~Author's Note~ This chapter, as stated previously, deals with Jack and Liara's escape from earth and takes place somewhere between chapters 4-6. Just to give you an idea.

The next chapter will pick up with the story proper.

Enjoy.

There were only so many different ways one could avoid using the word fuck. Jack seemed to be trying all of them. In her defense, the situation certainly called for the use of liberal cursing. Liara stopped another biotic attack from one of the wraiths that were currently besieging their position, and nearly took a shot from behind, but Jack was there to block it.

"What the fu—reaking hell is Command thinking?" The tattooed biotic threw one of the minions that had managed to clamber into their trench a good fifty yards out of it.

Liara tried to calm her down some. "I'm sure they know what they're doing. We're just stalling these creatures here."

"Yeah? Well I don't appreciate my students being used as fu—odder."

"That is an understandable concern." Liara gave her a sidelong glance. "You've definitely changed, Jennifer."

Jack gave her a glare that would have sent most other people running for cover. "Don't call me that. That's not my name." She glanced up at the ramparts, frowning when she saw one of her students perched on the top. "Rodriguez! Get down from there!"

Rodriguez was apparently scanning the battlefield from the highest vantage point she could find. She leapt down at Jack's barked order, and made her way over to the two biotics.

"Field appears to be clear, ma'am."

"Clear? What? No more enemies? Well damn. Maybe they got tired of throwing themselves at us."

Liara clambered up the trench, and gazed over the battlefield. There wasn't a single one of the Reaper's troops in sight. "That's odd. It's not just clear, I literally can't see any enemy forces."

Jack grinned. "Damn, Blue, you almost sound sad. Not had your fill of killing yet?"

Liara shot her an annoyed glare. "Not sad, Jack, just puzzled. I don't like this."

"Ma'am? You might want to hear this."

Jack and Liara headed across the trench to where another of Jack's students was waiting beside a portable… "By the goddess. Is that a radio?" Liara's shocked exclamation was hushed by the students who were huddled around it.

".. all units… back out of the system… Repeat: To all units, we are falling back out of the system. Report to your evacuation zones and get the hell out of there."

Jack looked around at her little group, seeing shock and dismay on their faces. They had come with the full belief that they would take back the Earth, and now Command was telling them they had failed.

It was not something they liked hearing. Hell, it wasn't something Jack liked hearing, but she had no intention of just watching her kids die.

"Okay, you guys, listen up. Eat everything you got left. Evac is a mile northeast of this position, we're gonna need all our strength to get there. You got me? We move out in five."

There were some mumblings, but the group did as they were told, and began unwrapping rations bars and drinking what was left of their water supplies.

Jack looked back at Liara. "That goes for you too, Blue. I let you come along on the condition you follow orders in battle, and that was an order."

Liara nodded, still numb. Somehow she had equated the humans ability to take back Earth with the Asari ability to take back Thessia. If the humans couldn't take back their homeworld with the help of the entire galactic fleet- Jack's voice cut in, softer this time.

"We lost communications awhile back. One of the guys here is fascinated by old tech and he put together a radio for us. It's quite a bit more advanced than older radios, of course, since it can pick up the necessary… Blue? You alright there?"

Liara wordlessly pointed out towards the evacuation zone. A red flare was rising over the battlefield. The shuttle was under attack.

The students had seen it, too. Jack broke them all out of their stupor. "Alright, you lot, break time's over. We're a damn rescue mission now, let's get the fuck out of here! Come on! MOVE!"

They broke the trenches as one group, heading forward at a dead run towards the shuttle.

It was mostly open ground, and Liara kept expecting someone or something to attack them while they were exposed, but there was nothing. About a quarter mile from the evac is where they first ran into trouble. What was left of a few structures rose from the ground, forming a bit of cover. The group hit the buildings running full tilt, never thinking to stop and check for enemies. Prangley had just turned to ask Jack how much farther it was to the landing zone when a Marauder stepped out from behind the building and shot him at point blank range. Jack fired off a shockwave that sent him tumbling into the building and brought the building down around him. Prangley stared at her for a minute, then down at the bloody hole in his chest. Without a sound, he collapsed where he stood.

The next few minutes were the closest Liara had ever come to death. The Marauder was not alone, there were several more of them as well as two brutes. By some miracle, or rather, because of Jack's training, the students worked together as a team well enough to take down the enemy without even a serious injury.

Jack knelt down next to Prangley just as a green flare was fired up from the evac site. Fifteen minutes till departure.

She seemed completely at a loss for words. "Prangley… I…"

The younger man smiled. His eyes glazing over, he met her gaze. "Best damn teacher I ever had, ma'am." It was the last thing he said.

Liara let her sit there for another thirty seconds, silent in her grief, then laid a hand gently on her shoulder. "We're out of time, Jack. We've got to go."

She looked up, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. But there was an inner fire, no, that was the wrong word. An inner coldness behind her gaze. Liara shivered. She didn't want that gaze directed at her.

Rodriguez and a couple others picked up Prangley's body to bring it along. The asari thought about pointing out that this would just weigh them down, but a look at the three students carrying the body showed her such words would just fall on deaf ears.

They moved out of the ruins of the buildings in silence.

It did not take them long to reach the evac zone. A group of marines huddled around a shuttle, which was obviously being repaired. They were being attacked by every conceivable enemy force that Liara had encountered while she was groundside.

"Alright, so, what's the plan here Jack?"

There was no answer.

Liara looked around for the ex-convict, and finally spotted her. She was already halfway across the field. The Reaper troops had their backs to her.

They were still firing at the marines, and still entirely unaware of the biotic's presence when she hit them like a whirlwind.

Liara stood there, in complete shock, for a full minute. She knew Jack was powerful, but no human should have been able to pull that kind of power. A biotic storm whipped around the human, the debris from the battlefield forming a makeshift kind of shield. It was simply the energy Jack was using to tear the Reaper forces to shreds. A typical enemy might have fled before her onslaught, terrified at the biotic forces Jack was bringing to bear on them. The Reaper troops were mindless. They felt no fear.

And so she slaughtered them.

Liara regained her senses long enough to snap the students out of their awe, and order them into battle to help Jack. She brought her own biotics on the twisted forces, taking special care to eliminate the wraiths on the field.

It was over in a matter of minutes. There was simply no enemy left on the battlefield. None had fled. The marines were standing there, staring, gaping at the human biotic standing in the middle of the carnage.

Jack stood in the midst of the bodies and debris, clenching and unclenching her fists. She turned towards Liara, and the asari gaped, then blinked, clearing her vision. Yes, it was Jack. Why then had… she shook her head, storing the thought for later.

Jack was hurt, badly. Her biotics had kept her going, but as soon as the adrenaline wore off, she was going to collapse. She had numerous injuries all over, none fatal, but many serious.

Liara gently led her to the shuttle's boarding ramp, and then made sure the biotic was strapped in. Her students followed her up the ramp, whispering among themselves, doubtless at what they had seen. The biotic still had not said a word, and Liara needed to ask her. But she had obviously succumbed to her wounds, and to wake her would be a cruel thing indeed. Let her sleep for a bit, Liara told herself. You can still ask her when she wakes.

Their engines started, finally, and the shuttle took off, heading for the Charon Relay and then the rendezvous with the fleet.

Liara closed her eyes for a minute, remembering when Jack had first turned to look at her, a moment now indelibly etched on her mind. Had she simply imagined it? She wasn't sure.

All she knew was that, for just a moment, when Jack turned to look at her, she didn't see Jack, the tattooed human biotic, the ex-convict that had helped Shepard take down the Collector base.

She saw a vision of a person Liara herself had come to believe did not exist. Could not exist. Such tales were for children, and those who held to the old ways. Not for her. But she couldn't deny what she had seen.

For just an instant, where Jack stood, Liara T'Soni had seen Athame, the goddess of the Asari.