A/N: Thanks to Rae for being an awesome Beta. One more after this one!
"Liara, can you just stop for a second? We'll be jumping several light-years, there's time to talk," Shepard said, gently tugging on Liara's arm.
"About what?" Liara replied, clearly annoyed and fidgeting around.
"About us, Liara," Shepard replied softly.
Liara paused for a moment, her expression softening. "Isabelle, I'm... glad you're here," Liara replied. Shepard noticed that Liara's face was full of conflicting emotions. There was a small crack of a smile whenever Liara spoke her name. However, she also saw fear, hurt, and sorrow in her eyes.
"Liara, what's wrong?" Shepard asked. "Why have you been so distant towards me? It's like you don't want me around you."
"That isn't fair, you were dead!" Liara said, with surprising force.
"I came back, Liara," Shepard said, closing the gap between them. "Thanks to you, I am here with you now."
"For how long?" Liara asked, the truth behind her behavior finally coming out.
"What do you mean, Liara?" Shepard asked. She had an idea of what Liara was talking about, but needed to be sure. She didn't want to assume anything when it came to fixing her relationship.
"I can't do this right now," Liara said, stepping back. "For now, let's just focus on getting Feron."
"Fine," Shepard shot back, her frustration getting the better of her. As Liara walked off, she stood firmly in place and drew in a relaxing breath. Just be patient, she needs her time like she said. Collecting herself, she jogged to catch up to Liara and Miranda heading for the Normandy's shuttle.
The fight through the Shadow Broker's ship had been a rough one. At points, it felt like her squad was battling for hours to just gain two or three inches of ground. She was thankful that she had brought Grunt with her and Liara. His predisposition to destroy everything in his path had come in handy. They had a close call while on the exterior of the ship, where Grunt almost fell off the side of the ship when a rocket drone caught them off-guard. Now, they found themselves outside of a locked exterior bulkhead that led to where the Shadow Broker should be.
Shepard looked over to Liara, who was fiddling with the door. Walking over, leaving Grunt to cover them, she looked at what Liara was doing. "What is that?" Shepard asked, wondering what the program Liara was using on her omni-tool was.
"It's an experimental cracking program that I picked up. Black-market tech, supposedly can break through any lock," Liara said, eyes not moving from what she was doing.
"How long will it take? Will it work?" Shepard asked.
"I don't know," Liara replied, shifting her gaze over to Shepard. "I've never broken into the Shadow Broker's base before," she said smartly. She returned to fiddling with the program. After a few minutes, a giant circle appeared on the door and Liara stepped back, clasping her hands together. "There we go. Now, we wait," she said.
Shepard nodded and gestured for Grunt and Liara to take cover. "I don't think they're going to sit here while we just break in," she said. Sure enough, the first couple of soldiers appeared from the sides of the ship. "Dig in! Use the lighting rods if there gets to be too many," she hollered. Looking over to Liara, who was already firing off biotic bolts, she yelled again. "This had better work, Liara!"
Several minutes later, they still found themselves waiting for Liara's program to work its magic. They had survived several waves of Shadow Broker soldiers, though with their entrenched position and their small numbers, they never stood a chance. Shepard dropped the last soldier from the current wave with a shot from her Black Widow, and crouched down to change out the thermal clip.
"Ha! They call themselves soldiers? They're too stupid to come all at once, they'd be much more threatening that way," Grunt called out.
"God dammit Grunt!" Shepard yelled out. "Don't give them any ideas!"
Grunt looked back at her with a confused expression. "You're weird, battle-master."
Looking back at the circle, Shepard saw that it was almost done. "Hold tight! It's almost there, not too much longer," she said. I hope.
"Good," Liara replied. "Because we have more soldiers incoming. I think they heard Grunt's taunting."
Shepard let out a loud groan and steadied her rifle. "Grunt, I'm going to kill you," she said, half-way serious. All she heard in return was Grunt's hearty laughter.
The wave of soldiers was rough, coming at them from all angles. Had it not been for the lighting rods located around them, they'd likely already be dead. Liara was using her biotics where necessary, but she had noticed that the asari was now relying more on her guns than her biotics, likely saving her energy for later. A couple of more minutes passed, and the last of the Broker mercenaries dropped dead.
Leaning back onto her cover, Shepard took a few moments to catch her breath. "We can't keep this up," she said. Just as she did, she heard a distinct clicking sound come from behind her. Wheeling around, she saw that the circle was now completely full and glowing green. I could kiss you right now, Liara, she thought to herself. "Nice job, Liara!" she exclaimed. "Everyone through the door. Lets go!"
The squad walked into a large room, glowing a whitish blue from the glass-covered liquid plasma above them. At the far end of the room was a large desk, with an equally large chair behind it. Walking forward, pistol raised, Shepard tried to get a better look at the figure she assumed was the Broker.
"Here for the drell? Reckless, even for you, Commander," a deep voice spoke, unlike anything she had ever heard. She watched in awe as the figure wheeled around, and an alien species she had never seen appeared before her.
The creature was menacingly large. It was almost similar to a krogan, but much more ferocious and vicious looking. It had pincer like figures protruding from its head, slightly curving inwards at the top. Its mouth had a weird triangular shape to it, opening at three different points. Its eyes were dark, a slightly red iris shining through the black. The face of the beast was red, though it had white outlines at certain points. Even sitting down, the creature was taller than Shepard was standing.
"You tried to kill Liara. Big mistake," Shepard said, ice in her voice. "I'm here to put you down."
"It was necessary," the Broker replied calmly.
"No, it wasn't!" Liara yeled out. "Caging Feron for two years wasn't necessary either!"
"Dr. T'Soni," the Broker bellowed. Shepard wasn't surprised that it used her name. "Your interference caused all of this. If you had just given me Shepard's body, we would not be here today."
"And you would have given her to the Collectors to be an experiment!" Liara yelled, tendons in her neck pulsating at the fury with which she spoke.
"I still can," the Broker replied. "The Collectors' offer still stands, they just need Shepard's body. I'm sure that her squad would fetch a decent price as well."
Shepard gritted her teeth and squeezed her pistol as hard as she was able, the whites of her knuckles showing. "Over my dead body will you take them," Shepard seethed through her teeth.
"It's pointless to challenge me. I know your every secret. You are just a child fumbling around in the dark," it replied.
"Is that right?" Liara challenged. "You're a yahg, a pre-spaceflight species quarantined to their homeworld for the massacre of Council first-contact teams," Liara began. "This base is older than the discovery of your species. That would mean that you aren't the original Shadow Broker, and you probably killed him," Liara said with a smug smile. "But then, why were you here? Perhaps you were taken by a hunter who wanted a slave... or a pet. How is that for being in the dark?" Liara finished.
Shepard watched with awe as Liara stood confidently, tearing down the Broker's illusion. She found Liara to be incredibly terrifying, and extremely sexy at the same time. So much for hte shy little Prothean scientist! Shepard's admiration was cut short as the yagh stood up to its full height, twice that of Shepard's. It pounded it's desk suddenly and with a growl, picked up a piece of the smashed desk and hurled it at her squad, catching Grunt in the head and knocking him out cold. Shepard managed to duck out of the way, dragging Liara down with her in the process.
The Broker pulled out a large rifle one handed and pointed it at Liara. Eyes widening, she scrambled to her feet and dragged Liara with her to cover.
Circling her way around the room to the opposite side of Liara, the two began pelting the Shadow Broker with fire from their weapons and Liara's biotics. They carried on a very methodical dance in their battle with the Broker. Liara would unload her clip into the Broker's shields and throw in warp fields as well, then Shepard would take over and apply some heavy hits with her Black Widow. After a couple of rounds of this from Liara and Shepard, the Broker's shields finally dropped.
Shepard was about to take advantage of this opportunity when the Broker hurled the remainder of the desk at her, forcing her into cover. She then watched as the yagh charged at the support column Liara was behind, smashing it to pieces and sent Liara diving into the middle of the room. She watched in horror as the yagh wheeled and charged at Liara again, who was still trying to get up from her previous dive. "Liara!" Shepard yelled out. She didn't even think, she just reacted.
Bolting to her feet, Shepard threw her rifle to the ground and sprinted straight at the Broker. Not even giving it a second thought, she charged past Liara and slammed her shoulder into the belly of the yagh. It recoiled slightly and a slight howl emerged from it. Shepard felt something crack in her shoulder. Not giving the yagh time to recover, she sent a right hook to its face, making it step back further away from Liara. She pulled out her pistol and fired off a few shots, only to have the Broker erupt in a violent white light. Her bullets flicked off of him like it was nothing.
"What the hell is that?!" Shepard exclaimed, baffled that any shield or barrier could stop a shot this close.
"It looks like some form of prototype kinetic barrier. Nothing will go past it!" Liara said, joining Shepard's side.
Looking up at the ceiling, Shepard suddenly got an idea. She tapped Liara on the shoulder and pointed upwards. She saw the asari got the same idea that she did and they nodded to each other. Charging in once more, she slammed a left jab straight into the jaw of the yagh, ignoring the searing pain that came along with it. The Broker howled and stood up, giving out a loud battle roar. Circling around the yagh so that he would be forced back into the center of the room, Shepard charged again and threw her inured shoulder into the yagh again, knocking him back. Before he had a chance to strike her back, she drew her pistol again and fired off several shots. Just as she hoped, the Broker deployed his kinetic barrier again.
"Now, Liara!" Shepard yelled, firing a couple of rounds into the ceiling to weaken it. Liara then lit up in biotic flames and raised her hands. Concentrating her power, she clenched her hands together and flung them down, shattering the glass containing the plasma and sending it colliding into the Broker. Loud screeches and roars of pain erupted from the Broker, who was trying in futility to wipe the plasma off himself.
Shepard made her way over to Liara to make sure she was okay. She had just begun to speak when the Broker's body exploded, the kinetic barrier erupting and throwing them to the ground with a thud. Shepard landed first, with Liara falling on top of her. Instinctively, she rolled to her side and did her best to protect Liara with her own body. After a few moments, she released her grip on Liara once she felt it was safe to do so, though she made no effort to shift her gaze away from Liara's beautiful cerulean eyes.
Shepard watched as Liara breathed heavily, clearly exhausted from using that much biotic energy. She was surprised when Liara suddenly closed the gap between them and captured her lips. Shepard drew in a deep breath, one of surprise and of passion. She finally was with Liara again, and all felt right. Shepard heard some mumbling from the monitors and Liara broke the kiss, despite Shepard's protests. While Liara ran off to the consoles, Shepard went to check on Grunt.
"Did we get 'em?" Grunt said, rubbing his head.
Shepard couldn't help but smile. The krogan was like a child to her, having taught him the ways of the world since waking him up from the tank. "Yeah, big guy. We got him," she replied.
Grunt nodded wearily and Shepard turned her attention to Liara.
"This is the Shadow Broker. There was a slight disruption due to a hardware upgrade. All operations are back to normal, I expect status reports for all operations by the end of the day," Liara's voice rang through the room.
Shepard's jaw dropped. What is she doing? Making her way over, she caught Liara crying near the consoles. "What's going on? Are you all right?" she asked.
"Two years," Liara replied. "After two years, it's finally over."
"I guess this makes you the new Shadow Broker now?" Shepard asked.
Liara nodded. "With this, there are so many resources! For too long, you have fought alone. Now... now I can really do something to help you," Liara said, her voice cracking a bit and more tears flowing.
"Hey, hey. It's okay, I'm here," she said. She moved closer to draw Liara into a hug, but Liara drew her into another kiss instead.
Liara broke the kiss just as quickly, and leaned back slightly. "It's been two years," she said. "We're different people. You have your mission an-"
Shepard wrapped her hands around Liara's waist and drew her close, their lips hovering sensually close together before Liara finally closed the gap. Shepard raised her hand and gently caressed the back of Liara's folds, and poured everything she was into the kiss. She could physically feel Liara melting with the passion between them. She let the kiss between them die and lowered her forehead to Liara's.
"Okay, okay," Liara said, a smile finally forming on her face.
Shepard had never felt happier in her life. She was finally whole again. "Okay," she replied. "I love you, Liara."
"I love you too, Shepard."