Shepard moved around the room slowly, walking the perimeter while her eyes scanned every item in sight.
"We should assume a three day journey. Normally it wouldn't take more than a few hours to get to the atrium from here, maybe a half-day on foot accounting for your lack of stamina."
Liara tried not to bridle at the comment; Shepard was only stating the facts as she saw them, and there was truth to it. That didn't make it sting any less.
"Still, I'm counting on something going horribly wrong; it always does."
"Then there is a fundamental flaw in your plans. Seeing as you are the only commonality between them…" Liara trailed off, recognizing the futility of starting another argument just now. Shepard waited patiently for her to finish the thought, her lips quirking into an expectant smile; Liara's lips thinned with the determination to hold her silence.
"Let's assume that we spend the first day in hiding, making sure no one saw us leave and that we're not likely to be followed. It'll be fairly obvious we've left; it won't take Mara much time to figure it out and she might have some of her supporters scattered with mine. We can take the second day to make the walk to the Alliance security perimeter. I'd just as soon not become a walking target in daylight, so we'll take what rest we need in the afternoon and move at sunset. It's damnably cold so we'll need to find you something warmer to wear, but nothing too bulky. I want you off my hands as soon as possible."
"The feeling is mutual." Liara snapped, unreasonably offended once more; Shepard continued to speak as though she were some sort of burdensome luggage designed solely for the purpose of slowing them down. It didn't need to be pointed out that Shepard had assumed the burden of her own free will; had been quite insistent about it. Liara snorted with something that might have been amusement under any other circumstances.
Shepard rolled her eyes, "Taking that much for granted, we'll allow for a third day of supplies in case of any unforeseen circumstances. We're carrying food, water, and a blanket apiece. The clothes you leave wearing are the only ones you'll have; since I am more familiar with the climate, I will take responsibility for that."
Liara silently reminded herself that she wouldn't have to play the passive observer much longer, and there was sense in what Shepard suggested.
"I almost forgot; how are you with knives?"
Liara raised a brow, "I thought the only weapon I required was my biotics."
"I still don't intend to put a gun in your hands if that's what you're hoping. Knives are good for more than just killing things though, you bloodthirsty heathen."
"Clearly you cannot begin to appreciate the irony of that statement."
Shepard shrugged, "Are you going to answer the question?" There was an undertone of impatience just beneath the mild words; Liara held her silence a moment longer than necessary before she finally answered.
"I will not lose my fingers."
"Good enough." Shepard skimmed her fingertips along the outer seam of her pants, slipping into a small space and pulling out a butterfly blade. Of course.
Liara tried not to look too eager when she reached out to take it; as Shepard had said, it was clearly not intended for combat, but she would make use of any tool that came into her hands when the time was appropriate.
"How much longer until we leave?"
"Give me another hour or so, just to be certain."
Shepard turned away from her, heading toward that old wardrobe again; Liara's natural curiosity began to make its presence known once more and she stood to catch a glimpse of what Shepard must have been concealing. Shepard caught the movement in her periphery vision and stepped aside slightly so that she could see.
"Nothing half as exciting as what you're expecting."
Liara started guiltily, almost apologizing for the impertinence. That only served to make her angry and the cursed the easily misinterpreted blush that spread across her cheekbones. She came to stand beside Shepard, ignoring the woman's amusement whilst she took stock of the hidden supplies.
As Shepard had said, there was little that was particularly unexpected; a few clothes hanging neatly, shoes tucked back into a corner. A shoulder holster hung ominously near the door, a smaller pistol tucked into it. She glanced to the shelves, littered with odds and ends; scraps of material hung over the edge, paper pamphlets stacked neatly away from the edge. Try as she might, she couldn't quite read the titles.
And then something else caught her eye, something Liara was fairly certain she wasn't meant to see. Shepard tensed when she reached out a cautious hand to push the pamphlets and solitary book aside; she eyed Shepard challengingly while she reached back farther into the space, nails catching on something soft and giving.
She pulled and a little pouch slid out of its hiding place, reasonably heavy and tied shut by frail strings. Shepard didn't seem pleased when she worked a nail into the knot to slip it loose, but neither did she move to stop her.
Reaching in warily, Liara grabbed the first thing that she encountered and pulled it out to examine. An earring- singular; made from cheap materials and a false emerald- for all that, it was rather pretty. Liara set it gently on the shelf and slipped her hand in once more. It seemed almost to be a signal; Shepard turned away from her, pulling long-sleeved shirts from their place to toss them back without care for where they landed. She paused, pursed her lips while she evaluated the relative merits of other garments.
Liara pulled another object from the pouch; iron pyrite, fool's gold; a necklace had caught on it, dragging out when she tried to examine it. Reflexively her hand flew to her throat, seeking the chain of her own necklace only to find it conspicuously missing.
Lo and Behold she held its exact replica in her hand; it did not require a doctorate to see what had happened.
"Shepard." Her voice was sharp with anger; everything had been taken from her, even down to this smallest trinket. Worse, she hadn't even remarked upon its loss.
Shepard looked away from her task reluctantly. "Hm?" The very nonchalance of her answer grated dangerously on Liara's nerves.
"You stole my necklace?"
"Not quite. In actual fact, I prevented its theft."
"Ah. That's why it was tucked neatly in with your things in a part of your chamber I cannot access. Yes, I see now."
"And you didn't even notice." Shepard added with a snarl. "You're in a fucking den of thieves; bad enough being the odd one out, you want to try walking around with an invitation to violence dangling on your throat? If you'd had that damn thing on, Mara would have taken it when she was harassing you downstairs; assuming someone else didn't get to it first. I don't think you would have liked to give it up, and I know my crew well enough to know they wouldn't have cared. Yes, I did take it. Yes, I locked it away, and in case you're wondering, I could just as easily call that spoils of war and keep it."
Liara snarled, clutching the chain a little tighter.
"But you are irrationally attached to it, and I would just as soon secure your cooperation. So put it on and stop sulking."
By the time she had come to the end of her spiel, Shepard was panting softly. It might have helped if she'd remembered to take a breath somewhere in that tirade, but there was a certain quality in Liara's disappointed glance that had put her on the defensive instantly and angered her beyond what was reasonable. She herself had pointed out that all of them were thieves, and Liara couldn't be naive enough to think that all her things were honestly acquired. That distinction didn't even go to half of her supplies, and she had seriously contemplated keeping the necklace for herself, making the rebuke entirely justified.
Stress. This whole debacle had her on edge, and being so close to the end of it, she was on tenterhooks now especially. This had simply cropped up at the wrong time.
Liara's voice cut through her rationalizations, still wary, definitely annoyed. "I cannot put it on myself."
Which Shepard interpreted as a request for help, easily ignored.
"Will you help me put it on?"
Shepard briefly debated the wisdom of holding her silence, "You'll lose it."
"I won't."
"Fine." There was more snap to her tone than she had intended, but Shepard closed the distance between them and took the small necklace from Liara's hands carefully.
Liara turned, tilting her head to the side while Shepard draped it over her, fiddling with the clasp. She remembered the first time Liara had asked her to do this, thinking her a security representative; she'd taken a rather illicit pleasure in the simple task and was surprised to find an echo of it even now- calm in the storm, so to speak. It felt like months since she had first set eyes on the asari and she spared a second to consider how much longer it must seem to Liara, the relief now that home was within her grasp.
She stepped away quickly, "I still say you're going to lose it."
"What will you do with the others?"
"They stay." Damned if she was actually going to leave anything small, portable and untraceable behind, but Liara didn't need to know that.
She turned back to her little stash, yanking a stack of pamphlets out to put them in Liara's hands. "Keep these for scrap; we could use them for a fire."
"I had thought the objective was to evade notice, and that we would be traveling largely in the evening."
"Fire's good for more than warmth, and those can be tucked into a pocket easily."
"Fine." So it wasn't precisely a friendly alliance, but it served its purpose well enough. Shepard began to hum softly as she picked through anything they might need, any little snatch of song that came to mind. It would be good to be on the move again, however briefly; it had been a few years since she and Kev had settled down and even now it felt strange to her, lingering so long in the same place. That would cease to be a problem once she was certain her position was consolidated, but for now that looked tenuous at best, and worse for every moment Finch failed to make an appearance.
She could accept now that he'd already chosen his side, and it wasn't hers. The question now was whether she had the time to deal with him before she got the asari out or if it had to wait until she was certain this couldn't turn into any more of a cluster-fuck than it was already shaping up to be.
"She who hesitates is lost." Shepard muttered thoughtfully.
"Yes, Shepard?" Liara was sorting through her things again; Shepard tamped down on her urge to shoo her away- it hardly mattered now.
"Nothing. Just thinking. You need to get changed; I can be ready to leave in twenty or so."
Everything was ready; the sole variable unaccounted for was Finch, and she could tend to him now while Liara was safely up here. Then they had to move fast.
"Your pack is on the bed, it has everything you might need. Stay up here until I come back." Liara must have heard something in her tone because she moved to block the exit quickly, eyes clouding with worry.
"Where are you going?"
"Something else I need to take care of; talk to Kev, other stuff." Shepard waved a vague hand, trying for a non-threatening expression. Liara looked skeptical, but wonder of wonders she stepped aside without another word.
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Shepard concentrated on keeping her pace even while she made her way down the stairs, not wanting to alarm Liara. By the time she made it to the second and final landing it was clear there was no one in the building. If they were all outside at this hour it could only mean trouble; Mara and Finch were probably right in the thick of it, with Kev trying to mitigate their influence. Why hadn't he come to warn her?
Stupid. He already had, and she had blithely assured him there was plenty of time. She hurried outside, taking in her immediate surroundings with a keen eye- nothing. Not a soul. The flimsy gate 'protecting' the entrance had been pushed open and after a final inspection she strode through, hesitating in the gap. Pursuing was an option, but this wasn't a good sign and she had no way of knowing if she would encounter any allies. It might be better to head back in, grab Liara and creep out together in the hope they wouldn't encounter anyone at all. Except that would leave Kev in the lurch, which was in essence the plan anyway, but to do so when he wasn't prepared-
Shepard was fairly certain that odd heavy sound was her own heartbeat, at least she hoped so. She stepped through the gate, circled to the left on a whim; with all the tracks they hadn't ever bothered to drag it would be impossible to isolate a specific individual but thirty people couldn't stay silent as death.
Rounding the corner gave her the first clue; a body lying pliant in the sand with no weapon in sight was a solid statement of intent. Glancing around cautiously one final time she slipped her pistol from its compact holster on her thigh and hurried over to get a better look.
No weapon drawn, no signs of struggle, rigor mortis had set in and Shepard had to glance away from the staring eyes, knew better than to try closing them now. After a moment's hesitation she ran her hands over E… the corpse, searching for a weapon and finding none. Few bothered to carry them this close to their impromptu compound- they had all become complacent these past few months.
Shepard turned back in the direction she had come; she had her confirmation that Mara was moving now, had all the evidence she needed that Finch wasn't going to come through. She needed to get back to Liara posthaste and be sure there hadn't been anyone waiting for an opportune moment to permanently separate them. Once she was certain the Doctor was secure she could apply herself to finding Kev and getting the hell out, preferably with all their sorry hides intact.
Before Shepard stepped through the gate she stopped once more, identifying what was left of her own footprints in the shifting dirt and gravel. Others could be explained by a few departures; Kev would have sent out a few people to see to it their makeshift defenses were in place- either Mara had sent her own people to dispose of them while they were relatively isolated or she would have a trap laid for when they returned. Shepard hoped Kev had sent them out in teams at least; it would mean a fighting chance.
Mara wouldn't want to abandon this structure entirely though. The one that held this warehouse held the proverbial castle and to leave it would be to cede ground; it was certain she hadn't been inside, the yard and near perimeter were clear of all save a single corpse, probably a straggler. That left the fucking roof; Shepard had taken care to leave an escape route in case of emergency- if someone had made it up to her level while she and Kev had been closeted up together making plans it would have been simple enough to slip up the emergency access ladder. It was easy enough to spot if one knew about it; and Finch had known all about it, damn him.
Of course, if a straggler had been a little slow getting ready to leave on their recon and had chanced to look back, the silhouettes on the roof would have been all too apparent- and from the high ground it would be easy to pluck off that theoretically unfortunate individual if it looked like they might be re-tracing their steps to deliver a warning.
Throwing any pretense of subtlety to the wind, Shepard sprinted for the warehouse entrance.
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Liara watched Shepard trot down the stairs with no small amount of trepidation; she could feel a hollow core of fear in her stomach and her hands had begun to grow cold when Shepard had made for that door. There wasn't any particular reason for her fear, just a nagging sense that Shepard was about to do something stupidly reckless. Nothing new there, nothing unexpected.
She found her fingers were trembling hard enough that she could barely manage the few buttons on the shirt, and the already too-tight pants were even harder to manage. Of course the boots would have laces that slipped between her fingers every time she tried to tie them and the pack had a clasp that did not want to close after she verified the amount of provisions in it.
Liara slipped the pack over a shoulder, looking over the room once more before she stepped out to the landing. She leaned over the edge, looking for any familiar forms and found nothing. Not even a fading echo of sound to mark Shepard's passing; she had been warned to stay, and part of her wanted nothing more than to sit in that room until Shepard came up to pronounce the coast clear, but her feet were already moving before she had quite made up her mind.
She had just begun to descend the stairs when she felt the warning prickle that usually meant someone nearby was preparing to use their biotics. Liara trotted back to the wall just beside the doorway and pressed firmly back against it, eyes trying to take in every corner simultaneously.
The scuff of a boot seemed to be coming from her left, a soft murmur; the sound might well have been undetectable to human ears- she hadn't thought that would be a subject of any concern and so had omitted it from her studies. It would have been much easier to plan her movements if she knew roughly the amount of noise she could make without arousing suspicion.
"You're sure she wasn't with Shepard?" Mara. That would explain the biotics.
"Bird's eye view and no asari in sight." Finch. That would be the flaw in Shepard's plan, just as she had been warned- just as she had chosen to ignore.
Moving carefully, Liara slid along the wall and back into the room; it would mean a decrease in maneuverability, but that doorway would only permit one to enter at a time and at least this way she could be certain of their angle of approach. She wondered if humans could feel the effects of biotics on their immediate surroundings; did they receive that sensory data as a sort of sixth sense or was it something unique to a universally biotic species?
She flared hers briefly, waited for any acknowledgment of effect. When none was forthcoming, she backtracked to the bed, listening to the rhythmic sound of approaching footsteps. It was too soon for Shepard to come back, but surely there must be someone else within the complex- or were they all a part of this? Liara ducked down, crouching for what feeble cover the furniture would provide.
Mara was the first through the doorway, and her brief moment of surprise at the seemingly empty room cost her dearly; Liara's biotics slammed into her with enough force that she knocked Finch down as she flew- it was altogether more satisfying than Liara cared to admit, even in the privacy of her own thoughts. She couldn't muffle a cry when Finch yanked a weapon from his jacket and fired haphazardly, feathers flew everywhere and the smell was foul enough that Liara's eyes began to water.
Defense had to be her first priority, and with that thought in mind she quickly raised a shield confined to the smallest possible area around her. Shepard wouldn't be far, and that sound was unmistakable. Apparently Mara had reached the same conclusion; she was screaming invectives at Finch between requests for backup and repeated Pushing at Liara's shields. Fighting to steady her breathing, Liara crouched down again, trying to ignore the cacophony while she sought a way out.
Liara felt the moment Mara's attack changed, no longer pointlessly trying to batter down her shield but rather viewing it as a cage; while Liara was occupied in maintaining it she could not attack directly, and Mara smirked when she turned to order Finch to keep his gun trained on Liara.
Another shot rang out and Liara flinched, shield buckling for one precious second; Mara crowed as she began to press her advantage, but Finch… he stumbled slightly, caught himself on Mara's shoulder. She turned to snarl a rebuke and her eyes widened at the stain spreading rapidly across his side. Another shot and Finch fell forward, Mara stepped away from him, caught now between two enemies.
A small trickle of blood leaked down Finch's lip when he fell forward, snorting blood obscenely. Lung-shot- not fatal if treated in time, but he would find no treatment here.
Another sharp report and Mara screamed with rage; "Not from there, Shepard. Your angle isn't right."
"I'll fix that in a second." Liara could not recall a time she had ever been so relieved as she was at that moment. Her hands began to shake again, bile rising in her throat along with hysterical laughter; she held both down determinedly, raising her shield to full strength again.
"Shepard! She has others!"
Her voice was hoarse and it was an effort to force the words through her tight throat, but she thought she could make out a response over the sound of her own frenzied thoughts.
"I have people on the way, Shepard, and your asari is up here-"
"So give me the asari and we'll go."
"For how long? A few days? A week? Not happening. Drop your weapon and maybe I'll keep you for a pet."
"Last I heard, hell wasn't cooling down any."
Mara fixed Liara with a glare, "Then I'll just kill you both."
"Where are your reinforcements, Mara? I don't see them coming; I'm starting to think you might be playing me."
"She can't hold the shield forever, Shepard. And you're a dead bitch if you try taking the stairs."
Mara stepped a little farther out, taking her eyes from Liara to look once more to Shepard.
"I-"
Then Kev stepped out from cover to slam her head into the door jamb, watching impassively when she tumbled to the floor like a broken doll.
"Got her, Shepard. You're all clear." He turned bright eyes back to Liara, "Are you all right, Doctor?"
Liara nodded mutely. "Where did you-"
"She was at the wrong angle to see the wall; I just had to get a little closer."
Liara's breathing gradually steadied when she heard Shepard taking the steps two and three at a time.
"But how did you-" A faint prickling along her skin was all the warning she had before Mara Pulled Kev forward into the edge of the jamb above her; there was a sickening crack when his head snapped forward and into the metal. Liara's scream mingled with Shepard's; she had seized Mara in a biotic grip before she was fully aware of her actions, and Shepard's first two bullets took the woman in the ribs, the third making a gory mess of her head.
Liara dropped the body, vomiting onto the already ruined bedding; her head spun until even her grip on the edge didn't guarantee her balance. Shepard was sobbing, or was that her? It was hard to tell when the sound alternated with a ringing that she feared would never stop; she pressed her palms to her head, praying for silence.
She looked to Shepard once more, the fingers of one hand were pressed to Kev's carotid, the other held his wrist, seeking any sign of life. Necks were not supposed to move that way. Shepard bared her teeth, shoulders heaving as she pushed away and hurried to Liara, pulling the pack back up on her shoulder and drawing her close, forcing her to move despite her clumsy feet.
Shepard half-dragged her to the stairs, catching her by the elbow when Liara's knees buckled beneath her on that first step. Her grip was bruising, but the pain helped to ground her, draw her back to the present instead of the image continuously repeating itself in her mind.
They stumbled down the final steps and Liara finally heard the words Shepard kept mouthing: "So sorry, so sorry, so damn sorry."
No. That wasn't enough. Not this time, not ever.
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Cutting it off at the halfway point here because otherwise this would end up another Ten Thousand Word Behemoth; updates will be considerably slower so that I can take the time to iron out any Major Plot Wrinkles.
*"Major plot wrinkles" being defined as anything that makes tawdry '70s bodice-rippers look clever.