Chapter Six
Survival is the Spirit

Location Withheld

Everything erupted in violence. Cruel talons pierced the tender flesh on her body. The harder she struggled, the deeper the grip became. She desperately needed to draw a breath, but the much-needed air would not come. Instead her lungs filled with water so cold that it sent stabbing pains radiating throughout her entire body.

Then everything was gone – the talons, the pain and the need to breathe – and only darkness remained. With the gradual onset of a sense of peace, acceptance finally started to take hold.

No.

Everything was wrong. Although it had been chillingly cold, there had been no water to fill her lungs in the emptiness over Alchera. There had been no peace as she died. Instead she had fought, clinging desperately to the last scraps of life because she had something to live for. It was with that realisation that the nightmare started to unravel. As she clawed her way to consciousness, Shepard realised that it did not belong to her. The last glimpse she saw in the midst of that peace was her hand drifting limply in front of her fading vision. The skin was blue.

Shepard bolted upright and drew in deep, sucking breaths. The single word came out as half-strangled croak that sounded less like an actual word and more like cry.

"Liara!"

Shepard found herself in her prison cell. The overhead lights had been dimmed slightly for sleeping, but they still illuminated every crevice of the room. It meant that her jailors were always watching.

She swung her bare legs over the side of the bed and hang her head, clutching at it in both hands as though trying to make sense of something.

For some reason, Shepard felt that what she had just experienced was no ordinary nightmare. It had been terrifying and real enough, but those experiences were not her own. Somehow, despite whatever distance separated them, her bond with Liara had finally triggered. Shepard did not know whether Liara had felt her in return, all she did know was that something terrible had happened to her bondmate. It had felt as though she had been drowning. Regardless of whether it was a literal interpretation of something that was actually happening, Liara was in life-threatening pain.

Her bare feet hit the cold floor and she lurched toward the two-way mirror. With clenched fists, she began pummelling against it in an urgent beat. With the lights dimmed on her side, she could see the faint outline of someone observing her. Whoever it was did not move even as she continued to pound her fists against the glass.

"You have to let me out!" As Shepard screamed at the top of her lungs, flecks of spittle hit the mirror. A small part of her acknowledged the futility of her demands. She knew that she could scream and beat at the glass for hours until she lost her voice and her hands were bruised, but still they would not release her from the sterile prison. However, accepting her reality paled in comparison to the danger she knew Liara was in. "Please let me out!"

Placing her hands over her head and digging her fingertips into her scalp, Shepard paced a few steps back from the glass. She scanned the room in which they kept her. The furnishings were minimal. Save for the bed she slept in and the fixed toilet in the corner, everything was plastic – the bedside table and the pitcher which held her water. She renewed her attack on the mirror with something approaching a frenzied state – smashing her foot, her shoulder, and her head, anything that could have a chance of shattering the glass.

"Come you fucking prick, I can see you standing there for fuck's sake!" she yelled as she finally gave in and unleashed her left fist on the glass without restraint.

Shepard felt only a dull impact reverberate throughout her body as the crystalline appendage slammed into the glass with a solid thunk. In the wake of the strike, she saw that a single, small crack had appeared on the otherwise unblemished surface. She immediately resumed pounding against the glass with her left hand, cursing the fact that she lacked the strength to be able to put any decent power behind her punches.

She had managed to create several broad cracks in the thick glass when the lights suddenly went up to their full strength and the door to her room opened.

"Stand down, Shepard!" a harsh voice demanded.

Shepard turned to see three Alliance soldiers entering her room, all three of whom had stun pistols aimed in her direction.

"You need to let me out of here," she said, her voice trembling with rage and exhaustion as she approached them. "Someone is in danger."

They were all unmoved by her plea. The nearest yelled at her again, "Get down on the ground, now!"

Although she had absolutely no desire to hurt the men, they were standing between her and a possible avenue of escape. She lifted her hands above her head and began to kneel at a deliberately slow pace. Obviously eager to get back to whatever he would rather be doing at that moment in time, the nearest approached her with an irritated huff. Shepard waited until he was within striking distance before making her move. Her hands darted forward, her left wrapped around the hand that held his weapon. The artificial fingers squeezed in a crushing grip even as they wrenched the weapon from his hand. As soon as he let it go, Shepard drove her right fist up into his gut. She rolled, grunting as her almost bare shoulder slammed into the hard ground. A stun discharge narrowly missed her moving body as she bounced lightly into a kneeling position and fired. As the bolt hit the nearest squarely in the chest, he screamed and dropped like a stone. However, before she could put down the second, Shepard felt a weight slam into her body. Her snap judgment that she'd made to rule the first soldier out of the fight had been wrong. Even with a broken hand, he managed to knock her off balance. Her second shot narrowly missed the third soldier. At such close range, his own shot did not miss. The discharge slammed into Shepard's shoulder, whirling her around and throwing her to the floor. Although the pain was intense, she did not cry out. A knee was jammed in her back while both her hands were wrenched together and bound. The slug had been more than enough to put down a fully fit adult, but a part of Shepard was still able to struggle against the hands that tried to restrain her.

"Where the hell is the doc?" one demanded. With the pain clearly evident in his voice, Shepard guessed it was the one whose hand she had broken.

"Shoot her again for christ's sake, Yamada!"

"Put that goddamn weapon away, soldier!" Shepard immediately recognised Dr Stone's voice.

"With all due respect, ma'am-"

"You shoot her again you could kill her!" Stone said harshly.

With one cheek jammed hard against the floor, Shepard watched as the blonde doctor knelt at her side. "Naomi…please, Liara's in danger." She felt cold hands grabbing at her arm, followed by the sharp prick of a needle as it entered a vein. "No! Don't sedate me, I just need…"

The sedative was exceptionally fast working. Only a few seconds after Stone withdrew the needle, she felt herself lose control over all her limbs. Her entire body went limp.

"I'm sorry, Evan," were the last words she heard Stone say as unconsciousness dragged her downwards into oblivion.

Please don't give up, Liara!


Fiordland, New Zealand

The peace Liara had felt was cruelly shattered by the fierce fire burning in her lungs. Angry at being dragged out of the dream in which she had been reunited with Shepard, she fought to return to it. However, someone would not let her sleep. She felt lips close over her own and drive air into her mouth. The lips were rough and the surrounding skin prickly. Liara's first instinct was to summon her biotics so she could force her attacker away but the desperate need to breathe outweighed everything else. With a gasp, her lungs constricted painfully and she started choking instead of breathing.

"Let it out, kid, let it out."

Firm hands rolled her over onto her side. Liara's entire body heaved to expel the water that filled her lungs. As it bubbled forth over her lips, she felt as though her stomach lining was being ripped out along with it.

It was all she was aware of for several minutes as she struggled with finding herself back in the pain of her reality. As her breathing returned to something approaching regularity, Liara gradually became aware of the smell of wet earth beneath her. She could not feel her limbs. There was nothing other than an all-consuming cold that seemed to be eating away at her body from the inside out.

"C-c-cold." Her teeth were chattering so severely it was difficult to force the simple word out.

"I'm not surprised." Liara thought she recognised the male voice from somewhere, but she could not bring herself to care. Nor could she summon any willpower to fight back as she felt herself being prised from the earth and up into a strong pair of arms. "Not exactly the best time of the year to take a swim."

In her delirious state, Liara found herself instinctively burrowing close to the warmth offered by the body that held her. It smelled of smoke and sweat. As hurried movements lulled her into a half-sleep she lost all urge to fight back. She could understand on some level that this person was trying to help her, regardless of her own wishes – whatever those wishes had been. Liara did not know whether she had truly wanted everything to end. All she knew was that she had managed to find peace for the first time since Shepard's death and it had felt amazing.

At some stage, as she drifted in and out of consciousness, she became aware of an artificial surface tapping beneath booted feet. This struck the still capable part of her mind as almost impossible since the only artificial element of the landscape was her own compound. There was no way this stranger could possibly gain access. Nevertheless, as her limp body was lowered onto a soft surface, Liara caught flashes of familiar surfaces.

"How..." she whispered.

"Answers later, kid. We've got to get you out of these wet things and into something warm."

Being warm sounded like an unattainable goal. Having long since lost all feeling in her limbs, Liara was fast approaching the point where she could no longer feel the rest of her body. Her head felt like it was on the verge of exploding and she was dimly aware of her heart struggling with each beat. When firm hands began dragging off the sodden wet clothes that clung to her body, she was too tired to either help or care that she was being stripped naked by a stranger. Eventually she felt her limbs being swathed in something soft and dry.

It was only after an undefined amount of time had passed that she became aware of the rest of her body. Firm fingers were massaging a measure of feeling back into her feet. At first she continued to float in a pleasant sort of haze. As she felt the skin of her own stomach beneath one of her hands, she was grateful it felt warm to the touch. After being colder than she had ever been in her life, the warmth felt almost alien. It took her some time to realise that she was completely naked – even her underwear had been discarded. Her eyes jerked open to find her body swaddled within the cover from her own bed. The only limb protruding was her right foot. It currently rested in the lap of the human male she had attacked a few days earlier. He looked relieved when he saw the she was awake. It was a sentiment Liara could not share, she yanked her foot out of his grasp and drew the cover around her like a shield. She would have summoned her biotics, but just thinking about it gave her a headache. When she shifted her body slightly, a sharp pain stabbed just below her left breast.

"Sorry about that, kid," he said as he saw her wince. "One of your ribs is probably broken."

Liara gingerly moved her hand up her stomach, skin sliding against bare skin. Her eyes eventually widened in realisation. "I am naked!" she whispered in horror. "You..."

"Yeah...your clothes needed to come off." He shrugged, hardly seeming apologetic. "Although I must admit, I didn't expect you to be so prudish. I've been to Thessia and I've seen what asari call 'fully-clothed."

Liara lacked the strength to summon anything other than a smouldering fury. Her gaze drifted over the interior of her compound. She saw her discarded wet clothes lying in a pile in the middle of the floor. The fact that she was naked suddenly paled in comparison to the fact that the human had managed to simply stroll into a building with the most advanced security that money could buy. She felt weak and helpless despite the sympathetic expression on his rugged face. The human had stripped off his own coat and probably several other external layers to the point where he was clad in just a tight thermal garment. Beneath it she could make out a body that was wiry and muscular. His damp, grey hair was plastered to his head. Although he had to have been cold himself, he appeared not to notice or at least not to care.

"How the hell did you get in here?" she demanded.

"You'd think I'd be able to get into my own bloody home," he replied with a grin.

Liara's mouth widened into an 'o' of surprise. "Your home..."

He nodded toward the view beyond the window. "You didn't actually think that the Queen of Omega suddenly decided that she wanted to get back to nature did you? That bitch wouldn't know how to appreciate natural beauty if someone slapped her in the face with it. No, this is my little piece of paradise and you, my dear Dr T'Soni, are my guest."

"How do you know Aria?" Liara asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "What is she to you that you would just let her usurp your home to give to a complete stranger?"

"Well you're not a complete stranger are you, I've seen you naked after all." He appeared slightly guilty when she narrowed her eyes in his direction. "I might have lied to you the other day," he eventually admitted. "I said my name was Peter Massey. That was a load of bullshit."

As an information broker, Liara had been privy to a great deal of information over the years. Although not every single fact stayed put in her head, she still managed to retain a mound of trivial and not so trivial facts. Liara slowly recalled something she had once heard about Aria T'Loak taking a human lover for almost a decade. Although she couldn't be sure, the facts were starting to add up. "You're Pericles Macklin," she offered quietly.

He winced at the use of his rather unwieldy name. "Please, it's just Mack," he insisted. "So, you've heard about me?"

Liara nodded. "Although very little...other than that you were a renowned mercenary captain...and Aria's human lover."

Mack nodded with a rueful smile. "I may not look it now, but at one time I wasn't too shabby in the looks department – you might have even called me handsome. My relationship with Aria ended a hell of a long time ago – well, a long time for me anyway – but it's not exactly something you can let go. For a human, being with an asari...it's difficult to explain-"

He suddenly cut himself off for which Liara was grateful. She did not want to have to explain about her own relationship with a human. Pushing her dead soldier to the back of her mind, Liara analysed the situation in which she now found herself. She was furious that Aria had managed to exert her control over her self-imposed exile without her knowledge. For all her resources as the Shadow Broker, she had been completely blind to the way in which she had been manipulated. Now she was wearing nothing but bed clothes in a home that was never hers to begin with.

"That lying bitch," Liara cursed. "I helped her take back Omega and you are telling me that she has repaid me with a web of lies!"

"I wouldn't go as far as to say that," Mack spoke up. "Although she'd never admit it herself, Aria doesn't hate you."

"That is hardly comforting," Liara muttered.

"I'd take it as a compliment," Mack suggested "You're not likely to get anything better. Anyway, if she hadn't tasked me with looking out for you, you'd be lying at the bottom of that lake right now. That's not a place you wanted to be, not as young as you are."

I think I did, Liara thought as she turned her head to gaze out on the imposing surface of the lake. It was still, peaceful, betraying none of the violence she had felt as she was dragged beneath its surface. "Who are you to decide that for me? Just because I am young, does not mean that I want to have to live the rest of my life." She turned back to face the human. There was an impassive expression on his face that betrayed absolutely nothing. "You cannot possibly understand what it feels like to have centuries of loneliness stretching out in front of you."

Mack shook his head. "No, can't say that I do, but this short-lived human does understand a few things. If you'd been serious about trying to kill yourself, kid, you would have put a gun to your head and pulled the trigger. So there has to be something out there that's keeping you alive."


London, Earth

He wasn't sure whether the coffee he was drinking was any better than the swill he liked to consume before the war. As time passed, it became difficult to remember the world as it once had been. Although he knew that it had been full of promise and the laughter of his children, that time was now just a memory and the few tattered photographs that he had managed to save.

David Codrington drained the last dregs of coffee, grateful at least that it had been hot. He gathered up his grimy hardhat and stepped out of his tent. Over the past few weeks, work had progressed exceedingly rapidly on the new stretch of pipeline connecting central London with the Honor Oak reservoir. His superiors were pleased with progress and essentially left him to his own devices. As long as the work was completed, they had no complaints.

In reality, David was rapidly losing enthusiasm for his work. For months, it had been all that kept him going. The intensity of slogging it out through and beneath the war-ravaged streets of London was back-breaking and soul-sapping, but his crew had been with him every step of the way. They were good men and women who looked to him for leadership. However, following the incident two weeks earlier, David was beginning to question the foundations of the new order that he was helping to build. It had been two weeks since he and Hardy had discovered Commander Shepard's unconscious body in the strange cocoon. Every night that he went to sleep in his dingy prefab, he dreamed of the moment the structure around her had collapsed and she'd fallen into his arms. The pain that had been transparent in her pale blue eyes was seared into his mind. Every morning he woke with the strange name on his lips – Liara T'Soni. He'd tried to do some digging on the extranet, but he knew his searches would be monitored and the records surrounding Shepard were little more than propaganda at best – most extolling her as a paragon of humanity. He could find no reference to the name that had been on her lips when she woke.

For two weeks David had waited for the news that Shepard had been found alive. Every day he searched the feeds to find them full of nothing except the latest horror stories from around the Galaxy. Tuchanka was apparently gripped in a civil war that was so devastating that it meant the genophage had been cured for nothing. The Krogan were killing themselves faster than they could breed. Most greeted this news with nothing short of unbridled enthusiasm. No one wanted the Krogan in any position of galactic power. There were several stories of alien races attacking human colonies – all of which appeared to have been repelled either by the heroic colonists themselves or the Alliance.

David wasn't sure how much faith he placed in those reports. They seemed like stories fabricated to drive more recruits to join the Alliance. He'd already lost several of his best workers to the recruiters. It galled him to hear the continued focus on the war and the military when it was peace that people needed to hear about. Still the bombastic propaganda continued, and there was absolutely no word about Commander Shepard. A part of him reluctantly acknowledged that she could have died. However, he'd heard the way in which she forced the tortured syllables from her lips – Liara T'Soni. He knew that no one with that sort of love to live for would give up so easily.

He'd bet his own life that Commander Shepard was still alive. What he could not understand was why the Alliance would want to hide that fact. The Shepard was a hero, an icon – she could bring hope to millions. It made no sense whatsoever. As David trudged back toward the tunnel entrance, he could not help but think of the young woman he'd held in his arms for only a few minutes. Regardless of how badly the galaxy needed her, he wanted her to live for the simple fact that she deserved it.

"Hey Dave!" Hardy's raucous yell disturbed his quiet contemplation. "Are ya trying to slack off or what?"

"I'm still your boss, you insolent sod," David replied as he placed his hardhat on his head. "Surely you could've started without me?"

Hardy scowled. It made his rugged face look slightly impish. "Neither meself nor any of this sorry lot went to university. There's real engineering stuff to be done. That's your job, mate."

David grinned as he slapped Hardy across the back. "Just shut up and lead the way."

As David slipped once more into the cool darkness below ground he breathed a sigh of relief. Sometimes he had the stupid idea that this was where he belonged. Amanda had always teased him that he was some sort of troglodyte, more at home in his caves as opposed to up on the surface with everyone else. Still, it was handy in his line of work. He hated to think how difficult his job would have been if the thought of having all that earth above his head made him uneasy.

"How bout you finally come out for a round with us tonight?" Hardy suggested. "Some of the swill that they're serving ain't half bad and there are actual birds around here, Dave. Some of 'em ain't half bad either!"

"Look...mate, I just don't feel like I'm ready-"

"Hey, I gotcha, you're not ready to let the missus go," Hardy interrupted. "No birds, fine...but a pint at least?"

David replied with a slightly shrug which was more than enough of a positive answer for Hardy. He let out a whoop of triumph which sounded overly loud in the close confines of the tunnel. The pair passed a couple of other members of the crew whom he greeted before moving on. He knew all of them well enough to swap a few jokes save for a new guy who'd joined only a few days ago. Eventually they came to the face of the tunnel. The tunnel boring machine had broken through into a pocket several hours earlier. He'd spent much of that time trying to devise a suitable means to bridge the gap with their limited resources.

"How deep do you reckon that there hole is?" Hardy cautiously approached the edge and peered down.

Having never been overly fond of heights himself, David did not approach the edge. "Hard to say, why don't you jump off and find out?" For some reason he had an odd feeling tingling at the base of his skull. David tried to shrug it off. "We're just lucky we didn't lose the TBM." The machine would be next to impossible to replace.

"Sod off," Hardy replied with a grin.

David suddenly realised that his hands were empty. "Shit, forgot the damn datapad with all the bloody calculations on it."

"You'd forget your balls too if they weren't attached," Hardy joked with an annoyed snort. "Hurry up then, mate. I ain't got all day. Some of us actually do want to talk to a lady tonight." He gave one of his armpits a quick sniff and made a face. "And if I'm gonna get anywhere, I need a damn shower."

"You need more than that," David remarked over his shoulder.

Not wanting to hold up the schedule any longer than necessary, David broke into a jog as he made his way out of the tunnel. He passed by the crew he'd joked with earlier.

"Hey boss, you forget something?"

David paused. It was the new guy – James or Jason, he couldn't remember his name. "Yeah, I'm a dumb arse."

"I'll get it for ya, whatcha lost?" he jogged up alongside David with an eager grin on his face. "You can get back to the face."

He shook his head as he continued. "It's fine. I've got it, lad." Jake, that's his name. Huh, old man's not so old after all!

"Seriously, boss, I can get it."

"I got it, Jake," David assured him with a friendly pat on his shoulder.

He only managed a few more steps before a dull boom emanated from the tunnel behind him. As he whipped himself around, a wall of loose earth and air suddenly came rushing toward him. It slammed into both him and the young man at his side. They were picked up and thrown a good half a dozen metres before colliding with the soft mud. As David picked himself up, he realised that the overhead lights had been knocked out. The sole source of light was coming from his helmet. The weak beam barely penetrated the gloom up ahead. Beside him, Jake was lying half-dazed with a nasty cut on his forehead but otherwise unharmed. David heard more coughs coming from behind him.

"Shit," he whispered as he struggled to his feet and drunkenly plodded forward. "Hardy!"

David made it only as far as the TBM. The massive boring machine was almost completely buried in packed earth and rubble. He slammed his fist against the rear of the machine, hard enough to cause blood to flow from one of his knuckles. There was no way his buddy was walking away from the accident.

Yeah...an accident, David thought with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.