Liara

A familiar tension buzzed through my veins as the shuttle jolted out of the Normandy, flying towards the planet that hid the Shadow Broker's ship. I watched the lightning flash outside, feeling safe inside the shuttle, calmed by the presence of those familiar to me. Garrus. Serena. We had faced death together time and time again; now we would do so once more.

I will be able to restore the life I owe Feron. I thought, clinging to that one, desperate hope. I will bring an end to the reign of the Shadow Broker, and this blood-debt that has haunted me will be eased at last. Goddess willing.

"So what the hell do we know about Hagalaz?" Shepard asked, and I felt as I had back in the briefing room aboard the Normandy SR1.

I wish it could be like old times once again.

"It is a wretched, desolate world." I answered, catching my balance as the shuttle jolted in the harsh winds. "Devoid of life. The oceans boil during the day, then snap-freeze ten minutes after sundown."

Shepard rose and walked to the window I stared out of. Silver eyes raked the atmosphere, processing a thousand things at once.

"Who the fuck would live in this?" she muttered the question aloud, not expecting an answer.

We gazed down on the long, ominous lines of the Shadow Broker's cruiser. It held everything that I needed, everything that I had crazed. I felt I would found an absurd sort of absolution in the belly of that vessel. All the lives that I had taken would be made worth it in the battle to come. All the measures that I had taken in defense of my life would be justified when the one who hunted me lay dead.

I would be free…free to do what I desired with my life and…and suddenly I felt very afraid. I had not foreseen my life beyond this point. I had not thought beyond confronting the Shadow Broker and now I stood here, with one of the greatest soldiers of my time, gazing at his ship. His fortress. His one place of safety that he thought would never be found.

If the Shadow Broker is even a he, I laughed at myself and my unconscious choice of pronoun.

"The Broker's ship follows the sunset." I observed. "The never-ending electrical storm keeps it undetectable, even by the most advanced technology. We only found it because we knew where to look."

"And that knowing cost blood." Shepard mused, her lips tightening at the corners, her eyes narrowing.

It would appear she has changed not at all, I thought, watching the grim determination of a soldier settle around Serena's shoulders. The loss of life breaks something inside her spirit, where almost no one is allowed to venture, and where she goes only rarely, when she can afford to feel the true and tormented depths of all the hell her soul has absorbed.

Serena Shepard carried her dead with her, remembering the weight of their blood and their bodies, knowing in an excruciating, conscious way that the lives she took were precious to someone in the galaxy. I sighed within myself, knowing that I had not yet learned that manner of strength. It would take many years before I could carry the weight of the daughters I had orphaned, the sisters I had made mourn, the tears a mother should not have to cry, and still move through the galaxy being kind, gentle, caring...and brutal. Brutal as an absolute force of nature that does not apologize for itself, but does what it must; what it is made for and called to.

"I will make certain that Sekat's family is cared for." I whispered, ashamed that I had not thought of it sooner.

I had been consumed with this search, with the battle in my own emotions, the rage inside my spirit possessing and driving me forward that I…I had forgotten the lesser players in this. I had forgotten their lives, the paths they had charted through the galaxy being suddenly brought to a halt by a bullet meant for me. I had held my life in supremacy to the lives of others, and I stood before a woman who had…who had become the ultimate definition of sacrifice.

She had walked into fire and certain death to rescue a man who would not live long…not only because of his human life-span, but because of his disease. She had cared enough about the lives under her command…she had not left me alone…she had left all of them. All of us poorer for her absence. All of us grieving in our own ways but only mine…only mine had led to self-destruction. Joker still flew, Chakwas still healed, all of them had continued in their own way. Save for me.

I had sacrificed my dreams to my grief and now I could not reach back and grasp the beautiful naïveté of the archaeologist. I had let death slaughter my innocence…and somehow, Shepard, who had been touched by it so closely and so young…had not.

I felt the subtle beating of tears behind my eyes, but this was not the time for that…it never would be, not so long as I stood beside this woman. Somehow, time moved too fast around us, always driving one forward and holding the other back.

"I knew you would." Serena looked at me, a slight question painted on her features. "Didn't doubt that for a second."

"I do doubt that we'll see this through successfully if you two keep talking about non mission things." Garrus rose and moved to the window. "And as damnably sexy as these scars are, could the galaxy handle a sexier Garrus Vakarian?"

For the first time since we had entered each other's lives again, Shepard laughed. My heart broke as it remembered the sound, the liberty, the musicality, the levity that guided her through life. I captured that sound in my memory to hold dear, to remember that one day, I wanted to laugh as she did.

"I don't think it could." Shepard teased him. "I know I certainly couldn't."

"You fell prey to my charms long ago." Garrus veritably purred, and a short huff came from the shadowy figure of Miranda Lawson.

"Nothing sexier than a man who can put a bullet between your eyes at any distance." Shepard offered the turian a lascivious wink and I allowed myself to smile. Serena turned to me, her eyes glinting like a blade. "All right, Liara. What's our game plan?"

I looked down at the Shadow Broker's ship, watching the lightning storm flare and play around it. What we would have to do would not be easy but…those who stood beside me now, smiling and joking, had taken down a Reaper. This would be as nothing.

"We will have to breach the ship from the outside…"