A/N: Thank you Cloverdaze for beta this story for me. She is beyond even my words. ;-)

Chapter 8

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The SSV Normandy ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At Second's Glance

Sitting in the back of the shuttle, was a pissed off Shepard. Though still feeling a little hazy from the encounter with the beacon on Virmire, she nevertheless was weighing the pros and cons of her executing a successful escape; the added bonus of which would be knocking that Gunny Chief on her ass. As the shuttle hit a pocket of atmospheric turbulence, Shepard thought she was about to add to her successful string of escapes when the craft started dramatically shaking, she made her move.

Within seconds, she slid her cuffed hands down her back and summersaulted, bringing her arms freely in front of her; smashing the cuffs against the wall with a force great enough to break them apart releasing her from their captivity. With a clever dip of her upper body, she dodged a swing from the turian; he may have had the reach but she had the flexibility. His missed swing created, the perfect opportunity for Shepard to swipe his legs out from under him and he landed hard on the floor she thought,

He didn't heal quite as well as the quarian.

Immediately, her gaze went to the female gunny bitch, as the fugitive soldier swiftly stripped the alliance chief of her weapon before she even had time to raise it.

Anger and revenge filled Shepard's eyes as she tossed the marine's weapon aside. The gunny was slightly relieved knowing an unarmed Shepard, though dangerous, would be preferable to an armed and pissed off Shepard, who would be deadly.

Taunting the quickly retreating and frightened soldier, Shepard smirked as she advanced on the alliance soldier. Making her way across the shuttle like a predator who's marked their prey, Shepard thoroughly enjoyed smelling the marine's fear, "I'm a bad guy, stop me from killing you." She hissed, standing close enough to the alliance soldier to see the red in her eyes.

Suddenly, the silent prayers of the marine had been trying to telepathically send to her god were answered as the melodic voice of an angel sang out a stern rebuke, "That will be enough of that!"

Shepard's eyes barely moved to see who had broken her focus before continuing to terrorize the alliance soldier. Unexpectedly, she felt a solid strike on her chest forcibly propelling her towards the back of the shuttle and slamming her into the jump seats. The electric blue matter encompassing her started to dissolve, but before she had time to react, her wrists quickly became covered in the blue matter. She struggled to regain her freedom as she looked up to see what was causing this action.

Standing before her with a glowing hand Liara sniped, "If you want anything done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself!"

The rogue soldier grinned thinking, Hey, that's my line.

Much to everyone's surprise in the shuttle, the prothean expert had used her biotics as handcuffs.

Pretty good idea, thought Shepard, until she frowned realizing perhaps it was too good of an idea. "Hey, I can't move my hands at all." Once her hands were securely fastened, she felt another pair of biotic pulses around her feet as she muttered to herself, "She's really good at this."

An astounded Chief Williams, amazed at how efficiently the asari had restored order in the shuttle thought, The lord really does move in mysterious ways…even out here as she managed to sputter, "How was I supposed to know she was double jointed?"

The weary ex-alliance soldier raised an eyebrow to the un-phased asari who sat with her arms crossed in front of her chest as the severity of her predicament hit the ex-marine: she was Liara's prisoner. Grudgingly admiring the professor's brilliance, Shepard decided to sit quietly for the remainder of the trip.

% % % % % % %

Moving through the Normandy the ground squad decided to take Shepard into the conference room for interrogation before sending her to the brig. There were a lot of people who wanted answers and not everyone was going to fit into the small confined space of the brig.

Gunnery Chief Williams, having recovered from her earlier religious intervention declared with bloodthirsty delight, "We should put a bullet in her head right now!"

Shepard glaring up at the alliance soldier with her biotic cuffs still in place replied, "That's right; how could I forget? You only know how to shoot defenseless women. You bitch!" Venom dripped from Shepard's mouth as she spoke and Liara's other hand twitched a brilliant blue recalling that it was Williams who had killed her defenseless mother.

Attempting to sway the room the gunny chief fired back, "She had Alenko killed down there!"

The young quarian spoke up, "Shepard didn't kill Alenko, the Geth did."

Williams spat back, "But she gave the orders. It was her choice!"

Even the rather large Krogan Battlemaster, who was shifting his enormous weight, was thinking of putting a major pain on the prisoner as the door to the conference room swished open an Alliance line officer.

Shepard glared at the skinning looking pale faced man and chuckled to herself, He doesn't look like the commanding officer type. Although the Alliance officer was in the room, it didn't seem like anyone was really in charge, as the line was being drawn between good and bad, and it wasn't looking good for Shepard down on bended knees firmly ensnarled in Liara's grasp. Not liking the mess she was in, she tried a bit of false bravado to instill fear on the Alliance crewmembers, "Look, if I wanted to; I could kill every person in here and walk out of this room unscathed."

The turian, walking with a new limp courtesy of their skirmish in the shuttle, stepped forward and started recounting to the group a few horrific stories from her notorious exploits that had gleamed her the moniker: most wanted human in citadel space.

At one telling Shepard interrupted, "I had nothing to do with the Caleston attack!"

The turian retorted, "You attacked and killed civilians at the mining colony!"

Shepard scoffed, "And who are you to judge?"

The turian's flanges flared before he growled back, "I'm Garrus Vakarian, I was a C-Sec officer on the Citadel for 10 years."

Shepard taking advantage of his word play quipped, "Was!"

Anger filled him as he leaned forward to strike her, when a radiant blue light encircled the former alliance officer. All eyes flashed to its asari source. Wary of the guilty stares now focusing on her, Liara announced, "She will be given a fair trial before her peers. Which I believe is customary among your species."

Rather enjoying being under the new found protection of the asari, Shepard continued, "As I said, I had nothing to do with the attack on Caleston."

The unimpressed turian added, "It was your ship, there were witnesses; not to mention countless vids that identified it as you."

Shepard's head lifted as she awkwardly rose to her feet before answering in a somber tone, "I would never do that." Looking at the asari she explained, "It was my crew, my ship, but not my orders."

For a moment Liara could have sworn she saw regret in the imprisoned woman's eyes.

The large Krogan asked, "How is that possible?"

Speaking directly to each of the occupants in the room Shepard explained, "It was my crew but it wasn't me. I'd gotten food poisoning and was in the head all day throwing up if you must know."

Astonished, Garrus spoke, "But that was your most infamous act of violence."

Happy to disappoint the former C-Sec officer, Shepard said, "Yep, well I had nothing to do with it." Seeing the tension start to slowly seep out of the room she continued, "A few days later when I saw the news vids about what had happened on Caleston, I had those jug heads responsible test out the airlocks. Fortunately everything worked just fine; though unfortunately for the jug heads, we were in deep space." She sneered at the Gunny Soldier,

"I don't attack innocents! I have never taken arms against someone who was unarmed."

Easing her tone a bit, "Well except for the Geth, which are pea brained anyway, so they don't really count.

The quarian blurted out in laughter, making the former alliance officer and asari smile.

The Gunny Soldier went nuts. "Well isn't that wonderful, a killer with standards; why don't we throw her a parade? Look, the bottom line is she's an alien loving traitor to the Alliance! We should put her down like the dog she is!" As soon as the words flew out of her mouth, it slowly dawned on the chief she was severely outnumbered by the aforementioned aliens.

Shepard, never one to miss the opportunity to capitalize on an opponent's blunder, brazenly reminded Williams, "I'd be careful what you say about aliens there, Chief."

Swallowing hard, the woman rethought her words seeing the aliens in the room react: the krogan was smacking his fist into his open hand, the turian stood erect and flared his flanges, the quarian shifted her weight and placed a hand on her hip and lastly, Liara simply held up a hand as she summoned a small biotic ball of energy. Not to her surprise, the only other human in the room nervously tugged at his collar.

Attempting to deflect her precarious situation Williams barked, "What about the asari? She's the daughter of Saren's second in command for Christ's sake!"

Unwavering, Liara returned, "Yes, Matriarch Benezia was my mother, but I am not her. You seem to have forgotten I was captured against my will."

Williams snickered, "Sure didn't look like you were following Shepard against your will."

The statement provoked Shepard to snap, "Watch it kid or you'll be wishing you had never been born when I do get out of these." She looked down at her hands and back to the righteous soldier, "And mark my words, I won't be in these forever."

The Alliance officer finally spoke up, "Alright! Everyone calm down."

Turning her whole body towards the officer which made him take a step back, Shepard asked, "And who are you?"

The man stammered, "I'm LCDR Presley, I'm the Executive Officer" He quickly corrected, "Acting Commanding Officer of the Normandy."

Shepard stepped forward trying to further her intimidation of the junior officer. Giving a sideways smile she laughingly thought, I've spent more time on the shitter, than this guy has in space. "So where is your 'Commanding Officer' Lieutenant?"

Taking a long dry gulp, the bald man answered, "His presence was requested back at the Citadel."

Mocking the man, Shepard asked, "Isn't that a little dumb to remove the Commanding Officer from his ship?"

He responded although unsure why, "It was at Ambassador Udina's request."

As the words left his lips, Shepard's eyes narrowed and her blood began to boil just hearing the man's name. "Figures, that son of a bitch was involved."

Williams protested, "Hey!"

Turning towards the soldier who was steadily getting on her last nerve Shepard barked, "What, you his lap dog or something?"

Frowning Williams returned, "No, in fact, I don't much care for the man."

Shepard thought, Well at least she's not a complete waste.

The chief continued her opinion, "I think he uses his position to get what he thinks is right for mankind. If you ask me; he's a coward stepping all over the backs of the Alliance, but he's still my superior official."

Shepard smirked feeling it was the first respectful thing that had come out of the Gunny's mouth.

% % % % % % %

After the squad was satisfied with their interrogation of the former Alliance officer, Shepard was being escorted to the brig while the others discussed what should be done with her. Just outside the conference room Shepard abruptly stopped dead in her tracks, and her head slumped forward as Williams whined, "Now what?"

Liara instantly released Shepard's biotic bindings when she saw blood dripping on the ground, "Shepard, are you ok?"

Attempting to gather herself, Shepard stood upright with her head tilted, "Yeah, just a little nose bleed I guess."

Annoyed, the Gunny exclaimed, "Come on, you're going to the brig."

The former soldier attempted to take a few steps forward before she felt a way of dizziness hit her.

"What's wrong Shepard?" Liara asked reaching for her.

"I don't know Liara. I think it's that damn beacon." Her weight now fell heavy into Liara's grip.

Liara shouted, "Do you have a physician onboard?"

Williams crossed her arms, without a hint of emotion believing the act to be fake.

When the asari received no answer, she yelled for Tali who was just now exiting the comm room. "Is there a physician onboard?"

Tali rushed over to assist the laboring asari, taking Shepard's other arm to help steady her. As the rogue soldier practically fell limp in their arms, Tali eagerly answered, "Yes, this way. Medical is only one deck below us."

% % % % % % %

The trio almost made it to the medical door, when Shepard violently clinched her head,and screamed out as searing pain practically brought her to her knees. Barely able to hold her up, Tali shouted out to Dr. Chakwas who had just exited the med bay, "Dr. Chakwas, we need help!"

The doctor glanced over at the bleeding woman, "Quick, let's get her inside."

Inside the medical lab, Dr. Chakwas urgently ordered, "Here, help me get her on the table."

The pain was too much for Shepard as she continued to scream in agony, and Liara couldn't help but think this is what she must have sounded like, when Matriarch Benezia tried to forcibly meld with her. It took all three women to heave Shepard onto the gurney before she passed out.

Several hours later, Dr. Chakwas reported to Presley and Liara, "She's stable for now, but it's going be awhile before she wakes up. I gave her a pretty potent sedative."

Nervously looking down at the unconscious woman Presley asked, "Do you think she could be moved to the brig?"

The doctor shifted her weight as she powered down the medical scanners, "It wouldn't be wise, I'm afraid."

Observing the look of discomfort on the two officer's faces, Liara offered. "I could stay with her." Both set of eyes intently focused on her, "If she tries anything, I could use my biotics to restrain her again."

The doctor was the first to speak, "I think that's an excellent idea. You asari are among the most powerful biotics in the galaxy."

The junior officer again tugged at his collar in discomfort, as he uneasily looked between the asari and Shepard. He didn't like not having much of a choice in the matter, but it did make sense. After all, the young asari had proven more than capable of keeping her captive in check so far. "Alright, but be careful. She's dangerous."

The pleased prothean expert nodded her head, "I will do my best." Her eyes lingering over to the unconscious woman, "I will watch over her."

As Liara settled herself into the med bay for the night, she informed the doctor how ironic it was that Shepard watched over her, when she was being held captive on Sovereign, and now, she was returning the favor.

The doctor thoughtfully pondered this bit of news as she regarded the asari kindly and empathetically replied, "If you need anything dear, I'll be in the back room."

With a warm smile, Liara remembering her manners added, "Dr. Chakwas?"

Concerned, the older woman turned back to her, "Yes?"

Holding her gaze, the asari continued, "Thank you for all your help. She really needed it."

Chuckling, the doctor gave Liara a friendly smile and replied, "No problem, Liara."

As the door closed to the back medical office, Dr. Chakwas started walking over towards the cot across the room, when she stopped and turned back. Hesitating for only a moment, she slide her hand over the control panel; doubling the normal security measures for the room. After all, the unconscious woman in the other room, did have quite the reputation; and I haven't survived this long by being careless, she thought.