Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.

Rewrite Notes: Still inspired by the Beyonce song "Save the Hero," from the album I am…Sasha Fierce.

Author's Notes: Spectre Alena M'Tara is based on LuckyFK's Confidence picture on DeviantArt.

Eliaon - Asari developed massage technique that employs limb and body manipulation, biotic assisted massage techniques, and the use of aromatic therapeutic ointments.

Revision History: 02/10/2018

Part 1: Chapter 17::12 Days Post-Awakening: Citadel Part 5

Shepard's stomach growled again once they exited the conference room and were standing out in the hallway. "Well, at least your stomach has the sense to know you need to eat," M'Tara noted with evident amusement. "Conference Room 137 is right there," the nais indicated the next doorway on the left side of the hall. "I believe we should follow Councilor Tevos' suggestion and discuss what you've learned from the Cipher over lunch. We can order from Ta'Lira's, get an assortment of dishes for the three of us to share."

"That sounds good to me," Vasir seconded the notion, then turned to Shepard, "are there any asari dishes that you particularly like?"

"Umm," caught flat-footed Shepard had to take a moment to think of the few dishes she had had a chance to taste. Well there was that one fish dish, and the vegetable and fruit dish…oh and those delicious little cookies served at the Consort's. "I don't know the names of all the dishes," she warned them, "but one was called Resi Meri, and was a fish dish with a slightly sweet sauce, another was a vegetable and fruit dish called Onkov Kowemeri, and in desserts I don't know what they're called, but they're little blue and white swirled cookies with a delicate floral scent that seem a lot like macarons," she measured out the diameter with her thumb and first finger to show the size. It was only when she noticed the smirk on Vasir's dark blue lips and intrigued look in the nais' brown eyes that she suspected that she had given away exactly where she had them.

"Hmm," Vasir drawled with a thoughtful tap on her lower lip, "Alena, floral scented round blue and white cookies, about five centimeters in diameter, that sound familiar to you? Seems familiar to me, but I'm not quite certain where I had them." Shepard stifled an exasperated sigh at the matron's antics. It was quite obvious that Vasir knew exactly where the cookies came from and was not about to just let it go.

M'Tara, her lavender eyes twinkling with amusement and her dark purple lips curved in a smirk very similar to the one worn by her fellow tormentor drawled back, "Sounds like she's talking about Merikewi cookies to me, but ones with a floral scent and made in Tevura's colors? There's only one place on the Citadel to find those specific Merikewi cookies and I don't think the Consort lets you order them out as they come with their services. Though maybe if Shepard added her request to ours perhaps she might make an exception just this once?"

Tevura the sixth planet in the Parthina System and the Asari Goddess of love, sex, travel and law; it really did make sense now that they were unique to the Consort. It even sounded as if they were traditionally only served by them. Shepard's silver eyes narrowed, during their passage through the Presidium on the way to the Citadel Tower they had been forced to clear out most of the attacking geth forces remaining in the area, including a rather large group trying to make their way into the Consort's to slaughter those taking refuge within the compound. Sha'ira had been leading the defense of the compound, utilizing singularities, warps, and throws against the attacking geth all the while directing the defenders. Shepard had been very impressed with her and her acolyte's ability to defend themselves, but it had also been clear that they would have been overrun by sheer numbers if Shepard and her team hadn't helped by thinning them out. She hadn't specifically mentioned it in any of her reports and as far as she knew only the ground team which had accompanied her thought the Conduit to the Citadel knew about it.

Sha'ira had sent a very grateful note a few days after the Battle, but Shepard hadn't had an opportunity to visit before the Council sent her back out after the Geth. It had been quite apparent to her at the time that they just wanted to limit any chances of her spreading her 'Reaper' warnings even though she had agreed that everything should remain classified until the various governments had a coordinated response to present to the general public along with the news to prevent widespread panic. Then of course the Normandy had been attacked and not only had she had died, but apparently so had the Council's belief that there was any reason for that coordinated response.

"It might," Shepard replied with seeming nonchalance, "provided you let me write the request." As she began typing she noticed the two asari exchanging questioning glances before returning their attention to her. Vasir leaned back against hallway wall and crossed her arms as she waited for Shepard to finish typing. When Shepard finished the note wasn't as polished as she would like, but hopefully Sha'ira would forgive her for it. It was difficult to figure out what exactly to say to the Consort. In the end, Shepard settled for a simple greeting, an assurance that she would attempt to come by in person to explain as much as she was permitted, and then asked if it were possible for some of the cookies to be sent over to the Tower security desk as she was taking a lunch break and recalled how delicious they tasted. Finally, she attached her newly re-issued identification to the note in the hope that it would assure whomever opened it on Sha'ira's behalf that it wasn't just some sick joke. "Alright Vasir my request is done," she transferred the text file over to Vasir, "hopefully with one or both of your idents on it the receptionist won't just delete it."

"You can call me Tela," Vasir informed her as the nais scanned her message and then added a brief message of her own before forwarding it to the Consort. "Alena, why don't you show Shepard the recording capabilities available to us while I go ahead and place our order. You two can also start thinking about how to structure the training." She glanced back toward the conference room they had just left, "especially since I suspect they will want Shepard back in there in just a few hours rather than tomorrow."

Shepard could only agree, she didn't think the Council would wait until tomorrow either. "I already know where I want to start though it may be a bit of a tedious review for both of you," she commented, "but for those that aren't asari it will make it much easier for them to learn everything else." Heck even Jack had quietly commented to her how much easier aura sensing made everything else she was teaching them to learn.

"What is that?" M'Tara curiously inquired.

"Aura sensing," Shepard replied, "once you can sense both your own and others biotics it makes it much easier to tell when you're getting the technique right." Mindful that the hallway was not exactly secured space, Shepard said, "Once Tela joins us I'll explain more." Looking rather intrigued the tall asari dipped her head in understanding before heading down the hallway.

"Do not start without me," Tela warned them before turning her attention to the haptic display of her omni-bracelet.

"I won't," Shepard reassured her then turned to follow M'Tara into the room.

They had just finished going over the room's recording options, which included that of a 360-degree recording for virtual environments, when Tela rejoined them. The matron entered the room and then just stared with a bemused expression at the human Spectre for a long moment, causing both Shepard and M'Tara to fall silent in puzzlement at her. "Consort Sha'ira contacted me a few minutes ago to verify that message you sent her was real," Tala finally spoke, "she said for us to send a message when we are ready for dessert and they will send someone over with Merikewi cookies and Tuweapoda tea for us. She also said she has no appointments scheduled after eighteen hundred hours if you wish to visit tonight."

Shepard allowed herself a moment to savor the stunned expression on Alena M'Tara's face. Sometimes it was the petty things in life that made it all worthwhile. As for Sha'ira's message, she suspected that an open-ended invitation like that was probably very rare. If were at all possible, she would go by the compound tonight. Hopefully Sha'ira could also help her out with another matter, a way to securely contact Liara and let her know that she was alive. "Could you please send me that so I can send a reply back to her."

"Of course," Tela responded and then sent it over. The matron watched as she composed her reply and then sent it, then asked, "So how do you know Sha'ira?"

She had been expecting this question, "From before I even made Spectre actually," Shepard admitted and then chuckled, "oddly enough, when I first heard of the Consort and her services it was in reference to her some of her acolytes being Eliaon practitioners." That earned her puzzled looks from both asari, obviously not quite what they were expecting to hear. "No, I wasn't looking for a massage right then," she explained, "but I was looking for arepa ointment and I figured they would know where I might buy some on the Citadel." Arepa ointment was similar in usage to tiger balm, but smelled somewhat like cinnamon and amber instead of menthol.

Mirth evident in her tone, M'Tara asked, "You actually stopped by the Consort's to ask them where to get some ointment?"

Shepard nodded with a rueful look, "And it took me awhile to actually get the receptionist to realize that I really was there just for the information and not to get an appointment. She was about to ask one of the acolytes who practiced Eliaon to come up and speak to me when Sha'ira sent a request for me to see her. I suspect it was pure curiosity on her part to get a look at the potential human Spectre, but she did ask me to look into something for her regarding an issue she was having with a client of hers. And no, I won't tell you what, but in the course of searching for evidence on Saren I just happened to be able to take care of it rather easily." General Septimus had also accidentally given her a rather interesting piece of information during their conversation, that even the Hierarchy didn't say anything about partaking in the Consort's services because she had never been known to break her vow of confidentiality in all the centuries she had been present on the Citadel. "In return, she gave me a rather interesting Prothean necklace. In a small universe twist of fate, the necklace turned out to actually be a prothean data recorder implant used by one of the prothean researchers on the Mars base which had been implanted in a Stone Age human on Earth. We stumbled upon a public data terminal on Elentania which activated it, causing it to transmitted the data it recorded which encompassed about few weeks' worth of his life."

"Wait what?" Vasir interrupted, looking shocked, "was that in your reports?"

"The ones that I sent to Udina and the Council," Shepard confirmed, "the Alliance had me turn over the data recorder implant for study, but I don't know what if anything they were able to learn from it."

"Something to inquire about perhaps," M'Tara noted with a glance at Tela, "see if there were any results from their research of it."

Vasir seemed to think about that for a moment, "Alright," she agreed, then turned back to Shepard, "but what did you mean by a public data terminal on Elentania?"

"Exactly what I said," Shepard explained with a puzzled frown, "they're like the ones available on the Citadel for the public to use. You could either access public resources or connect your own storage device to it in order to access your data." She shrugged, "I mean of course the one on Elentania wasn't connected to a network anymore, but it was still functional enough to access the information stored in the implant." She thought about it for a second recalling the rugged terrain where they had located it, "Odd place for a public terminal, but maybe it was a park of some sort once. In any case, it's impressive that it was still functional after 50,000 years."

Vasir and M'Tara both stared at her, their expressions thoughtful. "I'd be curious to know what changes Sha'ira senses in your aura," M'Tara finally remarked, "and we definitely need to teach you those techniques Councilor Tevos mentioned to help prevent Zeukeso. I suspect you weren't quite so calm about it when you accessed it on Elentania."

Shepard frowned, no, no she hadn't been as calm about it then. She had been pretty freaked out about it actually when it happened, since at that time she had no idea what the silvery floating globe was or what exactly it had done to her. "You may be right," she admitted, "certainly knowing what it was makes it less alarming in retrospect."

The other Spectre dipped her head in understanding, and Shepard continued on with her explanation of how she knew Sha'ira, "Anyway, since I hadn't yet had time to swing by a store to get ointment she made a gift of that as well." That hadn't been the only extra gift she had received that day. She had received the gift of fully sharing pleasure with Sha'ira, including her first melding experience due to Septimus' unintentionally meant reassurance that whatever the Consort saw in her mind would remain private between them. Afterward, Sha'ira had given her a gift of her words as well. "Later, after I was made a Spectre, I sent a request asking the rate just to visit her meditation garden and she sent back that as long as there was a private area not yet in use I could visit any time I felt I needed it. So that's how I got to know her, during my visits to her meditation garden she would occasionally stop and speak to me."

Tela's dark eyes were shrewd on her as the nais inquired, "Needed a place to get away from everyone judging whether or not you were loyal enough to the Alliance?" That was it exactly, but Shepard was hardly about to just admit it. Instead she simply gave the blue nais a reproving look then briefly explained what had happened during the Battle of the Citadel outside the Consort's compound. "So, she owes you for not only her life, but the lives of her acolytes and those who sought her protection," Vasir commented, "that explains why she would send one of her acolytes over to deliver the cookies and tea for you."

It did, but she was also going to find out which of the acolytes had brought it over and tip them appropriately for doing it. "Alright so onto discussing biotic techniques?" Shepard inquired when neither of them immediately said anything else. At their nods of agreement, she began, "Aura sensing is very useful in teaching everything else, especially for those of us who aren't asari and aren't normally taught how to use our senses this way. Aura sensing not only allows us to not only feel our own biotic fields, which helps quite a bit in getting the nuances correct, but it also helps with being able to discern how another person is forming their biotic fields."

"You weren't taught this already?" Alena M'Tara inquired, her expression showing her surprise.

"No, they used sensors to map our mass effect fields and showed us the read-outs when I was learning how to use my biotics," Shepard explained. "It worked, but this way, being able to do it yourself and have it always available to you, is so much more useful." The two asari exchanged glances that made it very clear that they considered that to be an incredibly obvious statement. "Thus, it was always one of the first things Elder Instructor Lindariel taught to the non-protheans who she tutored."

"Tutored?" Tela inquired as she leaned back in her chair, her medium blue complexioned face showing her intrigue with the topic.

Shepard nodded, "She taught the equivalent of human high school or asari academy aged maidens mental communications techniques."

Vasir looked startled, "They could meld?"

"No," Shepard quickly responded, "their method of mental communication was rather different from melding. Asari mental communication is based on syncing nervous systems and can be bi-directional, Prothean mental communication was based on their ability to detect even the minutest traces of chemicals and electrical energies by touch through receptors in their skin. They were very good at reading information from people or even objects, but the communication was one way only." Shepard thought about it for a moment and then said, "Probably one of the reasons their technology developed the way it did, it made up for that gap in their abilities." She paused for a moment to let them digest that factoid then continued, "So as I mentioned, Lindariel tutored non-protheans who were candidates for governmental civil service positions how to sense and alter their aura or órë. The skill was required in order to interact with Prothean devices, something they had to demonstrate they could do before they were actually hired on by the government." Before either of them could interrupt, Shepard just offered, "And yes I'll show you exactly how they interacted with their devices." With a smirk she turned to M'Tara, "Ok, so you're a Prothean data input device or console or something of that nature."

The tall asari's brow rose as she smirked right back, "And you want to find out what treasures might be hidden inside me?" she practically purred as she leaned suggestively back in her chair, "certainly."

It took Shepard a second or two to accept that yes, the nais had done that while they were recording this and apparently didn't care one whit about it. When she looked back, Alena's smirk was wider and her mirthful lavender eyes clearly said 'I win this round…again.' Damnit. Just then, her stomach, which had been mostly quiet since they entered the room spoke up again, completely breaking the mood.

Alena glanced over at Tela who responded, "It should be here very soon, I'm expecting the desk to contact us at any moment."

"Let's see if we can get through this first then, it won't take very long for me to explain," Shepard commented.

Tela glanced over at her fellow asari and teasingly chided her, "Yes, lets focus on the task at hand."

"Who says I'm not?" M'Tara rebutted with a grin, but she did straighten up in her chair.

Shepard had the momentary feeling that all the times she had been a smartass in front of a presenter were coming back to haunt her all at the same time. Somewhere out in the universe several instructors and speakers were experiencing unexplained feelings of vindication. She suppressed a sigh as she glanced at the two of them and then just decided there was nothing for it but to just soldier on, "So…" she paused a moment to get their attention, "if you two will pay close attention to my aura." She waited a moment until they both inclined their heads indicating that they were, "To activate a device you manipulate your aura in this particular pattern," she focused on what was essentially an almost activation of her biotics in order to alter her aura in a particular manner. "Part of the aura training I'll go over next teaches exactly how to produce this pattern, but once you do that the device's sensors would detect the right pattern and responded by activating." She hesitated for a moment as a thought occurred to her, "You know, I can't guarantee hasn't changed since Lindariel's time, but should work for any piece of general government equipment during the middle of the Metacon War at least." She then continued, "After activating the device then you would identify yourself with your aura signature," she relaxed her órë, let it return to its natural state, "and if you were in the system, your name would appear on the device screen. At this point, you would place your hand on the data input sensor and recite your name and activation code to complete the authentication process and login to the device."

"So, every government device used the same activation pattern?" Tela sounded dubious at the idea.

"No, they didn't," Shepard replied, "but that was the one used by low level civil servants to the government. I know from Thalion's memories that the Order of Vanor used at least two different activation codes for different levels of access. And general public use devices accepted almost any input for activation, since they were meant to be used by children and, by Lindariel's time, by those who weren't born Prothean."

Before either one could ask her anything else Tela's omni-bracelet chimed, signaling an incoming call. The matron looked down at it and then rose from her chair, "It's the security desk, our food has arrived." While she was gone, Alena spend the time quizzing Shepard over the differences between the different activation patterns she knew and also sent out a message for someone to deliver a sensor sensitive enough that could get accurate measurements of them. When Tela returned, she was loaded down with four hefty bags of boxed food. Shepard's eyes widened at the sight of them, surely even three biotics couldn't possibly eat that much food. The matron laughed at her when she noticed, "Don't worry quite a few of these are finger foods for us to snack on as we work, their more box than food."

They spread the food containers out along the table, Tela naming each one as she set them out and then began serving themselves. Shepard got servings of the two dishes she had ordered, the Resi Meri and the Onkov Kowemeri vegetable and fruit dish and then took out smaller servings of several other dishes that seemed interesting to taste. The Resi Meri was just as delicious as she remembered, the fish, whatever it was, firm and meaty yet delicately flavored and served in a slightly sweet brown sauce. The Onkov Kowemeri was a simpler dish, essentially just caramelized vegetables and fruit mixed together in a colorful arrangement of oranges, reds and yellows. To Shepard's surprise, Tela had picked out two other vegetable dishes, one seemed to be simple sautéed greens, the other she suspected from the smell was a rather colorful seaweed salad that mixed red, green and yellow varieties. She tried both, the seaweed salad to her surprise was less fishy tasting than it smelled and proved to be a nice accompaniment to the fish. She tried a few other dishes as well. One was a finely sliced red meat dish that tasted similar to beef served with a berry sauce. Another was a chicken like meat, which she suspected was actually a reptile given that the name of dish included the word sorat, served with a rich cream sauce. Finally, at both the urging of Alena and Tela she tried another fish dish, one with a pinkish meat that reminded her of tuna, cubed and seared and served in a rich brown sauce. After that, she firmly refused to eat another bite, feeling stuffed and over-full. She appreciated that they wanted to make sure she ate enough, but she couldn't possibly eat enough at one sitting to regain it all. The two asari were apparently going to make a Spectre level go of it however, given the richness of the dishes Tela had chosen to order. That wasn't the end of it though, no sooner had they cleared their lunch plates than Tela opened the containers of finger foods and set them out. They were small and colorful and deliberately enticing. They were going to kill her Shepard decided as she curiously picked out one of the more interesting looking ones to taste, she was going to explode from food over-consumption and they hadn't even called for the cookies and tea.

Shepard went over the different activation sequences again for Tela, then began discussing the various aura sensing and manipulation exercises she had learned from Lindariel's memories. Sometime into her explanation, the sensor M'Tara had asked to be delivered arrived and Shepard took the opportunity to demonstrate exactly how the exercises affected the aura to produce the specific sequences. Once they finished going over Lindariel's exercises, Shepard moved on to the sound manipulation technique and barrier field from the unnamed young musician. The two asari quickly caught on to the barrier field and its purpose, but the sound affecting mass effect field proved to be a bit more problematic for them.

Shepard hadn't appreciated how her vocal training, specifically the ability to hit a note and sustain it, had affected the successful application of the biotic technique. It wasn't that Vasir or M'Tara couldn't hit a note, or didn't have nice singing voices for they did, it was just that neither was used to precisely sustaining a note for twenty or more seconds. Tela called a halt to the training after thirty minutes, declaring that they had enough of an idea about how it was done to perfect it on their own…and maybe get some vocal training to go along with it. They moved onto what Shepard was currently teaching to Miranda, Jacob and Jack what she called her 'Squeeze every Joule out of your Biotics' training. It was essentially Lindariel's lessons combined with the extra she had learned about energy conservation techniques from Thalion. She was in the midst of one of the lessons when the Council contacted them and requested Shepard's presence in the other conference room. The two asari ensured her that one of them would be waiting for her when the meeting was over and then shooed her off to the other room.

"Shepard," Anderson greeted her when she entered the room, "have a good lunch?" The other three weren't there yet, not even in hologram form.

She laughed, "Yes I did, though I think Vasir and M'Tara were intent on getting me back up to weight in one meal." She patted her slightly protruding stomach, "Feeling a bit over full at the moment, but they kept putting samples of this and that on my plate. Then there were the little appetizers that I needed to try just one, their small."

He chuckled, "Glad to see your getting along with them, there was too little opportunity before for you to interact with the other Spectres. And then well…" he paused, staring at her, "I can hardly believe your back and…"

"Up and breathing again after I died," Shepard filled in the silence, "yea, it's been pretty weird all the way around."

Concern etched lines in his features, "Do you need to speak with someone about it? I can arrange for you to speak to someone trustworthy."

Did she need to speak with someone? Shepard knew that she probably should talk about the way she felt disconnected from her body with its implants and bio-synthetic muscle that she could still stare at through the sections of skin grafts. How finding out that she needed to eat still yet more food than she had been to provide them with enough energy so they didn't drain the rest of her down to skin and bone had her feeling yet more disconnected from this body - a body which should have been burnt to ashes and interred in Greece instead of abandoned for the Blue Suns to scavenge on Alchera. Yes…she should probably talk to someone, but the idea of talking about this to a person she did not know at all was not really very appealing.

"An introductory meeting would probably be a good idea," Shepard finally commented, knowing that any other answer in her particular circumstances would throw up a huge red flag for him. To be fair, she wouldn't believe that someone in her place wasn't having issues with what had happened to her either. To be honest though, she would feel more comfortable speaking about it with Sha'ira rather than some unknown human. It had taken her nearly four months to track down Saren, and in between the too rare solid lead or busy work for the Alliance they had returned to the Citadel so Garrus and Wrex could speak to their contacts and she could work with Anderson scouring Alliance data for any clue to the rogue Spectre's current location or activities. That had left her plenty of time to make use of her open-ended permission to visit the Consort's meditation garden, and for most of those visits Sha'ira had taken the time to speak with her even if only for a few minutes. Over the course of those months the two of them had some wide-ranging conversations, ranging from discussions of music to eventually her opening up about how the Alliance was questioning her loyalty now that she had been made a Spectre. Sha'ira had been a great help, almost magically knowing when she just needed someone to listen and when she could use some good advice. Nelyna had called the Consort extremely gifted, but Shepard hadn't been certain if she hadn't been originally correct when she named the asari an oracle given how almost prescient Sha'ira seemed at times. In short, she already had a therapeutic relationship with the asari, she trusted Sha'ira and valued her advice and would rather talk about this with her than anyone else.

Before either of them could say anything about when to schedule a meeting though, the holographic forms of the three other Councilors formed, indicating that the second meeting was about to actually begin.