A/N: Again, a slight tap-dance away from canon. To those of you who hate cliffhangers, please please please don't kill me. Especially since you have to wait until Monday for this to continue :D

The voices of Misira and Shrive echoed through the vaulted stone hall. Eír's fingers traced along the cracked rock wall as she walked silently toward them.

She had kept mostly to herself since Gellian's funeral. It was time filled with grieving, anger and exhaustion…and a lot of thinking. This morning was the first she had ventured forth, seeking out Shrive and the comfort only another could bring.

At first, the sound of the asari women's voices didn't concern her, merely indicated their location. As she drew nearer, however, she slowed, her brows creasing. There was tension in the air, in the tones of their conversation. Approaching the athenaeum's library, she slowed even more, creeping to the edge of the archway to listen.

"…wise in many things, Shrive," Misira was saying. "You have great strength, great cunning…it is what makes you the huntress you are. But you are still young-"

"Youth does not make me foolish, Mother," Shrive replied. "Youth does not make my choices invalid."

"No, but it narrows your sight, Shrive, clouds your judgment with inexperience. Do you truly think I don't understand? I was a Maiden myself once. I made poor choices, as do all Maids at some point or another-"

"It is not a poor choice, and should I make a mistake, then it is mine to make."

"And where do you see this leading, Shrive? How long do you give it? Decades? Centuries? Will you be old Matriarchs together, shunned by your people, all your daughters outcasts for what they are?"

"Because they are pureblood?" Shrive asked. "She is pureblood, Mother, and she is the strongest asari that I have ever seen. The strongest you have ever seen."

"That only makes it worse, Shrive," Misira insisted. "How did that turn out for her? Left to another Matriarch to raise, ostracized by her people, so emotionally starving that she turned to an ill human woman for a mother's guidance at a time in her life she should have been striking out on her own? Worse…your daughters would be the pureblood children of a pureblood parent. That increases the chances of Ardat-"

Shrive's scoff was bitter. "So if you cannot impart reason to sway me you will attempt with fear?"

"You must face the reality of it, Shrive. Ardat-Yakshi. It is real. It happens. It is painful enough for an asari to live with the stigma of being pureblood but what if your daughters are afflicted further, Shrive? What if you must see them make a choice…a choice to be locked away, imprisoned in a solitary, loveless existence, unable to receive companionship…or else to be killed?"

There was silence a moment, before the Matriarch continued in a much gentler tone. "Shrive, I love you. I know that you are grown now, that you must take your own paths in this world but you must see this for what it is. It is just an infatuation. You're both young, free-spirited. It all seems so perfect to you…young romance with the spice of a forbidden love…but it is not forever after. Go out into the galaxy if you must. Go with her if it is your desire. But recognize it for what it is…a fling, one that is doomed to pass. When it is time, let her go and move on."

Eír's head was swimming, her eyes blurred as she edged away from the arch, turning and fleeing back along the corridor towards her room. Closing the door she leaned on it, gasping as the tears began to fall.

Pureblood, Ardat-Yakshi…killed? All the words seemed to swirl and spin in her head until she was sick and dizzy. She knew what an Ardat-Yakshi was, another dry piece of asari history imparted to her by the tank. Just a word, just a concept, but now thrown as a possible reality into her path.

She could not be with Shrive. Her entire heart and soul seemed to fold and crumple inward at the thought. Moving away from the door, she fell into a sit on her bed, struggling against sobs.

Just a few days ago she had thought her feelings were ones of hatred. She had even planned Shrive's death at her own hands, more than once. But now the thought of living without her was such an agonizing pain she thought something might physically be wrong. This could not be normal. How could the idea of someone's absence hurt so much? Gellian's death had been very painful but this…this stole her breath away.

Perhaps I have some illness? Some defect? Perhaps I should go to see Linai…

She rose, then startled with a gasp as her door chime caught her by surprise. She stared at the aperture as if expecting it to spring open and unleash rabid varren into the room. One hand plastered over her stomach, she shakily wiped her tears away and moved forward, prompting the door to open.

Shrive stood there. When the huntress saw her, her expression immediately turned to alarm. "Eír? What's happened?"

Surging forward Eír embraced Shrive almost painfully tightly, clinging to her. Shrive managed to steer her backward enough to allow the door to close, returning the embrace just as tightly.

"Eír? What's wrong?" she asked with worry. "Are you ill?"

"I think I'm dying," Eír sobbed. Shrive blinked, loosening the embrace enough to look into the other asari's face.

"Wh-what?"

"I can't…I can't be with you," Eír gasped. "Our daughters would be outcast, killed! You're going to leave me-"

"Eír…sweetheart, slow down! Calm yourself, here…"

She helped Eír to sit on the edge of the bed, wiping at the girl's cheeks and searching her lavender eyes. "What are you speaking of? What is causing you pain?"

"I-I heard you and your mother," Eír stated miserably. "She said you cannot be with me, she said our daughters would be pureblood, that they would be monsters and have to be killed-"

Shrive's gaping surprise turned to stone, and she glared at the doorway as if she could see Misira on the other side of it. Looking back at Eír she shook her head, cupping her cheeks.

"No, listen to me," she said in a gentle voice. "Eír, listen, please. Mother is a wise Matriarch but she can be wrong, and she is wrong. Listen to me. I make my own choices. Mother cannot dictate that…no one else can dictate it but me. The chances that any of our daughters would actually become Ardat-Yakshi are so incredibly slim…if we even decided to remain together long enough to have daughters."

"But it's possible!"

"No…I'm not entirely convinced of that," Shrive replied. "Perhaps if you truly were a conventional pureblood, then-"

"What? What do you mean, 'conventional?'" Eír asked.

Shrive smiled with affectionate patience. "We Joined, Eír. Melded. I saw your memories…flat ones, two dimensional creations telling of Benezia and your childhood. But I also saw rich ones, real ones…the tank…the lab…Gellian's affection and misguided vendetta. It explains your incredible strength, your skill."

At the look on Eír's face, Shrive shook her head. "I don't care, Eír. The body, the parents, the way of creation…none of this matters. I see you. Your fire and spirit…these are Eír, not the creation of any genetics, purposefully in a lab or accidentally in a womb. Were it your soul in any other form, I would still love you."

Love. Yes, that was what this was. This whirlwind, this pain…it was all love.

"You love me?" Eír asked timidly.

"Yes," Shrive said without hesitation. "My mother may think I mistake my feelings, she may think that I am confusing lust or infatuation for love but I know what my heart speaks. No one can know what the future will bring. It is not given to us to know it. I only know what is now. And right now, I want to be with you. It may all fall apart in the end, but I want to try."

Eír looked at her eyes a moment, then almost leapt forward, kissing the other girl with the same nearly bruising force she had in the campsite. Almost forcing herself to break it her trembling hands cupped Shrive's cheeks, their foreheads together.

"I want to leave this place," she whispered, her voice shaking. "I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go away. Far away. I…I don't know if Thug will come with me but…but you. Please…please come with me. Please, let's get away from here…anywhere…"

Shrive nodded. "I have a small ship," she whispered back. "I can make arrangements…I know a place we might be welcome. I have a friend, Teful, he's a batarian. Owes me a favor. I can call him. We can be gone in the morning…whenever you wish."

"Yes," Eír replied, surprised at the strength of her own convictions. She hoped Thug would come along but the krogan had to follow his own path, just as she had to follow hers. This, being here on Tuchanka, hunting for Shepard…this was Gellian's plan, Gellian's dream.

And Gellian was dead, her dream dead with her. Now, it was time for Eír to dream a new one.

One that was solely her own.

{Shepard, where are you?} Miranda's voice was irritated, but Shepard could hear the frantic undertone, the note of worry.

Soaking wet, streaked with soot, Shepard was scrolling through a console ledger outside a sealed set of doors. She barely glanced up from the scrolling names as she replied.

"Outside the Baria Frontiers office. Third floor, should be clear."

{We're there now.}

She caught the bobbing omni-lights out of the corner of her eye as Miranda and Kasumi rounded the corner onto the third floor, weapons ready. Seeing only bodies, both shot mercs and civvies killed in the blast, they headed to Shepard's side.

As the Commander turned from the console, Miranda tossed her a shield generator. Snagging it out of the air, Shepard clipped it to her belt.

"We couldn't carry your hard-suit up, it's still in the shuttle," the Australian explained. "Are you hurt? Did you find Liara?"

"No," Shepard said, powering the barrier on. "She signed into the Frontier's ledger only a few minutes before the blast. She's got to be somewhere inside."

"I got the door," Kasumi said, already moving to unlock it. In less than a second she had it from red to green. Almost at the same moment, a pair of muffled gunshots sounded from behind it. Instantly Shepard had her pistol in hand, rushing forward.

The door slid open, revealing two corpses and a very alive Vasir. The asari woman was still lowering her weapon, glaring at a dead merc at her feet.

The other corpse was a salarian. He'd been shot against the wall. Shepard recognized him instantly as Sekat, his bright gold eyes already faded.

"Shit," Tela frowned. "He pegged the informant. If I'd been a goddamn second faster-"

Shepard stepped over the dead merc, her pistol still gripped in both hands as she walked past Tela and strode around, checking the entire office. Looking back sternly at Vasir she demanded, "Where's Liara?"

Vasir lifted her brows. "I don't know," she replied. "I did not find her on the way down."

"The ledger said she just signed in here!" Shepard barked.

"Listen, calm down. We'll find her. We'll go back over each floor if we have to. Rescue workers are already arriving. They'll help us find her body-"

"You mean this body?"

Kasumi blinked in surprise, stepping aside as the asari strode in. She had a pistol in her hand, her clothes and face damp and streaked with soot. Her eyes were ice, her sites firmly affixed to Vasir.

Shepard felt a blast of relief so strong her knees threatened to go weak a moment. As fast as the sensation hit her, however, she was brushing it aside, her own pistol snapping up to aim at Vasir. Whatever help the other Spectre had been, if guns were going to start aiming, she was taking Liara's side, hands down.

Of course, the instant Shepard aimed at her, so, too, did Kasumi and Miranda. In less than a second, Vasir had all four weapons on her.

"What's the skinny, Li?" Shepard asked warily, narrowing her eyes at Vasir.

"This is the woman that tried to kill me," Liara accused. Instantly Shepard's jaw flexed, the spark in her eye less one of caution and more one of murder.

"That blast must have addled your brain, sweetie," Vasir snorted. She seemed completely unconcerned about the four weapons aimed at her head, beyond taking half a step backward toward the window that overlooked the Trade Center lobby three stories below.

"After I left my apartment, I doubled back," Liara replied. "I saw your skycar leave the rooftop next door, the same rooftop the shots were fired from. I saw you land on the roof of my building and I saw you try and break into my apartment! Shepard, she killed Sekat, took the location data, and then shot her own accomplice to cover up what she'd done."

"You're working for the fucking broker, Vasir," Shepard growled dangerously. Vasir's eyes only half-shifted to her, before she smiled at Liara.

"You just don't know when to stop meddling," she almost cooed to the other asari. "Guess it comes from being a pureblood bitch!"

The window behind her suddenly exploded in a flare of biotics. Shards of glass, some large enough to decapitate, shot into the room and toward the four as Vasir threw her hand out. As gracefully as a suitor about to propose, Liara dropped smoothly to one knee, her hand uplifting as she drew up a biotic shield around them. The glass shards crumpled against it, raining almost musically to the ground.

Darting forward without thought the moment she dropped it, Shepard charged toward Vasir as the other Spectre turned and hopped up into the window frame. As she tensed to leap, Shepard launched herself forward, tackling her.

In an instant they were in freefall, tumbling down toward the lobby floor almost fifty feet below. Vasir twisted in Shepard's arms like a serpent, a biotic bubble surrounding them and slowing their momentum. Shepard gripped her wrist, managed to land a right hook into Vasir's chin, but to the asari's credit she was not addled. Twisting more, she grabbed Shepard and even as they neared the ground, biotically slammed the human woman away from her.

Shepard hit the lobby floor with force…not as much force as she would have, had their entire fall gone unimpeded, perhaps, but it was bone-cracking force nonetheless. Her air vacated, she felt at least one rib give way, and darkness fell.

It had to have lasted only a few moments, because when vision slowly returned she was still struggling to gasp in air, stunned and unable to move. She could see Vasir pelting away from her across the lobby floor, aiming for a set of stairs. Addled, Shepard's weak thought was why is she going back up when we just came down?

A moment later a pair of booted feet wreathed in blue landed only a few feet away, and Shepard's eyes fixed to Liara sprinting after Vasir.

Her breath seemed to be returning, each inhale laced with the more than familiar fire broken ribs brought. Struggling up to her hands and knees, Shepard weakly managed to get to her feet just as Miranda and Kasumi rushed to her side.

"Are you all-"

"Get after her!" Shepard gasped, pointing toward the stairs. "Li can't…take her…alone!"

As her two friends turned and ran after the pair of asari, Shepard coughed, shaking her head to clear it as she pulled out her second pistol. She'd dropped the first…upstairs, when they'd hit the ground, she wasn't sure when, but she had no time to look for it now. Ignoring the grinding sensation in her chest, she loped toward the stairs, refocusing on the task at hand.

She was going to erase Vasir, before the woman had a chance to so much as breathe on Liara.

Gunshots, from the second floor balcony. Shepard ran that way, lifting her pistol as she burst outside, just in time to see Vasir leap off of the railing. Not halting her charge, she only slowed as she saw Vasir's skycar sweeping upward, door still swinging shut.

"Fuck!" She coughed, then blinked as a sharp shot sounded near her ear. Kasumi lowered her strange looking pistol, grinning as a tiny flashing light appeared on the underside of the skycar.

"Nailed it," the thief grinned. "Tracking device. Limited range though, we'll have to hurry."

"The shuttle is just down in the courtyard," Miranda said as the group headed back across the balcony and for the stairs. Shepard kept her pistol in hand, her other lightly pressed to her burning side.

"A shuttle will be too slow," Liara shook her head as she fell in beside them, still out of breath. "We need a skycar."

They ran out into the courtyard. Emergency vehicles had already landed, crowds gathering, the wounded from the explosion being helped. Shepard wove her way through the chaos, the others on her heels as her dark eyes searched.

She spotted an open taxi. The driver was standing in the door, gaping at the still smoking, ruined building. Shepard grabbed his arm and shoved him out of the way even as she stepped past him and slid into the driver's seat.

Stumbling, the turian male recovered and rounded on her. "Hey!"

Shepard's glare was stone as she aimed her pistol at him. Immediately he lifted his hands and backed away. "Take it!"

The other three women climbed in as Shepard powered the vehicle up, lifting it into the air almost before the doors had fully shut.

"She's heading toward the city center," Kasumi reported, watching the signal from her omni-tool. "Cut directly west and then swing over north at Vela Park, we should be able to cut her off."

Shepard aimed the taxi accordingly, leaping up to top speed before she half-glanced over at the asari seated beside her. "You ok?"

Liara didn't seem to hear her, eyes fixed to the side window as she scanned visually for a sign of Vasir's skycar. Shepard frowned. "Hey!"

Liara glanced at her, eyes wide in surprise.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes, Shepard. I am fine," she replied, and returned her attention to the window. Shepard's frown deepened and she scowled out of the windscreen.

"Yeah, I'm fine too, thanks for asking."

"Shepard…" Liara murmured, brows knit as she glanced back at the human woman. The commander didn't even look at her.

"What the fuck ever," she grunted. "Kasumi?"

"Uh…nearly there," the thief replied. "You should see her any moment, directly ahead."

Shepard's eyes narrowed as she caught sight of the skycar. "There she is. Hang on."

She urged the taxi even faster, sweeping in toward the other Spectre's skycar. She slid in so close she could see the asari woman's eyes widen in surprise, before she suddenly turned her wheel.

In moments it was an all out chase, Shepard dogging Vasir's tail and trying to force her both out of traffic and down to land. When the asari cut through a construction site Shepard nearly lost her again, the distance between them a bit greater when she swung in on her tail again.

"There, that tunnel," Liara pointed as Vasir cut a sharp right into a transfer tunnel. As Shepard followed, Vasir swept in too close to a large truck. The driver overcompensated, and in a flash, the huge vehicle was careening out of control, directly for the taxi.

"Truck!" Liara gasped, eyes widening as she braced herself.

"I know," Shepard growled, and pushed harder on the gas. The taxi sailed forward, directly at the tumbling death bearing down at them.

"TRUCK!" Liara shouted frantically.

"I KNOW!" Shepard barked. Liara let out a squeal of terror and clenched her eyes shut even as Shepard whipped the wheel. The taxi spun to the side and slid upside down against the tunnel wall, the top of its hood skimming past the crest of the truck with literally a layer of paint to spare. Safely past, Shepard whipped the taxi back down with a terse grin.

"Ha!"

"Y-y-you're enjoying this," the asari said tremulously.

"I think I'm going to be ill," Kasumi whispered from the back seat.

"Where is she?" Shepard demanded. Kasumi looked back at her omni-tool. "There…just above us, twenty meters."

Shepard, clear of the tunnel, banked sharply upward, swinging in directly beside Vasir even as the woman turned to mislead the other direction.

"Not this fucking time," Shepard growled, and swung the taxi into the side of the skycar. Taken by surprise, Vasir overcompensated, and as the skycar spun it clipped yet another vehicle, sending it into an irrecoverable spin. It whipped past, tumbling out of control. Shepard turned her head, trying to track it as the skycar crashed hard into the top of a building.

"She's down on Azure," Liara announced, even as Shepard turned the car and aimed it toward the rising plume of smoke.

Landing on the large, open air garden of the Azure Hotel's chain of luxury suites, Shepard didn't even bother to power the taxi down, out of the vehicle the moment the doors were open. Her pistol fixed toward the open door of the crashed skycar, she quickly realized that no one was inside, and that heavy spots of dark, purplish-blue blood had smeared all over the ground nearby.

"She's out and she's hurt," she declared.

"This way, Shep…there's blood spotted over here."

As she turned muffled gunshots rang through the air, punctuated by the sound of shattering glass and a few startled screams.

Shepard, still sans hard-suit, her cracked ribs stitching a painful cramp along her side, nevertheless ran immediately that direction, pistol up and ready, the other three women close behind.

Glass patio doors leading into one of the suites had been shattered. Heavy spots of more blood left no question as to who had done it. Striding into the suite, Shepard's brown eyes fixed on the far door even as a frightened civvie crouched halfway behind a bed lifted a shaking hand, pointing in the same direction.

"Th-there…she went th-th-that way…"

Shepard continued on again, turning to clear a doorway as she passed it, seeing only another frightened face peeking out of a small bathroom. As she reached the door, Kasumi stepped past her, already vanishing.

Seeing a wide walkway continuing on toward more suites, Shepard glanced at Miranda. "Take the left side. Liara, go right. I'm in the middle."

The three women fanned out, moving carefully. Luxury hotel or no, they were three hundred stories in the air, and the wind up here was fierce. Shepard felt a familiar touch at her elbow halfway across the walk, a moment before Kasumi shimmered into being again.

"She's still moving," she reported. "The blood trail is more and more copious, she's very badly hurt. I wasn't able to spot her but I think she's trying to find a way down. She cannot be far from collapsing."

"She can't get away-" Liara began. Shepard, aching and irritated, shook her head sharply.

"Fuck! She's not getting away, ok?"

Pushing forward, she reached the end of the walkway, the blood trail cutting through yet another suite before reaching a second open garden. A couple of more civvies were huddled at the far end, frightened and trying to stay out of sight behind a large planter and a set of tables. Vasir herself was halfway across the area, limping heavily, one hand plastered to her stomach, body hunched as she moved. Even with the distance between them, Shepard could see the thick, dark blood painting the legs of her hard-suit, running visibly down and splattering on the ground.

Vasir caught sight of her almost the same moment that she was seen. As Shepard broke into a jog, pistol aiming, Vasir suddenly lunged and snatched hold of one of the civvies, yanking the human woman to her feet and spinning around, keeping her startled hostage between her and Shepard.

"Stop, Shepard," she warned, planting her pistol against the weeping girl's forehead. "We don't want to see anything happen to this pretty little bitch now, do we?"

Shepard drew to a halt but made no move to lower her weapon. Beside her she could feel the other three doing the same.

"Let her go, Vasir," Shepard ordered.

"I will, once I'm in the lift and away," Vasir replied. "This is over, Shep. I'm walking away with this intel and in return, you and this pretty little girl are going to get to live. Isn't that fair?"

Shepard's face was hard, and she grit her teeth as she shifted her grip on her pistol. "You think I care?" she challenged. "You think it matters to me if you take out some silly civilian? You tried to kill Liara! You did kill dozens of innocent people! And for what? A gangster who likes to hide in the dark?"

"Says the Cerberus puppet!" Vasir spat back. "The Shadow Broker has helped me for years, gave me damn good intel that's saved thousands of lives! If he wants me to wipe out a goddamn pureblood bitch in exchange, then damn right I will."

Shepard shifted her weight forward threateningly, fingers going white-knuckled on the handle of her pistol. Vasir tensed, her own weapon pressing harder to her hostage's skull in warning. Shepard froze.

Vasir grinned. "Yes, I think you do care," she noted. "I think, right now, every overprotective little hero bone in your body is terrified I'm going to pull this trigger. That's your thing, isn't it Shepard? Help the helpless…fight for those who can't fight for themselves…be there for them because no one was there for poor, helpless, frightened little Shepard when she was just a sprat."

"Fuck. You," Shepard growled. "You're not walking out of here, and you're not shooting that hostage. You can take that to the fucking bank."

Behind Vasir, unseen by the wounded asari and her hostage but clearly visible to Shepard, Kasumi and Miranda, one of the decorative tables wreathed in biotic energy, and slowly began to lift.

Shepard's eyes never flickered. "I'm going to give you one more chance. Let her go. Give me the data. Do that, and I'll be nice and shoot you in the fucking head, instead of stand on your throat and watch you goddamn bleed out."

"I was a Spectre for a hundred years before you were born, Shepard," Vasir shot back. "Now I'm giving you one last chance. Thermal clips on the ground right now, or she dies. It's that simple."

"Wrong answer," Shepard snarled.

As Liara suddenly whipped her hand, the table sailed forward, slamming hard into Vasir, knocking her from her feet. She lost her grip on the hostage, who fell nearby, quickly scrambling to get back under cover, sobbing in terror.

Shepard opened fire. She could see the flashes as her bullets whipped against the asari's dying shields even as Vasir, now on her knees, aimed her own pistol.

She fired twice. Shepard didn't feel a single shot even bump her shields, her finger still holding down the trigger on her rapidly heating weapon. She heard Kasumi exclaim something but it was muffled. Miranda was at her shoulder, firing as well, their combined efforts finally overloading the shields.

Vasir's head whipped backward as a neat hole appeared in her forehead. Another opened a bloody blue rent in her throat, and her arms sagged, her already dead body wavering slightly before slowly slumping over.

Releasing the trigger on her gun, Shepard strode up to the woman, kicking the pistol away from limp fingers before planting the heel of her boot on her shoulder, shoving her over onto her back. Blank eyes stared upward, the soul long gone.

Crouching, Shepard holstered her pistol and began to rifle through the pouches on Vasir's belt, swiftly finding the OSD she'd taken from Sekat.

"Shepard!" Miranda's alarmed voice turned her head, and Shepard slid the OSD into the pocket of her cargo pants, even as she straightened. "Shepard, hurry!"

Miranda was crouched with her back to the commander, half turned her direction. She looked frightened. Kasumi was crouched beside her, her back also to Shepard, focused on something else. When the commander didn't immediately see Liara, her heart stopped.

Striding forward, she took only two steps before she broke into a run, eyes widening as she bolted to their side.

Vasir's final two shots hadn't been intended for her after all. They had both landed precisely where she had meant them to. The first had pegged Liara's shield generator at her belt, rendering it instantly useless. It was a small target, and at such a distance it was an incredible shot with a pistol, but Vasir had been a Spectre for a reason.

Her second shot, as well, had landed true.

Liara's breath was rapid and gasping, with a terrifyingly wet burble punctuating each inhale. She was trembling, her eyes wide as they focused on Shepard, the human woman dropping at her side. Kasumi's hand was plastered to the wound in her chest but the blood was copious, dark, and flowing fast.

"No, no, no!" Shepard heard herself gasp as she all but shoved Kasumi out of the way, planting her own hand over the wound. She could feel the heat pressing against her palm and pressed harder, her other hand slipping under Liara's neck ,her eyes snapped to Miranda.

"Get a fucking medical team here!" she shouted, oblivious to the fact Miranda was already contacting the Normandy, ordering the shuttle to pick them up and warning Chakwas and her team to be on stand-by.

"Li, Li, stay with me," Shepard ordered. "Stay with me, ok? You're going to be fine…"

She heard the snap of a packet of medi-gel, and moved her hand as Kasumi reached out, lathering it over the wound to staunch the bleeding. Ignoring the blood covering it Shepard planted this hand against Liara's cheek. She could feel herself shaking, her heart racing.

"Shepard," Liara whispered. She had paled, her sky blue eyes half-lidded. Her lips were tinged with the same dark blue that covered her coat.

"No, d-don't talk," Shepard urged. "Just keep your eyes open, Li. We're getting you help. Just don't close your eyes."

Liara's hand lifted slightly, lightly grasping Shepard's arm. Her lips moved again but it was just the formation of a word, instead of the utterance of it.

"Peace."

"No!" Shepard snarled. "No peace! No goddamn peace, do you hear me! You fucking fight it, T'Soni! That's an order! You fight it and you keep your goddamn eyes open! Miranda, where's that fucking shuttle? !"

Liara's half-lidded eyes began to droop before the Australian could even respond, instantly drawing Shepard's attention again.

"No, stay awake!" she demanded, her words breaking, fear on her face. "Stay awake! Please…oh, God, please stay awake! Tianlán, please…please…"

It was useless. Hand still clinging to Shepard's arm, Liara's eyes fell shut, a thin trace of sapphire spilling from the corner of her lips.

"Tianlán, please…" Shepard's voice was weaker now, far too much of a sob breaking through. Leaning down her forehead pressed to the asari's and she closed her eyes, struggling against tears.

"Please…"