Liara had a nice ship. Small, little more than a large shuttle, but large enough for the three of them. It was sleek with rounded edges on the wings. Very asari. Garrus nodded with approval. It was good for small jumps, providing you entered systems with fuel depots in them. He was a little worried that he hadn't heard from the Normandy in little over a day. Liara hadn't wanted to wait for Shepard, so here they were. Garrus left a message with Illium's port authority, under Shepard's Spectre sigil. So if they went there, they'd be rerouted to Hagalaz, in the Sowilo system of the Hourglass Nebula.

Jack drummed on the wall with her feet, she was currently sitting upside down in the back of the cockpit, her head tilted back, bobbing a bit with the music she was listening to through her headphones. Garrus could hear the violent rhythms from here, she must have that thing on full blast. He exchanged an amused glance with Liara, kids these days.

Liara tapped the navmap, bringing their destination up on the display, "Hmmm. It seems there is quite a distance from the fuel depot here to the Sowilo System. It may be a one-way trip."

"Won't be the first." He said flippantly, and laughed at the expression of disdain on her face, "Lighten up, Liara. We'll get there and then worry about getting back. Shadow Broker's bound to have vehicles, maybe even has his own gas station. The odds are good. Agents need to get back and forth, too."

She was mollified by his logic and sat back with a sigh. The ship was on autopilot for now, drifting at speed through the spaces between systems. "My revenge is at hand and all I'm finding I'm worrying about is getting you two back to Shepard."

Garrus grinned, "She's not the jealous type. You can borrow us for missions every once in a while."

"Not the jealous type?" She arched an elegant eyebrow at him and he realized this topic was about to get awkward for him. Her lips quirked up at the corners, "So...why isn't Shepard here? She's usually very hands on."

"Well, if I'm not good enough for you, I'll just take my guns and go home." He joked, gesturing out to the great expanse of nothing they were currently flying through. "You can keep Jack, though."

"Fuck you, Vakarian." Jack opened one eye at him, her lips curled in a sneer.

"Damn, and I thought my hearing was good." He laughed at her. She flexed one of her fingers at him, he said drolly, "Is that supposed to be offensive? Might help if I knew what that meant."

"Liara, does this thing have an airlock? I'd like to take out the trash." She leveled a glare at him, crossing her arms. The deadly seriousness in her face was undermined by her ridiculous position.

"Shh, honey. The adults are talking." That earned the asari a scathing stare, if looks could kill indeed. Liara turned to Garrus, her face stern, "You're deflecting, Garrus. Why isn't Shepard here with you?"

Her eyes held a warning that the next thing out of his mouth better not be a comedic retort. He cleared his throat, nervously, "She had a mission, a solo mission and she needed me to do this, so she'd have time for that. We're all running out of time, Liara."

"I thought the Collectors were only hitting human colonies."

"They're not going to stop there. Once they take out the humans, they'll move on the rest of us. And when the Reapers come that'll be even fewer of us left to defend against them." Garrus propped his feet up on the dash, leaning back with his hands under his fringe. "So she thought she'd send some of us out, try to get as much done as possible before we go through the Omega-4 relay, try to prepare the galaxy."

"Uh-huh, and then she went on a solo mission..." She couldn't have made that sound more ominous if she tried and Garrus fought to suppress a shiver down his spine. Damn he wish he had news from the Normandy, and now he was out of communications range, so there was nothing for it until they were done dealing with the Shadow Broker. He felt Liara's hand drop on his knee and he looked into her concerned face, but turned the topic to the past, "So, how is Jane?"

She stressed the short syllable slightly, and he knew the game was up. He shrugged, "Other than not knowing if she's okay or not out there, she's good. Better than ever, really."

"So Cerberus brought her back...completely. I'd hoped-" She sighed in relief, "Thank the Goddess, if I'd done the things I did and it counted for nothing, I think the Illusive Man would have been next on the list."

He barked a laugh, imagining this soft, sensitive woman taking down the terrorist organization. On the other hand, this older Liara had steel in her spine, it might not be a good idea to underestimate her. "And I'd have held the damn door for you."

"I'd heard something of what happened on Omega. I'm glad you got out okay." She looked askance at him, out of the corner of her eye.

"Okay was not the word I'd have picked. I was pretty messed up." He closed his eyes on those memories, they seemed so long ago now. Hard to believe it'd only been a few months. Felt like another lifetime, almost. "I was alive, that's about it. Even then, I had my doubts."

"I'd have tried to contact you if I had been certain it was you. It was wrong that none of us kept in touch." Liara avoided his gaze now, her face flushing.

"The whole thing had gone wrong. Sour." He scratched his fringe, watching old ghosts march behind his eyelids, "It's done, Liara. Time to let it go."

Jack spoke up from the back, mockingly, "Yeah, 'cuz Shepard's back. And Spiky's giving it to her nightly. God, you two are depressing."

There was painfully awkward silence as Garrus tried to get his embarrassment under control, he coughed, "Yeah, well...uh, um, hmm...yeah, it-"

Liara giggled, eyebrows wiggling suggestively, "Nightly?"

"Look, could we...avoid talking about that in front of the kid. I haven't had the 'talk' with her yet." He heard a growl from the back and ducked as a boot came flying at the back of his head. He turned his head to look at her, said mockingly in a stern voice, "Don't make me turn this ship around."

"I am happy for you, Garrus. For both of you." She said it sadly, and he was reminded that he wasn't the only one who'd loved Shepard on the Normandy. Seems everyone was drawn to her one way or the other. "It is good to see something went right after all."

"Yeah, I still think she's crazy, but who am I, anyway? She must know something I don't."

Liara laughed, "When doesn't she? And as far as I can see, you're the one she picked to lead a squad far far from the Normandy."

The wistful way she said Normandy made it sound like 'home', Garrus shot her a knowing look, "You know, when this is done, I'm sure I can smuggle you aboard. I'm sure it won't make waves. Not many anyway. You can bunk in the Hammerhead."

Liara smiled, indulging in the fantasy, "Perhaps. Is the Hammerhead anything like the mako?"

"Dunno, I refuse to ride in it. I can refer you to people who have though." He noted that they were pulling close to their target planet and cracked his knuckles, "Let's go get Feron."

Spirits, yahg are ugly. Maybe he was being specist, he'd always tried to find something good in every race, but he was at a loss here. Maybe the fat, toothy, unpleasant alien was not the best representative of his species. Garrus hoped not anyway.

Even at gunpoint, the beastly man was composed. Garrus guessed that being the Shadow Broker had made him a bit arrogant, thinking he was untouchable here on this storm blasted planet. He raised a browridge when the yahg had expounded on the virtues of his and Jack's bounties, exchanging a fist bump with her. It felt a little nice to know his 'good' work on Omega was still vexing all the right people. That is, all the bad people.

Liara was picking apart the Shadow Broker's past, clearly unsettling him. It was almost sexy when she finished with, in a sultry purr, "...or a pet. How am I doing?"

Garrus almost crowed at her nerve. Plucky little Liara, all grown up. The turian brought his gun up to focus on the rising yahg. The Shadow Broker towered over them all, looming menacingly. Any minute now, was all he had time to think before the giant burst into motion. His enormous fists crashed down on his desk, breaking it in two. Garrus saw what he was about to do and flung himself sideways into Liara, knocking her prone so she wouldn't be hit by flying desk. He couldn't get to Jack however and Garrus looked back to see the biotic laying face down, groaning. She was breathing, that was a good sign anyway.

The fight was intense, Garrus had his assault rifle out the entire time, more's the pity. There was barely any room to maneuver and with Jack out of commission, he didn't have her shockwave to help break the yahg's defenses down. It became a war of attrition, with times where he was running into melee with stinging kicks and punches, and times where he was picking away at the shield the Shadow Broker kept rebuilding around him from far away. It was harrowing, Garrus looked down to check his sinks and growled in frustration when he counted only two. Garrus saw the Shadow Broker hunker down to charge, shield leading. He tried to roll out of the way, not wishing to catch that shield on the chin like he had once already, but the very edge caught him and threw him into Liara.

They both went tumbling and Liara looked up, past him. He furrowed his brow at her, she waved at the glowing circle on the ceiling, "If you can get him to bring up that shield again, I have an idea."

Any idea was a good idea at that point, he looked at his last two heatsinks forlornly and popped one into his sniper rifle, bringing it to bear on the advancing yahg. There wasn't even time to scope it, so he just pointed it and let fly. Boom, it hit the bastard's shoulder, knocking him back, that shield dropping to the side for a second. Long enough for Garrus to reload. Time slowed to a crawl as he set his eye into the scope, the giant filling his vision. He prayed as he pulled the trigger, watched the yahg's head pitch sideways from the force of the impact. A telltale blue glow surrounded the Shadow Broker and Garrus pumped his fist briefly in triumph. And as luck would have it, the beast was already in position.

Liara grunted as she brought all her biotic strength to bear on the ceiling. Cracks opened up and a glowing liquid, eezo, who the hell puts a vat of eezo in their office?, sheeted down and flowed over the yahg, who glowed white hot and exploded, sending them flying.

Dazed, he accepted Liara's hand to help him rise. She was breathing heavily, he patted her on the shoulder. Garrus walked over and picked Jack up bodily, "Time to wake up, Jack."

He set her on her feet when she came to, but let her lean on him for support. There was a bit of blood on her cheek, he wiped it away with his knuckle. She smiled at him and he caught a glimpse of the person she would have been without the hardships thrust upon her by life. She said, sardonically, "Thanks, dad."

"No problem, Jack." He was tempted to lampoon her for getting knocked out during the fight, but resisted. He didn't want the bitter, hard person she had become to re-emerge any time soon. He turned to Liara, who was now at the monitors, voices were chattering away on almost every screen, demanding updates and information. He felt a ghost of providence trickle up his spine as her back slumped then straightened.

Her voice rang out with soft authority as she opened the commlinks to every agent in the Shadow Broker's empire, "This is the Shadow Broker. The situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware. It disrupted communication momentarily-"

Pounding footsteps made Garrus turn, rifle up and ready. It was Feron, pistol leading. Garrus watched the man's jaw drop as he took in the scene. Belatedly, Garrus remembered that he had no rounds in any of his weapons. He laughed, but stopped at a harsh glance from Liara, who continued, "-however, we are now back online. Resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations in the next solar day. Shadow Broker, out."

There was a long pause as everyone else slowly realized what exactly happened. Feron limped over to Liara, "Goddess of oceans, it's you...you-how-"

Liara turned slowly, her eyes too bright, "Well, anyone who's ever seen him is dead."

Feron sputtered, "You're the...new Shadow Broker."

Garrus snorted quietly, saying softly in words only Jack could hear, "Obviously."

The turian strode over to Liara, searching her face, "Are you sure you want this?"

She nodded, "Imagine how much I can help fight the Collectors, the Reapers with all of this. His resources, his connections, it will be invaluable. I-I can give you-"

Feron interrupted, "I'll, uh, check the power systems."

He limped away and Liara's eyes followed him sadly.

"I'll go with you," said Jack, flashing her insolent gaze at the two old friends, "before they get all serious again."

Garrus turned back to Liara, whose shoulders were shaking with silent sobs, he enfolded her in an embrace, she whispered, "It's over. It's finally over. Two years..."

He rested his chin on top of her head, knowing how she felt, "It's alright."

After a while, she pulled away, turning back to the terminals, "Let's see what we've got."

His omnitool pinged and he opened the comm, "Normandy?"

Joker's voice echoed around the room, "Normandy to Garrus, I'm here to pick you up."

"Bring her alongside. I'll be at the airlock in a few. Ping Jack, too." Was it him or did Joker seem unusually subdued? His gut said something was wrong. Very wrong. He rubbed the back of his neck and said to Liara, "Uh, listen, you sure you don't want to come with us? Shepard could really use you."

Her eyes flashed irritation then guilt at him, "We can't pass up this chance, Garrus. You know that."

The words were dragged from him in his urgency, "I know..."

"Tell her where I am and to come see me."

"I will." He very nearly ran to the airlock, meeting Jack halfway. She knew something was up, too. He could see it in the tense line of her shoulders. He prayed that it wasn't Shepard. Couldn't be Shepard.