The shuttle shook as it flew through Hagalaz's atmosphere. A storm raged in between the hot and cold front on the planet. Within the storm was the Shadow Broker's ship which just made Zenna drool as she looked over it. Even from this distance, she could see the master craftmanship needed in order to build such a ship. Her mind just drifted into taking and putting the ship back together.

"Hagalaz," Liara stated as she looked out the window next to the minotaur. "The oceans boil during the day, then snap-freeze ten minutes after sundown,"

"The Shadow Broker lives in this?" Shepard asked not taking her eyes off of the Broker's ship.

"His ship follows the sunset. Completely undetectable in the storm, unless you know where to look,"

"Sounds like it's going to be a problem," Garrus said as the rest of the team geared up.

Given what happened at Dracon Trade Centre and Dantius Towers, Zenna wanted as many people on this one. The Shadow Broker clearly had advanced tech to the point where it gave her a headache. So, the plan was a simple. Split the team up into three groups and cause chaos. But they couldn't destroy the ship. That would just cause more problems than it's worth.

"How do we get inside?" Jacob asked.

Liara turned and activated a hologram. "The shuttle bay is locked down, which Zenna can fix. My team will land on the ship and hunt for a hatch, while team 2 cause havok inside the ship. We can't stay outside for long. There's a constant lightning storm where the hot and cold air collide,"

"Nice," Jack smiled as she rubbed her hands together.

"No major destruction," Zenna emphasised. "We don't know the mechanics of the ship. And if we fall, we lose more than just our change at getting our hands on the Shadow Broker,"

"Fine," the psycho grunted before the Minotaur's eyes focused on Miranda.

"Miranda, did you give the location to the Illusive man?" she asked eyes narrowing.

"Even if I did, he'd find out sooner or later," she said. "He has trackers on the ship,"

Before Zenna could say anything, the shuttle flew to the back of the ship and hovered over its surface. Its side hatch opened and Shepard and her squad jumped out. The shuttle took off as the team tried to stand, but found it difficult due to the wind.

"This is the perfect place to hide," Garrus muttered.

"It's hard to pinpoint in this lightning, but I'm picking up signals from a communications array near the back of the ship," Liara notified while checking her omni-tool for readings. "There's nothing below but maintenance equipment. We have to find an entrance near the back shielding,"

"We need to find a terminal first," Shepard said while moving forward. "Team 2 needs to get inside," They moved forward across the ship's surface until two drones were deployed from a port.

"Maintenance drones," Liara observed.

The drones were heading in their direction before Shepard fired two quick bursts taking them out.

"Why were they attacking?" Garrus asked

"They probably think we're debris from the storm," Zenna answered.

Two more drones appeared from the front. Shepard fired her rifle to destroy them. They went up a ramp which led to the centre on the ship's top. Ahead lightning struck at two structures. The charge went towards a battery pack that glowed from the energy.

"Careful," Zenna warned. "Those capacitors discharge built-up lightning."

"Thanks for the tip," Liara thanked as a few soldiers made an appearance.

Garrus fired a round at each capacitor. The capacitors blew and electricity jumped between the soldiers that appeared ahead. It stunned them as well as taking down their shields allowing the team to finish them off

"Oh, I'm liking this," he said.

With the area ahead cleared for them, they moved along the bulkheads and down the ramp on the other side. As they did this, several Loki mechs activated and turned to face them. Shepard moved up to one kicked to bring them off the edge, the wind caught it. To satisfy her curiosity Liara moved over to the edge and looked down. Almost immediately she backed away breathing heavily.

"Ok looking down was clearly a mistake," she muttered.

"Good thing we don't have a harpy," Zenna muttered as she moved over to the Loki command console. "Cover me,"

As Liara and Garrus moved into defensive positions, Zenns brought up three hacking screens and began to move from one screen to the other working on hacking the system. Several Loki mechs activated and approached, detecting the hack. Garrus moved and began to snipe the mechs as they advanced. Blowing their heads off as they came out of cover. However, he was having problems due to the high wind.

Liara on the other hand, just had a barrier up and throwing the mechs off the ship. This wasn't the fist time she had to try and protect someone from constant attacks.

OOOOO

"Come on, come on," Jacob muttered as he watched for the shield of the hanger to open up.

A moment later, the doors opened and Jacob punched the controls flying into the hanger firing on a few of the agents while the two most powerful biotics in the team jumped out and caused havoc inside the ship. Ships exploded, marines died and the door as locked from the other side.

As Jack pounded on the door, Miranda moved over to a terminal and began to play around with the systems making sure not to cause too much damages to harm the information or the ship itself.

OOOOO

"Get inside!" Liara ordered as the shut finished and the door opened.

Zenna and Garrus ran inside as another group fired on them. The two fired back before the doors slammed shut. Turning, they were greeted by several agent's wo opened up with their heavy weapons.

"Just how many guards does the Shadow Broker have?" Liara asked only to be pulled away as rocket sped past them. Once in cover, her body began to glow and put up a barrier for the three of them while Shepard and Garrus took out the group. But that was a problem as one of them had a heavy machine gun. Even with Liara's barrier, it could take it down with ease and rip them apart.

Taking cover again, Liara dropped her shield and threw a singularity at the group. It detonated next to them causing them to scatter allowing the engineer and sniper to finish them off. Once clear they advanced towards their objective.

They soon reached the prison block. While the guards proved to be a nascence as the team slowly moved up, they were still underestimating the team's strength. Thy made their way to an office like room with a locked door. Once Shepard hacked the door, they entered inside and saw, in the area below, Feron who was strapped to a chair.

"Feron!" Liara gasped.

The Drell groaned when he woke and saw them above. "L-Liara?"

Liara ran towards the console. "Hold on. We're getting you out of here," She started accessing the security system.

"No!" he coughed weakly.

Liara tripped something causing Feron's chair unleashed electricity upon the poor Drell. He screamed as the voltage flowed through his body. As soon as the charge stopped and he sighed in relief.

"Feron..."

"What the hell is the Broker trying to do to you?" Shepard asked as her eyes darted around looking for a way to shut the thing off.

"The equipment is sensitive to tampering," Feron explained. "This chair plugs into the Broker's info network. You have to shut off the power. Pull me out now, and my brain cooks,"

"Shit," Zenna muttered as she came to the same conclusion.

"Do you know where we can cut the power?" Liara asked while taking Feron's life readings.

"It won't be easy. You'll have to go to central operations,"

"What do you know about the Broker?" Shepard asked him.

"He did this to me," Feron answered, anger boiling inside of him.

"I was hoping you'd know what he is," unable to hide a smile.

"I never got a good look, but he's big. The guards are terrified of him,"

"A Krogan?" Liara suggested.

"Minotaur? Oni?" Zenna added.

"I don't know," Feron answered. "But not everyone who visits his office comes back out,"

"Easy or not, we're all getting out of here," Shepard asserted.

"Good. Central operations is down the hall. You know the Shadow Broker's waiting for you, right?"

"I'm counting on it," the minotaur said as she cracked her limbs.

"We'll be back for you, Feron," Liara assured him.

"I'll try not to go anywhere," he joked.

As the team left, Zenna sent a message to team two to leave. Their mission was done. But as they exited the prison block, several agents approached their location. Garrus threw two grenades in rapid succession. The first exploded removing the shields. The second however exploded and cause little damage to the agents but allowed the team to quickly dispatch them.

They moved forward down the corridor. Near central operations, was one last guard who just looked between them and the pistol on his table. Trying to decide whether it was best to let Zenna and the team go through and risk being killed by the Shadow Broker, or to try and kill Shepard now, but likely die. Shepard made the decision for him when she fired a round into his head with her pistol. He fell down dead as the group made their way to their goal.

They entered central operations which was dark with little light. The Broker was shrouded in shadows. Despite the smell, the sight alone made it clear that he was not a Krogan, or a minotaur, or an Oni. As they entered, the three raised their weapons and aimed at the Broker.

The Broker clamped his hands together and leaned forward a bit. The Broker looked horrifying. It had red skin, fours eyes and two large horns. It took a moment before Liara remembered a disaster from decades ago when Council diplomats visited a race of sentient beings matching this creature's description.

"Here for the Drell?" the Broker said in his booming, deep voice. "Reckless, even for you, Commander,"

"That bombing on Illium wasn't exactly subtle," Shepard retorted. "Besides, I like being reckless,"

"Extreme, but necessary," he replied angering the Asari.

"No it wasn't!" Liara yelled. "Neither was caging Feron for two years!" she resisted pulling the trigger right then and there.

"Dr. T'Soni. Your interference caused all this. Feron betrayed me when he handed you Shepard's body. The Drell is simply paying the price,"

"Someone was bound to come after you for working with the Collectors," Zenna argued.

"It's a mutually beneficial partnership," he replied matter-of-fact.

"You're quite confident for someone with nowhere left to hide," Liara said.

"You travel with fascinating companions, doctor. It's good your brought Archangel T'soni. Your friends Bounty still reminds unclaimed," each word dripped with arrogance.

"Over my dead body," Zenna growled.

"I wouldn't put it past him Commander. He's a Yarg. Pre-space flight species quarantined on their homeworld for massacring the council's first contact team's. This base is older than your planet's discovery which probably means that you killed the original Shadow broker around 60 years ago and took over. I'm guessing that you where taken from your homeworld by a trophy hunter who wanted a slave or a pet. How am I doing?" her lips curved into a smile.

The Broker stood at his full hight that made Shepard back off a bit. He towered over them, even the tall minotaur. The Broker roared and threw his desk at them. Shepard pushed Liara out of the way. The chunk of desk impacting Garrus pining her limbs and knocking him out. Liara fired at the broker with her pistol. But the Broker's shield held forcing the two to get into cover and switch to disruption ammo.

The two opened fired with all they had trying to whittle down his shields. The Broker focused fire on the both of them trying to keep them pined. But between the reloads and divided focus the two managed to take out his shields and began to rip into his armour. Just as he was taking some damage The Broker activated the energy dome above himself. The energy coated his body as a shield. Liara fired several rounds at the Broker but the bullets bounced off.

"The shield's kinetically sensitive," Liara told Shepard. "Energy and projectiles are bouncing off!"

Shepard pulled her axe and cracked her neck. "Then we do this the hard way,"

She ran forward and hit the Broker multiple times with the head of her axe. It was taking a toll on the metal as it began to crack, but the barrier did drop. Shepard spun herself around and slashed the Broker multiple times across his chest. He followed up with a series of fire punches caused the Broker to fall back a few steps. Shepard ran forward and jumped, prepared the slash the Broker down the middle. The Broker activated an omni-shield and hit Shepard. She fell to the ground ten feet away while her axe shattered on the floor.

Shepard took cover once again as she and Liara repeated the same process of firing until he took damage. As soon as wounds began to appear on his flesh, he summoned hiss shield again. Zenna ran up to the broker and began a barrage of punches and kicks. But as she came in for another hit the Broker pushed back and threw her into Liara. The two rolled before separating.

As they got up, Liara noticed the energy above the broker. "Shepard, if you can get him to bring that shield up again, I've got an idea,"

Once again, they did the same as before. They unleashed laser fire at him until he began taking damage. As predicted, the Broker called upon his energy barrier. Shepard charged at the Broker, as did the Broker. The Broker attacked with his shield but Shepard rolled under his attack, barely dodging it.

"Liara now!" the commander yelled.

Liara threw a warp at the dome above the Broker making it crack. The dome above unleashed a downpour of energy onto the Broker. He flung himself around. As then realised, it was not enough and used another warp on the dome. More energy and penetrated his body and filled it. The Broker let out one last roar before he exploded.

Shepard immediately went over to her and helped her. "Are you okay?"

"I'll recover," she replied.

Liara stood there, breathing deeply not knowing what to do next as Zenna went over to help Garrus.

"Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat," an agent called in over the comm system. "We had a momentary connection failure. Can you confirm status?" Liara's eyes went wide as she looked to the console.

Another agent called in with the same concern. Followed by another agent. And then another. And the another. Until the whole screen was covered with incoming inquiries from agents all over the galaxy. Liara approached the terminal. She bowed her head for a brief thought and then touched the screen. Liara knew what she had to do.

"This is the Shadow Broker," she announced. "The situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware. It disrupted communications momentarily," Just then Feron burst through the doors with his pistol aiming towards Liara, but he paused shocked to see who was making the announcement. "However, we are now back online. Resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day. Shadow Broker out,"

"Goddess of oceans..." Feron muttered as he limped towards her. "It's you. You... how?"

"Well, everyone who's ever seen him in person is dead, so..." she shrugged

"You're the new Shadow Broker," Feron muttered in shock.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Shepard asked.

"It was either that or lose everything," Liara answered. "His contacts, his trading sources. Those will really help us. I need to go through everything,"

"Good idea, I'll get Feron back to the Normandy for a check-up," Zenna said before pulling Liara into a hug. "I'll be back in a few days," she said before pulling away and leaving Liara to discover her new calling.

OOOOO a few days later

Zenna walked down to the Shadow Broker's office, without worrying about the guards trying to kill her. It was a nice change of pace. As she walked in, a white drone began to follow her calling her the 'Shadow Broker'. Ignoring it, she looked around but didn't see Liara around. Concluding she must be round back Zenna began to take in the sight. She didn't have much of a change during the fight.

As she looked around, there was a set of data slates that were set to one side. Shrugging with nothing else to do, she sat on the nearest seat and began to read them. They were full of reports about operations across the galaxy. But they didn't interest her, until she reached the last one. Once she finished, she reread it while she stood.

"Zenna,"

"Huh," the minotar looked around only to see Liara standing next to her. "Oh sorry,"

"Are you okey?" the Asari asked.

Zenna looked at the tablet. "Can you check the network, see what you can find out about Chimera and indoctrination,"

"Sure," Liara said as she moved over to the terminal and began to type. After a few moments she shook her head. "Got nothing, why is something wrong?"

Zenna said nothing and handed the Asari the data slate. "Have a read,"

Liara's brow raised and took it. As she began to read, her eyes and expression turned from confused to surprise then confused again. By the time she finished she looked to Zenna then back at it.

"This… if this is true then…" she began to mutter.

"I know, it brings a lot of things into question," Zenna said.