They didn't have to search far for Thane. Liara suggested starting with Afterlife, for several reasons. For a start, that's where they'd find Aria, and in fact where they'd find most people on Omega at the current time of day. Well, anyone Shepard tended to associate with. The crowd was also a great way to stay relatively inconspicuous and safe – the same reason that might compel Thane to show himself.

Which he did, not five steps from the entrance Shepard and Liara had taken to the club. One second, there was a shadow; the next, it had been replaced by the figure of a drell leaning against the wall. The obnoxious lighting lit him up in ten different colors during the short few moments they simply stared at each other.

"Liara T'Soni," Thane said, tearing his eyes away from Shepard to look at Liara. "I've been looking for you."

"I know," the asari replied pleasantly. "I've also been looking for you. Perhaps we could speak."

He arched an eyebrow. "Why? And how did you find me?"

"I was made aware of your employment. I figured out you were on Omega and so here we are," Liara explained vaguely.

"How did you come to such a conclusion?"

"Aria. She owes me a favor. Alerting me to an assassin on the prowl was her way of repaying it." Liara paused. "An agent of mine followed you here and confirmed it."

Shepard wasn't sure what Liara's strategy was, but honesty hadn't been what she'd expected. Thane seemed equally surprised, though he was effective in hiding it. "Aria T'Loak has more eyes and ears and fingers in this place than I had anticipated," was all the input he had to offer. "And so do you."

Liara acknowledged that with a rueful smile. "It is something that just happens, I think."

"No, it is not," Thane disagreed slowly.

Shepard took an uneasy step forward, feeling like the tension in the room was strangely inappropriate, or that at least she was missing something. Thane trained his gaze back on her. "Easy, both of you."

"You are very talented," he said unexpectedly. "You dance when you fight. It's been a long time since I've seen that kind of spirit."

Shepard blinked twice. She remembered Thane saying similar things the first time she'd met him, about chasing each other to reach Nassana first – but not out the gate, and only after a few conversations on far less affective topics. "Seen me, have you?"

"I've been watching you since your ship docked on this planet."

His eyes were guarded, taking in as much information as he was able while she was there. A small part of her began to suspect she was dealing with a different Thane than the one she'd met on his dying breaths. Not that she didn't expect him to progress in much the same manner over a few short months, but there were still signs of avidness for life in this man's expression, signs that had gone in a different lifetime. "I'm Commander Shepard," she said finally. "Pleased to meet you."

Thane acknowledged her with a nod. "You know my name."

Shepard ran out of patience. "Liara? Think you can explain this now?" she asked, gesturing between the three of them.

Liara nodded quickly, and pointed at a table in the noisiest, most brightly lit corner of Afterlife possible. They followed her and sat down – Shepard noted that with that kind of visual and sound covers, they may as well be invisible.

The asari leaned forward and began without preamble. "The Shadow Broker keeps a list. People he can – rely on, to perform a very specific type of job. Assassins," Liara clarified at the blank look on Shepard's face. "It's a long list. And Thane is on it, but very far down. During his time on Omega, Garrus provided me contact with eighty per cent of the names. The others, I tracked down using – less refined methods. I wanted to make sure Thane was the one the Shadow Broker hired."

"So it was you." Thane straightened. He didn't seem pleased or irritated at the reveal – merely interested. "I knew about that list. The Shadow Broker and I have – history. He'd resort to me only if he quite literally had no other options. I wanted to know who'd eliminated those options. My investigation led me here." He glanced around in disinterest. "I suppose I was closing in on your friend – Garrus, did you say?"

Shepard eyed him out of the corner of her eye. "You have – history," she started, using the same emphasis she'd heard in his voice, "yet you'll still work for him?"

"My body does the work. He is careful to hire me through superficially clueless intermediaries."

Liara was typing something at the speed of light on her datapad, but still had enough presence of mind to make interjections. "Thane was hired by the Shadow Broker to assassinate me," she finally revealed distractedly. "I had Feron follow him, but Thane managed to lose him. I was scared he might finish the job or that my interference might get him- might get someone killed. That's why I waited for Feron's confirmation that Thane had received my message and was willing to meet, before leaving for Omega."

"Your message," Shepard echoed faintly, appalled at the developments.

"I want to discuss possible changes to the contract's legal standings."

"The contract on your life," Shepard said for clarification and opinionated emphasis.

"Yes," Liara finally put down the datapad and linked her fingers. "The Shadow Broker holds the contract, and the Shadow Broker may terminate it at any time," she said to Thane. "This is true?"

"True," Thane agreed.

"I predict there will be an evolution in the situation's current state, Mr. Krios," Liara informed him, business-like. "There is ample evidence to recommend you wait and see what comes of it."

Thane placed his hands wide open on the table. "What's my incentive?"

"Contract cancellation fees. In addition to the original pay."

He made an approving expression. "I accept the wisdom in those terms. We may play by your rules, if you wish." He eyed Shepard curiously. "You will be attempting to kill the Shadow Broker? With Commander Shepard's assistance, I suppose."

Liara nodded perfunctorily, already nose deep in a new datapad. "That would be the plan."

"A most ambitious plan," Thane commented, a glint in his eye. "I wish to accompany you."

Liara's head shot up at him, eyebrows raised. "Oh?"

He shrugged. "It's relevant to the legal dispute we are currently embroidered in, isn't it?"

Liara pondered that for a moment. "Sure," she agreed. "You can come. Once it's done, I'll cancel the contract and pay you what I owe."

This was the point at which Shepard decided her intervention was required. "Or, we could politely request that Thane not kill you. Let's say for morality's sake, if legal concerns are out the window. I'm sure he'd agree," she added, the last part with a pointed glare at the drell in question.

Liara and Thane exchanged a look, and he produced a small smile. "We did," Liara replied vaguely. "He does."

Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay. I'll – okay."

No one pushed the point further. "Shepard, if you are done with any business you have on Omega, we should leave," Liara advised, putting away both datapads. "There's no time to waste."

A pair of purple eyes caught Shepard's in the distance, an instant of eye contact that was enough to transmit a whole lot of information. Aria T'Loak smirked slightly. "You two go on ahead. There's someone I need to speak to for a bit."

Liara looked in the general direction of her gaze and saw nothing. "Alright," she acquiesced. "Don't be long."

Shepard trailed away from the table in a different direction Liara started on, and climbed familiar stairs to reach a lofty lounge with no opposition.

"Commander Shepard," was the greeting, and it felt like deliberately stepping into a trap. Possibly that was just Omega's preferred general vibe.

Aria knew little and got told even less. Her curiosity had been sparked by the scuffle Shepard and Garrus had gotten themselves into, fanned when she realized she was in Liara's company, and quelled with every question Shepard dodged.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered," Shepard interrupted at the twelfth question, "but why all this attention? Surely you can find more interesting people to pointlessly interrogate."

Aria crossed her legs obnoxiously, expression betraying only vague boredom. "You're a new pawn in this galaxy's chessboard. And it's becoming clear you came prepared with a disproportionate amount of importance. I'm especially intrigued by how you ended up poking your nose in the Shadow Broker's business."

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm sure you don't. I'm just surprised I didn't see you coming, that's all. It's not often that I'm blindsided."

"Sounds like you could use some soul-searching," Shepard suggested, leaning back comfortably.

"'Soul-searching'," Aria echoed, looking supremely entertained.

Shepard hummed. "Y'know, how we lead our lives, who we keep in them. That sorta thing."

Aria was unimpressed. "Practical people – as I am, and as you claim to be – don't waste energy on such nonsense. I'm a busy woman. I have things to do. Omega needs me that way."

"There's a war coming, in case you haven't noticed. Right time to give those things some thought."

"Is there a war coming?" Aria said, expertly changing the subject. "It seems you've convinced the whole galaxy of it."

Shepard arched an eyebrow. "I've provided extensive proof."

"That you have. An almost surgical amount. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were specifically prepared to have to convince an entire galaxy that the doomsday was coming. Planning on it, actually."

"How do you plan for that?" Shepard countered drily.

Aria wouldn't let her attention be diverted. "Were you concerned your warnings would fall on deaf ears?"

"I'm always concerned that people's nature might overpower their common sense."

"I see."

"I could use you on my side in this fight," Shepard casually mentioned. "Since you're interested."

Aria grinned, like she'd just been given a treat. "Oh? Fascinating. What will you do for it?"

"Not anything."

Aria laughed. "I like you, Commander Shepard. Time will tell if it's enough. For now, I think our business is concluded. Unless you'd like to stop evading my questions?"

"I'm good."

Finally, the asari adopted a dismissive demeanor. "Well, then. This has been extremely unproductive, Shepard."

"If I ever get back in a sharing kinda mood, you'll be the first person I call." Shepard stood up.

Aria sneered. "I'm sure. Thanks for the bargaining chip. Maybe one day I'll cash it."

Shepard supposed contacts were good. Liara kept saying that. And Omega stayed mostly sane, within reason, when Aria was in charge. Shepard would gladly be her ally. God knew the people living on that station needed an advocate.


"Did Aria ask anything about me?" Liara immediately said, later, upon finding Shepard aboard the Normandy. Thane had made his way down to the cargo hold, Kaidan had reported, where James was poking and prodding him as though he were an alien specimen. Shepard was tempted to rescue him, but she hadn't forced him to wait there for the Normandy to arrive at their destination. "Or about the Broker?"

"Hardly asked about anything else."

"What did you say?"

"Something about tree frogs."

Liara's lips twitched. "Good. She doesn't need to know."

Shepard gave her a sideways look. "Gonna be really blunt with you, Liara – you're sounding a lot like you did the first time. You know, when you went-"

"A little crazy?" she finished wryly. "I know."

"Promise me you do."

"I only – I need to do this," she said restlessly. "And I promise, I'll keep a clear head. I've been preparing so long, I – re-establishing contacts, getting current information, and Feron-" she cut herself off, shaking her head as if a fly was bugging her. "It's just that – while he's targeting me, I'm-"

"Oh," Shepard said, shocked. "I'm sorry, I wasn't – I didn't realize that was making you anxious," she winced at her own phrasing even as she said it. "Liara," she tried again. "I promise you're safe with me."

That earned her a teary smile. "I know. I just need him finished. Need to put things back in order."

"I get it," Shepard said gently. "Just don't lose yourself while you're at it."

"I won't," she said, wiping a tear away. "You're always here making sure I don't. You're the best friend anyone could have."

She gave Liara a one-armed hug, getting only a little emotional. "I think it's just because I keep you away from better friends by dragging you around in this ship."

"Yeah, that's not it." Liara took a deep breath to compose herself. "Sorry, I'm okay now. Thank you for listening, Shepard," she said, pressing her forehead back on Shepard's shoulder for a second. Shepard squeezed back.

"Anytime. Now, c'mon. You've got a future score to settle."


The view from the shuttle was just as awe-inspiring and terrifying as it had been the first time around. Steve's good mood at being back behind the wheel for Shepard faltered as the giant ship the Shadow Broker used for a base came into sight.

"Steady, Cortez." Shepard's eyes trailed from her pilot to the vision outside. "There are magnetic fields from the planet and the ship, plus the storm-"

"I got it, Shepard." He offered her a reassuring smile, before determinedly turning back to his objective with renewed focus. "Rough drop, but it'll do."

The red, orange and yellow hues coloring their background were too aggressive to be warm. Shepard couldn't leave this place fast enough. Liara didn't belong in harsh environments.

"What's the plan?" Shepard muttered to the asari, tearing her eyes away from the window.

"Same as before," Liara replied tersely. "As we discussed before, I mean," she tacked on hurriedly, Thane's presence seemingly just occurring to her.

"We're expected?"

"Of course," she said unconcernedly.

Shepard stared at her friend for a few seconds, but Liara's disposition was inscrutable.

This did not interest Thane. "You'll not take down the base, I'm assuming," he confirmed shrewdly. "You want his resources, naturally. We'll fight your way to him inside, then?"

Liara nodded sharply. "Once he's in our sights, there's nowhere for him to turn."

"How did you acquire this base's location?"

"Credits."

"Ah." Thane didn't sound as though he believed her. "You must have deep pockets."

There was no reply, and the conversation died in the suffocating silence.

Soon enough, Steve was carefully maneuvering the shuttle around the dangers surrounding them every which way, and landing far more smoothly than he'd promised. Shepard stepped outside, Cortez' advice on limited risk-taking ringing in her ears, and felt Liara and Thane take up positions at her flanks.

"Feron's not here, right?"

Liara gave her an offended glare. "Of course not."

"Just checking."

Behind them, the shuttle took flight again. "Shall we get moving?" Thane prompted, and they started on the exact same path Liara had led her through the first time around.

The security didn't seem to have changed so much as downgraded from Shepard's previous experience on the base. Liara was more confident in her ability to get them inside the base proper, and if all else failed, hey, they were still living in a pre-medigel security upgrade world, as far as Shepard knew.

"How much of the Shadow Broker's army are you planning to decimate?" Thane wondered when they'd made it almost all the way past the hull to the door, watching two men be fried to death by the capacitor Shepard forcefully discharged.

"Shouldn't be much more," Liara replied, critically analyzing her surroundings for more mercs. "Our way in is over there," she said, pointing ahead. "After that, I expect the forces inside to be residual."

"Yeah, right."

Liara's lips twitched and they pressed forward.

Getting inside and all the way through the men between them and the Broker was no more trouble than it had been last time. Engineer hostiles crumbled frail in Shepard's hands, hardly ever taking the hit of her overload in stride. Meanwhile, Liara and Thane played off each other beautifully, warping over singularities in horrifying ways that almost made Shepard pity the Broker's mercs. Where Thane's biotics couldn't reach, he was suddenly there, weapon in hand or not, and no one lasted very long after that.

"Just keep them in front of you," was the advice she'd thought to give before unleashing her squad on the small army. "No flanking." They took it to heart, pushing back the men until the line broke and gave away into their path.

"Finally," Liara said eagerly, standing in front of the final door. She opened it without wasting a second more, and the three of them stepped inside the Broker's office at last.

The dampeners had been doing their job outside, and inside, the silence was particularly deafening. The lack of proper illumination and circulating air made the room out to be a proper stale lair, partitioned from the rest of the universe and its rules.

Liara wandered ahead, confident and determined. Her pistol was held loosely in her hand.

"So, you finally show your face," the Shadow Broker said, sitting in the shadows again to provide dramatic effect. "Not that I needed you to, of course. I made sure to find out everything I needed about the young asari coming out of nowhere to threaten my empire, Dr. T'Soni."

"Well, I hope you had fun," she replied dismissively, weapon trained on his head. "It will not matter now."

"I see. Your confidence is not lacking."

"Nor is the skill to back it up."

The Broker stood abruptly, and Shepard tensed. He merely took a couple of steps to the side, however, bringing himself just a bit more into the light in her friend's direction.

"Why are you here? What do you want from me?"

A mocking grin grew on Liara's face. "Didn't you say so, just now? To threaten your empire."

"Struck by a sudden impulse for ambition, were you?"

"Something like that."

The two of them sized each other up for a few tense moments, before the Broker looked away again. "But you did not come alone, of course," he said, turning to Shepard. "You keep some impressive company, Dr. T'Soni. Commander Shepard. You've made a name for yourself as a daily topic on only the most respectable extranet gossip feeds."

"Wait, is that true?" she asked, momentarily distracted. Liara glared at her. "I mean, shut up," she growled back at the yahg.

He ignored both women and focused on their third companion, who'd so far been watching the proceedings with detached curiosity.

"And you. Didn't I hire you to kill her?"

"I'm planning on honoring my contract," Thane assented. "Eventually. I will do so, of course, according to the circumstances as they stand then."

"There's little honor in being a murderer for hire. There's none in being one that doesn't even respect his commitments." The Broker paused, seemingly in self-recrimination. "I should not have trusted you."

Thane shrugged carelessly. "You and I have different ideas of what it means to be honorable."

In a fit of anger that overtook his controlled demeanor far too quickly, the Broker smashed his desk and threw it into a flight pattern directly at Thane. Taken by surprise, he didn't dive out of the way quickly enough, getting hit in full force, and Shepard almost took a step toward him before noting the Shadow Broker's attention had turned to her and Liara.

"Right," Shepard muttered, now a little mad herself. "Let's do this, then."

The Shadow Broker was a tough opponent – tougher still with a man down – but she and Liara had done this before, in the exact same setting, with the exact same available tools. Their strategy was solidly the same, needing no tweaking or additional coordination between them.

Melee fighting against that kind of rough plating was not fun, but bruised knuckles was the least of the damage Shepard could have walked away from that office with. Fortunately, without the initial fumbling about, she was able to do it early enough that Liara could take the distraction and cue before Shepard suffered too many love taps.

The Broker's barrier fried and him with it, and Liara was left standing over him, panting and triumphant.

"Thane," Shepard reminded not a second later, and the two of them hurried over to his crumpled body. "He gonna be alright?"

Liara examined him carefully. "He'll be fine," As if on cue, the man in question groaned feebly. "Just – give him a few more moments, and he'll get back to the land of the conscious. It was a bad hit."

The newly reinstated Shadow Broker walked away then, approaching the setup that was already lighting up with chatter from all over the galaxy. Once again, Shepard witnessed Liara take control of one of the most powerful networks in the galaxy in real time, appropriate gravitas on the asari's expression as the interfaces quieted again.

Then she immediately pulled up several files of data, and the friend Shepard knew re-emerged among the Shadow Broker noise and litter surrounding her. "You know, it'll be an interesting challenge, reconciling information that was archived by the time I originally got to the Shadow Broker with current events," she commented, and Shepard was about to contest the use of the word 'interesting' when Liara gasped. "Oh, goddess!"

"What?" Shepard said, alarmed. "Don't use 'goddess' unless the world's about to end, Liara, it makes me nervous."

The asari seemed contrite. "Apologies, it's nothing – certainly nothing now that he's dead."

"Well, don't keep me in suspense. What is it?" she asked, approaching.

Liara pointed at some text Shepard wasn't about to read. "He was putting two and two together. About us and what we shouldn't know." She looked away and did a wandering lap around the room, as though trying to discern the Broker's new perspective on the galaxy, this time around. Her gaze became a little unfocused. "Of course, he hadn't jumped straight to time travel. But the way he writes here," she murmured, returning to Shepard and trailing her slim fingers over the exceptionally polished surface of the table, "he was getting there."

"That would've been terrible," Shepard concluded, using practical reasoning.

Liara snapped back to reality. "It would have," she agreed. "Good thing we got here first, right?" she posited with a small smile.

"Right. You wanna do some restructuring here for a bit, while I get the Normandy to come pick up Thane?"

The suggestion earned her a grateful smile. "Please. There's so much to do."

"Start with Glyph," was Shepard's unhelpful and obvious suggestion.

"Thank you, Shepard," Liara said sincerely. "For your help. I couldn't have done it without you."

"Sure you could've. This way it just looked much cooler."

Liara's laughter chased Shepard out of the room, a semi-conscious drell on her shoulder.


Thane made it all the way to the medbay before he regained some modicum of awareness of their surroundings. Shepard didn't know if this was because of the inherent fragility of the drell to physical damage (not that that was something she'd ever say to his face) or because the hit was worse this time around, but it hadn't taken Tali nearly as long to come to from this head bump, the first time around.

Chakwas berated them (and Shepard in particular) for their dangerous stunts, but before she could defend herself – possibly by pointing out she hadn't even provoked anyone this time, much less thrown the heavy object herself – Thane blinked up at her, dazed but sharper than she'd seen him in hours.

"Shepard," he greeted slowly. "What happened? Beyond a desk being thrown at me, to clarify."

She opened her mouth to begin the tale, when Karen interrupted her with conviction. "Oh no, not this again. You can brag over how many krogan you hit in the head at once when I'm done accessing and treating my patient. Out, Jane Shepard."

Of course, Chakwas was the kind of person who let herself be sweettalked, and Shepard was good at sweettalking. The compromise to let her stay was allowing the doctor to do her doctor thing while they talked, so Shepard pulled up a chair and gave only a very brief blow-by-blow account of the fight, under Karen's watchful eyeroll.

By the time Thane was declared medically fit, despite being issued a mandatory rest period, Shepard was wrapping up her tirade as well. "You can check with Liara about the contract terms when she gets back to the Normandy," she concluded distastefully, still finding the idea repulsive. "She shouldn't be long."

"I see. Thank you, Commander Shepard," Thane said, sounding appreciative. He glanced at Karen. "And Dr. Chakwas, of course. You didn't have – well, you had no reason to assist me after I was down."

Chakwas shook her head and patted him on the shoulder with a sigh, murmuring something about checking life support functionality with EDI before leaving.

"Course I did. It's what I do," Shepard pointed out.

"I'm starting to get that impression, yes." He paused, considering her. "Why me?" Thane wondered.

Shepard observed him as attentively as he did her. "Why you what?"

He cleared his throat, and winced when it became apparent the action was painful. "Why did your friend – Liara – decide I was the name on the Broker's list she wanted to involve?"

Ah, well. Fortunately, for this one, she could throw someone else under the bus. Let Liara come up with the lie. "You'll have to ask her," she replied noncommittally.

He arched an eyebrow. "It wasn't at your recommendation?"

Shepard tilted her head. "Did someone imply it was?"

"No. I just assumed."

"Why would you assume something like that?"

"Something on your face."

"Good thing we're both lying to each other. Leaves us both on the same plate."

He was now grinning. "Less guilt all around."

"You know what you should do?" Shepard commented in a conversational tone, changing the subject. "Stick around and see if you can find out why it is that you were picked."

He arched an eyebrow at her. "I should, should I?"

She shrugged. "You're a capable fighter. I could use those. I've got a fight coming up that won't take shortcuts or prisoners. Think you can use your skills for moral profit, instead of the financial kind?"

Thane leaned forward, crossing his legs on the bed and linking his fingers. "I could," he acknowledged. "But that is the wrong question. Will I?"

"Will you?"

There was silence for several moments, while he stared down at his hands and frowned slightly. Shepard didn't know what he was weighing, what his motivations were, or even if he'd say yes. But she thought she knew this man – her friend, who'd been through a lot, suffered things that would irrevocably change the strongest of individuals, and had a core that she could recognize whatever his life circumstances were. She respected him, and more importantly, she trusted him.

So she waited patiently. He eventually looked up at her again.

"Certainly," he finally acquiesced. It seemed simple, the answer, as though there was no debate behind it. "If you'll stop so readily insulting my morals," came the addendum, but there was a touch of mirth in his tone.

Shepard grinned at him, standing up and putting the chair back. "Careful. I might try to change them instead." She moved on before he had a chance to comment on that. "Get yourself out of that bed and back on your feet quickly, then. We've got a lot of work ahead."

"Understood, Commander."


Shepard took the opportunity provided by the fact that Thane would be out of the way for a few hours, at least, to call a meeting with the rest of the crew who was briefed on their time-travelling circumstances. There was also Mordin, but if the salarian found it weird that she requested most of her companions to assemble in the comm. room without him, he didn't mention it. Liara hadn't returned from the Broker's base yet, which was fine, as she wasn't the one that needed debriefing.

"The Shadow Broker's dead," she announced as Ashley walked in last. "Which means we now have access to his resources to speed up the Crucible construction, as soon as the research on Mars is finished."

"That's not entirely accurate, Shepard. The Shadow Broker isn't dead, the position changed hands," EDI corrected, present in person for once.

"Hooray," Garrus deadpanned. "Liara is ten times as terrifying now."

Shepard figured Liara would take that as a compliment.

"So, let me get this straight-" Ashley began warily. "Liara replaced a yahg as the most powerful information broker in the galaxy and no one will bat an eye?"

"It's the usual hiring process, I'm told. I know, I thought it was terrible HR at first too," Shepard explained. "Actually, I still do."

"Yours wasn't much better. I maintain your way of recruiting me was by kidnapping and making me crash a Kodiak."

"Vega, I most assuredly did not make you crash that shuttle."

"You're welcome. The kidnapping bit didn't trip you up, though. Good to know."

"Didn't you join the Alliance to follow orders?"

Kaidan and Ashley exchanged a look before he cleared his throat pointedly. "Not to detract from your scintillating discussion on the finer points of what does or doesn't constitute kidnapping, but we were talking about the Shadow Broker?"

Joker decided to intervene. "Credits, data, workforce, blah blah blah, Crucible. Got it. You know, there are a couple of steps between blah blah blah and the Crucible," he pointed out. "We need to do something about the Collectors."

"And force the galaxy to get their shit together," Nihlus added mildly. "I believe you said something about the quarian's homeworld?"

"I have an update on that," Tali announced timely, leaning forward in her chair. "I returned to my people during shore leave." She drummed her fingers on the table, looking as though she were thinking of how best to put what she had to say. Garrus shifted in his seat, moving slightly in her direction like he wanted to offer physical support. "I confirmed my father didn't heed my warnings, and began his experiments on the geth anyway."

Kaidan uncrossed his arms, worry blossoming in his expression. "He's alright?"

The quarian snorted. "He's fine. He was months away from making the mess he got himself killed for." The anger she was now exuding didn't seem lost on anyone in the room. Tali sat back against her chair stiffly, eyes on the ceiling. "Did not listen to a single word I said. He's obsessed. I didn't realize – I hadn't known it was this bad. I forcefully walked up the Alarei, made myself complicit on purpose just to be able to yell at him over it, and he only berated me for getting involved. It's like there are only two thoughts in his mind – destroy the geth and keep me away from it all."

"What'd you do?"

She stood up restlessly and placed both hands on the back of the chair for support. Her eyes flitted across them all briefly. "I took out a pistol and shot up the equipment. The research, all of it. He wasn't expecting that." This seemed to be the one vicious pleasure she took out of the entire situation. "Neither was everyone else."

She'd finally earned an expression of respect from Nihlus, after all this time. "Damn," he said, grinning. "That's one way to solve a problem."

"He had backups, of course. All I did was make a point."

"One hell of a point," Ashley commented admiringly. "What'd they do to you after that?"

Tali scowled. "They? Nothing. I wasn't the one in the wrong. If anything, I managed to get the attention of some of the more doubtful acolytes of my father's." Shepard remembered the voice of a quarian woman leaving one last tearful message for her son, and decided drastic actions were sometimes necessary. "And I – I called in the Admiralty Board."

Shepard's eyes widened, snapping up to her friend, who was already looking back, clearly upset. "I couldn't – there are more important things than my father. And his delusions. His obsession." She slammed a hand on the leather of the chair. "There is a war coming, and this wasn't the time for his bullshit."

"Tali-" James tried, in an attempt to be comforting.

"This was no longer about protecting a dead man's reputation. It was about protecting my people – protecting him – from himself. I did the right thing."

"Doesn't mean you can't feel bad about it," Kaidan pointed out. "No one's questioning your decision."

Tali was easily the most likeable member of Shepard's crew, the one who got along with pretty much everyone. It was probably why she felt secure enough to sniffle slightly in front of her audience. "Thanks," she replied sincerely. She sat back down, hand disappearing under the table in Garrus' direction. "I'll be alright. My father will face trial and I – I will speak for him. If he will let me. His project was only just beginning anyway." She took a shuddering breath and shook her head. "I just hope this gets us one step further in Legion's good graces, at the very least," she continued, switching the subject firmly. "We need him."

"Yeah," Shepard agreed, allowing it. "That should be the next focus, I think."

"We don't know where to find him," Garrus said, identifying the obstacle. "How do we get in touch?"

"I don't know. But we need the geth."

"Do we?" Nihlus piped up, ever the skeptic. "Have we established that?"

"Yes," Tali growled, and no one seemed up to arguing. "We make peace with them and retake our homeworld. It's past time these old sores were closed. The heretics need to be rewritten."

Vega coughed lightly, something unpleasant appearing to occur to him. "Didn't that guy die when – well, when the geth became fully self-aware? When the quarians settled back in Rannoch," he clarified. "He had to- he fried, I- Okay, I don't know how synthetics die."

EDI looked disapproving. "You're fighting a war against synthetics."

"I had a point, and that wasn't it."

Tali nodded haltingly. "Yes. I- he dissolved his consensus. I don't wish to see it happen again."

"Do you have an alternative?"

"No," came the admission. "I don't know why copying and uploading the reaper code was insufficient that he had to dissolve his neural network. He didn't exactly take the time to explain."

"But we could try to find out," Garrus suggested firmly. "And hopefully find another way."

"I am prepared to assist Legion and Tali with any endeavors of the sort," EDI instantly offered.

"Or, we could sacrifice one geth platform for the sake of both peoples."

Tali gave Nihlus such a venomous look, the turian's cool facade faltered. How she managed to do that even though her face was completely hidden, Shepard would never know. "Or, we could not," she snapped. "How about looking for another solution before we take the easy way out?"

"Just saying, we are talking about another dude's life. Someone who's not even here," James spoke up in support of Tali's point. He seemed disturbed by the idea, which earned him a surprised look from Ashley. "Let's slow down with the throwing-people-into-the-meat-grinder-for-the-cause thing."

Nihlus held up both hands in surrender. Shepard met Kaidan's doubtful eyes for a brief second and looked away. This was the kind of long shot they thrived on, she reminded herself firmly. She ignored the synthetic echo of their geth unit's final moments ringing around her brain, countering her argument – I must go to them. There is no other way.

"Okay," she agreed instead, a neutral expression on her face. "That's step two. First we actually have to find him and convince him to join us."

"I have a suggestion," EDI said. "Salvaging the reaper virus the heretics are adapting would get their attention, even more so than Shepard already has by fighting Saren's army. We could wait for them to come to us. Legion seems to be their preferred liaison to the organics."

"I'm sure they haven't had time to properly develop it," Tali protested, frowning slightly. "The virus, I mean. We only just defeated Sovereign."

"I can finish development."

Shepard was warming up to this plan, and was about to say so when Kaidan spoke up like a bucket of icy water. "Hang on, you do realize you're suggesting an infiltration and extraction mission to the biggest hostile geth hub in the galaxy, just for information, right? Without a geth ally this time around. Information, by the by, that they'd then consider compromised, even if the mission goes successfully. I'm assuming destroying the base is out of the question?" he pointed out shrewdly, and Tali made a clicking noise with her tongue that expressed displeased agreement. "Right. So, how are we doing this, then?"

"I say shoot our way in and go from there."

"Which is exactly why you're not in charge of planning missions, Vega," Ashley teased. "Going in without knowing the way back out is a terrible idea."

"I agree. I propose we shoot our way out too."

James guffawed at Shepard's words. "See? Listen to the woman actually in charge of planning."

"I'm just saying, we did it once."

"I'll go with," Tali volunteered.

"Me too," Kaidan added predictably.

"So you're still not shooting your way anywhere, Vega."

"Who is shooting what?" Liara questioned, stepping inside the conference room where they were gathered. She looked tired, but also more at peace, like a weight had been removed from her shoulders.

Shepard cleared her throat and focused on the matter at hand. "Us. Geth."

"… Okay. Seems solid."

"You back?" Ashley said, redirecting the conversation. "All done with the Broker's base?"

"Yes, I believe I have sufficiently integrated EDI with his systems. I'll have Feron come look after the ship while I'm on the Normandy."

"No crashing it into Cerberus cruisers this time, then?" Joker joked.

A grin flashed across Liara's face briefly. "Only if I really have to. Or if I just wake up one day wanting to see a very large explosion."

"Good to know." Shepard patted a chair to her left. "Have a seat. You made good time, we've just finished working out a plan to touch base with Legion."

"Oh?"

Liara was brought up to speed, and in turn, the asari gave them a brief description of the kind of information, assets, and resources she could now bring to the table. It was a starkly incomplete list, but Shepard didn't probe further. Liara was the information broker, not Shepard. She'd know best how to deal in information.

"And about the Crucible, finally," the asari concluded, "I have good news. The Mars team has sent word. They've found our data. With the Shadow Broker's connections, I can make sure construction apparatus is rallied and set within a couple of days."

"Woah, hold on – shouldn't we coordinate this with the Council and the Alliance?" Ashley reminded quickly, before anyone could applaud the progress.

"Why?" Nihlus countered dismissively. "If we don't need them-"

"Of course we need them," Shepard said wearily. "What do you think Liara's connections are for?"

The asari nodded slowly when everyone turned back to her. "I can't bypass galaxy authorities. My apologies if I didn't make that clear."

"Disappointing," Garrus said, and seemed to actually mean it. "But understandable."

"I also recommend involving the rachni in these efforts, Shepard," EDI suggested. Kaidan, who harbored an unreasonable level of dislike for spiders, pulled a striking face at that, but didn't offer a comment. "You'll want them brought into safe allied space in the event that they are captured again. And the geth, as soon as their assistance is available. Specter Kryik should also contact ExoGeni for their assistance."

Nihlus' forehead creased. "Really? That counts as a favor I can cash in?"

"I did," Shepard piped up. "That colony ended up in some – interesting circumstances. This time around, I had Samara visit them for," she paused, mulling over her vocabulary, "legal advice." Tali snorted at her phrasing.

"Right. I'll be sure to keep in touch." He did not seem to require further information.

The meeting wound down quickly after that, and Shepard dismissed everyone except Liara. There were a few things left to wrap up, in her opinion, and the asari clearly agreed.

"Did you convince Thane to stay on the Normandy?" was her first question. "Will he join our efforts?"

"He will," Shepard agreed, and a pleased look flashed on Liara's expression. The asari produced a datapad from what Shepard would swear up and down was absolutely nowhere. "Up to answering a couple questions, finally?"

"Of course," Liara replied earnestly. "Go ahead and ask."

"For a start - how did you know the Shadow Broker would hire Thane?" Shepard asked. "I mean, beyond the – list thing. How-"

"He did it before. Not Thane, specifically, but he hired an assassin."

"Ah."

"The Shadow Broker needed someone with no complicated ties to either me or himself, in case certain vulnerabilities were exposed to an assassin clever enough to make use of them. This job would get so close to his heart to almost touch him – he couldn't afford an extra push. So I made sure Thane was the last viable option. I created plenty of complicated ties." Shepard vehemently decided against requesting clarification, but Liara went on to elaborate regardless. "I performed personal favors, obtained sensitive information. Empty threats where appropriate. There was a kidnapping involved," she recalled off-handedly, and Shepard's horrified gaze snapped to her so fast, the cool facade fell. "No, nothing so terrible!" she added hastily. "It wasn't a child, it wasn't even a morally upstanding kind of person. And I was very accommodating. Krogan snap into blood rage so easily."

"Liara…" Shepard groaned.

"I gave him back," she retorted defensively. "It was just for show. For the Broker's benefit. The krogan, he even understood when I explained. I think. He looked a bit glazed over the entire time."

"O-kay. Moving on. Are you feeling better now?"

Liara shrugged, slumping slightly in her seat. "What is it they say? Revenge solves nothing?"

"I didn't realize that's what this was about."

"Shepard, I don't know what it is about anymore. A lot was happening at once when I first got tangled up in the Broker's business." She stood unsteadily. "Revenge, grief, just general greediness, no matter how much I tell myself otherwise. I thought I was over and done with it, but- clearly, these feelings surface easily."

Alarmed, Shepard leaned forward. "Liara, I-"

The asari shook her head, silencing her. "If all I need to do to bury them again is rid the galaxy of the Broker, then it's done."

"And burying them is the best option?"

"Yes."

Shepard gave up. "Alright, Liara. I'm dropping it. I just need you to keep in mind I'm here if you need me."

Liara let out a heavy, wistful sigh. "I know. I thank the goddess for it every day. Don't worry. I'm fine. Let's focus on the reapers now – I won't take up any more time for this."

"You didn't take up time."

The asari patted Shepard's cheek. "You're too good for the terrible things that happen to you."

Amused, Shepard stood up too and resigned herself to the fact that the matter was settled. "I dunno. I do shoot a lot of people."

Liara's quiet laughter was the small comfort she wrangled out of it.


"I'm worried about Liara," Shepard announced to Kaidan, walking into her cabin. Somehow, he might be better audience than the asari for her concerns.

"What's wrong?"

She huffed and flopped onto the bed, where he scooched over to make room, putting away a datapad full of what was probably urgent information Shepard was supposed to deal with. "The Shadow Broker stuff."

"She's been different since she first got involved with him," Kaidan noted. "Not surprising, considering."

"Right. Different as in she's bottling up things that are upsetting her. She refuses to open up."

"Hmm," Kaidan said, sounding doubtful. "You know, I think I've come up with an alternative explanation." Shepard eyed him expectantly, so he cleared his throat. "Liara went through a lot, the years you were dead. I can't imagine what she must have been feeling throughout- well, I don't want to imagine. Sometimes, I wish she'd told me, other times I thank god she didn't," he added on a tangent, before focusing back on the subject. "And maybe – maybe, she needed you then. I know I did," he murmured. "If you – if things had been different, maybe she'd be different now too."

Shepard withdrew her knees under her chin, tucking herself further against Kaidan. She was feeling small, like he was describing some specter of her that had been brought to life to deal in hypotheticals. "You all changed," she picked up where he'd left off. "That was one of the things that- it was like waking up in a different reality."

"Yeah. For me too."

"But not like her," she stubbornly insisted. "You changed, somewhat, sure. When I saw you, though," Shepard said, poking a finger against his chest, "I still recognized you. You didn't go away. A little sadder, a little graver, more confident, but it was still you, underneath all that. The person I knew, I could still see it, clear as day. It was-" she struggled to find the words, and settled on gesturing vaguely around them. "It was still easy, with you. Well, once we got past- y'know, Horizon."

"Grief does strange things to the way you see the world. Certain thoughts become petty and irrelevant." Kaidan placed a kiss on her shoulder. "So, I changed superficially," he continued, getting back on track, "but not Liara?"

"Not Liara," she confirmed. "All I could think, talking to her, was that she was about to burst into tears and just let me help. But she never did. I only got more and more frustrated, trying to talk to her without really understanding the problem."

Kaidan seemed to take a few silent moments to think, still balancing his chin on her shoulder. "Liara was once a person who would do that. Who needed you for that. Who could count on you to be her hero. But then – Shepard, you died," he pointed out, as gently as he could. "The only hero she had then was herself. Maybe she changed to make herself the kind of person to whom that was enough. She'd have broken otherwise."

"Yeah. I get that."

Kaidan shifted to lay back on the bed, and she fell on top of him, head on his chest. His arm wrapped around her, fingers getting lost in the mass of loose hair spilling down both of them and onto the sheets. The other hand found hers. "Think that's what you're seeing in her now?"

Shepard sighed and pressed her face further into his chest. "Yes. Maybe. I don't know. You're probably right."

"I don't think she'll go back now, Shepard," he advised comfortingly. "But that doesn't have to be a bad thing."

"I know," she mumbled. A meditative peace was falling over her, locked in a bubble with Kaidan like this, a stolen moment removed from wars or grieving friends. "I wish I could always be there for people when they need me." Shepard winced immediately at the way that had come out. "I just mean – if there are going to be expectations, you'd hope I could at least meet them."

"Of course. Could be argued dying was your fault." The fact that she could identify hurt among the derisiveness added extra punch to the words.

"You know what I meant."

"I do. I love you for it. Please don't make it the reason I lose you."

Shepard tensed, and could tell he'd felt it. "You won't lose me."

Kaidan let out a long breath. "I need you too," he told her tersely, knowingly selfish. She closed her eyes. It was a dirty trick, but she wasn't immune. "So please – keep that in mind."

She uncoiled herself from him, crawling up to his face for a kiss. "You won't lose me," she promised again. "I swear."

His hand covered hers where it was pressed up against his cheek. "You better mean that. We're halfway to the finish line and this is where it gets nasty."

"No catching our breath from here to the end," she agreed. "It'll be alright, though," she vowed. "It will."

It didn't much matter if he believed her or not, in the end – he was always going to kiss her feverishly like every chance was precious, and she was always going to respond in kind. If Liara had needed to cling to her commander to make sense of every truth collapsing around them, this was what Shepard held onto instead.

Having Kaidan in her life, feeding off each other's support, kept her sane every time she faced a new horror. It reminded her what she could come back to, if she just kept putting one foot after the other, one breath and one bullet at a time.

Lately, it'd taken on even broader dimensions – if she could see this war through, if she could step out on the other side, she could have a life full of things dreamed up for other people. Things Shepard rescued for others, things she'd never thought to get for herself.

She didn't have to end her life a corpse among martyr graves, she didn't have to do this for everyone else only. Kaidan had wandered along and offered her more, grabbed hold of her arm before she could rush over the precipice. An anchor that promised air instead of drowning her. Shepard hadn't ever realized she could want something so desperately.

She told him later, like revealing a secret. It was safe now, in this new life she'd somehow been gifted. She'd had a thought, back on Virmire, when Ashley was dead and Saren was stupid, and Sovereign was lighting her up in red. Shepard didn't know how, when or where – after the bomb exploded and her sister with it, left behind as though she were dispensable (never, ever, three years later, Shepard had still felt her loss keenly like a punch to the gut), on the Normandy flying away from what they'd done – she realized she wouldn't live to see the end of this fight. That no matter how it went, she wasn't going to walk away.

It wasn't a premonition and most of the time, she could put it out of her mind. Certainly, it hadn't stopped her from getting far too involved with Alenko, hadn't stopped her from cruelly allowing his hopeful and intense attachment. It was a fact she'd hardly entertained until she was feeling Anderson's life wasting away against her shoulder. It was easy to keep everyone else afloat, chin up, soldier, it was easy to lie and deal in promises meant to save them, whatever she felt inside.

But now she was here, and she needed Kaidan to understand the feeling had gone away. That helping people – helping Liara – was the task ahead before she could help herself. This time, she would. That was what she meant when she told him he wouldn't lose her. Every fight was as much for her benefit as it was for the people she helped.

He didn't have much to say to that – kissed her forehead and told her to sleep, both arms around her in a vice grip.

Shepard complied. She couldn't convince him how this would end, but she could keep him close for comfort.