Liara

Shepard lifted her rifle, answering the Broker's erratic spray of bullets with her own, careful shots. However, she aimed for his weapon and I did not understand until the gun flew from the yahg's hand and he went after it. Shepard ran out from cover, reaching the unconscious bodies of Miranda and Garrus. She grabbed both of them by the backs of their armor and dragged them back behind one of the room's support pillars.

A ragged scream tore from Shepard's throat under the burden and I chastised myself for remaining frozen and confused as I ran towards her. Miranda's features were marred by a thick line of blood coming from a wound somewhere on her head. Her hair was matted, but I couldn't see the cut. I knelt down beside Garrus, leaning over him, feeling the warmth of his breath ghost across my cheek. Shepard remained unmoving beside the Cerberus operative.

Her fiery hair hung in her face as she balanced on one knee. She rested her elbow on her lifted knee, and with her other hand, reached behind her. The Shadow Broker roared, and I knew we did not have much time.

"Shepard, what is it? What's wrong?" I asked, hurrying over to her.

"Something…hit me in the back…and it's stuck." Shepard murmured. "Pull it the fuck out so we can finish this thing."

My heart began hammering in my chest as I looked, seeing a shard of metal from the desk the Broker had thrown at us impaled in the left side of Shepard's back, thankfully not close to her spine. Miranda and Garrus were out of the fight, and I could not face the Broker alone. He was too strong.

"Dammit, Liara, pull it out!" Shepard yelled as we heard the pinging of bullets against our cover. "We've got wounded back here and this is the place I want him not to shoot at!"

"Fine." I hissed, grabbing the piece of shrapnel and wrenching it out of her back.

She leaned forward, muttering a string of epithets that would once have made my cheeks burn. Now, however, I stared at the twisted metal in my hands. Thin, pointed, thirteen centimeters of it covered in blood. It had struck in the mesh between the plates of her armor and pierced through…and it had gone deep. However, when I looked back to Shepard, she was already moving, pulling the Shadow Broker's fire away from the wounded.

I readied my pistol and ran out from behind cover, cocooning myself in a biotic shield, firing at the Shadow Broker. He stood still underneath a swirling, blinding mass of white energy. His body looked as though it flickered and faded out of existence. I watched, firing a stream of bullets and watching them do nothing. Shepard's ammunition, too, fell away from the glimmering shield around the Shadow Broker.

Keeping one eye on the motionless Broker, pulling the trigger as often as I could, I focused on Shepard with my peripheral vision. She held her body in the same manner she had when in immense pain, but her movements were fluid, lethal and graceful as she dodged the Broker's fire. The yahg paused again, seeming to draw more energy for his shield from the swirling mass above.

Shepard ran up to me, skidding to her knees beside me. Her eyes were wild, frenzied, and yet somehow peaceful as she looked at me.

"What good is a goddamn gun if the bullets are just going to keep flying off of him?" she asked. "Right now, we're in more danger of getting hit by a fucking ricochet than anything he's doing!"

"His shield is kinetically sensitive!" I shouted over the hum of the swirling energy matrix and the sound of gunfire. "Biotic energy and projectiles are bouncing off!"

"Tell me something I don't know!" Shepard roared, and I trembled from the force of her anger, the sheer intensity she radiated on the battlefield.

"It will take a physical attack to breach it!" I stated, hating the words as they left my lips because her expression tightened and her eyes went the cool grey of a winter's morning.

"Old fashioned way it is then." she stated, stowing her rifle and rising to her feet with not even a wince of discomfort. "Keep shooting him." she ordered, striding out into the field, away from any cover.

"Hey!" she shouted. "Tall, dark, and grotesque!"

The yahg turned his fearsome attention on her and Shepard charged him, lashing out with her fists. She struck the yagh in his eye and he backpedaled. Shepard snapped her leg up and drove her knee into the Broker's gut, following with another fist to the face. The Broker roared, grabbing Shepard around the neck and lifting her as she struggled. Shepard's hand reached out, not grabbing the Broker's arm or wrist, but grasping the flaring fringe behind his face. With a sharp pull outward, she tore a part of the fringe away.

The Broker howled, dropping her. She rolled backwards and jumped back up to her feet. I saw the Shadow Broker attempting to reconstruct his shields as Shepard charged. The Broker stepped back, brought up his omni-tool, but instead of producing a blade, it produced a glowing orange shield. The massive arm swung at Shepard and the tip of the shield caught her face. Shepard was flung backwards and I heard the spatter of blood hitting the ground.

My vision blurred to white and I dropped my pistol, spooling biotic energy in my hands and throwing it at him. The Broker's shield shrugged off my attacks as though they were nothing and he walked towards Shepard's fallen form, a dark laughter trickling back to my hearing from his movement.

I lunged for my discarded weapon, lifting it as the yahg reached Shepard, towering over her, intent on the kill. The human woman was curled into herself, trembling, struggling, attempting to rejoin the fight and I knew, as the yahg raised his fist, that I had gotten her killed.

No! I resisted the idea with all the strength I possessed. I will not watch her die! Not again!

I raced across the distance that separated us, curling my hand into a fist, coiling a spike of biotic energy in my hand, elongating it and sharpening it to a point. The Broker's fist crashed down, aimed for Shepard's skull and I drove my hand up, beneath the yagh's arm. The strike connected and the biotic energy pierced his flesh. Blood sluiced down my arm and the Broker roared, turning around and ramming his massive hand into my torso.

My feet left the ground and I fell out of the air, my hip striking the ground. I rolled across the floor as pain bloomed all over my upper body, the red hot center of it along my ribs. I planted my hands on the ground and pushed myself up, unable to keep silent as raw agony shredded out of my throat.

"You son of a bitch!" I heard Shepard scream. "Don't you fucking touch her!"

I watched in awe as Shepard pressed her attack, catching the yahg off guard, ramming her fist against his face, into his stomach, striking wherever she had the opportunity. The Broker staggered back, underneath the swirling energy vortex and an idea bloomed in the back of my mind.

"Shepard!" I cried. "Get him to bring the shield back up!"

Serena reached down to the top of her boot and pulled a wicked knife. She lunged forward, ducking under the Broker's manic swipe and driving the blade into his leg. She pulled it out and struck upwards, higher and higher along his body. I forced myself to stand and built a swarming ball of biotic energy between my hands. I saw the Broker pull from the energy vortex, pulling up his shield, linking him with the power circling above him that he could somehow control and augment.

I hurled the dark energy in my hands with all the force I possessed. It struck the energy vortex and watched the glass crack. Unsatisfied, I threw another biotic shockwave at the shimmering vortex, just as Shepard's blade gouged into the yahg's eye.

"Serena, get back!" I shrieked a warning as spiderwebbing cracks split and shattered the protective shield across the vortex.

Shepard ran away from the Broker and the yahg, dripping blood and roaring in pain, tried to give chase. The energy barrier shattered, pouring the white, viscous power down on him. His serrated teeth parted and a wail of agony and anguish shattered the room. Energy splattered and splashed along the ground and I moved backward as quickly as possible, trying to avoid it.

The blinding energy flamed and surrounded the Broker, engulfing him, gathering on him and, with nowhere to go, nothing to adhere to, it coiled into itself and lashed out. I closed my eyes and curled into myself, pain firing down my spine as my back collided with the wall of the ship. I slumped to the floor and let the battle fever erase the pain wracking me. I stood, letting worry drive my actions and push away all other thoughts.

Serena was closer to him than I was. She has to be alive; I swore that I would protect her. I have to know…

I walked through the flaming detritus of burning energy, eyes lighting on Shepard. She had been thrown by the energy explosion, dashed against one of the room's support beams. Her knife lay in her open palm. Her head hung low, her hair shielding her face. The fingers of her open hand were twitching, trying to grip the knife, attempting to stand and fight again. I glanced at what once was the Shadow Broker, now a burning, stinking heap of pulverized flesh and singed hair.

I knelt down, reaching out for the woman who had fought for me and defended me, who had faced a creature of unknown strength and brutality…I had wanted to be her shield, but, now as once before, she had been mine. Terror gripped my heart as I touched her hair with my fingers, remembering the sensation of it splashed across my breasts, tickling my cheeks when we kissed. I tucked her hair behind her ear, frightened as I saw her left eyelid fluttering.

I opened my mouth to speak her name when a new light broke through the room and I heard the static crackle of communications.

{Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat. We had a momentary connection failure. Can you confirm status?}

I turned my head and saw a large display screen, separate monitors holding vocal signatures and imprints.

What is going on? I wondered, knowing that the explosion of the energy had caused a power fluctuation. Why is this happening now? I do not know what to do.

Still, I walked, slow, towards the screens, feeling inexorably drawn to them, no matter what it might mean. The snap-crackle of electricity followed me. Movement caught my eyes, Miranda and Garrus beginning to come to. I ignored them, moving forward.

{Operative Shora requesting update. Are we still online?}

I reached the console, looking upward, staring at all of the screens, each one identifying a separate operative, a different work, a world full of secrets and subterfuge. So many lives, so many threads of fate and pieces of existence, all anchored here. All expecting guidance and direction.

{Shadow Broker, I've lost our feed. We are online and awaiting instructions.}

I knew that I should walk away, let the empire crumble. So much wrong had been done, stemming from this place. So much blood had been spilled to keep these secrets. I had killed the Shadow Broker, effectively erasing his impact on the galaxy, and I knew that I should leave it in the dust.

But, I looked back at Serena, who still lay motionless against the support, I made a promise once. I promised that I would do anything within my power to ease her burdens, to make her way in this world less difficult and fraught with peril. From this place, this seat of power…I can make good on my word. Goddess…forgive me for what I now do, and give me the strength with which to do it.

More reports flooded in, the voices smearing to one cacophonic cry. I closed my eyes and breathed deep, preparing to walk into a new life, a new, difficult way of living. I did not look back at the life I might have had…for whatever Shepard and I might have been or said or done would surely be altered after this moment. In my mind, I thanked Serena for revealing in me my strength, and Zhira, for keeping that strength alive when it nearly gave out.

I moved to the console and entered a command, bringing up the Shadow Broker's voice augmentation program. My body trembled in the wake of this new power, this new responsibility…but it needed to be done. I had made a promise to a woman I once loved.

I love her still…I know that now, I love her still. And that knowledge hurts, for between us still lies a chasm of pain, misunderstanding, and forsaken dreams.

"This is the Shadow Broker." I spoke, authoritative. "The situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware. It disrupted communications momentarily."

I heard the door open and the sound of a weapon being pulled from a magnetic holster. Still, I did not move, did not flinch. I had begun speaking, and I would finish. I had accepted this role, and taken this position as the one before me had. Through blood and fire and death.

"However," I continued, "we are now back online. Resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day. Shadow Broker, out."

The communications screen went dark and I hung my head, clinging to the promise made by a young archaeologist. To ease the burdens of the soldiers, to smooth the way for those who chose to stand before their race as a protector. I was not prepared for this, but I had sworn to do it, and I would make good on my word.

"Goddess of oceans…" I heard Feron's rasping voice, and in my heart, I rejoiced. "It's you. You…how?"

"Everyone who has ever seen him in person is dead." I spoke, my voice trembling now that it could, now that I could be vulnerable.

Feron shook his head. "You're the new Shadow Broker." he sounded amazed, astonished, and…almost relieved.

"Liara…T'Soni." Shepard's voice broke through the quiet of my trepidation and Feron's awe. "Queen of the Underworld."

Her voice sounded wrong, too deep, too strained, and I looked up. Every other thought in my mind was banished as I saw the tear in her skin on the right side of her face. Her upper lip had been split, and a horrific gash traveled up her cheekbone, across the side of her face, and in the shell of her ear I saw a gap. Blood ran down her cheek, dripping from her jaw onto her shoulder, sliding down her neck in scarlet streams of sacrifice.

And yet somehow, in spite of the great pain it must have caused, in spite of the way I had treated her, rebuffing her every advance, decrying her every emotion, and dodging her every attempt…she smiled, tearing at the gash across her face. Her silver eyes struck sparks of passion.

"It's gotta nice ring to it."