Liara rubbed her eyes and leaned forward, examining the Prothean data disc in the scanner before her. Found in a derelict orbiting in an asteroid field, studying it and the other's they'd come across carrying out the Council's will in the deep regions of space had provided a welcome distraction from the alarming amount of training Shepard had been putting her through. She rolled her shoulders ruefully. She had asked to be a part of the ground team, rage and a desire to make herself useful on the human ship driving her to places she hadn't known she could go. She'd expected the Commander to scoff and keep her prisoner, contained. But he'd reached out and touched her arm, that flash of sudden, unfamiliar, exchange making them both stumble. She'd understood the deep red and black grief that followed his own thoughts of family, and the towering bastion that was his protectiveness of what was becoming an extension of his new family - the Normandy. He'd nodded, then told her she might regret it.

Approximately 320 hours of training and 3 ground missions later, and weeks of being sore in places she didn't know she could be sore, she was beginning to get a feel for what it was like to be a human marine. The experience startled her, but training with the team had softened the distance that the others had kept from her. The Gunnery Chief in particular had turned the more biting of her sarcasm away from her, though she had not relented on the teasing. Liara smiled slightly. Lieutenant Alenko had assured her that it never would.

There was a hiss as the med-bay door slid open, and Dr. Chakwas entered, bickering with the Commander.
"Why didn't you mention that your flashbacks were continuing hm? We could have done something before now" The doctor's tone was tinged with frustration, but contained an air of implacability. The commander seemed frustrated, and muttered something about prothean mind-games.
"Little wonder you've been haggard all week. You're not getting enough sleep."

Liara half stood, uncertain.
"Is there something I can do for you Commander, Doctor?"

The Commander looked at Chakwas, who glared at him reprovingly, hands on her hips. Liara tilted her head, curious at the half-smile that formed on the SpecTRe's lips.
"Dr. T'Soni, how are you holding up?"
"I am improving, Commander. Your training regimen is... extensive." Shepard nodded curtly.
"It will keep you alive into the sort of odds we always seem to be facing." He stepped forward, and tilted his head slightly to one side and forward, perhaps unknowingly mimicking asari body language - an intricate series of subtle motions that was almost as advanced as a language for the matriarchs of the Asari. This was a challenging gesture, and inquisitive. Liara felt her back automatically straightening, and frowned slightly.
"But that's not what I meant. How are you coping with the beacon, and the Cipher?"
Liara hesitated, flashes of screams, blood and metal appearing behind her eyes. Waking up every night, panting, crying, and drenched in cold sweat, the dying gasps of batarians and protheans alike still ringing in her ears.
"I am coping." She said, lowering her eyes slightly. Shepard didn't seemed convinced. He looked at Chakwas. An understanding seemed to come between them, and the doctor left the lab room.

Shepard moved forward, and sat down beside her, turning to face her directly. His voice softened.
"You're seeing things, aren't you? They're haunting your sleep, chemically induced or no." Liara looked up at him, watching the bewildering array of rapid muscle movements on the human's face. While similar to Asari faces, human expressions were much less deliberate, and seemed much more random. "And it's not just prothean horrors and the reapers." Shepard guessed. Liara nodded reluctantly.
"I- I did not know batarians could make those sorts of sounds." She said quietly. Reflections of old pain crossed the Commander's features. Liara paused, and held her hands out, supplicating. "I do not mean to cause offense, or reopen old wounds." The commander's serious grey eyes bored into hers.
"And I did not mean to pass my wounds onto you." He took a breath. "The good doctor wants us to attempt another joining - to sort out both the beacon, and old memories." He paused for a second. "And the changes the cipher brought." Liara nodded.
"I have kept those secret as you wished. But Private Dubyanski has an unfortunate habit of - I believe it is called high-fiving?" Liara shook her head. "He is beginning to suspect something. Apparently I act as if I am shocked by static at the contact." Shepard drew his lips together, thoughtful.
"I will inform Doctor Chakwas after this, if we cannot gain some insight into it. I would prefer to maintain the element of surprise, but..." he trailed off, then refocused on Liara. "we should attempt this joining. To sort out the information between us." His voice turned kindly. "are you willing, Liara?" He hesitated a moment then said even softer - "You inherited my pain without the healing. I would fix that, if I can." Liara nodded, and instinctively reached out her hands to take Shepard's. The contact sent a flush of impressions. Liara leaned forward, beginning the mantra. "relax, Shepard. Find a place of peace, and Embrace -"

Every joining was different, Liara had been told. Every mind reacts differently to the touch of another on its own, and the effects change. Sometimes there were visions, sometimes only strains of some strange music echoing from nowhere. So when she found herself standing atop a granite mountain, the wind whistling through her lab coat, she was only partially surprised. A lilting asari voice with a heavy accent of the northern continents of Thessia, carried on the wind, coming from everywhere and nowhere.

"Distance, and perspective, Alexander. Listen to the wind, and let your emotions burn atop it. Your survival is not guilt. Your parent's deaths are not yours to claim. You are strong, and your actions saved more lives than you know."
"This was not the first time she said that. Nor was it the last." Shepard appeared beside her, seeming small against the wind and the snow. "it was the first time is sunk in."

The scene shifted and changed, becoming an ancient horizon, tall obsidian towers framed against a bleeding sun. The world was on fire. Hordes of tall, aliens with triangular heads and strange weapons fought desperate battles against an oncoming horde. A red beam shot down from the sky and carved a fiery chunk in the earth, arriving at their position, and all went white. There came flashes of inexplicable violence, worlds destroyed, a tall, chipped stone statue in the shape of an unknown alien, and then thunderous words that echoed in flat space, driving out all thought with their very weight.

"THERE IS NO WAR, ONLY THE HARVEST"

Liara gasped and fell backward, landing hard on the rubber mats that lined the lab station. She gasped and coughed, tears streaming down her cheeks. She sat up, scooting herself back to lean against the bulkhead, staring as the marine opposite her sat up. His eyes were dry, though he looked as if all his insides had been scooped out and then presented to him at dinner. He lifted his head to look at her. The quiet beeps of the lab equipment sounded, incongruent with the horror they'd just witnessed.
Liara found her voice around the lump in her throat. "Those were the Reapers." Shepard stared at her, the shadows and his high cheekbones make his face look skull-like. He nodded slowly. Liara burst into an ugly sob, tears streaming down her cheeks, her body shaking.

"Why would my mother want that?" she managed to choke out, and gave fully into her grief. A moment later she felt Shepard slide down the bulkhead next to her, and put an arm around her. She curled into his shoulder and sobbed harder.

There came the hiss of the door, as Chakwas rounded the corner, a look of alarm on her face. She took the situation at a glance, and rushed over, helped Liara up, and began fussing over her and making all the right calming noises, and escorted her away. Liara clung to her like a life-ring, tears falling unabated. When she returned some time later, she found Shepard where she'd left him, staring blankly at the opposite wall. She faced him, her hands going to her hips.
"You sure know how to sweep them off their feet, Shepard." The dry remark caused the commander to look up and give a faint smile, though the hollow look never left his eyes. He levered himself up, and straightened his duty fatigues.
"We got a clear look at what we're facing. What future Saren," Shepard gave Chakwas a significant look "And Benezia are creating." Chakwas nodded in understanding, her face taking a grave cast.
"It was that bad?"
"Worse than you know." Shepard said, rubbing his hands over his face. He looked up. "And Doctor, I want this kept off record, but were some side effects of the Cipher..."

At the end of the shift, Shepard sat down to eat in the mess, the unappetizing meat-loaf the synthesizer created before him. He felt drained. More than just the fatigue of the intensive training he'd just put his ground team through. He hadn't expected her to, but Liara had shown up, her eyes dry and head held high, and had responded to the drills with singular intensity, ignoring Ashley's good-natured ribbing and Kaidan's concerned stares. It was an alarming change, but evidence of the drive he'd seen lurking beneath the soft-spoken and uncertain surface.

He'd just begun to dig into the unappetizing meal when Garrus strode up, his shoulders set and mandibles flicking anxiously at odd intervals.

"Shepard - I was hoping you could do me a favor." Shepard nodded and gestured for Garrus to sit down. He opened his omni-tool, and tapped a few buttons.
"This is the transponder signal for the ship the MSV Fedele. You remember that case I told you about -..."