," Liara said.
"Good guess!" Vasir laughed. "Not that you'll ever see what's on it…..you pureblood bitch!"
Shepard cringed as Vasir thrust her hand forward, a column of blue biotic energy streaming toward them in a hard singularity. Before she could throw up her own biotics, Liara had them all wreathed in a protective shield. Vasir was starting to run for a door when Shepard broke out of the barrier and collided into her in a tangle of arms and legs. They both went out the window, half falling, half cushioned by half-formed biotic threads pushing out from both of them. At the last moment, Vasir broke free, and kicked at her, forcing Shepard the last twenty feet to the ground. Shepard landed hard on her side, and barely had time to gawk as she saw her lover jump out the window, cushioning her own fall, and then tearing after Vasir.
She'd barely given her a glance. Shepard sprang to her feet to follow. More mercs poured out of the staircase opposite the large open courtyard they'd fallen in, but luckily Garrus and Tali had taken the way out joined her behind a series of columns.
Get to Liara…get to Liara….that was the only thought on Shepard's mind. But she'd seen her ex-lover tear through two mercs with hard flung biotic pulls that had crumbled them to the ground before she'd disappeared. She was ready for a fight.
They made their way through another lobby, past bullet ridden chairs and columns and up into another open area. The mercs were taken out and Shepard led the charge out to see Liara and Vasir, both taking cover behind parked skycars, taking shots at each other. Shepard ducked down, but Vasir pulled her own skycar up by omnitool and took a leap down into it.
"Come on, she's getting away!" Liara insisted. She opened a nearby skycar and jacked its ignition. Shepard raised an eyebrow but slid into the driver's seat next to her. She gave Garrus and Tali a look.
"I'm fine, by the way. Thanks for asking," Shepard growled. She pulled on the controls, arching the skycar up into the air. They took off into the traffic lines of the city, barely avoiding the other cars. They could barely make out Vasir in the distance and Shepard upped the speed. They crazily veered against the side of a building and Liara clutched her armored shoulder. Shepard steered into a nearby construction site and sped through the building to catch Vasir steering off around the corner. Shepard arched into the tunnel skyway, sliding into the right column of traffic.
"Go go go go!" Liara urged.
"I'm going!" Shepard snapped. They made their way back out into the night and lines of traffic sped up toward them.
"Oncoming traffic!" Liara yelled. Shepard forced a grin. The adrenaline had her blood pumping.
"We'll be fine!" she urged.
"She's dropping proximity charges…" Liara worried.
"I noticed," Shepard grunted. She steered sharply around one, but it still went off, spinning the skycar slightly. Shepard fought to steady it. "You okay?"
"Still better than the Mako!" Liara insisted, eyes wildly darting around. Shepard grunted, focusing on the chase ahead.
"You will never let me forget that drive up Noveria, will you…."
"She's got reinforcements!" Liara noticed as a few other cars joined their chase.
"What kind of guns does this thing have?!" Shepard demanded.
"It's a taxi, it has a fare meter!" Liara retorted. Shepard gave her a grin to the side.
"Wonderful…."
"Truck!" Liara pointed, cringing in her seat. Shepard sped up.
"I know."
"Truck!" Liara yelled now as the truck crashed full down across the lines of traffic in the tunnel. They barely had room to dodge around it, hugging the wall to the left.
"I know!" Shepard yelled back. Liara gave a scream of fear, but they were past and accelerating toward the end of the tunnel.
"There we go!" Shepard insisted. Liara gave her a bewildered look of exasperation.
"You're enjoying this!"
Shepard chuckled, darting around the lines of traffic, keeping Vasir in sight.
"A head on collision at this speed…" Liara fretted beside her. Shepard shrugged.
"Yeah, I hear those can be bad for you," Shepard said casually, dodging an arching flaming skycar crashing down near them. Liara gasped and tugged on her arm.
"Truck!"
"Again?" Shepard sighed. Vasir flew up next to them and Shepard was surprised when her car slammed into theirs bodily. Liara and Shepard cried out at the impact. Shepard righted the skycar, then shrugged. Bump this! She swerved their skycar back into Vasir's, knocking her into a crazy pattern. They barely had time to pull up but Vasir crashed onto the open decks of a building nearby.
As Shepard touched down, she tensed noticing another skycar land haphazardly near them. When the top came up, she and Liara both eased up noticing Garrus and Tali. Her teammates waved, then ducked down behind a line of columns as a few other skycars, no doubt filled with party crashers, landed nearby.
"Where's Vasir?" Liara asked beside her. Shepard raised her assault rifle.
"Dunno! Mercs first!" she insisted. She and her party fanned out, taking cover among the garden columns and steps.
They made short work of the men and Shepard hopped over a salarian's body as they made their way far off steps up into a hotel suite. The sliding glass door had been smashed open. As Shepard led the party through to the next suite, they could hear an asari in the corner muttering assurances to herself. She'd made it out of the line of fire but was obviously terrified.
"Please let me live; please let me live. I'll do the mantras every week; I'll give to charity. I'll go back to the Citadel and get a good job, I swear!..."
Shepard was about to leave out of the opposite glass door, which was thankfully whole, before sidling into the back bedroom. A human male and asari hotel worker were on their knees, looking everywhere but at the new guests standing above them.
"Hey, we're unarmed! We didn't see anything!" the human insisted. It was then that Shepard noticed the somewhat lascivious video on the wall across from the bed. Several asari were in the state of dress or undress, dancing provocatively. Shepard was somewhat amused despite the circumstances.
"What kind of hotel is this?" she directed to Liara, who had walked in and noticed what she was referring to.
"Azure. It's a luxury resort with an…."exotic edge." 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?'" Shepard couldn't keep the hungry look out of her eyes when she smirked at her ex-lover. Liara jolted and flashed her a decidedly open smile.
"So did I."
Shepard noticed Garrus giving her a smirk out of the corner of her eye. The old parts of Liara were resurfacing as they went on to search for Vasir, and Shepard was glad for it.
But they had a foe to take out first…..
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Vasir was dead, her mercs gone. Shepard shouldered her assault rifle, scanning the rooftop. They'd put a considerable dent in their surroundings from the last fight and they could only catch their breath.
Shepard gave her crewmates a look. Garrus and Tali held back by the shuttle as she followed Liara along the skyline.
"Vasir's dead," Shepard said. Liara looked up from her omni-tool. She'd been going over Sekat's retrieved data the past few minutes.
"I'm putting the data through to the Normandy's computers. We can be at the Shadow Broker's base in a few hours. He'll know about Vasir before long. If he decides to kill Feron….."
Shepard sped up, resisting the urge to touch Liara's arm. She wanted to assure her, but the tension between them was too much. She didn't know what was allowed. "We'll get Feron out of there alive, Liara. I promise."
"I know. You're here to help. Just like always…." Liara's voice trailed off. Shepard's heart hurt at the uncertainty in her voice. The eager and shy asari maiden that had fallen into her arms wasn't here.
"That's not a good thing?" Shepard asked.
"When we first met on Therum, you saved me from the geth. You fought a krogan battlemaster while I cowered," Liara recalled. Shepard wasn't going to blame her for her lack of battle experience during their first meeting. If she remembered correctly, Shepard had done a lot of backward sprinting, waiting for her rifle to cool down so she could fire on that charging krogan.
"Now you're doing it again. And I'm still leaning on you for help."
Shepard tried to smile, to reassure her ex-lover. Damn that title…. "That's what friends do, Liara."
Liara turned and kept walking. Shepard kept pace outside of the hotel suites along the upper deck they were on. "I can get us there, based on Sekat's data. The Normandy's stealth drive will keep them from detecting us. The Shadow Broker's agents are still shooting their way through Ilium. With luck, they won't notice we've left until it's too late."
Shepard couldn't help interrupting. "That's alittle cold. They killed innocent people."
"You know what I mean," Liara protested.
Shepard stepped forward, into her personal bubble. Closer….. "Do I? When I hit the ground back at the trade center, you went after Vasir without a backward look."
Liara looked away. "A little fall wasn't going to kill you. I had to stay on Vasir. I had to stay rational, make the call. Like I did with Sekat."
"That's Vasir's fault. Not yours." Shepard came up beside Liara as they leaned on the railing, looking at the smoking and somewhat burning landscape they had caused.
"Sekat had no idea what the stakes were. I put him in harm's way to get the data I needed. I got him killed…..and I'd do it again."
There was the hardness again. Liara had changed, evolved into this new icy maiden before her. Shepard didn't want to lose her. She wanted to know this new Liara. Was there an inkling of her old lover somewhere left?
"From here on out, things will be simple. Get in, get Feron, get out. And kill anyone who tries to stop us….."
Shepard couldn't help herself. The unspoken question hovered between them and she put words to what was floating between them.
"That's it?"
"That's it," Liara stated, her voice flat. Shepard's anger surged and she pushed on.
"Will you just stop for a second? We'll be jumping several light years. There's time to talk."
"About what?" Liara tried to sound disinterested. Shepard frowned.
"About us!"
Liara looked uncertain and softer again. "Shepard, listen, I'm….glad you're here…"
"You worried there might be terminals you need me to hack?" Shepard bit out.
"That's not fair! You were dead…."
"I came back!"
"Yes, you came back! And I saw what you were doing to get used to your new body!"
Shepard blanched and backed off as Liara pressed a hand to her brow, closing her eyes. Her tone when she spoke again was apologetic and soft.
"Look, Shepard, I'm an information broker. I …..learn things."
Meaning she'd found ways to watch her ship feeds and watch what she'd been doing. Shepard knew she was pale, and she swallowed past the lump in her throat.
"I….."
"Let's just concentrate on getting Feron back," Liara whispered. Shepard sadly followed her to the shuttle. This mission was already looking bleak. After it was done, she'd be brushed off again, she was certain. All Shepard could do was follow through and help Liara complete it.
"Fine." Shepard gestured and she and Liara made their way to the shuttle. Garrus and Tali couldn't meet her eyes as they made their way back to the Normandy.
End for now
End notes: I love the battle mechanics of these games :P Tali's battle drone is awesome. I skipped the whole Vasir end fight scene because I wanted to get going. Sorry, Vasir, you were one of the best :P Like it, drop a review. Take care, lovelies.
Pen 4/25/2021