A/N: Happy New Year everyone!
We're back, and things should be getting back into a regular, predictable schedule once again. I hope everyone's New Year was wonderful, and here's to 2013 being even better than 2012!
On with the show!
Present: 217 Years Post War
"Hello, Liara," the turian replied, dabbing once more at her nose and lip before lowering her hand.
"Leave." Liara's face and voice were both stone, her skin simmering with biotics. "You are not welcome here."
Irie tried to intervene. "Mama, please, just calm down and listen-"
"I have no interest in anything that she says. She nearly killed your sister-"
Athena made a helpless gesture. "That was…unintentional, and unfortunate, and I have tried to apologize-"
"- and she nearly killed me as well!"
"Mama-"
Athena's look darkened. "That was business, and if I had wanted you dead, you would have been!"
Liara started forward a pace, biotics brightening again, and Irie caught hold of her arm. "Mama, stop-"
"You took the Brokerage away from me!"
The turian's eyes sparked. "As I recall, you did not fight that hard to keep it!"
"Enough!"
Though normally fairly soft-spoken, Irie's voice had been trained since she was small. She knew how to project, and her patience had come to an end. Ignoring Athena, Irie faced Liara, gripping her mother's shoulders.
"Mama, you need to stop. Athena is here because it is vitally important. She needs to talk to Bába."
"Liara, I am sorry. I know you do not believe me, but I never intended to hurt Melara," Athena said, "or you. I was younger, foolish, and…abnormal. I am not making excuses, and I cannot apologize enough- but I owe it to you, to Mel, and to Shepard- to at least look you all in the face and try."
"Is that what this is about, assuaging your guilt?" Liara asked in a low, cold voice, not bothering to even look at Athena.
"It is not about my guilt, it is about doing the right thing! Giving you all at least some measure of peace-"
"Peace?" Now Liara's eyes did shift toward the turian, the sky blue still hard stone. "Shepard is dying, and you choose now to give us 'peace?' She barely has the strength most days to cross the room, and you want to pull everything to the fore again, force her through all that again, for your deluded notion of peace? I have a hard time believing even you could be so cruel!"
"Mama-"
"No, she is right," Athena said. "If that was all it was- if that was my entire reason for being here, I would not have come. After what happened with Melara and then you, she understandably wants my head on a platter, and I am under no delusions that she would not try to take it, even now. I know I have given you reason to believe otherwise, but I am not so heartless, Liara. I have struggled for a very long time to reconcile…who and what I am. I did not always make the best choices, allowed myself to be blinded by hatred. I am trying to be better than that. I am trying to do something important, to give her the chance to-"
"Give her the chance to do what?"
"Liara," Athena's voice lowered, her eyes utterly serious. "Your wife saved this galaxy once. I am trying to give her the chance to do it again."
"What do you mean? What danger is the galaxy in that your only hope is in an elderly woman at the end of her life? What is it you think that she can do?"
"I have reason to believe that Shepard has vital information stored in her mind that can help identify a threat to this galaxy even greater than any the Reapers posed," Athena said.
"You are deluded-"
"Liara, put your hatred of me aside for just one moment and listen," Athena replied hotly.
"Very well. For no other reason that Irie seems to think you need to speak your mind, and I trust her judgment. However, I refuse to hear a single word from you so long as you are wearing that face. If you expect me to listen to you, then at least have the decency to look at me honestly."
The turian blinked as if surprised, then reached for her belt. "My apologies. I put it on to avoid Shepard taking a sniper shot at me if she happened to notice when I walked by the house. I forgot that I had not switched it off."
A tiny control pad was integrated seamlessly with her belt. As she touched it, a holographic display appeared. She selected a command, her form flashing a second before the 'turian' melted away. In her place stood an asari maid-over a century, but not by much.
She was a dark purple- darker than even Melara- with white tattoos spiraling down her temples and across her cheeks. Her eyes were a striking shade of light tan, almost the same hue as the sand on which they stood.
She arched a brow at Liara, who nodded stiffly. Folding her arms, Athena turned thoughtful, brooding.
"For nearly two centuries now," she said, "some of the greatest minds in the galaxy have searched the Citadel systems for the master program that allowed the Crucible to target and fire. Two centuries of effort and advancing technology and they have not been able to yet identify this program. Without it, the Crucible is useless to any recurring threat. Ten years ago, they even reattached the Crucible to the station, do you remember? Nothing happened. The station did not power the device, no firing interface appeared on the master console…nothing. Without understanding why, the Crucible is just a very large, very puzzling, and completely useless relic from the war. Though the experts are hesitant to say, it is plain that the master control program does not exist anymore. It appears that it was completely erased as part of the final firing process. Deleted."
"The Prothean archives at Mars have been thoroughly searched," Irie said, speaking gently. "Every relic ever found dating to the Inusannon- including several that Javik was able to lead us to from ancient caches left on inhospitable worlds by the Protheans- have been tirelessly studied, but we still do not know who it was that built the Citadel, who designed the Crucible, or why the Reapers were created."
"And you think that somehow Shepard knows this information?" Liara asked.
"I think she might, and is not aware that she does," Athena said.
"This is preposterous-"
"The locked up portion of her memories, the part you and a dozen asari matriarchs have never been able to access- do you remember those? I know it's been at least a century since you actively tried to find out what it means, but…surely you have not forgotten? If nothing else, you must remember her continuous feeling for decades after the war that she had done something horrible, that she had condemned trillions of lives?"
"How do you know of this?"
"Shadow Broker, remember? I am good at the job, Liara. It is my belief that while the master program itself has been deleted, key information was recorded on the nanites in Shepard's brain, and I believe the process was done very much on purpose by that self-same master program. If it were a simple blocked memory, you or the matriarchs would have been able to unlock it by now. The violence with which you are thrown out of any meld that attempts to access it is telling in and of itself. Tech that would cause this to happen is decades, if not centuries, beyond our grasp…but not out of the realm of possibility for those who created the Citadel."
"What proof do you have of this? What threat is it that you fear?"
"Proof…" Athena let out a weary laugh. "That is a bit more of a touchy subject. In all honesty, I have no concrete proof. Tiny bits of data, thin shards of seemingly circumstantial evidence scattered throughout the galaxy…whispers, only. Could I be wrong? Absolutely. I pray that I am, because right now my gut is telling me there is something huge on the horizon, a threat to this galaxy that dwarfs anything the Reapers ever posed to us."
"You want to put Shepard through an ordeal that may very well further shorten the already very short amount of time she already has left, and you expect me to agree to such a thing based solely on your 'gut feeling?'"
Athena scowled. "And how many times did you run into battle based solely on Shepard's 'gut feeling?'" she asked. "How often did you two rail against the old Council for refusing to believe you for lack of substantial proof? And now you would do the same?"
Liara's biotics brightened again furiously. "Do not compare me to-"
"Arguing is not going to help us," Irie said, gripping her mother's hand again as she looked at Athena. "What exactly is it you propose to do?"
"Well, hopefully I shall be able to extract the recorded data directly from the nanites. That would be ideal and less…invasive. Unfortunately the chances of my being able to do so are extremely slim. The data is obviously safe-guarded against unwanted access or tampering using tech far in advanced to what we have now. More likely I will have to pinpoint the specific nanites containing what I need, isolate them, and then physically extract them. After that I can work on retrieving their recorded data at my leisure, though it will still probably take years of intense study and careful-"
Liara shook her head, lifting her hands. "I cannot agree to this. Shepard cannot be sedated, and she is far too weak to even attempt using the Prime to allow such a procedure to take place."
Irie, too, looked troubled. "Can we not just…just wait?" she asked. "If the information you need is on the nanites, then they can be removed after…after she-"
"No," Athena replied, not unkindly. "The nanites rely on Shepard's metabolic and endocrine system to function. It could take up to an hour just to identify and isolate the proper nanites. If we wait until after she passes, even if I can perform the procedure immediately, there is far too great a risk that by the time I find and retrieve the right ones, they will have started to degrade. Vital intel could be lost."
"I cannot agree to this," Liara said again.
"Liara-"
"No, I cannot agree to this. I cannot. This…must be Del's decision. I will present the information to her, and I will respect whatever choice she makes. You, however, must agree to respect her decision if she refuses."
"She will not refuse," Athena said, actually looking relieved. "Once she knows what may be at stake, you know as well as I do that she will not refuse."
The troubled, tense expression on Liara's face betrayed her feelings as, behind her, Irie's omni-tool suddenly lit up. As the girl regarded it, her mother nodded. "You will let me present this to her myself. You are to come nowhere near the house until-"
"That may be a non-issue," Irie said, looking up from her tool's display. "She knows Athena is here. Melara just messaged me. She and Dae have already told Bába what they know."
Liara fixed her eldest with a look. "And how much do they know?"
"As much as I," Irie replied. "I was unaware of the specifics but I knew enough to conclude that Athena needed to be here, to speak to you and Bába if nothing else. She did not tell me about the nanite extraction or the possibility of the master program having encrypted information onto them. She only told me that Bába was likely to have information that might stop another threat to our galaxy."
"Then you and I will fill her in," Liara said, then glared at Athena. "You will stay here until you are called for, am I clear?"
Athena nodded, spreading her hands. "I am at your command, Liara."
Turning, the older asari started back up the beach, toward the path that led to the house, with Irie following close behind. As they got out of ear-shot, Liara looked at her daughter. "Irie, I love you and I do trust you. You are nothing if not an intelligent girl, and I know that you would never put your family at risk- but I pray you are correct on this. Trusting her…"
"I did not make this decision easily, Mama," Irie replied. "Certain truths remain, however. She is the Shadow Broker, and would have had no difficulty finding Bába here on her own. She has numbers at her command, incredible resources. Even alone, were she of the desire, she could easily destroy us-"
"Not so easily."
Irie smiled wearily. "You have forgotten so soon what fighting her mother was like? Eír nearly killed you and Bába on multiple occasions, and she was cinched against her biotics for most of them-"
"I have not forgotten," Liara said sharply. "However you two are your father's daughters- with every ounce of her luck and skill, and sheer stubborn will. Do not discount my skills either. She would not have found us such simple prey."
"Perhaps not," Irie said. "Forgiveness must start somewhere, Mama. You taught me that. And if she is correct-"
"That is the only reason I am agreeing to this," Liara said.
Irie reached out again, taking Liara's hand and holding it tightly as they walked.
Dae met them at the door as Irie and Liara returned to the house. "They are on the back porch," she said softly, so as not to wake little Lily, asleep in her pen. Liara said nothing, simply stepping past her and heading for the garden. Dae looked at Irie.
"Things did not go well?"
"Better than I had expected, actually," she replied. "What happened? Why did Mel tell Bába?"
"We thought she was asleep, and she overheard us talking. When she realized who we were discussing, she grabbed her rifle. Melara had to biotically restrain her from rushing out of the house to protect your mother."
"Is she all right?"
"She seems to be…at least, no worse. She has grown sullen and quiet. Go on. I will stay here and keep an eye on Lily."
Irie bent and kissed Dae's cheek in thanks, and headed out toward the garden herself to join her family.
Past: 12 Months Post War
The bright moonlight was casting silver slants into the dark room, broken by a tiny gold pool from the lamp as Del regarded her opponent. Hair mussed with sleep, dressed in a dark tank and yoga pants, Shepard folded her arms and tried to tactfully assess the situation.
On the changing table, little Irie kicked her feet and sucked happily on her hands.
"I'm glad you think this is funny, Nub," Del told her. "I've taken down maws. I can figure this out."
Irie burbled.
It had been two weeks since Irie had been born. Sleep was a fleeting and precious commodity, the little asari seeming to delight in her terrorist precision at remaining awake and fussy at the precise moments her parents wanted to sleep. It didn't help that Del was still incredibly intimidated and almost helpless where the baby was concerned. Despite Liara's reassurances that she was a 'natural', Del could feel every muscle in her body tense up just holding the baby, and tasks like feeding, changing, and bathing the little asari were far more terrifying than fighting banshees.
They were both completely exhausted. Tonight, Del had resolved to let Liara sleep and tackle her daughter head on.
Naked as a little blue jay, the baby was now on her changing table. Del had figured out how to remove her soiled diaper and clean her up, but putting a new one on her was like solving a complex calculus equation. It didn't help that every time she managed to get a clean diaper under her bottom, Irie celebrated by promptly peeing on it.
Del was certain the baby was doing it out of sheer malevolent delight.
Irie continued to suck on her hand as she watched Del with wide eyes. Her one small hardened crest point stuck up from the back of her head like an adorable little cowlick, the others still soft. Picking up another clean diaper, Del turned it this way and that, before carefully maneuvering it under Irie's bottom and pausing warily, waiting for the inevitable coup de tat. When Irie didn't immediately wet it, Del smiled a bit.
"Ok, next step then."
It took her a bit to realize she had the diaper upside down, and she corrected it, fussing with the fasteners before she figured them out as well. Then came the little pajamas, Irie complicating the issue yet again by kicking and waving the exact appendage Del needed to insert into the clothing.
Finally, triumphantly, she buttoned the last button, gently lifting the child into her arms. "Ha! Bába wins!"
Settling in the living room with a bottle, Del set about feeding her daughter, studying the tiny face with wonder. The child looked so much like Liara, though her coloring was starting to darken a little. Her gray-violet eyes were always wide and studious, taking in everything they could focus on as if trying to puzzle out the mysteries of the great universe she had found herself in.
"You're a little thinker, aren't you?" she whispered to the baby as she fed her. "Just like your Mama."
The baby looked at her, hands clasped around the bottle that Del held, making soft and contented sounds as she drank. Del smiled softly at her.
"I need you to do me a favor, kiddo," she said. "Try and be patient with your old Bába. I'm not like you and your Mama. I'm not smart. I'm bound to make some mistakes…lots of mistakes, probably. You're going to come home from school one day, excited about how you solved multi-dimensional string-theory with some tape and a piece of bubble gum, and I'm going to pretend I have the foggiest clue of what multi-dimensional string theory is. Or you're going to find a chip of pottery in the yard that conclusively proves the Ancient Order of Knob-Headed Tenticular Arthropods lived here ten trillion years ago, and I'm going to have to pretend I can even tell it's a chip of pottery."
Irie's eyelids were drooping, though the intensity of her eating had not dropped off. Carefully, Del loosened her grip on the bottle enough to lightly brush a finger over the baby's soft cheek.
"One thing I can promise you though, Little Blue. I will always protect you and your Mama. No matter where you go or what you do, I will always be here for you. I'll always be proud of you."
Irie dozed off, the bottle nearly empty. Carefully easing it out of her mouth, Del set it aside then shifted Irie to her shoulder, leaning back in her recliner and gently patting her back. Curled up against her neck, the little asari was a warm bundle, a comfortable weight that seemed to reach right into Shepard's heart and grip it tightly.
The next morning, waking refreshed but puzzled, Liara slipped out of bed and padded into the living room to find Del asleep, kicked back in her chair. The baby was curled quite comfortably on her chest, Del's hand draped protectively over her back.
Tears lifted momentarily to her eyes as she took in the scene, as she thought of everything that had once stood in the way of this perfect possibility. How far she had come, and how far Del had come, to be this…to be a family.
Was this what Benezia had once felt, with Aethyta? Had she held Liara as an infant, and wondered at the amount of love she could have for another being, something so small and helpless and utterly perfect?
Everything in her life had been so unsure for so long, but in that moment- as Liara stood there watching her bondmate and her newborn daughter sleep- she knew something without a shadow of a doubt.
Irie would grow up never knowing what it was like not to have a family. She would be safe, and encouraged, and blessed in ways that Del and even Liara never had been. No matter what challenges she might face, being alone in this galaxy would never be one of them.
Past: 15 Years Post War
While the T'Soni estate had been repaired (or in the case of the east wing, rebuilt), much of the city of Sevaa and the rest of Thessia as a whole, was still trying to recover. One of the worlds hardest hit, it would take decades more, if not as much as a century, before the final signs of the Reaper invasion were finally erased forever. Whole sections of Sevaa were still quarantined and considered unsafe, and at times it seemed more turian, salarian, or krogan faces could be seen in the streets than asari.
A solar bike, roaring like an old gas Harley, turned up the drive leading up to the estate. The rumble of the engine startled a small flock of birds, who rose in a pale green cloud from one of the nearby elahs trees.
Drawing the bike to a halt a dozen yards from the front door, Del Shepard switched the engine off and dismounted, adjusting the battered pack on her shoulders and tapping her ear piece. The holographic displays hovering in front of her eyes flared and vanished.
For a moment, she looked up at the estate. They had been there eight years now, yet oddly enough it still didn't feel quite like home. To her, home would always be their little house on Virmire…listening to the sound of the ocean waves, smelling the salt air on a light breeze, and watching the sunset turn the polished stones into rainbows of light.
For now, Thessia was a necessity. Liara loved their home on Virmire as much as Del did, but her urge to help her people in their recovery was greater…and she could only do so much as a distant Shadow Broker. Here, she could get directly involved.
It was better for the girls, as well. Beaty was great, but it was a human colony. Liara, Irie, and Mel were the only asari on all of Virmire, which put limitations on schooling- especially where biotics were concerned. There were very few human children there their age to play with as well, and beyond occasional visits by Navis and little Daenys, the girls had never even seen another asari face outside their family.
Here, there were plenty of kids their age to play with- and not just asari.
Nan had remained behind on Virmire. She had moved out to a home in Beaty shortly after Irie was born, wanting to remain close but give Del and Liara time and space to enjoy their small family. Now she was living in their home there, to keep it maintained while they were on Thessia. She came for occasional visits, usually overflowing with presents. The girls adored her.
Though it was not Virmire, Del was glad to be home…and a little trepidatious. She had been gone for two weeks and she had missed Liara and the kids with a surprising intensity, but even so, she was hesitant to go in and greet her wife.
Taking a deep breath, she started toward the front door, crossing barely a yard before something slapped with force into her chest. A single heartbeat later, she heard the unmistakable pop of a rifle.
She grimaced in pain, stumbling back a step as her hand gripped the front of her jacket. She dropped to her knees, tendrils of crimson threading through her fingers before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed to the dirt.
Rifle up, the shooter edged around a hedge, crosshairs fixed on the unmoving woman lying limp in the dirt. Boots paced with cautious precision toward the prone Shepard, stopping a few feet away. Slowly, the rifle lowered, a head cocking to the side before eyes rolled.
"You're such a ham, Bába."
Del didn't open her eyes, though a grin appeared on her face. "Can't talk," she said. "Dead."
"Uh huh."
Laughing, Del pushed herself into a sit, then arched a brow, trying to look disapproving as she displayed her crimson-streaked hand. "Paint, Mel? What happened to that light rifle I gave you for your birthday?"
"It's in the shed. Paint is more visceral."
"Oh, visceral. Great, I'm raising a little psychopath."
"Best in the business," Mel grinned. Shepard laughed again, getting to her feet and hooking the girl around the back of the neck, hauling her in for a hug.
"C'mere you!"
"Ah! You're getting paint on my shirt!" The nine year old wriggled, trying to break free, but Del held her firmly.
"That's what you get for getting paint on my jacket," she replied. "And you know you're not supposed to shoot that thing at someone who isn't wearing eye protection."
"I'm a good enough aim!" Mel said, finally pulling away.
"Yes you are, but rules are rules, Mel. No rifle for a week-"
"Bába!"
Shepard held out her hand with a stern look. "Now. Or it's two weeks."
Mel glowered, her expression an almost exact mirror of Del's, before she sighed and handed the rifle over. Shepard nodded, then shifted her pack off her back and held out an arm. "All right then, c'mon."
Never one to pass up a back-ride, Melara swung herself up, winding her arms around Del's shoulders, before kissing her on the cheek. "I did miss you, Bába."
"You did?"
"Until you took my rifle away."
"Oh is that so?" Shepard chuckled as she headed toward the house. "I missed you too, kiddo. Where's Mama and Irie?"
"Mama's in her office," Melara told her. Shepard could almost hear the eye-roll as she added, "and Irie is upstairs...studying again."
Shepard gasped. "Bu! That's horrible! I say we should hang her up by her heels and flog her!"
"I think that is the best idea you have ever had, Bába."