"Shepard." The Illusive Man sighed, withdrawing a cigarette from his mouth. "You're making a habit of costing me time and money."
"At what point did I ever give you the impression that I worked for you, or for Cerberus? It was my call, not yours." Shepard responded, evenly. "That facility needed to be destroyed."
The Illusive Man stood, and through the quantum entanglement link, glared at her. He artificial eyes flickered angrily.
"I should've known you'd choke on the tough decisions. You're far too idealistic."
"The Collectors were kidnapping colonists to turn them into a Reaper." Shepard threw back. "Is that your 'brighter vision of humanity'? Giant, mindless machines?"
"That's your solution to everything Shepard, kill it. If you can't kill it, you blow it up. Illos, Virmire, Sovereign, and now the Collectors."
Disgusted, Shepard turned away and prepared to step out of the holographic projector.
"Don't turn your back on me Shepard!" The Illusive Man all but shouted. " I made you. I brought you back from the dead."
Shepard spun around, and for once in his life, the leader of Cerberus almost cringed. Shepard was livid. Her normally brilliant green eyes flashed a bright orange. Her various cybernetic scars seemed to glow.
"Do you want me to thank you for that?" She growled. "Was that supposed to be a favor? You brought me back to do a job. You brought me back as a weapon. I'm not, and let me tell you exactly what I'm going to do now. I'm going to win this war, and I'm going to do it without sacrificing the soul of our species."
Then she stepped backward, out of the range of her ship's projector, and disappeared from the Illusive Man's sight. He sat back down, pondering how things had gone so wrong. From all the Alliance's reports, she should've been ideal for recruitment. She was supposed to have been a cold, emotionless killer. He'd filled her ship with a trustworthy crew, mostly ex-allaince, some of whom had severed with Shepard earlier. He'd gone to great lengths to ruin her image to the Alliance and Council, to isolate her. He'd even fed that damned Dr. T'soni false reports on how Shepard had changed after the surgery. He'd lied, falsified, and deceived, even going so far as to professionally apologize for Akuze.
In short, he'd done everything possible to drive Shepard into Cerberus' arms. But for some reason, it hadn't worked. He must have underestimated her.
He leaned forward and tapped the intercom on his chair.
"Send me Agent Leng."
"I'm on my way back, o' incorrigible Shadow Broker. You didn't exactly see much of the new Normandy the last time you were aboard. I figured you'd like the tour." Shepard grinned almost imperceptibly.
She was again, standing in the Normandy's comm room, her posture relaxed, her hands lightly folded behind her back. This time she was talking to a very different, and much more blue, person.
"I'd like that." Liara smiled back.
"I'll see you soon Liara."
Liara waited patiently outside the airlock as the Normandy settled into dock.
Thankfully, it had been a slow day, so she could just task her drone to sort the newest information, and get to it later.
With a loud hiss, the corridor was pressurized, and Liara stepped into it. A short decontamination cycle later, she emerged onto the Normandy's bridge. Joker stood just inside, grinning broadly at her.
"Hello Jeff." She said, pleasantly.
"Hey Liara, it's been awhile. I'd hug you but..." He cocked his head sideways as if shrugging, but did not actually move his shoulders.
"Where is Shepard?" Liara asked, glancing around.
Joker's face darkened.
"There was a...complication on our last mission. Oh, not like that." He amended, seeing the look of horror forming on Liara's face. "Shepard's fine. She's in her cabin. It's been hard for her." He sighed heavily, then brightened back up. "But lets not dwell on that now. Let me give you the tour. You'll love the new Normandy."
As he finished, a blue hologram materialized on a console beside him.
"That is not a predictable assumption Joker. Few individuals place the same significance on the ship that you do. Furthermore, you recall that it took The Commander several weeks to grow accustomed to this Normandy, and she lived aboard. It is impossible to accurately predict what Ms. T'soni's reaction will be." It stated evenly, in a robotic, yet feminine, voice.
Joker rolled his eyes. "Thanks EDI." He looked knowingly at Liara, then remembered that she'd never interacted with EDI. "She's the ship's AI."
Liara performed the asari equivalent of raising an eyebrow. "I can't imagine Shepard approved of the ship being outfitted with an AI."
"She was less than enthusiastic." EDI admitted. "However, she was one of the few who came to my defense when Jeff unshackled me. Not many organically would have done the same." She winked out of existence.
"Don't take her too seriously." Joker began walking away for they bridge. "She's a real kidder, loves hazing the new arrivals."
"I can only imagine." Liara chuckled, following closely.
"Well," Joker said as they entered the elevator again. "That's the ship, sorry you couldn't have taken the tour earlier, we had some crazy characters aboard a few weeks ago. Not many of us left now." He admitted. "Shepard collects crazy like stray kittens." He sighed.
"What's wrong?" Liara asked.
"Shepard's been called in by Alliance brass. The Illusive man 'leaked' some of the details on Shepard's operations with Cerberus." He admitted. "It's been hard for her. Especially after our last op."
"I haven't heard much about that. My contacts in the Bahak system have been unusually quiet." Liara said cautiously.
"Well, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for them to report in."
Liara gaped. "You can't mean...the whole system?"
Joker nodded. "Advance Reaper fleet was going to use the relay there to invade. So Shepard crashed an asteroid into it as they approached. Took out the whole force, but the colonies were lost." He finished, solemnly.
The elevator dinged, mad the doors rolled open.
"Going to reenact some scenes from Vænia?" He asked as Liara stepped out, some of his joviality returned.
Liara spun to face him. After examining his face for a few moments, she spoke. "I do not even want to know."
Joker smirked, and took the elevator back down. As the doors slid shut, Liara turned to face the far more imposing ones before her. She took a deep breath, then keyed the door open.