Chapter Nine - Coup

Tavia gazed down at Commander Shepard, hero of the Reaper War, as she lay paralysed on the table, giggling like a schoolgirl.

"Oh doctor," she chuckled happily, "I don't know what you've done but it's made everything go a bit… floaty," something on the ceiling seemed to be of particular interest to her, something only she could see, no doubt, "am I drunk?"

"No," Tavia replied calmly, "it's all part of the test, don't worry," she exchanged a look with Michael and he nodded and jabbed a few controls on his console. They were manipulating Shepard's implants remotely for now, Tavia had developed a device capable of it from the first scans T'Carra had sent her and so far it was working perfectly.

They had complete control over every implant in Shepard's body. They could disable and reactivate each one individually whenever they wanted. It was better than Tavia could have hoped for.

The implant they were currently affecting seemed to have something to do with Shepard's ability to reason. And her ability not to giggle helplessly at every little thing.

Still, her current state was making her more willing to answer Tavia's questions, at least. It was actually getting harder to shut her up than to get her talking.

"Where were you born, Shepard?" she asked idly, as she continued to record her observations on her datapad.

"Mindoir," the human replied wistfully, "it was prettier back then. You know they've built cities on it now? Back in my day it was all fields and clifftops," she sighed heavily and smiled, "it was a farming colony, then they rebuilt it after the slaver attack and everything was different. Then they rebuilt it again after the war and now it's all skyscrapers and shopping malls…" she trailed off and sighed heavily.

"Her memory still seems fine," Tavia observed, "though we had better do one more to be sure. Shepard, who was behind the attack on the Citadel in 2183?"

"Ah," Shepard began earnestly, "do you want the long answer or the short one? You see, some people would blame the geth, but they were being led by Saren, but he was indoctrinated by Sovereign. But even Sovereign was only following orders, if you want to go right to the top you can always blame Harbinger. Personally though, I blame the Citadel Council for not believing me about Saren when I warned them, months before it happened. Not that I'm still bitter about it or anything! You know, Liara thinks that I should let go of all that stuff, leave it in the past. But honestly, I think I've got more pissed off about as I've got older. Do you think that's normal?"

Tavia blinked, "Yes her memory is definitely fine. Let's try… that one next," she indicated to another of the implants on the scans they had taken but Michael hesitated slightly.

"Doctor… I'm not sure-"

"Michael," she stated warningly.

"Michael!" Shepard repeated his name in delight as she rolled her eyes up to look upside-down at him where he was standing at the head of the operating table, "A salarian called Michael? Ha! That's new! That would be like having… oh I don't know… a krogan called Mordin!"

She descended again into laughter and for a split-second Tavia thought she saw one of Shepard's fingers twitch. Frowning, she moved down the table and took hold of Shepard's hand.

"Can you feel that?" she asked.

Shepard just snorted, "Feel what?"

She let the hand drop and moved back, "Fine, let's continue the test."

"Wait, wait, wait," Shepard cut in suddenly, "look, I've been good, I've answered every question you've asked, but you still haven't told me where Liara is."

"She's not here," Tavia replied bluntly.

"Well I can see that. Urgh," she rolled her eyes dramatically, which was about the most expressive thing she could do under the circumstances, "alright. If you won't answer that question, how about this one?" she was still slurring her words like a drunkard as she met Tavia's eye, "I know why you're doing all these tests. I'm sure my implants must be worth a fortune these days and you probably all stand to get very rich off them, and I realise that you're not planning to let me out of this room alive. So why don't you just tell me one thing? Who is it who's been lying to me this whole time? Hm? Who sold me to you?"

…

"ARIA!"

Aria just about had time to register Tevos' scream before she was hit with a biotic attack so strong she was thrown backwards out of her chair and smashed against the wall of the headquarters' cafeteria where she had been sitting alone.

"Shit! What the hell?" she yelled as she fell five feet back to the floor and scrambled to her feet, only just managing to erect her barrier in time to deflect the second attack that came at her.

Tevos was glowing with biotic energy, her face twisted into a snarl that actually made Aria laugh for a moment, "Well, well, look who found her backbone."

There was a yell of frustration and a shockwave smashed through Aria's barrier and made her stagger before she regained herself and fought back, unleashing a wave of energy that hit Tevos like a slap in the face and forced her briefly to the floor.

"Do you want to explain what the hell this is about?" she demanded as Tevos stood, seemingly unfazed by the fall and still seething with anger.

"Where is Shepard?" she asked loudly.

"How the hell should I know?" Aria snapped, "I'm not her mother!"

She gasped as she was suddenly thrown back against the wall again and held there by a biotic field that slowly began to press against her chest, compressing her lungs until breathing became almost impossible.

"I am not a fool, Aria," Tevos yelled as she advanced, pouring more power into the field with every step until Aria felt her ribs buckling under the pressure, "I knew you had an ulterior motive for helping me, I knew you were plotting something. From the moment I mentioned Shepard you were so desperate to get her on board."

"Yes," Aria snarled through the pain as she tried to struggle against Tevos' hold. She'd never have thought the old matriarch had this in her, "because I thought she would stop you from getting us all killed!"

"Then why has she just been kidnapped by armed men who seem to think her implants are worth an army? The kind of army that might help you get your revenge on the HTA, for example!"

Another wave of energy pressed against her and Aria choked, prompting enough fury – and pure survival instinct – to summon an attack of her own that forced Tevos back, the two biotic fields collided and an explosion shook the room, sending Tevos somersaulting backwards to land in a heap while Aria was thrown sideways to the floor.

She didn't give herself time to appreciate the air flooding freely into her lungs again as she instead grabbed a table with her biotics and flung it across the room where it was promptly deflected by Tevos and clattered against one of the walls.

Both asari struggled to their feet and the battle continued.

"Tevos! I don't have a clue what you are talking about!" Aria yelled as she launched a shockwave against Tevos' barrier which barely made the matriarch blink, "I'm assuming that either you've got your wires crossed or this is the start of another fucking breakdown," she said it mockingly and soon had to dodge as the table came flying back at her this time.

"What has happened to you Aria? Selling Shepard to raise an army? That hardly seems your style!"

Tevos was advancing on her across the room, throwing attacks at her which Aria was rapidly deflecting, "Have you stopped to consider that there might be a reason for that?"

Tevos was close to her now and Aria was tiring of their biotic dance, through a mixture of rage and frustration she waited until the matriarch was within reach and aimed a punch squarely at her jaw.

Completely unexpectedly, Tevos caught the blow, grasping Aria's wrist with more strength than Aria would have thought her capable and before she had time to react, Tevos' other hand came up to her neck and she found herself once against pressed against the wall, this time held by brute force rather than biotics.

"Where. Is. Shepard?"

Aria took one look at the steely determination in Tevos' silver eyes and frowned, the demented bitch actually looked ready to kill her, "I don't know," she snarled through gritted teeth.

"Leave her Tevos. She's telling the truth."

Tevos' grip didn't loosen as she snapped her head round to stare at Adarna as she entered, breezing carelessly through the door and granting them an almost disinterested glance. For a moment there was silence, broken only by Aria's angry gasps for breath, then Tevos frowned sharply.

"What are you talking about?"

Adarna settled herself on a chair and looked at her calmly, "I sold Shepard. To an arms dealer. In return they will outfit us with a fleet, fully equipped and large enough to take back the Athena Nebula, no matter how many gangs we find operating there."

A strange silence fell as both Tevos and Aria stared, eyes widened at the calm asari sitting in front of them who seemed utterly oblivious to their surprise.

"You have got to be kidding me," Aria muttered through the choke hold before Tevos suddenly released her, almost as an afterthought.

She coughed as she broke free, massaging her neck in annoyance though she was quick to recover and stand at Tevos' side. There had been something strange about Adarna from the start, something unsettling behind her eyes. Aria wouldn't rule out the possibility that she was more dangerous than she looked.

"Tell me this isn't true," Tevos was saying carefully, she was peering at Adarna like she was unsure who was sitting in front of her. Adarna merely blinked at her.

"Going on an eight-month long hunt for Shepard was a waste of time and money," she stated, "I told you so in the beginning. But since you insisted I thought we should at least find a way to profit from it."

"By selling her to an arms dealer?" Tevos exclaimed, "Having Shepard on this project was worth the time it took to find her! She brings not only publicity but she increases our chances of success. Shepard knows how to rally people to her cause, she knows how to beat the odds, how to negotiate in impossible situations, we need her!"

"Oh," Adarna rolled her eyes a little and chuckled as though at some private joke, "you really believe that, don't you? Look, even supposing Shepard had something special during the war, it's long gone now. You've seen her, she's a cynical, tired old human long past her prime. Those implants, on the other hand, are one of a kind. Admit it, Tevos, she is worth more to us dead than she ever would be alive."

"You really are a fucking idiot aren't you?" Aria muttered, prompting them both to look at her, "If you think Shepard is worth less than the implants that keep her breathing that just shows how ill-informed you are. Not that I'm surprised, after all, where the fuck were you during the war? On the front lines with Shepard? Somehow I doubt it."

Adarna smiled at her coldly, "You're quite right, Aria. I wasn't wasting time and lives fighting an impossibly strong enemy. I was on Thessia, helping the matriarchs safeguard the future of the asari people. A future that Tevos," she looked sharply at the matriarch, "threw away when she went against their orders and gave Shepard the prothean beacon."

Adarna's eyes had turned to venom and Tevos bristled beneath them as Aria looked at her in surprise, "Wait, you went against the matriarchs when you gave her the beacon?"

Tevos glanced sideways at her and hesitated briefly, "Thessia was falling," she said, as though she needed to explain herself, "I knew Shepard needed the Catalyst to complete the Crucible. I thought the beacon could help."

"You were right," Aria shrugged, "why do you look so guilty about it? Any why have you let Shepard carry on blaming you all this time?"

"Perhaps because she knows that she betrayed her own people," Adarna supplied pleasantly, "you see, the matriarchs were never planning to win the war, merely to survive it. Once the reapers had gone the survivors could have used the knowledge in that beacon to rebuild Thessia."

"Asari philosophy," Aria agreed slowly, "why bother solving a problem when you can just outlive it? I suppose you thought that if you sat back and let the reapers kill the rest of us they would just forget about Thessia?"
"The matriarchs were deluded," Tevos cut in, "no one was going to survive the war. Keeping the beacon for ourselves was never going to save us."

"Well, we'll never know now, will we?" Adarna snapped, "But I do know I'm not going to let you jeopardise the future of our people again. When we retake Thessia, we will do it properly."

"With an army?" Tevos challenged, "Going against the HTA's restrictions."

"If you adhere to every restriction they place on us it's unlikely any of us will come back from the Athena Nebula alive. Which is no doubt what they are hoping for."

"You're paranoid."

"And you're naïve. Pandering to the requests of an organisation that has barely been in power for two centuries and is run by clueless children! Where's your self-respect gone?"

"And how does selling Shepard for profit contribute to your 'self-respect' Adarna?"

"Do you two ever shut up?" Aria was still flexing her shoulders from where she had been hurled against the wall and was becoming increasingly bored by the bickering. She stepped in between them and faced Tevos, "Look, she's insane, why are you still talking to her? You were happy to come in here and attack me with no evidence, but she confesses and you're just standing there."

Tevos blinked, she was riled and clearly had more she wanted to say but instead she reached for her omni-tool, "Security," she said into the interface, "I need a team in here now," as she clicked the interface off again she narrowed her eyes and stepped past Aria towards Adarna, "I still don't understand, you must have known I would never agree to this."

Adarna merely shrugged, "I wasn't planning for you to be around to have an opinion."

Aria saw Tevos' eyes flash as she moved closer, "Where's Shepard?"

A sly, supercilious smile spread on Adarna's lips that made Aria's skin itch. Her arrogance was beginning to grate and Aria let her biotics flare as she stepped forward, "I can get it out of her if you like," she snarled but Tevos held out an arm to stop her.

"No. We'll let the HTA deal with her."

"Are you being serious? You're going to hand her to the HTA?"

"Yes. We are going to do everything by the book."

"A philosophy that will guarantee the failure of this entire mission," Adarna muttered dryly.

The security team arrived and Tevos turned to give them a cursory glance before nodding to Adarna, "take her somewhere secure, then contact the HTA and tell them to come and arrest her."

For a moment the security team stood there, motionless. Then one of them turned to Adarna, "Ma'am?" she asked calmly.

Before either Tevos or Aria could question her, Adarna had smiled softly and stood, the fabric of her dress rippled with the motion, "Deal with them, Sergeant," she told the officer pleasantly, "And… try to make it look like they attacked you first."

She turned her back and glided towards the door as the squad of heavily armed asari suddenly drew their weapons and aimed them, not at Adarna, but at Tevos and Aria. As Tevos stared, Aria let out a heavy sigh.

"Oh isn't this just fucking brilliant?"

…

"Can you see anything yet, Shepard?"

"No," Jules snarled through gritted teeth and focussed on staying calm as the sudden blindness she had been subjected to, continued. It was only mildly worse than the fog that had filled her brain during the first part of the test – though admittedly she had been playing up the drunken act a bit.

She had thought that playing the fool for a while might have made the doctor more inclined to answer her questions, but the turian was a stubborn one and Jules was no closer to knowing who had betrayed her or where the hell Liara was.

She was finding it increasingly difficult to lie there and endure the darkness and was well aware that her current escape plan might be difficult to pull off if she couldn't see anything.

"Look," she said calmly, "I think we've all worked out what that implant does, so could you please turn it back on now?"

"It may also have other functions," the emotionless turian tones of Doctor Aegina replied and Jules sighed. She couldn't help wondering if the dour doctor actually enjoyed her work or if she was as heartless and cold as she seemed. She also couldn't decide which was more unsettling.

"Do you want me to tell you my name again?" she asked dryly.

"That won't be necessary," Aegina replied, "it's obvious your memory is still functioning properly."

Jules had no idea if any of her implants actually did affect her memory, but she really hoped to be out of here before she found out.

"Doctor…" she heard the nervous voice of the young salarian with the human name, "perhaps we should move on to the next one, I'm not sure we can learn much more about this implant."

That must have been the fourth time she had heard the boy speak up for her. He seemed to be becoming increasingly uncomfortable about what was happening and Jules wondered if that meant he could be an ally.

"Very well," she heard Doctor Aegina sigh and then winced as a sharp pain shot through her temples. The moment it dulled, her vision began to return and she blinked as colour flooded back to her. The cold face of Doctor Aegina was the first thing to come into focus, yellow eyes staring down at her without emotion.

"This one next, I think," she muttered, indicating to something on her datapad which Jules couldn't see, "let's hope we learn something more interesting this time."

She almost sounded bored, as though Jules' sudden blindness hadn't been entertaining enough. That thought, along with the unsettling knowledge that this demented turian had a device that could manipulate her implants with the touch of a button, made her skin crawl.

She felt another pain throb at the back of her skull and ground her teeth quietly as she waited for whatever the next implant would do to her. It took every ounce of self-control she had not to clench her fists.

After all, she didn't want Aegina to know that the paralytic drugs had started wearing off.

…

Aria and Tevos crouched behind the table they had overturned to use as cover, ducking every time a biotic wave or a hail of bullets came flying at them.

"So, any ideas?" Aria muttered irritably as she tried to get a look at their attackers without getting her head blown off. There were eight of them, all asari, biotically trained and armed to the teeth.

"I've tried contacting another security team," Tevos said as she stared at her omni-tool, "none of them are responding."

"Are you telling me Adarna has every security guard in the building on her side?"

There was a pause and a sigh, "Come to think of it, it was Adarna who hired them all."

"Oh great," Aria spat as she sent a shockwave blindly over the table, "and who did you hire? The scientists?"

"Yes… and the clerical staff."

"Great. I'm sure they'll be a real help to us!"

…

In the medical room, Liara winced but otherwise ignored the pain as she struggled into her clothes.

"I am not happy about this, Doctor T'Soni! I hope you realise that!"

She smiled to herself as she turned to see the quarian doctor standing in front of her, hands on his hips as his golden eyes glowed brightly. He wasn't really capable of looking menacing though, there was too much kindness apparent within him.

"Listen, Doctor… I'm sorry, I don't think you told me your name."

"Rhys," he replied, "Rhys Corvo, but just Rhys will be fine."
That was right, quarians didn't have impossibly long names anymore, Liara remembered.

"Rhys," she took a step closer, "I have to find Jules, she was already ill when they took her if they've-" she cut herself off and closed her eyes briefly, "I just have to find her, I don't have time to wait."

The quarian opened his mouth as though to speak and his thin eyebrows narrowed into an expression that was somewhere between frustration and hopelessness. The other medical staff had protested her leaving as well though they had soon relented when they realised how determined she was. Rhys was the only one still trying to persuade her but he seemed to be running out of arguments.

"You've been shot four times!" he finally exclaimed.

Liara just smiled a little, "I've survived worse, Doctor, believe me."

She reached for her jacket and gingerly shrugged it on over her injured shoulder. Rhys watched her for a moment and then sighed heavily.

"You don't even know where Shepard is, how are you planning to find her?"

"I'm… not sure," she admitted, "but I think T'Carra is involved in this somehow, if I find her she might be able to tell me more."

"Hmm," Rhys frowned softly, "she hasn't been seen since Shepard disappeared."

"Well she didn't leave in the ambulance," Liara carefully zipped up her jacket and flexed her shoulder as much as she dared, "hopefully she's still in the building."

Rhys folded his arms, "I still don't think it's a good idea."

"Perhaps you should listen to him," Liara looked behind her where Ereba and Grunt were standing, they had both entered the room after Tevos had left and Ereba was looking at her in particular concern, "maybe it would be better to let Tevos handle things, don't you think so Grunt?"

When the krogan didn't reply, Ereba elbowed him in the side, "Grunt!"

He looked at her and shrugged, "What?"

"Tell Liara she would better off staying here."

Grunt blinked at Liara for a moment and then grinned, "No chance, I've seen what happens to people who try to get in her way."

Before Liara had the chance to smile at him, everyone's omni-tools suddenly bleeped and they all looked down to see an incoming call being sent to everyone in the building.

"This is Aria T'Loak," her voice came simultaneously across several of the interfaces, she was shouting over background noise that sounded like fighting, "Adarna is staging a coup against Tevos and has the entire security department on her side. Do not obey any orders they give you and do not surrender if they ask. Attack any security that you see on sight. If Adarna wants a war then she can have one, just make sure you all pick the right side."

As the transmission cut off, everyone in the room looked at each other before Grunt let out a heavy sigh, "Well, that doesn't sound good."

…

Tevos stared at Aria as she shut off her omni-tool and launched another brief attack at the security team who still had them pinned down.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded in disbelief, "There are hundreds of security scattered throughout the whole building, now they're going to be attacking members of my staff!"

"Good," Aria retorted, "keeps them out of our hair."

"I beg your pardon?"

Aria smirked, "Sorry, I've been spending too much time with Shepard. The point is, if they're all killing each other then there's less of them coming after us."

"You'll pay for this, Aria," Tevos warned, "if even one member of my staff is harmed because of you-"

"Hey, what are you getting at me for?" she snapped, "I'm not the one who ordered your own security to turn on you. You know, I never liked Adarna but I didn't realise she was a fucking psychopath," she muttered it almost absently as she peered around the side of the table and then growled in frustration as she had to duck back to avoid a hail of bullets.

"She was probably planning to do it more quietly than this," Tevos mused grimly, "get rid of Shepard, discredit me and then miraculously turn up with a large fleet and lot of money. It wouldn't have been hard for her to take over after that," she stopped and sighed, "I should have seen this coming."

There was another angry growl as Aria sent a shockwave over the top of the table, "You can wallow later Tevos! We've got people to kill!"

…

Liara and Grunt emerged from the medical room, having ordered Ereba and the medical staff to stay where they were. Liara had, of course, ignored Rhys' demands for her to stay behind as well.

"There's reports of fighting on every floor," Grunt said as he looked at his omni-tool, "what the hell is Aria playing at?"

Liara shrugged helplessly, "Unless she can tell me where Jules is I don't really care," they both instinctively ducked as they heard gunfire, before they realised it was coming from the floor above, "I can't believe they would actually open fire on people," she muttered. As she looked round she saw Grunt looking up at the ceiling, his icy eyes narrowed into a glare.

"Egret's up there somewhere."

"You go," she told him, "I'll find Aria."

It didn't take her long. She followed the sounds of shouting down a corridor and then ducked abruptly through an open doorway as a biotic explosion shook the walls several doors down. She crouched – ignoring the dull pain at her stomach as her wound threatened to reopen – and peered around the doorframe.

One of the doors further down the corridor had been flung off its hinges and a group of asari lay dead or unconscious on the floor. As Liara watched, Aria stepped out of the room, flexing her shoulders slightly as the last traces of biotic energy dissipated across her body. She moved over to one of the asari who was still alive and whimpering slightly. She was clearly in no condition to pose a threat but that didn't stop Aria from crouching, taking hold of her head with both hands and snapping her neck in such a swift motion it made Liara grimace.

"Come on," she heard Aria say as she stripped the dead asari of her weapons, "let's get to Adarna before she can cause any more damage."

"Before she can cause any more damage?" behind her, Tevos stepped through the broken door; although she seemed relatively unfazed by the corpses littered at her feet, she was staring Aria down coldly, "Because of you this entire building is descending into chaos!"

Aria just sighed as she reloaded the rifle she had claimed, "Look, riots are the perfect distraction in situations like this. Trust me, I have done this before."

"This is not Omega, Aria!"

"Really?" she laughed and threw a glance upwards at the sound of gunfire, "Could've fooled me. You know, this place is starting to grow on me."

"I'd rather you didn't make jokes while people are dying."
"Urgh," Aria rolled her eyes dramatically, "and I'd rather not stand here arguing. Now where would Adarna have gone?"

Tevos frowned and folded her arms, "My office probably, she can oversee everything from there."

"Good. Then let's go."

Liara watched as they both disappeared down the corridor and then she stood gingerly. Carefully, she pulled up her clothes to look at her wound. It was still a messy and haphazard patch job but there was no new bleeding and the pain was easy enough to ignore.

She activated her omni-tool and contacted Grunt.

"Have you found Egret yet?" she asked as she stepped out into the corridor, double-checked there was no one around and then walked over to the dead asari that Aria had left there.

"No," his deep voice came back over the comm, "it's chaos up here, people are saying that Adarna ordered the security to attack after Aria's transmission. She must have gone crazy."

"Don't worry about that," Liara told him as she bent down and stripped one of the corpses of its weapons, "just help whoever you can. Tevos and Aria have gone to deal with Adarna, I'm going to try and find T'Carra, I need her to tell me where Jules is."

"What if she doesn't know?"

"Then I'll find someone who does. Let me know when you find Egret," she shut off her omni-tool and continued to search the bodies. She clipped a pistol to her belt and armed herself with a rifle before grabbing all the spare ammo she could carry. She was not going to be caught out again like she had been with those 'medics' – or whoever they really were.

She moved swiftly and quietly through the building, though she could hear the fighting as it raged she didn't encounter much of it. She paused at a junction where two corridors intersected and pressed herself back against the wall as she heard gunfire nearby.

She peered carefully around the corner and saw two groups firing at each other, each had pulled tables and furniture across the corridor to use as cover. The group with their backs to her were the security staff while the others looked like normal employees. They seemed remarkably well trained in combat though, Liara wondered if they were squad members assigned to one of Tevos' ships.

Among them she could see a batarian who seemed to be giving the orders, though they weren't making much progress.

"Dammit!" she heard him yell, "We need to get a clear shot!"

Liara took that as a cue and leaned fully around the corner. With their backs to her, she had a clear view of the security team and managed to take aim before they even knew she was there. Two died instantly, shot in the back of the head, as the others turned to face her she deployed a singularity above their heads, ripping them off their feet and giving the other group a clear shot.

She heard the batarian ordering his people to fire and she didn't wait to see them finish it as she ducked past the corridor and continued her search.

She found T'Carra in an empty office. The room was dark – which was the only reason Liara had noticed it – and when she peered inside, she saw the doctor sitting alone at a bench, staring into a glass which was trembling unsteadily in her grasp.

"Your hands are still shaking," Liara murmured as she walked through the shadows, casually resting her rifle on her shoulder. T'Carra jumped a little and looked up, her eyes glistened blearily and as she sighed Liara could smell the alcohol on her breath.

A few corridors away there was a thud and a scream and T'Carra looked sharply over Liara's shoulder, "What's going on?"

Liara glanced calmly in the same direction as several gunshots were also fired, "Adarna has arranged a coup against Tevos, she must have been gathering support for a while. I think she had planned to take over quietly but things have taken a more dramatic turn. I suppose no one counted on me when they planned to kidnap Shepard. I can only assume the two are connected."

T'Carra shifted uncomfortably as Liara kicked back a stool and joined her, the fighting was growing steadily louder outside but she ignored it, "I'd go easy on that, if I were you," she nodded at the glass, "you'll find that guilt doesn't drown so easily."

T'Carra paused to stare at her "Guilt?"

Liara didn't elaborate. Instead she leaned back and folded her arms, glancing around the room as though she expected to find something of interest to her, "I can understand why some people might want to follow Adarna," she said absently, "they probably think she has a better chance of getting to Thessia than Tevos does. I've known her type before, persuasive, determined… ruthless. I could forgive someone for being taken in by her, I could even forgive someone for being too weak to stand up to her. But if Shepard dies because of her plans, I would find it a lot harder to be so understanding."

She turned to look T'Carra right in the eye now and saw the asari blinking at her warily, "Where did they take her?" she asked, her voice steadier than she had thought it would be.

T'Carra frowned, "How would I know?"

"Doctor," Liara leaned forwards, "your treatments made her ill, she always felt worse after seeing you. I saw the look on your face when you saw her this morning, you weren't surprised you were terrified! And I do know guilt when I see it. Now I'm sure Adarna convinced you that you were doing what was for the best but she only cares about profit and power, you are a doctor! Tell me where she is!"

…

She strode out of the office five minutes later just as her omni-tool bleeped. She looked down at the interface and answered.

"Grunt?"

"I've got Egret!" he shouted, she could heard the sounds of fighting very close to him in the background and quickened her pace as she headed towards the nearest stairwell.

"Is she alright?"

"Yeah. Better than the idiots who were trying to kill her, anyway. There any word on Shepard?"

"Adarna sold her to an arms dealer."

"What? Why?"

"Doesn't matter, just meet me on the ground floor, I know where they took her," she shut off the interface and broke into a run.

When she arrived at the reception area she found it deserted. There were signs of fighting, behind the high desk, chairs were overturned and datapads were strewn across the floor. Broken glass crunched under Liara's feet as she surveyed the carnage but there were no bodies so the staff must have managed to escape.

As she looked out through the glass doors she could see vehicles were parked up on the street and armed officers seemed to be cordoning off the area. She ducked carefully out of view behind the desk and waited.

After a moment she heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Grunt and Egret. It was clear they had both been in a fight, Grunt had acquired several weapons while Egret was bearing a few bruises and a gash across her forehead. Her clothes were ripped in places and her purple eyes were set into a determined glare that Liara hadn't seen on her before.

She beckoned them over when they saw her and all three of them crouched to watch what was going on outside.

"They've got the entrance covered," Liara murmured as she nodded through the doors, "we won't be able to sneak past them."

"It's the HTA," Egret said as she got a look at the uniforms they were wearing, "they must have heard about the fighting."

Liara frowned softly and watched one of the officers directing a group of the others. They seemed to be planning to storm the building.

"C'mon," she muttered, "we'll go out the back way."

"Wait," Egret caught her by the arm as she made to stand, "why are we hiding from them?"

Liara looked at her, "Because I don't know who we can trust. And we don't have time to explain things to them, Grunt and I will go and rescue Jules, you stay down here, it should be safe for now."

"No, I'm coming with you."

"It's too dangerous, it's better if you-"

"I said I'm coming with you," Egret cut her off sharply, then stepped round her and headed towards the door, pausing briefly to look back when she realised she wasn't being followed, "come on, I thought we were in a hurry."

As she moved away, Liara turned to give Grunt a questioning look but he merely shrugged and chuckled.

"You heard her."

Am I the only one who's always wanted to see a fight between Aria and Tevos? I think I've had that scene in my head for about two years...