PHOENIX RESURGENT

A Mass Effect Story by Vyrexuviel

Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

AN: My most humble apologies for not getting this out sooner, but my Beta has poofed. Again. I figured it was better to at least post what I had, rather than waiting another three months before posting. Anyone out there willing to give it a try, please, please, please, gimme a poke!

Council Operative Liara T'soni pointedly did not wince as she limped down the corridor towards the holding cell. The imposter had been led away docilely enough, so they said, and locked up in the most secure holding cell that C-Sec owned. Hermetically sealed with it's own air supply, magnetic locks and temperature-sensitive fusing deadbolts, the cell didn't resemble a prison cell so much as it did a bank vault. Liara nodded to the man on duty at the outer perimeter station. She was scanned, checked, forced to divest herself of all weapons, and even frisked before allowed past. The inner perimeter guards were in full combat armor, weapons locked, loaded, and ready to be used the instant (if ever) the prisoner escaped the supposedly escape-proof cell.

This particular cell had stood empty since the last Krogan Councilor had walked out of the Council. Shortly after, the Krogan Rebellions had begun, and the council no longer had authority to imprison rage-maddened krogan battlemasters. Soon after, there was no cause to imprison them, even if they did have the authority.

Liara nodded to the two men on duty and moved to the closed-circuit terminal to the only vid pickup inside. The imposter sat against the far wall, exactly as they had described to her when she woke in the infirmary. Slumped, staring sightlessly at the door. Liara couldn't quite suppress the involuntary shiver. She looked like an automaton that had had it's control wiring shorted out. Utter immobility of an object in the shape, if not hue, of a living, breathing woman. Not breathing now...

Liara's eyes narrowed slightly. She -had- to know. Had to. How she had gotten everything so -perfect-. Others had tried. The second to claim to be Shepard returned got thrown through a balcony's protective force screen and plummeted eighteen stories. After that, she had been forcibly committed to the Serrice Central Hospital, for psychiatric treatment. She spent nearly six months there, and afterward, once she had been on her own without an incident for a full month, had been approached by Councilor Tevos herself.

She wasn't a Spectre, but perhaps the next best thing. A totally deniable asset, should her mission go catastrophically wrong. It had appealed to the darkness in her soul, and she had agreed. After a year of constant, almost brutal physical, biotic and psychological training, ranging from krogan battle practices to the High Arts of the Asari, she was perhaps the most highly trained asari commando of her generation, capable of killing without thought or remorse, but able to tap into the wellspring of pain and rage that was all that was left of her heart. She glared into the monitor and spoke just three words to the guards.

"Open it up."

They hesitated, then one nodded. They both slid physical keys into their respective slots, then twisted in unison while Liara tapped a 16-character code into the terminal. The door gave a massive hiss as the hermetic seal was broken, then hummed softly as the bolts were retracted. It parted in the center and irised open to admit the asari.

Shepard stared blankly into space. She had hurt Liara. The image of that rage-distorted face going flaccid and limp under her fist played on endless repeat in her mind. She couldn't stop it, didn't -want- to stop it. She had -hurt- Liara. Perhaps even killed her. Her heart would have shattered, had it been something as frail as mere glass. She had shut down entirely after that sight. Done what they told her to do, gone where they had told her to go, and sat limply in this place once they had finished stripping her down to her shorts and tank top. She had hurt LIARA.

Something moved in her vision. She ignored it. Nothing mattered anymore. Her mind kept showing her the face of the woman she had loved more than life itself, going still as death beneath her own hand. booted feet in her line of vision. not important. The sensation of impact as her fist smashed through the metaglass of Liara's helmet. Her hand would have twitched, had she the mental energy to make even that slightest movement.

A voice. A heart-stoppingly familiar one.

"Tell me how you did it."

Shepard's eyelids closed for the first time in uncounted eternities. Liara.

"I am so. So sorry, beloved..."

The fist smashing into her temple was unexpected, but she took the blow as her due. Liara hissed and shook out her hand. "Tell me how you got her appearance so exact! Even to that dimple in her cheek. No one else ever got that right."

Shepard's eyes snapped open and her hand reached out to clamp vice-like around her beloved's bicep. Her own voice sank to a threatening hiss. "Others. Others have tried... Tried to be me? To -you-?"

Liara's first pained gasp was cut off by the -fire- in the imposter's eyes. Fierce, burning rage, a rage so deep and deadly it seared even her withered and blackened heart. She twisted her arm, trying to free herself from the imposter's grip, but the blue-skinned hand clamped down with a strength that belied it's seeming frailty. The imposter hissed again, "They tried to get to you by pretending to be -me-?"

Liara found herself answering before she quite knew what was happening. "Yes. First time was just a month after you- After Shepard died." She corrected her momentary blunder and glared harshly. "The second was just a week later. The T'soni name had been famous for centuries before I was born, and even my mother's fall couldn't bring it down. I was definitely someone to know." She spat the words bitterly. "I went into therapy after that incident."

Her words trailed off as the witchfire burning in the imposter's eyes banked to a sullen ember, then went out. The look that was left was heartbroken, utterly devastated. A raw, suppurating wound of the spirit, bare and vulnerable.

"I never meant to leave you, Liara. Even when I couldn't quite remember who I was myself, I kept seeing your face in my mind... I carved it into a mountain my third month on Alchera, just so it would go away. It never did, not ever." The imposter's words -had- to be lies. Had to be. Shepard was -DEAD-. She had been spaced, and remnants of her armor had been found on Alchera just two weeks after the Normandy had been wrecked. Liara had -so- wanted to be on that expedition, but as it was into the Terminus Systems, she had been denied. And when the report came back, she had tried to go on her own. After that, doubts about her sanity had been raised, and the incident with the two imposters had solidified them.

She wrenched her arm away, staggering slightly as she came to her feet. "We -will- find out the truth, you know. We -will- find out who you really are."

the imposter gave a sort of wry chuckle, one that Shepard had used to make when something both sad and amusing occurred. "One can be told the truth from dawn to dusk, but if one takes the truth for lies, one will never know the truth." her head snapped up, and she was on her feet so fast, Liara involuntarily stepped backward.

"Meld with me, Liara. That will show you the truth. No human could fake her memories to a skilled asari, and if you don't want to do so yourself, have someone you trust do it, but please, please Liara, let me prove myself to you." The words were spoken in such a heartfelt tone, she almost consented instantly. But harshly-taught prudence won out, and she stepped closer to the door.

"I'll leave that to your interrogators. The Asari have some...not so gentle methods of probing the mind. A simple meld wouldn't access your deepest mind anyway, and that is where your true secrets will lie." She turned to step through the door.

Shepard couldn't let her go, not like this, not on that note. Such suspicion wasn't like her Liara, but she could see, could tell just by looking at the young woman, that Liara had been reforged in the ashes of her former life. So, she did the only thing she could think of that would prove herself to the one who held her heart.

"Liara... Embrace Eternity."

Liara stiffed as she heard the words, twisting back with a snarl on her lips, only for her eyes to widen in shock. She -felt- the impact of another mind against hers, some sort of energy field wrapping both of them tightly. The guards outside were shouting, but the words were distant and remote. The imposter had crossed the cell in one stride, her hand upraised to cup the asari's cheek. Tingling forced it's way into her skin, forcing a link of her nervous system to that of the imposter.

It was like opening a door and stepping into the heart of the sun.

The imposter's mind was a blur of frenetic, never ceasing activity. Voices spoke, shouted whispered, each individual and distinct, but all -hers-. Images roiled and flickered, here, there and everywhere as the Meld cascaded through her thoughts, overwhelming her defenses despite her rigorous training. The imposter's mind just moved too -fast- to counter.

And then, she was within the Merge. One mind, one heartbeat. An image of herself in armor, being told to get to an escape pod. Now, we don't have time to argue. Shepherding in several crew and hitting the jettison button. Stepping through the roofless wreck of the CIC, in through the barrier curtain that kept Joker shielded despite the escalating damage to the ship. Shoving the pilot into the last escape pod and touching the button in freefall just as another explosion sent her hurtling into space. Turning to see the rising world beneath her, and hearing the hiss of her escaping air. Flames. Defiance

Wandering aimlessly amid a frozen wasteland, trying to remember where she was and why she was here. Trying to find a purpose. She -had- to have a purpose. She didn't know why she knew that, but she did. So. Purpose. She had buried the remains of the people she found in the wreck, but she didn't know why she had to. She felt very strange amidst the wreckage, so she had left. Walked for many light-dark cycles until she found a place to be. Eventually, as she began to remember things, she practiced. She wasn't sure why she had to practice what she remembered, but she knew she had to practice, so she did. It was maddeningly frustrating.

Then, the creatures began to arrive. It was just two at first, but they had hit her from a distance, so she fled into the blizzard. They hadn't followed. Then others came, ones with louder fists, and she had fought back. She buried their bodies too. Then the shiny one arrived, one who had tried to talk, not fight. She listened, learned, and at last, remembered.

Liara staggered back, tripped over the edge of the door and fell. She stared dazedly up at the glistening figure above her. Shepard. It was, indeed, Shepard. 'By the Goddess... What have I done...?'

Councilor Tevos heartily wished she could wear her old commando leathers for this little excursion. A full robe was so restrictive when one was going into a possible fistfight, but decorum required a Councilor to be attired in something other than fighting fatigues. The outer perimeter guard snapped to attention so hard the former commando was bemusedly surprised she didn't sprain something. The guard looked a bit confused. "Councilor! We weren't expecting you!"

Tevos's brow furrowed slightly. "Did my Operative not specify that I was coming to observe the interrogation?"

"No, Councilor, she merely requested access."

This was troubling. Liara was a superb operative, well versed and cunning, with the quick mind of a youngster and the insight of a matriarch. She could cut to the heart of the problem as easily with words as a knife. But she had always been a bit unbalanced when it came to her lost lover. "Show me in."

The guard hurriedly requested relief from the Councilor's guard and led the way in. The scene they found was quite different from any they expected.

A shimmering bubble of force surrounded the two figures just inside the open door of the cell. The inner guards had their assault rifles aimed, but to judge by the bullet scars on the back wall, the bubble was just as effective as a Barrier at deflecting their rounds. The unknown had her palm to Liara's cheek, the young asari's eyes open wide, her lips parted, her eyes the deep black of a very deep meld. Then, just as the councilor's party arrived, the link was severed, and the young asari staggered back and sat abruptly, staring up in shock at the slick-surfaced figure.

The two had eyes only for each other, and Liara's voice was only barely audible, full of hope, joy, and an overarching sorrow and shock that touched the matriarch's soul. "Shepard...?"

Tevos thought, 'This could be...problematic.'