Chapter Eleven
A Naked Frailty
Location Unknown
"Shepard!"
There was an unrestrained panic as Shepard struggled against the unseen forces that mercilessly wrenched her body. She struggled to breathe, but she took in more water than air. Her lungs burned as though on fire. Something rose up out of the darkness and slammed into her head – subduing her almost instantly. Despite the intense pain that radiated across her skull, she drifted in a vague sort of peace as she accepted the situation.
Everything was undoubtedly all fucked up.
Survival, even if she could bring herself to care about living, was unlikely. Somewhere, at the back of her mind, she knew that she was supposed to have a stupid mantra for such situations.
The Commander's Mantra. Well that much was wrong already. She was a Commander of nothing, not even her own life. There was no ship, no crew, not even a damn uniform.
Just breathe. Even that was easier said than done. I can't fucking breathe!
Maintain control. Control of what? As she let her body go completely limp, it was dragged along in a relentless current. She'd already fought and raged to no avail, what good would it do to prolong her suffering? She closed her eyes. There was nothing to see in the darkness anyway.
"By the Goddess, Evan, please get up!"
Her eyes suddenly snapped open. Pain and awareness came flooding back. Was there someone with her? Her eyes searched uselessly in the darkness. There was no one – just the unrelenting cold and inky blackness waiting to swallow her whole.
"We need to move!"
Even if she wanted to, Shepard didn't know which way was up. "I can't, you need to go without-"
This was where it would finally end. Here. Alone. In the dark.
"Like hell I will! You are not doing this to me. Not when I need you so desperately. Now on your feet soldier or by the Goddess I will kick the fucking crap out of you!"
A part of her tried to comply, but her feet were merely some appendage below her, or were they above her? She absently thrashed them about for a few moments but succeeded only in striking her shin against the same unyielding surface that had collided with her head. It hurt like hell, but the pain meant that she was still alive. She managed to discern which way was up. When she kicked out again, the invisible forces weakened and she moved upward, bursting through the surface a spluttering, thrashing fit of movement. The darkness was still there, but she could finally gasp in glorious air.
Eventually, Shepard felt something undeniably solid beneath her feet – or at least she hoped it was solid. Using her fingernails like claws, she dragged herself forward, up and out of the desperate clutches of the water. Not caring where she was, she continued until the entirety of her sodden form was out of the water. Then she gratefully collapsed onto her back and lay sucking in grateful gasps of air. Each breath burned, but it was still sweet.
Shepard was dimly aware of pain arcing across different parts of her body, or possibly all of it, but nothing was more pressing than the need to breathe and orientate herself. Even as the breaths came more easily, the darkness retreated only enough for her to see her pale hand when she waved it in front of her face. When she rolled her head to one side, she could see nothing other than an eerie pale light dancing on top of the water.
Time passed. Shepard tucked her body into a tight ball to find some measure of warmth. She knew that the Alliance would be looking for her with a vengeance – Stone in particular. The blonde's smiling face cut across the images flashing behind her eyes, accompanied by Heller's impassioned plea not to trust her. While Shepard had never trusted the woman completely, she had allowed herself to hope.
Despite the cold clawing at what remained of her sanity, Shepard knew that Stone had not lied about her identity. While her memory of that night was dimmed by the passage of time, she distinctly remembered meeting the woman in a Citadel nightclub. She remembered their heated exchange in a dark corner, or at least the frightening hunger she had felt whilst devouring the blonde. It played out like so many other encounters throughout her life. The difference being that none of those other one night stands had re-emerged with a burning desire to hold her captive, torture her and ultimately end her life.
Had she hurt Naomi? The harder she searched her memories, the deeper the images retreated. Eventually she was left with only a dull haze of pain as that night became clouded by images of all the nights before and after. She gave up altogether and instead tried to sit up. Nothing would cooperate properly. All her limbs were numbed by cold save for her artificial hand – that felt as though it was burning. When Shepard pressed the fingertips to her clammy cheek, they almost seared the skin.
She managed an awkward, slithering crawl over the slimy rocks beneath her. Her cracked fingertips dragged against the hard surface. Although she was exhausted, Shepard did not stop moving until she felt a dry surface beneath her. While her sodden clothing created a damp pool around her, she collapsed, breathing heavily from the exertion.
Sleep tugged at the edges of her fragile consciousness, but Shepard fought to remain awake. With the natural fingers of her right hand she probed experimentally at the head wound she'd sustained while underwater. Although it was tender to the touch, it wasn't bleeding profusely. The gunshot wound to her shoulder was another matter altogether. She had sincere intentions of trying to bind it with a length from her t-shirt, but the desire to slip into unconsciousness was proving too strong.
"You need to stay awake, Evan."
Shepard knew she was delirious when she heard Liara's voice as clearly as though the asari was with her in the dank cave. She knew and she didn't care. For a few blissful moments, it felt as though Liara was there and that was all the mattered.
"T-tired." Her eyelids slowly drooped.
"You have always been stubborn. Why do you choose now to start simply accepting things as they are?" Liara demanded. "Open your eyes."
"No," Shepard wheezed through lips that would barely move.
"Open your eyes!"
A split second after she felt the tangible warmth of Liara's breath flow over the skin of her face, Shepard forced her eyes open. Her heart almost stopped when she came face to face with the asari. Liara was leaning over her, propped up with a hand on either side of her body.
Shepard's head lolled from side to side in the negative. "You're not here."
Liara was wearing the science uniform she had worn during her days on the Normandy SR-1. And she was bone dry.
"Does it matter?" Liara asked softly. She lifted a hand as if to touch Shepard's cheek, but cruelly left it hovering just out of reach. "As long as you don't give up and let yourself die down here."
"I might," Shepard replied abruptly. "Gotta run out of lives sooner or later."
Her hand flailed upwards, reaching for Liara. Her lover gracefully moved backwards to crouch on her haunches, avoiding her touch by scant inches. Angry at being denied, Shepard dragged her own body upwards. Her movements were much less graceful and accompanied by a flurry of expletives.
"Fuck!" she hissed as she propped herself up against the sheer rock face at her back. "You're pissing me off, T'Soni."
"Good," Liara said in a terse voice. "Get angry. It will help you stay alive."
Shepard snorted. "You don't need to lecture me about being angry, Li. I've been fucking angry since I woke up. Heller, Stone, the whole damn Alliance…Hannah fucking Shepard." Not Mum…never again. She lost the right to that title the day she threw her lot in with the Alliance. "Now I'm sitting in a goddamn cave talking to myself…probably surrounded by soldiers with guns and itchy trigger fingers. Not to mention a psychopathic bitch with a hard on for me."
She tried to keep her gaze focused on the image of her lover, but in staring directly at the spot where Liara sat, she found only darkness. Instead, Liara's form remained elusive, hovering just at the edge of her vision. As she sat, still breathing heavily, Shepard absently patted at the pockets of her coat. She already knew she'd lost both her pistol and the omni-tool that Heller had provided for her. There was something bulky nestled inside one pocket but her numb fingers wouldn't work on the zip.
"Be careful with Dr Stone, Evan," Liara cautioned her. "You undoubtedly have history. I would not write it off as insignificant."
A chill ran down Shepard's spine as she gave up trying to make her right-hand work and used the left instead. She could feel the zip beneath her fingertips, but it felt wrong.
"Yes we do have history. I fucked her…or at least I think I did." The zip worked easily and Shepard sighed as she remembered the individual she had been before she met Liara. "But I was lost back then. It meant nothing to me…maybe she expected more?"
She eventually withdrew a small package from the pocket. Although she could make out little in the darkness, the red cross on the front was distinctive enough. Shepard laughed.
"I fail to see what is funny about your situation." Liara was not as amused.
"Lighten up, baby." A dangerously giddy feeling overtook her body. When she rummaged into other pockets she came up with another pack containing a small survival kit with ration bars, a survival blanket and several glo-sticks. "We are definitely naming our first-born Bryan."
When the fluorescent orange glo created a small halo of light around her body, it was enough to make some of her weariness retreat along with the darkness. The worry that the light might be spotted by her pursuers nagged at the back of her mind, but it was barely bright enough to extend as far as the water.
"We most certainly are not," the asari fired back immediately. "I am not naming my daughter Bryan T'Soni!"
Shepard chuckled as she drew the medigel out of the kit. "Get angry, baby. It's so bloody amusing it might help me stay alive." She thought she saw Liara's beautiful features twist into a scowl out of the corner of her eye. Her shoulder wound protested violently when she started stripping off her coat, to the point where she had to stifle a whimper. Shepard drew in a deep breath. "And I have a feeling that patching this up is going to hurt like hell."
Unmarked Transport Vessel, Mid-Flight
Despite the hunger gnawing at his stomach, David could not bring himself to pick up the sandwich that lay on the seat beside him. Instead he remained staring out of the transport's tiny window. He could see absolutely nothing other than a deep blackness that seemed to claw at the sides of their vehicle. His new companions had left him alone for the better part of an hour. Liara T'Soni had murmured something about him needing sleep, but the thought of closing his eyes was too difficult to contemplate. It was thoroughly ridiculous, but he was certain that he would wake up to discover that everything that had happened to him over the past few hours had been some sort of dream.
David barely remembered any specific details of recent events other than an all-encompassing blur. The sheer terror of his desperate flight from his apartment had been replaced by a dull panic that clung to every thought and action. He'd blindly followed the asari, not caring whether she was leading him to safety, but because there was nothing else he could do. Less than twenty minutes after she'd saved his life, David had found himself bundled aboard a non-descript transport bound for the other side of the Atlantic. He had vague memories of being introduced to another human, but he could not remember the man's name. The only image that stood out starkly in his mind was the terrible visage of Liara T'Soni. Her cold blue eyes continued to strip him bare, even as he sat by himself in one of the transport's small cabins. Who she was exactly or why her name had been the only words to leave Shepard's lips had yet to be explained.
When the door on the cabin slid open, David's frayed nerves led to his entire body jerking instinctively with fright. He made no attempt to look nonchalant or even composed as he looked toward the door. Liara's companion delivered what was no doubt supposed to be a reassuring smile, but David remained unconvinced as he sat up a little straighter in his seat.
He cast his gaze toward David's untouched sandwich and shook his head. "You sure you don't want that?"
Before David even managed to shake his head, the slender stranger moved to claim it. He wasted no time in peeling off the wrapper and rescuing one half. When he bit into the bread and began to chew, a smile of pleasure crossed his face. "Bread's a bit stale but it's still damn good," he announced between mouthfuls. He held up the other half. "You sure?"
"Go on then, mate," David replied, more to shut the guy up than out of any actual desire to eat the bloody sandwich. However, when he automatically took a bite, his mouth salivated around the simple taste. He was famished and it was undeniably good.
The two men sat in companionable silence for several minutes as they polished off both the first sandwich and a second, slightly squashed one that was produced from a coat pocket. David had dozens of questions he wanted to ask, but foremost on his mind was the mysterious asari who had saved his life.
He studied the older man sitting on the seat opposite. While he appeared to be a good two decades older than David himself, he moved with the calculated precision of a trained soldier. There was absolutely no doubt in David's mind that the stranger could close the gap between the two of them and kill or incapacitate him in a matter of seconds.
"Thanks," David finally found his voice. "Um, Li...Miss T'Soni-" Miss T'Soni? Was that even how asari referred to themselves? Having had never spoken to one before today, David had absolutely no idea. All he knew was that it felt wrong to refer to such an individual as simply Liara. "-told me your name but..."
His voice trailed off as he again struggled with the reality of everything that had happened to him in such a short space of time.
"Take it easy," his companion replied in a surprisingly compassionate voice. "It's not every day that you find out that the people that you rely on to protect you are trying to kill you. Name's Mack – it's actually Pericles Macklin, but you'll find yourself walking if you try to use it."
David shook his head quickly. "It honestly didn't cross my mind."
Mack grinned. "And I wouldn't go calling her Miss T'Soni if I were you. It's Dr T'Soni-"
Dr T'Soni? David thought, raising his eyebrows in surprise. Doctor of what? Kicking people's arses?
"-or just Liara," finished Mack. He recognised the expression on the other man's face and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I know. She can be kind of intimidating. You should be thankful you just had a gun pointed in your direction; the first time we met she tried to strangle me. If I only ever give you one piece of advice, it would be 'don't piss off Liara T'Soni.' Turns out that's exactly what the Alliance did when they kept Shepard from the world...and her."
"How did she know?" David asked. "The story, it didn't run on any of the news outlets."
"Let's just say that Liara and Commander Shepard share a bond. Once she knew that Shepard was alive, she didn't stop until she uncovered the information she was looking for. Specifically your story – buried by the Alliance," Mack explained. "Relentless doesn't even begin to describe her approach."
"Terrifying." David offered a description of his own.
Mack shrugged. "She's just a kid who would do anything for the person she loves."
David was in the midst of a realisation when the cabin door opened and the subject of their conversation stood just beyond the threshold. While Mack grinned, he found himself shrinking back into the seat a little further. Despite Mack's attempt to make her seem less harsh, he was uneasy at the thought of sharing a confined space with her.
"How far out are we?" Mack asked as he rose to his feet and stretched his lanky limbs.
"About an hour," Liara replied. She sounded tired. "Can I trouble you to check on our gear? I would appreciate some time alone with Mr Codrington."
"Yeah, no worries, kid," Mack nodded. As he moved by her he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Go easy on the guy will ya? He's under the impression that you're some sort of she-demon who might be thinking about killing him."
"Mack," Liara growled low in her throat while her companion chuckled at his own joke.
In most other circumstances, David would have appreciated the attempt to lighten the mood. As it was, Mack only succeeded in making his heart race a little faster. He discreetly wiped his sweaty palms on his thighs as Liara took Mack's seat opposite him. Mack closed the door behind him and David was left alone in the cabin with the asari. As she folded herself down into a graceful sit, David found it difficult to look directly at her. When she did not begin speaking straight away, he risked a quick glance. She had taken up his distraction of gazing out of the window. Feeling slightly bolder, David did not look away. It took him only a matter of moments to realise that he no longer felt the same fear he had earlier in her presence. If anything, he felt an intense sympathy for her. Gone was the awesome warrior he'd encountered in the alley. Instead, with her shoulders sagging and dark circles beneath her eyes, she looked exhausted and impossibly young.
"She's just a kid who would do anything for the person she loves." Mack's words repeated in his head and he remembered the quiet desperation in Shepard's voice when she whispered Liara's name to him. Both his fists clenched as an outlet for the sudden anger that surged through his body – anger directed at the organisation that had tried to kill him, and had kept Shepard from those who loved her.
"What can I do for you, Dr T'Soni?" When David found his voice, he spoke emphatically. He realised that he would do anything for her.
Liara finally met his gaze. When she recognised the sincerity there, she shifted forward slightly with an almost hopeful expression in her eyes. "Mr Codrington-"
"David. You saved my life, please call me David."
"David. I believe that I would not be wrong in saying that you have had little experience with asari?" He very readily nodded in agreement. "What I am about to ask you may make very little sense, it may seem strange, but I assure you that I would not be asking this of you unless it were very important." A small sigh escaped her lips as she paused before clarifying. "Important to me...I need to look into your memories, to see what you claim you saw when you found her. I understand if you want to refuse, I will not compel-"
"Yes," David interrupted without waiting for a further explanation. "Whatever it is, I'll do it."
"Asari use a technique called a meld," she explained gently. "Often other species misinterpret its use as purely sexual, but I assure you in this instance I am only seeking to share thoughts. I must warn you though, it can be...intrusive. I want you to show me your memories of finding Shepard, nothing more."
Although he was still sweating profusely, David held out his palms to indicate that he was ready. "What do I need to do?"
"Nothing," Liara said in a quiet, gentle voice.
She closed her own eyes and he wondered if he should follow suit. Only moments later, she opened them again. He could not stifle the gasp that emerged when the sapphire blue he had expected was swallowed by polished obsidian so black that it felt as though it was swallowing his own gaze. A surprised cry died on his lips when the cabin around him disappeared and was replaced by the damp familiarity of a tunnel similar to the one he'd been standing in on the day his life had been turned upside down. However as soon as David looked up and saw the barrier hanging in front of him, he knew it was the same one.
The smell of damp earth met her nostrils. Although the sides of the tunnel were pressing in from almost every direction, it was a comforting, familiar environment. The only element that was out of place was the spherical anomaly blocking the tunnel's path. When she turned, Liara found that a part of the machinery behind her had been seared clean off where it had come into contact with the barrier. Her heart was thudding in her chest when she turned back to face the blue light.
"Christ! Don't touch it!" She knew the man's name was Hardy.
"Didn't cross my mind." The words from her lips were not her own, they were David's. Her own thoughts were nowhere near as calm and collected. "Hardy, start telling the guys to clear the hell out of here…it looks like some sort of weapon-"
Her command was abruptly cut short when the barrier hanging in front of her died. When the limp body tumbled out, Liara gasped inwardly. Unlike David, she needed no time to identify the woman she scooped into her arms.
"Fuck," David whispered. "What the fuck is this?"
Liara could feel the fear and confusion that had radiated throughout David's body as he held Shepard in his arms. Her own reaction was far different – born of an intimate familiarity with the woman and almost everything about her. As she hungrily tried to absorb as many details as she could, she realised that the body she was holding was markedly different from the one she remembered. As David reached as to brush a length of dark hair away from Shepard's eyes, Liara was struck by the immediate realisation that her scars were gone. She sobbed within her mind as she studied her lover's ashen face and body, almost completely devoid of colour. Shepard's body had wasted to that of a gaunt skeleton. Liara remembered that her left hand and forearm had been seared clean off in the push for the Crucible, but when she looked she found an unnaturally pale growth that had formed in the shape of her missing limb. When she touched it, she found it to be icy cold.
"Bloody 'ell, Dave, the lass is starkers." Liara had forgotten that someone else was in the tunnel with David.
"I think the real question is what the hell is she doing in my tunnel?" David's voice replied.
Liara was screaming at them to cover Shepard's body with something, anything. Even though she was clearly breathing, her lover was ice cold – as though dead. Hardy hunkered down beside David and he reached for the dog tags that had inexplicably remained intact around her neck. The asari already knew what Hardy would find when he scratched the grime from the metal.
"Jesus H. Christ! It's Commander bleedin' Shepard."
Although the revelation meant nothing to her, Liara sobbed inwardly when Hardy said her name. She knew that she could do nothing to change David's memories, but she willed him to draw Shepard hard against his chest, to hold her exactly as she wished to in that moment.
"Christ!" Hardy was still talking. "She's supposed to be dead ain't she, Dave? Never saw it meself, but they say the Crucible went up like the flamin' Fifth of November."
It did, Liara thought. I was watching it. There should have been no way that anyone could have survived such a blast. And yet...
"Obviously not," David had replied. When Shepard's eyelids fluttered open, Liara found herself gazing into the familiar pale blue depths. The recognition that she craved was nowhere to be found. Of course it would not be there. Shepard was staring up at a stranger. "Commander? Commander Shepard?"
When Shepard's lips started to jerk up and down as she tried to speak, Liara gasped when a thin whisper emerged. David lowered his ear closer to her mouth in an effort to hear what she was saying in a desperate voice. "Li…ara…T-T'Soni. Li-"
I am here, Evan. Goddess! I am here.
Shepard did not response to Liara's unspoken words, instead her eyes suddenly rolled back into her head as her body started to spasm uncontrollably. A series of awful gasping sounds escaped her mouth as she apparently struggled to draw a breath.
"Shit! What the 'ell do we do?" Hardy was panicking.
"Remain where you are, Mr Hardy." A stranger was suddenly present. Liara knew that David recognised him, but she also shared his surprise at the sudden intrusion. "This is Captain Prowse of the four-oh-second, I've got a situation at my coordinates. Send immediate back-up and medical evac…and I mean fucking immediate!"
When David gave up his hold on Shepard, Liara fought against the path of the memory as it played out. With the weight of Shepard's body gone from her arms she felt bereft. A surge of hate grew in the pit of her stomach as David stared at the Alliance officer who had so efficiently usurped control over the scene.
"And, Dave? It would be in your best interests not to breathe a world of this to anyone. That applies to you and your pal there."
"But it's Shepard," David had pointed out in disbelief. "People will want to know!"
"Not a goddamn word, or you'll wish you had been Reaper fodder."
No! Liara protested as David had calmly acquiesced and started moving away from Shepard's still thrashing body. She knew that the civilian was scared, but she desperately wanted to return to her lover's side, especially as her skin took on a bluish hue and she continued to struggle just to draw a breath. The woman that lay in the mud seemed so far removed from the soldier she knew. Liara had never seen Shepard so helpless and vulnerable. It almost broke her as she felt the memory fleeing from her grasp.
"Hold in there, Commander Shepard," David said softly. " Earth isn't done with you yet."
A gasp escaped David's throat as he suddenly found himself back in the cabin. Liara T'Soni was still seated opposite him, but her breath came in ragged gasps and tears streamed down her cheeks. Her fingernails scratched repeatedly at the fabric of the seat covering.
"Dr T'Soni?" he asked hesitantly.
When she lifted her head, he found himself staring into a gaze like the one he had encountered in the alley in London. However, her obvious distress helped him not to shrink away with fear.
"You left her there!" she accused him in a horrible voice that spoke volumes of her devastation at what she had just witnessed. Her voice trembled as she continued, "You left her alone in that place...with the Alliance! You were all she had...she trusted you and you abandoned her!"
He swallowed quickly, wondering if he should fear for his life. The situation became even more tense when a blue aura started to shimmer around her body. Although it was beautiful, he had witnessed first-hand just how deadly her biotics could be. "Dr T'Soni...Liara, I had no choice. How was I to know what the Alliance intended to do with her? I thought that they would be the best people to help her! You must understand-"
"I do not want to understand!" Liara's voice suddenly rose several octaves as she stood. The corona around her body also increased in intensity. "Those fucking Alliance bastards!" she hissed.
When David realised that the anger was not directed at him, he felt his fear dissipate. He also stood, but he did not risk approaching her. "I want to help you. I don't know how, but anything..."
Liara turned to look at him. Although her biotics had diminished slightly, they still danced with a palpable intensity. "I am sorry, David."
He shook his head. "No, I understand. The anger...you need it."
She nodded once in agreement, but gave no other response before she turned and discharged her pent-up power against the door. It buckled outwards with a terrible wrenching of metal and slammed against the other side of the corridor beyond. David was left standing in the cabin alone until Mack came running in half a minute later. He looked from the ruined door to David's ashen face.
"I take it you didn't do that," the New Zealander observed, quite calmly.
David let out a long, ragged exhale that was partially relief that he was still in one piece and partially in anticipation of the events to come. "I think the Alliance broke the 'don't piss off Liara T'Soni' rule."
Vancouver, Canada
Access Denied.
Rear Admiral Hannah Shepard stared at the blunt response made by her console when she inputted her login details. Although she knew full well that her fingertips had moved in the correct sequence across the haptic interface, she tried a second time.
Access Denied.
Without pausing to stare at the screen for a moment longer, Hannah pushed the chair backward. The legs screeched across the floor as she did so, serving as a jarring reminder that her nerves were already in a fragile state. Uncharacteristically, she spent almost a minute pacing the length of the room. Although the complex was brand new and extremely comfortable, her personal space was only a studio apartment. Despite her rank Hannah had insisted that she been assigned quarters far beneath her rank. She needed very little space for herself and, unlike other officers who still had family or the desire to find love, there would never be anyone staying over.
When she eventually did make the decision to act, her movements became all consuming. She drew out her well-worn sea bag and began hastily packing clothes and other necessary articles. This continued at a frenetic pace for several minutes before she abruptly stopped.
Hannah stared down at the bag lying on the foot of her bed. The realisation struck her that, although she could choose to run, it would be little more than a futile gesture. They were already watching her, as they had been since her daughter was uncovered beneath the streets of London. For one of the most closely watched figures within the Alliance, there would be nowhere she could run. With a harsh exhale, Hannah collapsed on the edge of the bed and placed her head in her hands. She'd already either burned or tapped dry her last remaining contacts in planning Heller's suicidal effort to break Evan out of the Alberta complex. Judging from the fact that she had been shut out of her own files, the escape had either been successful or it had gone horribly wrong. No knowing whether her daughter was alive or dead was by far the worst aspect of the whole situation.
Still, old girl, this was never about your own escape route. She's all that matters, Hannah thought as she scrubbed at her temples. Although she had thought to extend her sphere of resistance further afield to Shepard's crewmembers, she was being too closely monitored to do anything that would not ruin their careers or endanger their lives. She'd seized the fortuitous opportunity to warn Miranda Lawson, but she suspected that her poorly veiled warning had only angered the headstrong ex-Cerberus Operative.
When the anticipated fist pounded on her door less than five minutes later, Hannah did not react with surprise or fear. Instead she gracefully rose to her feet and crossed the room. When she opened it, she was surprised to find herself staring at only two Alliance personnel – a grizzled Major who looked as though he was nearing retirement and a tall, portly looking marine with an oddly nervous expression.
"What can I do for you gentlemen?" Hannah suspected that there was little point in trying to plead any sort of ignorance, but she had also been playing this game long enough to know not to give anything away.
"Rear Admiral Shepard, ma'am, we'd appreciate it if you came with us," the Major announced in a firm, no-nonsense tone. As he spoke he rested his hand pointedly on the pistol he wore at his waist. "We have someone who would like a word."
Kessler no doubt, Hannah thought. I'm not sure that being an old friend is going to help in this situation. "Do I have any choice in the matter?" she asked.
"None whatsoever," he replied, reaching out to grab her elbow in a sudden and firm grip.
Although Hannah was far from the panicking type, she remembered the picture she had left sitting next to her console, the one of John and Evan. When she turned her head, she could see it sitting there. "I just need-"
"There's no time!" he growled in an urgent voice, dragging her out into the corridor.
The unmistakable urgency in his voice struck Hannah as odd. While they would have been told to bring her in without delay, she thought she detected an undercurrent of fear. The marine had not said a word and she noticed a thin sheen of sweat forming beneath his cap. It was not warm in her apartment complex.
"You're not Alliance are you?" she demanded.
He gave her a steady, unreadable expression in response. "I'd shut up and keep walking if I were you, ma'am."
"There are cameras-"
His lip curled upwards into a lopsided grin. "Yes, there are. Whether they actually work is another thing altogether." He propelled her forward with a firm hand in the centre of her back. "No please walk in silence, I'd hate to have to gag that gorgeous mouth of yours, ma'am."
When Hannah cast an indignant glare over her shoulder, the Alliance imposter merely responded with a casual wink. She snorted but complied with his request.
She had next to no memory of the skycar ride – predominantly for the fact that a blindfold had been wrapped securely over her eyes by the apologetic looking marine before she was forced into the back seat. Being treated in such a fashion was a new experience for the Rear Admiral. Although she had vague thoughts that she ought to be putting up more of a fight, she also supposed that wherever they were taking her could not possibly be any worse than Alliance headquarters. Nevertheless, when she was roughly shoved down onto a hard seat, Hannah started to feel a small amount of fear creeping into her thoughts. Her entire body was chilled to the bone as she was wearing just her casual blues with no jacket. An icy breeze was currently wafting around, biting through her thin layers. For some reason she already knew that she would not be allowed to return to her apartment. The fact that she had not had time to retrieve her picture was threatening to stir up more emotion than she had originally thought possible with the mere loss of a mere physical possession.
Almost inaudible footsteps struck the surface in front of her. As they drew close, Hannah listened for some hint of recognition. Whoever approached, they were clearly not wearing heavy soled Alliance issue footwear. They were boots made for stealth, but each footfall was heavy…almost angry. Hannah suddenly caught a brief trace of a vaguely remembered scent and recognition dawned.
"Liara," she whispered.
Only seconds later, the blindfold was yanked away from her eyes. They required little time to adjust to the light as the room was already dim, the far reaches cast in shadow. Hannah's lips parted slightly. Her speculation had been correct. Dr Liara T'Soni stood in front of her, dressed in form fitting black commando leathers. Although the asari's expression was blank, Hannah could almost see the fury radiating from her body.
"Why was the Alliance coming to arrest you?" Liara asked coldly.
Hannah tilted her chin upward in a defiant gesture. She was not some young girl to be cowed by an intimidating display. "How the hell did you know they were coming to arrest me?"
Liara glared in response to her question being met with another question as opposed to an answer. A second figure stepped into Hannah's view. She immediately recognised the Alliance 'Major.' He'd already rolled his sleeves up and unbuttoned his shirt in a manner that was not the regulation-approved way to wear a uniform. When she turned her head further to the right, she also found the second man. He'd removed his cap to reveal a head of thinning red hair. Hannah did not know how she had ever mistaken him for a soldier.
"I wish we could offer an impressive answer, but it might simply be that Dave and I jumped them behind your apartment building. Well, to be fair I did most of the jumping, Dave just stood and gawped," he explained in his oddly charming manner. Ignoring Liara's impatient expression, he stepped forward and hunkered down in front of her. "Ma'am…Hannah, the Alliance will be looking for their personnel and Dr T'Soni is operating on a very short fuse, we are running out of time…and you know that as well as I."
"Evangeline is alive," Hannah offered quietly. When none of the expected surprise became evident in their faces, she realised that they already knew. "The Alliance found her six months ago-"
"No they didn't," the fake marine finally spoke up. "I bloody well found her. It was the Alliance who decided to keep her hidden. Can you tell me why the hell they would do that?"
Hannah felt all three pairs of eyes boring into her. She eventually had to lower her gaze, especially after she caught the blatant accusation evident in Liara's cold stare. "Before Evan was found, the Alliance was already well underway with their policy changes to implement a new kind of order, a new response to the Galaxy as a whole. With humanity faring better than the other races, there are those who believed it was our destiny to seize the opportunity to become not just a major player, but the dominant one. Unfortunately for humanity as a whole, that was the vocal opinion. Those who did not share it were removed or forced to adapt. I myself chose the latter course out of nothing more than cowardice."
"Hackett? Anderson?" Liara demanded.
"David Anderson was invalided out of the SA only a few months after the end of the war. He went to ground and I've heard very little from him," Hannah explained in a voice heavy with regret. "Steven was…not as fortunate. He did not fit within their new world order…and neither did Evan."
"But she's Commander Shepard!" the red-haired man protested in disbelief.
"She's right," Liara added. "Evan would never have gone along with such a regime. She would have fought to the bitter end to ensure that people like that did not get so much as a whiff of power. Next to taking on the Reapers, bringing down the Alliance would have been a holiday. At one stage I would not have thought humans capable of such global idiocy."
"Clearly you held us in too high a regard," Hannah replied softly.
"You know where they are holding her, Hannah," Liara continued in a business-like manner.
The Rear Admiral debated whether to nod or shake her head in response. "I knew where they held her. An underground Alliance facility in Alberta."
Liara's eyes narrowed. "Held?"
"There was an escape attempt, I had high-level input, but it was orchestrated on the base level by one of Evan's doctors who was sympathetic – Bryan Heller. I expected to be arrested regardless of its outcome due to the simple fact of my relationship with her. I am dreadfully sorry, Liara. I have no concrete information to offer as to the success or failure of Heller's plan. I can only speculate that something went wrong."
"You're going to take us there," Liara informed Hannah in a matter-of-fact tone.
Hannah stared at her in disbelief. "It's a heavily guarded Alliance facility. I do not know the extent of your own abilities, Dr T'Soni, but with all due respect you have two men – one only marginally more useful than the other - and a marine who hasn't fired a weapon in years at your disposal. What do you think you're going to be able to achieve?"
"Saving the life of the woman I love," Liara replied tersely.
Hannah studied the asari's face and suddenly realised that she was only seconds away from breaking down. With an almost imperceptible sniff, she turned and walked out of the room. She was left alone with Liara's two companions, both of whom were looking slightly nervous at the prospect of taking on the Alliance.
"I resent being called only marginally more useful than Dave," the older gentleman spoke up as he extended a hand to help her to her feet. "Name's Mack by the way. It's a true pleasure to meet you, Mrs Shepard."
Hannah found herself suddenly tongue-tied. She awkwardly shook her head. "Please, I haven't been Mrs Shepard in a long time. And since I don't think I'm going to be a Rear-Admiral in the Alliance Navy for much longer, it's just Hannah."
"Um…and I'm David," the second man added nervously. "David Codrington. I was the engineer who found your daughter beneath the ruins of the Crucible. Dr T'Soni saved my life when the Alliance decided that I could no longer be trusted to keep a secret...and here I am."
"Some army, huh?" Mack observed. "Do you think we could call on some of Shepard's former buddies to help us out?"
Hannah shook her head. "I'd already considered that. Those that are in the Alliance would stir up too much suspicion. Shepard has entire armies who would gladly help her off-world, but I fear that we neither have that much time on our hands nor will they be able to get past the security net to even set foot on Earth…" Her voice trailed off and she pursed her lips thoughtfully. "There is one we might be able to ask. Although I'm not exactly her favourite person at the moment. If you can stop her from trussing me up in a biotic field, I think she'd be both willing and able to help us without arousing undue suspicion."
Mack shrugged nonchalantly. "Five is one better than four."
David was less than convinced. "Just tell me that she's some sort of superwoman?"
While Mack was reassuring David that he knew at least half a dozen ways to kill a man with his little finger, Hannah quietly slipped out through the same door Liara had used a few minutes earlier. The room beyond was almost completely in darkness but she saw enough to see a sudden movement, accompanied by the sharp sound of someone desperately trying to curtail tears.
"Dr T'Soni? Liara?" Hannah felt suddenly conspicuous and out of her depth. She wasn't the sort of person that individuals usually cried around – unless she had made them cry in the first place. "I am sorry to intrude."
"Then why did you?" Liara's voice was thick with emotion.
Hannah found her own tongue stuck in her throat when she went to reply. "I...I was worried."
Liara suddenly stepped forward into the light. Although she had made some attempt to scrub her cheeks dry, they were still tear stained. "You were worried about me, Rear Admiral Shepard? If you had my best interests at heart then you would have found some way to tell me that Evan was alive." Her voice was tinged with anger and regret as she continued to move forward. "You knew!"
She stubbornly shook her head in response. "It is easy enough to judge when you know little of the circumstances," Hannah tried to explain. She was running a trembling hand through her cheek length hair when she came to a belated realisation. Her hair was the same length that Evan's had been throughout most of her life. "They would have killed her, Liara! On the slightest whim. I did what I could to help her while ensuring that she remained alive." She lowered her head. "And because of it...she'll never forgive me."
Even as she spoke, she saw Liara's anger dissipate to the point where the tears threatened to fall again. Without dwelling further on what she was about to do, Hannah suddenly closed the gap between the two of them and awkwardly folded the trembling asari into her arms. Little time elapsed between Liara trying to resist and collapsing against the human woman. While it was almost impossible for her to fully commit to the gesture, she nevertheless found her own emotions responding in a similar vein. All that time spent standing on the other side of the glass watching her daughter in captivity were brought into a stark, unflatteringly light. Although she would not let herself succumb to tears, Hannah could share in Liara's pain. For a few moments, she was able to close her eyes and imagine that she was holding Evan again.
When Liara finally drew back, she gave Hannah a look that was both terrifying and reassuring at the same time. "I promise you, I'm going to do everything in my power to find Evan."
"I have absolutely no doubt that you will, my girl-" Hannah cut herself off when she realised her instinctive mistake. She squared her shoulders and held Liara at arm's length. "More than anyone else in this poxy Galaxy, the two of you deserve a future."
