A\N

I've been sitting on these two for a while, not really wanting to post them until I had the conclusion to this part of the story completed. I am stuck on one chapter. The last chapter. Yea. that chapter. It's been written, rewritten, canned, written again, canned again… and it's just taking longer than I really thought it would. I'm trying to capture an epic intimacy here for Jane and Liara, so just give me some time. In the meantime, I'll post these two chapters. There is no real reason not to. I hope you enjoy them. We're nearing the end.

Chapter 56: Virmire Part IV

Virmire, Salarian Base Camp

"Take Chief Williams." Her tone was firm. Neither soldier argued with her, instead remaining silent and waiting for her to speak again.

She gestured to her human officers and the three of them took up a position just behind Captain Kirrahe as he gave a pep talk to his troops. "I know you don't understand and I'm not in the business of explaining my orders, but these are unusual circumstances. Kaidan, I need you on that bomb because Ash just doesn't have your technical expertise. I need Ash out there with the salarians for much the same reason. You don't have the tactical ability she does and these guys need the help. I know they talk tough, but some of those younger ones on the far side look like they would rather be anywhere but here. They'll look up to Ash. Aces in their places, you guys. This is it." Jane thought she caught something about holding the line from the salarian captain's speech.

"I understand, Commander. I'll make sure that bomb is ready."

"I know you will, Kaidan. You're a good officer and don't think that I haven't noticed it." Jane paused, hearing hold the line once more.

"Ash?" Kaidan started, almost nervously.

"What is it, LT?"

"Just… Be careful out there."

Ashley punched his arm playfully. "You too, Kaidan. Don't go and blow yourself up or anything." She grinned and was rewarded with a shy smile from him in return.

"Hey Skipper?"

"Yea Ash?"

"You think he wants to hold the line?"

Jane bit back a grin, as the salarian captain's voice was heard echoing the chief's comment a third time. "All right, Gunny, enough with the petty commentary. Get your asses in there, marines! Stay alert. Liara! Tali! You're both with me. Ladies and gentlemen, let's get these boots on the ground!"

Jane grabbed her assault rifle, double checked Tali's weapons and environment suit, nodded to Liara, and led the team away from the camp.

Virmire, En Route to Saren's Lab

"What is the plan, Commander?" Liara asked.

"We're going in the back door, so to speak." Captain Kirrahe could be heard over the comm giving orders out to the various teams. "We're going to try to find a way into the back of the compound while the salarian teams keep them busy up front."

"I remember this from one of our war games, Jane. You did something similar with the Mako and you were able to sneak up on myself and Chief Williams."

Jane nodded. "Yes, it's something like that. Were you able to pull any data on this planet?"

"Not much. Here, look at this." Liara punched some buttons on her omni-tool and the three of them gathered around it. "This is an aerial view of the compound. This looks like a comm tower, and that could be a satellite uplink but I cannot be certain."

"That's a start. Good work, Liara. Tali, download that data and plot a course."

"Yes, Commander."

"All right, move out." Jane looked at the quarian, who fiddled a little with her omni-tool and then pointed just to her right.

"The comm tower is closest, Commander."

"Understood. Stay sharp." Jane started moving in the direction Tali indicated. "Are you getting anything on the scanner?"

Tali's clawlike hands danced over the controls on her arm. "A few blips, I can't make much sense of it, Commander."

"How many?"

"Four, maybe more."

Jane nodded as they crept up on the tower, sticking close to the rock wall. "I have a visual. Looks like Destroyers and a couple shock troopers." She took out her sniper rifle and situated herself behind some boulders. "Liara, be ready to immobilize them the second they come down the stairs. I'm going to try to take out the destroyer, or at least wound him a bit." Commander Jane Shepard looked through the scope and lined up her target, feeling exhilarated and reaching for her inner powers to help guide the bullet to where she wanted it. She gently squeezed the trigger as time seemed to slow and at the last instant tapped her rifle in an upward motion to send it sailing toward the back of the destroyer's head. She blinked her eyes and visualized where she wanted the bullet to penetrate, commanding it to bend to her will. It connected with her target, and she lined up another shot as the rest of the troops stepped over their fallen comrade to get to them.

"Liara, lift them and hold them there. You see that plasma container? Get them just above that!"

Liara nodded and activated her biotics, slightly closing her eyes and reaching her arms toward the advancing troops. They were easy to lift, almost too easy for her. She felt rather than saw Jane's next shot ignite the container and destroy the few remaining geth.

"Good. Tali, get up there and disrupt their communications. If there's anything up there to hack, do that as well."

"Yes, Commander." Tali wasted no time in scurrying up the ramp and setting to work.

"Nice shooting, Jane."

"You weren't so bad yourself, Liara. That comes so easily to you."

"I have had years of practice. Before we met, I had to protect myself while on digs, you know. I am not completely helpless." Liara leaned against the rocks and crossed her arms.

"Yes, I don't know why I… I guess I just wanted to take care of you. That's all." Jane leaned on her rifle and watched Tali as she stood at the control panel, alternating between tapping on it and tapping on her omni-tool. "You did look pretty helpless on Therum, though." Her face broke into an impish grin and Liara waved her off.

"Isolated incident."

"Sure. Maybe it was fate. You might have gotten away from me if you hadn't been stuck in that stasis field."

"Perhaps. We will never know, now." Liara smiled and Jane had a sudden urge to take the young doctor in her arms. Damned inconvenient missions…

"I still want to take care of you."

"We can take care of each other, Jane."

Jane reattached her sniper rifle to her armor as Tali padded back to them. "There was nothing much there, Commander. A locker with just some rounds inside."

"Good job, Tali. Let's keep moving. What's next?"

"Let's head to the satellite uplink. It's just on the other side of this mountain." The quarian pointed to the display on her omni-tool and Jane nodded.

"Looks good. Move out."

She led the way carefully, watching for patrols and scanning the skies for geth spacecraft. It wasn't unlike the geth to drop troops directly in their path at the most inconvenient times.

"Shit, what the hell is that?" Shepard steadied herself against the rock wall next to her as an explosion seemed to shake the whole planet. "That sounds big."

"Do you think Saren is destroying evidence, Commander?" Tali asked.

"Maybe." Pushing off from the wall, she detached her assault rifle and motioned forward. "If he is, we'd better get our asses in gear and get in there."

"Right." Tali looked at her omni-tool again. "Careful, Commander."

"What is it?"

"That uplink seems to be more heavily guarded."

"Of course it is." Jane bit her lower lip and gauged the distance between herself and the ramp leading up to the satellite equipment. She could make out a few geth and a krogan, but there was too much open space for her to make a run for it without being gunned down. Even her strange inner strength probably couldn't save her. Besides that, Liara was here and she didn't want to leave the asari exposed.

"Suggestions?"

"I can shield us for a short time. It might be enough to get us close."

Jane thought about it for a moment. Remembering the war games and Liara's impressive biotic display gave her an idea. "Liara, Do you remember when we went to go practice teambuilding on Earth?"

"Yes…" she replied cautiously.

"Do you remember when you hit me in the head with that spinning disc?"

Liara winced a little at the reminder, but nodded. "Yes, I remember that."

Jane grinned. "You think you could do that with say, some of this stuff?" She produced a couple of small vials from her suit.

"I… probably. What is that?"

"I know what that is!" Tali exclaimed. "You took that out of the Mako! That's the same stuff we used to blow up those armatures with Chief Williams!"

The asari eyed them both curiously, but didn't comment on that. "Something that small would be exceptionally easy to lift, Jane."

"It would be," Tali agreed. "But… it wouldn't be so easy to ignite."

"Ignite?" Now Liara was very curious.

"Nevermind. Get behind cover, and Liara get one of these in there. I'll take care of igniting it." The commander reattached her assault rifle and brought out her sniper rifle once more. It was actually quite exhilarating to have the opportunity to use it so much. Their missions up until this point were pretty direct, forcing her to rely on the heavier firepower of her automatic weaponry. Jane appreciated the delicate touch that was required when she brought out precision ordnance. She climbed on a nearby rock and laid flat on her belly, putting her eye to the scope and aiming for a place just above the stairs. "Be ready, both of you," she said under her breath before nodding. Liara correctly interpreted the signal and concentrated a small biotic force to propel the vial she was given to a point just above where the majority of the patrols were standing.

Jane reached for it, reached for that strange silver light that sometimes lent her strength. She let it wash over her body as she moved the rifle slowly to follow the trajectory of the sailing vial. The patrol didn't seem to have noticed it, or if they did, they were ignoring it. Time slowed to a crawl, and there was nothing but Jane and her gun. Sounds around her warped and nothing existed but the weapon she was curled around and delicious bloodlust. Just as the vial settled at a point above their heads, Jane exhaled softly and squeezed her trigger, sending the single bullet sailing towards her target. She didn't even wait for it to connect before jumping up and pulling out her pistol.

"Jane! Wait!"

She could hear Liara sounding frightened behind her, but it didn't matter. She was getting that rush again. It had been a while since she had felt it, and it felt really good. Maybe it was the sexual tension and frustration that was causing her body to ignite and nearly fly to the tower. Maybe it was the atmosphere on this beautiful and terrible planet. Maybe it was just that time of the fucking month. She didn't know, and didn't care. Jane was a streak of lightning, a force of nature, and as she ran, she saw the terror in the eyes of her enemies as they gathered themselves from the floor, trying to recover. She fired her pistol at a nearby ion container, sending the handful of krogan and geth through the air once again. She broke through the explosive fire, cutting a path with her strangely manufactured silver barrier, and drew her assault rifle before launching herself from the apex of the ramp and raining bullets down upon them.

She landed with a thud, hard against the railing and looked around as her vision started to clear. It looked like all the patrols were dead or at least too incapacitated to pose any real threat. She forced herself back to her feet and tested her weak ankle.

Good. It's holding up.

"Tali! Liara! Clear! Get up here!"

Tali was there first. The second Shepard had started to run she had followed. Liara brought up the rear and looked around at the destruction on the small platform. "Jane?"

"Yea, Liara?" Jane replied as she leaned casually against the ramp's railing.

"Sometimes you scare me."

Jane didn't reply. "Tali, grab that medi-gel and get the uplink offline."

"Right. Um... How?"

The commander looked around at the platform. There wasn't a control panel or any obvious hacking point for the uplink hardware. "I don't know. Just shoot it."

"Yes, Commander."

Jane cocked her head to the side as she heard her unofficial second in command's voice over the comm link. "Bunker down people! That aircraft is about to return."

"Shit. That sounds like trouble. Liara, any ideas?"

The asari looked at the diagrams on her omni-tool and nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, Commander. This looks like a refueling station. We may be able to cut off their supply." She pointed to a small expanse of open land that had tankards circling it.

"Excellent. Let's go blow it up!" Jane grinned and picked her assault rifle back up, snapping the rest of her weapons to her armor. You ok, Tali?"

"Done, Commander. This should cause them more than a few problems."

"Good Job. Let's go."

Jane led the way once again, following Tali's gestures to keep them moving in the right direction. There wasn't much resistance, and for that Jane was grateful. It allowed her some time to let go of some of the platinum strands. She vaguely hoped that her companions hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary during her little suicide run. Judging by Liara's comments though, that was unlikely.

Can't think about that now, Jane. Have to get into Saren's lab.

Jane's face broke into a grin as they rounded the next corner, revealing some drones resupplying at what was obviously a refueling station.

"Oh, this looks completely important. Let's shoot it!" Tali's smile could be heard in her voice, and Jane couldn't help but agree with the young quarian.

"You've really been hanging around with us too much." She leveled her assault rifle and started firing on the drones, expecting them to be easy pickings.

"Shepard! Get back!" Jane barely registered the words as she was roughly pulled to the side by dark electricity, strangely contrasting with the silver glow her skin had taken on.

"Thanks, Liara. There's a flyer there refueling, too. Damn it. That must have been what the chief was talking about." the commander swore under her breath. "We need to bring it down."

"How?" Tali knelt down beside the commander,

"Shoot those tanks. Liara, just throw something at them!"

Jane almost laughed out loud as she saw the young quarian start to lift into the air, enveloped by a soft and radiant violet light. "No, Not Tali! Gosh, BOTH of you are getting way too much attitude." Her tone was harsh, but a smile danced in her eyes as she locked gazes with a playful Liara.

The asari put Tali back down and shrugged. "I can give you a barrier, Jane."

"Do it. A couple of those tanks blowing up will take care of the rest of those flyers. Get it on me, now!"

Jane's skin tingled a little as she felt Liara's powers augmenting her own. It was a strange feeling, almost like a tickle or a pinprick. It felt a lot like the few times the asari had pushed into her mind, except this was external. It was the same almost loving caress, the same possessiveness that threatened to entice Jane into doing things that would be highly embarrassing in a public situation. Something about the way that the dark flames mixed with the brighter, silver electricity that danced along her own skin gave her a confidence that bordered on reckless. She moved forward and felt rather than saw her companions follow slowly behind her.

Leveling her assault rifle, she wondered for a moment whether or not the barrier would reflect her bullets back into her. Well, shit. Don't have time to think about it now.

Jane took aim and fired, spraying the area in front of them with heavy fire and igniting the tankards. One, two, three, four, they cascaded flame and debris, overheating her thermal clip and causing her to shut her eyes against the blinding flashes.

Oh hell, this was a really bad idea. Liara's going to get hurt!

Almost without thinking, Jane displaced the violet barrier, not trusting it over her own internal strength. She called forth her own demi-godlike gift and turned, grabbing Liara and throwing the asari in front of her. Silver and violet crashed together violently as Jane forced her against the wall and out of harm's way, her larger frame eclipsing the smaller alien one and shielding her from the blast that washed over both of them. As she did, something else ignited deep in her belly and she lost herself somewhere between the explosions all around her and the explosions in the cool blue eyes before her. "Fuck, Liara…" she whispered breathlessly, and she felt the asari push closer to her, trying to melt into the commander as surely as the gas tanks they had just blown up had melted into the cold steel of refueling platform...

"Yes… please…" was the airy reply, as Liara leaned up, reaching for Jane with her mind, everything around her completely forgotten. The flares and the peril just had her so… enthralled. Jane's skin tingling with platinum electricity just had her so…intrigued. The way that the human's silver presence melted into her own violet darkness so easily just had her so… aroused. She couldn't explain it. All the time spent away from Jane hadn't tempered her desire, it had heightened it. And as inappropriate at it was at the current moment, she felt in an instant that she'd lie down with the commander and surrender her very soul, right here, right now, in the midst of all this chaos. Nothing existed but Jane.

"Hello? Still here, still on a mission. Normandy to Commander Shepard!" Tali ejected her own overheated thermal clip and replaced it with a new one, slightly amused at the obvious tension between her two squadmates. It took half a tick, but Jane ripped herself away from Liara, cursing under her breath.

Why did I think this was better than leaving her behind?

"Right. Let's… Let's keep moving. You're ok, right Tali?" Fucking afterthought. She could be dead. "What's next?" Jane forced her eyes toward Tali's omni-tool and waited for the quarian to give her an update.

"I'm fine. Northwest exit up the ramp is our next destination. Let's see what else we can destroy."

Jane kept stealing glances at Liara as they made their way forward, getting closer to the actual building. The asari seemed to be deep in thought, and was avoiding her gaze. What was it Liara had said?

Something suggestive.

Right. It was something completely suggestive, and Jane couldn't help but divert some of her attention to trying to dissect it. She barely paid any attention to the geth that kept throwing themselves at her team. There were far more important things to think about, like Liara pressed against her as fire erupted around them, the shadow of flames dancing across Liara's face as she leaned forward trying to link up with Jane's mind, Liara tugging on her neck, pushing against her body, silently asking to be taken…

"Shit, Liara what was that for?"

"Commander, you were about to walk right onto a platform full of barriers!"

"I see them. But shields don't necessarily mean geth… Ow…" Jane sat up, recovering from the biotic field that had stopped her from advancing.

"Well that laser definitely does, Commander!" Tali pointed and jumped to the side as the geth sniper passed over them, trying to find a target.

Shit.

"Liara get a barrier up! There's krogan over there as well!"

"Maybe you should have brought Wrex. He could have reasoned with them."

Jane raised an eyebrow and Liara paused midway through summoning her barrier to look back at the quarian.

"Ok, ok it was just a thought!"

"Right." Jane crouched down and motioned for Liara to lift what she could. As soon as the geth were airborne, she signaled Tali to hack them while she took care of the krogan. It only took her a few seconds to close the gap between herself and the platform, and she hopped over barriers as she ran, taking the krogan by surprise. They never did expect a human to charge head-on. Jane used that to her advantage, and swiftly dispatched the unusually weak fighter.

"Tali, Liara, I need you over here," she shouted. The krogan had fallen surprisingly easily. She was suspicious. "What do you make of that," she asked as her companions arrived.

"Looks like normal krogan to me, Commander." Tali was the first to speak. Liara kneeled down but kept her pistol aimed at the dead creature's head.

"I do not know, Commander. He looks like a normal krogan, but something in his coloring is off."

Jane attached her assault rifle to her armor and crossed her arms. "You think it's the cured genophage?"

"Possibly. Possibly a less than successful experiment." Liara stood and attached her own weapon to her side.

"He was really weak. Easy to take down. That's just not like a krogan."

"Well, it's no surprise that Saren is throwing his trial runs at us. It's horrible to say, but he probably had no other use for them. We knew he was researching the genophage here. It would be foolish to believe all his experiments were successful." Tali shrugged. "Either way, it made our job a little bit easier."

Jane bit the side of her cheek and stood there for a moment. "Right. Well, head over to the far side of the entrance. I thought I saw some containers over there. Take anything you think we can use. Leave the rest."

"Yes, Commander."

Jane motioned for Liara to follow her. As they walked, she removed her pistol, aimed, and fired at a nearby plasma container, taking the asari by surprise.

"Why did you blow that up?"

"Just trying to keep you in the mood, Liara." Jane glanced at the asari and was rewarded with a small grin. Jane flung herself against the wall at the far side of the compound entrance and started fiddling with a weapons locker.

"Trying to keep me in the mood, huh?" A grinning Liara leaned against the wall across from Jane, watching the human's pathetic hacking attempts with some amusement.

"Yea well, I mean this is a pretty romantic setting, right?"

Liara looked around as if to gauge the truth of Jane's statement. "Well, aside from the geth, and the krogan, and the explosions, and the mad scientist lab, and the…"

"Hey, I thought you liked the explosions!"

The asari grinned and crossed her arms, nodding toward the weapons locker. "You should just have Tali hack that."

"Yea I know. I just wanted a few moments alone with you, is that so bad?"

"No, that is not so bad. And, you are right. Aside from all of this other…" She made a sweeping gesture with her hand encompassing all of the… stuff… that was happening. "This planet is very beautiful."

"Yea, the beaches here are really nice. So, hey, this is kind of like our third date then, huh?" Jane grinned and took a moment to congratulate herself on her own cleverness. Why not appropriate the mission to have another 'date' with Liara? They didn't lead normal lives and hell, she'd already done the drinks and dinner move and that got her nowhere. Maybe turning a dangerous mission into an attempt at advancing romance was just what was needed.

"I…" Liara turned her head slightly and rewarded Jane with a curious smile. "How do you get to three dates, Jane?"

The commander thought about it for a moment. "Well, there was that first time at the Flux with Danger and Terriana. That was kind of like a double date, right? Then there was another time after that we went out with just Danger and spent most of that night alone. In fact, I seem to remember waking up the next morning in your arms."

"Yes, but if we are counting missions as dates, we have to count Feros and Noveria. In fact, you met my mother on Noveria."

"Yea, but I'd rather not call that one a date…" Jane tried to keep her voice level, remembering with some regret the death of the powerful asari matriarch.

"No, perhaps not. So, Feros, those times at the Flux… Oh, what about when Chief Williams took us to rescue you from that pirate? That was a date, right?"

Jane smiled. "Yea, that one could be called a date. I think I woke up next to you that morning, as well. Very good memories." She pounded the wall with her fist lightly. "Wow, this lock is just stupid."

Liara looked closer and shook her head. "You really have no idea what you are doing, do you?"

"Nope."

"So that puts us at… date five?"

The commander nodded slowly, mentally adding up all of their 'dates'. "Yep, looks like this is lucky number five. You know, we missed a few steps according to like, every dating rule book."

Liara bit her lower lip in anticipation. "Oh?"

"Yea," Jane stopped pretending to hack the weapons locker and reached up to brush the back of her fingers across Liara's skin. "In fact, we missed a pretty important step." Suddenly she stood up straight and reversed the direction of her hand, cupping the asari's cheek and tilting her head upward. She felt Liara's breathing shift as she leaned in, and flames erupted vaguely in her core and shot lightning to her fingertips.

"Oh Keelah, will the two of you stop it already?" Tali walked up between then and made quick work of the weapons locker, spilling the upgrades all over the ground at their feet. "I swear you two have the absolute worst idea of how to conduct a romance."

Liara scratched her forehead absently and smiled. "Well Tali, we are on a date."

"A date? Commander, Liara, this has got to be the absolute worst idea for a date ever. And I can't even contact Danger to tell her about it."

"Why not?" Jane asked.

"She went dark some time ago. I haven't been able to raise her or DIDI."

"Well, maybe she is just taking a break. I'm sure it's fine." Jane smiled what she hoped was a reassuring smile at the quarian and gestured toward the other side of the platform. "All right ladies, date or no, we have a lab to invade." She tilted her head to the side as she heard the salarian captain's voice over the comm.

'Hold the line…'

"Does he ever get tired of saying that, Commander?"

Jane thought Tali looked a little exasperated, but it was always so hard to tell with her. She just smiled at the young quarian and shrugged. "Whatever gets the job done, Tali. Let's move," she thumbed over her shoulder indicating the door in the middle of the platform.

"Right." Tali punched her omni-tool once more, readying it for hacking geth, and nodded to Jane.

Commander Shepard took point and led them through another series of catwalks, bringing them to what looked like the entrance to the building proper. Tali walked up beside her, glancing at the security terminal. She looked at Jane, and Jane nodded quickly, dropping back into a defensive position as the quarian took her place at the controls.

"Three doors and no security out here. Something doesn't smell right, Tali."

"That is just the plasma containers you blew up all over my suit, Shepard." Jane grinned roguishly and made a big show of wiping the imaginary substance off of the quarian. "Ugh, stop it, stop it, and get off me. Keelah, you are weird today." Tali swatted at the commander and Jane fell back into her defensive position, hefting her assault rifle and trying not to laugh.

"We can set off alarms on the far side of the base or just shut them down from here."

Jane took a moment to think about it. Setting off alarms would clear the way for them but might cause too much trouble for Williams, who sounded like she had her hands full keeping the salarian team together. "Just shut them down. We can handle whatever is in there."

"Yes, Commander."

Jane took a deep breath to steady herself, grasped for the platinum charge burning low in her belly, and turned to her two companions, grinning. "Now ladies, the only question is... what is behind door number… one!"