A/N: Stepping a bit left of canon again…cuz I can. Enjoy!


As Wrex vanished into the shuttle, his shotgun barking again, Liara and Shepard scrambled out of their cover. The merc who had fallen out of the shuttle was stumbling to his feet- then let out a cry of surprise as he was hit with a biotic blast and knocked off the platform.

Del went straight for her candy, scooping the mini-gun up off the ground and hefting it up, seating the buffer against her hip as Wrex reappeared in the shuttle door, hopping down to the platform.

"Wrex, are we glad to see you," Liara said.

"Hello to you too, Blue," he said happily. "I heard there was a party going on and I thought I'd invite myself."

"Good thing you did," Shepard said, craning her neck as she tried to assess any further threat that may be coming at them via skycar or the dealership. "If I'd known you were even on the Citadel you'd have been first on the guest list."

"I was here negotiating terms of krogan expansion with the Council. We know who these assholes are?"

"No idea as yet, they just…hang on, we've got incoming."

Liara threw up a barrier even as she turned around. Mercs were swarming into the dealership, at least a dozen of them. Aiming the mini-gun, Shepard sprayed a heavy rain through the glass walls separating the inside from the lot, forcing the mercs to take cover.

{Shepard! I hear gunfire! Are you out? C-Sec should be there-} Brooks.

"No, the shuttle was crawling with mercs! We have more swarming our location!"

{Wh-what? How is that-}

"Bit busy!"

Gunfire had lit up from inside the dealership, forcing Shepard to move to one side and the improved cover of both Liara's barrier and the tattered skycars littering the lot. Wrex was laughing as he took advantage of some debris, pelting half a skycar into the dealership with his own biotics, before pursuing it with his shotgun blazing. Del turned her mini-gun fire on the other side, trying to keep those mercs pinned and give the krogan warlord some cover.

A new voice came over the comm. {Captain, I've got a skycar, I'm on my way!}

"Just hurry Joker!" she growled. The mini-gun was heated death, but that was exactly its problem…it was heating up fast, and from what she could tell still more mercs were showing up.

How many of these fuckers are there, goddamnit!

Suddenly an engine whined. She turned her head just in time to see another skycar come sailing up from below, moving fast…too fast to even get the mini-gun swung around toward it. Instead, she dropped the weighty weapon and tried to lunge out of the way.

The fender hit her hard in the side and shoulder, cracking into her head and sending a flash of white over her vision as she went careening over the lot. She heard Liara's voice shout, either in surprise or fear, then a heavy crunch of metal. She slid to a halt, pain blaring at her from everywhere. Her lungs seemed to refuse to work, and she struggled to take a breath. Laying here would mean death, she had no doubt of it, but each motion she took seemed sluggish, uncooperative, and slow. She meant to surge up to her feet but instead managed only hands and knees for a split second before slumping down again, wheezing.

The car that had hit her had crashed into another that was parked in the lot, near where Liara had been standing. Del tried to get up again, and everything started spinning, wobbling in and out of focus. This time she didn't even make it quite all the way to her hands and knees.

Liara! I have to find Liara, is she hurt?

Boots. Someone was coming. Del tried again, gritting her teeth, but barely had she started to rise than a hand scooped down and caught the front of what remained of her shirt in an iron grip. She was hauled straight up into the air.

She saw the merc only for a moment. It was the same armor the others had worn, but this merc was female judging by the curve of the breastplate.

There was no pause, no debate. In the same motion she hauled Del up and off her feet, the merc took another step forward, just one, and with an almost casual motion, pitched Shepard right off the skycar lot and into open air.


It was in Liara's throat to scream, but the sound strangled away before it could be formed. The crashing skycar had slammed into the one she had been standing near, throwing off her biotics and knocking her aside. A bit dazed but not hurt, she had gotten to her feet just in time to see the merc pick the weakly moving Del up off the ground and shove her off the lot.

The rest was pure instinct.

Turning herself, Liara ran the four longest steps in her life. Every sense suddenly seemed turned up to a fever pitch. She could feel each inch of her boot as it pressed onto the floor, gripping. She could feel every fiber of her muscles as they tensed and shifted, transferring their energy into her forward momentum. She was able to count the two heart beats that passed, each an echoing drum of determination.

Her final stride had her foot planted on the edge of the lot. She leaned forward, arms outspread almost gracefully as she jumped off the lot and into empty space.

Time resumed, speeding up to hyper-time as if to make up for the sluggish way it had just gone past. As Liara started to fall she tucked her hands and arms in close to the sides of her body, streamlining herself to fall as quickly as possible. Below two or three stories, she could see Shepard tumbling out of control.

A story below that were the streaming skycars, heavy Citadel traffic moving at a brisk and deadly pace.

Shepard's uncontrolled tumble meant she was falling slightly slower than Liara as she encountered more air resistance, but it was not slow enough. Del reached the first layer of traffic, narrowly missing one car. The driver, startled by the form that had suddenly dropped down in front of him, veered and tumbled into another, crashing. The cars behind started to swerve to each side to avoid the accident. Del plunged through toward the second layer of traffic as Liara reached the first, darting down in the open gap left by the crash.

Eyes streaming from the wind blowing into them, Liara could see little but blurs beneath her, and she kept blinking frantically, trying to focus. Del reached the second layer of traffic. It was clear she was going to hit the back end of a truck that was passing by, and Liara frantically reached out with a biotic blast, hoping to bump Del hard enough to get her out of the way. Being unable to see well enough to aim properly, she missed. Her biotics hit the truck instead, almost simultaneously with Del. The impact of the dark energy caused the back of the truck to dip almost the moment Del hit it, softening the impact and leading to her rolling right off it and into open air again, narrowly missing getting plowed directly by a second truck that was just behind the first. As she fell through the second line of traffic and toward the third, Liara reached the second, still moving fast. The second truck was now immediately below her. She let off another flare of biotics, this time buffering herself away from the vehicle and past it without hitting. She twisted a little, trying to recover her course. She was getting closer.

The third and final layer of traffic was only a couple hundred feet off the ground, made up of vehicles either coming in to land or joining the skyway from below. There were fewer cars in it, and they were not nearly as close together, but it was a sign they were very close to hitting the ground. If Del struck at the speed she was going, there would be no surviving it.

Liara tried to go even faster. Del passed through the few cars without incident, Liara darting through a moment later to nothing but the surprised blare of a horn. Below, she could see the lights and signs of shops growing rapidly closer, pedestrians moving along as they did their shopping or stopped in knots to gossip.

It was going to be incredibly close.

Goddess, please…

They had less than a hundred feet left when Liara drew close enough to the falling human woman to reach out toward her. Shepard did not seem to be conscious- at the very least, she made no sound and did not reach toward Liara in return.

Fifty feet. Sure now of her aim, Liara lit up her biotics, looping Del and immediately drawing her in, winding her arms around her tightly.

Thirty feet. Liara encased them both in a biotic bubble, reducing their mass. Their speed slowed slightly, but the mass reduction would not be enough to change their impact to the ground into a non-fatal one.

Fifteen feet.

Liara, wound tightly around her love, shouted a warning to those below and stuck out a hand, sending the strongest surge of biotic energy at the ground as she could manage. Started pedestrians looked upward, faces gaping as they darted out of the way. The biotics hit the walkway and swelled back toward them, the opposing kinetic energy slowing them down drastically as it struck them. Keeping the flow going, she slowed them even more as they drew closer to the ground, until she was able to set them down almost feather soft.

Shaking hard, her biotics died, and for a moment Liara could do nothing but lay there and try and catch her breath, still clinging to Shepard as tightly as she could. The gawking pedestrians were starting to close in around them.

"Are you ok?" a voice asked tentatively. Ignoring him, Liara loosened her hold, frantically looking at Shepard.

"Del? Del!"

"Hey…Blue…" Shepard said weakly, sluggishly, looking up at her with half-lidded dark eyes, one corner of her mouth lifting in a thin but genuine lopsided grin. "Can we…do that again?"

"Oh damn you!" Liara replied with a gasp of relief. She hugged her tightly a moment, not even bothering to fight the tears that were painting her cheeks- not all of which were from the wind of their descent. Shepard gingerly managed to push herself up into a sit, but as she gasped in pain through her grit teeth Liara tightened her hold again.

"No, no, do not move. We need to get you to Huerta-"

"No…"

Liara noticed the crowd abruptly. Blue fire lit up in a bubble around them, startling the gawkers and physically forcing them back a few paces. "Do not come near us! she said furiously.

She didn't know who she could and could not trust. Until they knew who the mercs were, every unfamiliar face was going to be a danger. She could not take the chance that a hired assassin was among the crowd, or even that the mercs themselves would not appear any moment. Leaving the bubble in place though it was taxing on her already weakened energy, she looked back at Del.

"C-can you walk? We need to get out of the open-"

"I think so…everything's spinning…"

Moving gingerly, Liara started to help Del to her feet, keeping her arms around her. As she got upright Del suddenly wobbled and nearly fell over again, giving a woozy gasp as she did so. Liara caught her, shaking.

"'m ok-"

"You need medical attention! We-"

The crowd started to disperse again as a skycar suddenly lowered toward them. Liara reached automatically for the empty holster at her waist and as her hold on Shepard loosened, the injured human woman wobbled again. Liara caught her awkwardly, the pair half falling to their knees, and glared toward the car.

If it was the mercs again she would fight them with everything she had. They would have to kill her if they wanted any chance at getting near Shepard again.

Then the car door swung open, and Wrex leapt out, an unfamiliar human woman in an Alliance uniform on his heels. Inside, Liara could see it was Joker driving.

Wrex parted the loose crowd like a ship breaking through ice, not hesitating to knock some of them aside if they didn't get out of the way fast enough.

"Blue?"

"Quickly, we need to get her out of here," she said, letting her biotics die as she tried to get Del back to her feet again. "We need to get her to Huerta-"

"No Huerta," Shepard said, her voice sluggish but tense with irritation.

"Shepard-"

"No hospital," she insisted. "Could be waiting there…"

Wrex reached their side and wound an arm around Del, hefting her off her feet. Liara trotted at his side as he carried the captain back to the car. The Alliance uniform was near the open door, gaping at them.

"Is she-"

"Who are you?" Liara demanded furiously, making the woman jump and shrink back a little.

"I-I-I-"

"That's Brooks," Wrex said. "C'mon Blue, get in. Now's not the time for a blood rage."

Liara climbed in the back of the car, Wrex setting Del on the seat next to her before climbing in the front next to Joker. Brooks wedged herself in as best she could, and Joker lifted off.

"Jesus, Boss…" he said, looking around as he got the skycar airborne.

"I'm all right," Shepard said, then grimaced, hand plastered to her side.

"You have a loose definition of all right."

"Shepard, we need to get you to a doctor," Liara said, fussing over her in worry.

"Mercs will be waiting at Huerta," Shepard said wearily. "Same for any other clinic or hospital on the Citadel. We can't trust them."

"Back to the Normandy, perhaps?" Brooks asked in a small voice.

"No medical staff on board," Shepard said with a small shake of her head. "Joker, take us to the apartment."

"The apartment? No offense, boss, but this doesn't look like something you can just walk off-"

"Nan's there, she's a registered nurse," Del told him. "Garrus and the others should be heading there. Get them a message, see if he can't pick up Helen on the way."

"I can contact C-Sec-" Brooks said, already lifting her omni-tool.

"No!" Shepard said, a bit more firmly than she intended, making her grimace again. "Ugh…no. No C-Sec. Not yet. They got a damned C-Sec shuttle and intercepted communications already. I'm not handing them my location on a fucking platter, not again. We don't talk to anyone but the crew, dong ma?"

Brooks hesitated, then nodded, lowering her hand from her omni-tool. "Yes, that's probably wise."

"You hurt?" Del asked, looking at Liara.

"I am fine. Just a few bruises and I need to recover my biotics."

"That was a hell of a jump," Del said. "You could have been killed."

"You would have been," Liara said, brows knit. "You would have done the same for me."

Del lifted one bruised, blood-stained hand and gently touched her cheek a moment, before she cleared her throat, and looked to the front. "Wrex? How about you? You hurt?"

"No," he said. "Gave those damned mercs something to remember though."

"How did you get out of there?"

"Beat on them until Joker showed up with the skycar," he said. "Once you two decided to go flying the mercs started leaving anyway."

"They really are just after me, aren't they?" Del said.

"I know that look," Liara said. "Do not even think it, Shepard. You are not going to disappear on your own in order to keep us safe."

"Blue's right. We stick together," Wrex said.

"Wrex-"

"Don't be an ass, Del," he said, looking back at her angrily. "Time and time again, you've stuck your balls on the fire for us. Time to return the favor."

Despite her pain and half-focus, Del still managed to give him a dry look. "Roasting your balls, just for me Wrex? That's sweet."

He laughed.


Del was beyond grateful the apartment was a penthouse, with its own landing pad for shuttles and skycars that did not require them going through the lobby or passing through any other part of the building. Her head was still spinning and everything in her wanted to just close her eyes and sleep, but she'd been hurt often enough to know that was a very bad idea. As Liara helped her out of the car Shepard tried to walk, gritting her teeth against the pain, determined. Wrex didn't give her much of a chance. Liara gave him a look from where she was trying to support her and the krogan swooped her up to carry her again.

"Goddamn it, Wrex-" Shepard said. "Stop the…fucking spinning…"

Barely had he straightened with her in his arms than she went limp, passing out. Liara broke into a run, opening the door to the apartment, already calling for Nan.

"What is it?" Nancy called from downstairs, sounding half asleep.

"Wrex, take her into that room there," Liara said, pointing, then called back toward Nan. "Get a medical kit, anything you have. Shepard has been hurt."

Wrex carried her into the master bedroom as Brooks rushed downstairs to meet Nan. Joker limped after them into the bedroom.

Liara darted into the master bath, tearing some towels off the rack and grabbing a first aid kit off the wall. As Wrex laid Del down she hurried to her side to start tending to her.

"What happened?" Nancy asked as she bustled in, dressed in a bathrobe and carrying another first aid kit. "What- oh good heavens!"

She hurried over, dumping the kit beside Liara's and activating her omni-tool. "What happened to her?" she asked as she started the scan.

"First she was shot at," Joker said. "Then she fell through an aquarium and down the side of a building. Then I think there was a lot more shooting and a few explosions, then what…a bridge blew up?"

"Then she got into a firefight with a bunch of mercs pretending to be C-Sec, got hit by a skycar, and fell about a hundred more stories through traffic," Wrex added.

Nancy gaped at them. "Now is not the time to tease an old woman!"

"Sadly, they are not teasing you, Nan. That is exactly what happened," Liara said. Nancy stared at her a moment, then back at her scan.

"She has a hairline skull fracture and a severe concussion. More contusions than I can count, soft tissue trauma, six fractured ribs, easily a dozen lacerations...this one on her arm is the worst. She's in shock and her brain is swelling from the concussion. She needs a hospital."

"Unfortunately hospitals are out of the picture," Joker said. Nan looked at him angrily.

"And why would that be?"

"Someone's trying to kill her," Wrex said. "They infiltrated the restaurant where she was having dinner, and C-Sec. They have the numbers and weapons of a small army. They'll have eyes on every hospital and clinic across the Citadel. We can't risk it. Garrus should be bringing Chakwas soon."

"God in His heaven," Nan said, closing her eyes a moment before opening them again. "Then for now we're all she has. Liara, we're going to have to strip her down. Gentlemen, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Wrex and Joker headed out, and Brooks started to follow. As she did Nan looked up at her.

"Not you dear."

"S-sorry?"

"Until Helen gets here we're going to need what hands we can get."