Lazarus Shunned

by Two-Eyed Charlie

Cerberus has spent billions of credits trying to bring Shepard back from the dead, and despite the odds it seems to be working. Then a saboteur makes his move and Shepard's resurrection takes a horrific turn, leaving both the Alliance and Cerberus scrambling to control the situation...all while the Collectors begin their harvest of humanity [PREFERRED EDITION ON AO3]

14. Chapter 13: Their Frail Deeds Pt II

Chapter 13: How Bright Their Frail Deeds: Part II

1.

Senior Detective Anaya was being decidedly unhelpful, though Miranda had to admit it was all a tad out of the asari's control. That didn't help much vis-à-vis the frustration, but ignoring the fact that Anaya's hands were tied would be irrational in the extreme.

When her and Jacob had arrived at Anaya's station they'd been informed, rather bluntly, that Anaya was completely and utterly through with taking knee-jerk orders from dumbasses in nice offices. Miranda had commented that Dr. T'Soni hardly qualified as a "dumbass," and Anaya had answered back that this was something a human probably wouldn't understand.

"Y'mean in general, right?" Jacob had said. "Because we're, uh, pretty familiar with the concept of dumbasses."

"Yeah, of course that's what I meant," Anaya had said back. "I know humans know what dumbasses are." She paused, then added: "That wasn't…a shot at you two. I just meant—whatever. Whether you two are dumbasses or not depends on what the hell you're about to ask me to do, I'll just say that."

Fair enough terms, Miranda supposed.

Miranda explained that they were looking for Samara and had been told, by the same Dr. T'Soni Anaya had just been criticizing, that the authorities likely wanted the Justicar off their planet as much as anyone. For reasons that weren't elaborated upon but weren't hard to figure out, given the sorts of commercial activities that happened on Illium.

"I'm a bit surprised none of this was relayed to you," Miranda said.

"The only thing my superiors have told me to do lately is go out and get myself killed," Anaya said. "Because Justicars have this reputation for killing anyone who gets in their way, on account of the fact that they kill anyone who gets in their way. You two might not be police officers so, trust me on this, but it's hard not to "get in someone's way" when you're arresting them."

"Really?" Jacob said. "Just like that? You pull a Justicar over for speeding and she just blows your head off?"

"Yeah, and most people think we're the crazy ones for even bothering," Anaya said. "Because we should know better, right? Fucking weird-ass ancient religions. Let's give a buncha hardline monks a license to kill—what the hell could go wrong?"

"We sure about this?" Jacob said, turning to Miranda. "We sure we want someone like this running around on the ship?"

"You're…gonna 'clean this situation up' by taking her with you?"

"That's our intention," Miranda said. "Both parties benefit."

"Wait, you guys aren't a merc outfit or anything, are you?" Anaya said. "Please don't be a merc outfit. We've had like five different organizations try to recruit her since she landed. I don't have enough clean mops to deal with what'll be left of you."

Miranda returned Jacob's look. "You have to admit, that sounds impressive."

"So do rachni shock troops," Jacob said.

"That's a completely idiotic comparison," Miranda said.

"Is it? Just admit it, Miranda—we're doing this because the list said so. You're on autopilot."

"I'm not in the position I'm in because I'm a bloody yes-man," Miranda said. "The missions we're responsible for—the variables I'm expected to take into account—if I go into autopilot, we'll surely be killed."

"Did you not just hear what she said about the mops?"

Anaya stood up from her desk and started shaking her head. "Look, fun as it is to listen to you, I'm still under orders to go commit suicide-by-Justicar. So if you say both parties can benefit from some cooperation, let's get to the terms and conditions then, all right?"

Miranda looked at Jacob, Jacob looked at Miranda, and finally, Jacob blinked. Miranda was the boss, after all, so if she said they were following the list, then they were following the list.

"Our only term is that you give us accurate information," Miranda said. "Especially if this Samara is following some sort of complex code of action—a violent complex code of action, I should say."

"Complex?" Anaya said. "For a Justicar, sure, since you can't eat your damn breakfast without following a twenty-point plan. For everyone else though, it's just violent. These asari aren't diplomats—hell, I'd rather negotiate with an Eclipse sister. Which you might have to do anyways since they're involved too."

"Naturally," Miranda said.

"Samara's investigating a crime that—were I not thinking about leaving my badge behind and sneaking aboard a transport frigate heading for Republic space—I'd be trying to solve too. Everyone who isn't a member of the Eclipse is basically convinced that the Eclipse are involved. If you're going after Samara, you'll be racing against some very angry asari commandos and salarian engineers that're all hopped up on a Red Sand derivative. So I take that back: you probably won't be doing much negotiating with them either."

"What's their strength?" Miranda said.

"They're spread a bit thin, I guess. Eclipse got greedy after the Blue Suns ran into money problems and, since this is an asari world whether polite society admits it or not, they've pulled a lot of commandos off planet to bolster their expansion efforts." Anaya looked out her station's window, acting like someone in a yellow uniform was watching her right that very moment. "But we're still talking about people who can telepathically make you beat yourself to death with your own leg, so…"

"So you're not expecting to see us again," Jacob said.

"Much as it pains me to say, since we've been such good friends to each other." Anaya sighed. "Listen, you'd be doing everyone—especially me, but mostly everyone—a massive favour if you managed to convince Samara to leave with you. But I'm not gonna be surprised if you turn around and bail—this isn't a fun situation. I'd just ask that you take me with you so I don't have to answer to the Security Board." Anaya gave Miranda a once-over. "Guessing that's not part of the plan though, is it?"

"It is not," Miranda said.

"Colour me shocked." Another sigh. "Well…anything else you need from me?"

"Just the details of the crime, so we know what we're looking for." Miranda gave Jacob one last look over her shoulder. "Unless I'm missing something?"

"Nope, you're good," Jacob said, crossing his arms and leaning against the nearest wall. "Always wanted to play detective anyways. Might let me exercise my critical thinking skills for once."

Anaya gave Miranda all the information she had but Miranda's mind was half a galaxy away. She was looking over Jacob's words and the dossier's she'd been given with her mind's eye, and was trying very very hard to expunge one image so she could more clearly see the other.

Try as she might, though, the dossier glowed as bright as the binary stars less than an astronomical unit away from Cronus Station.

2.

"It's…I-I don't know what t-to say. Nobody listens. Nobody believes us. Nobody thinks anyone would do this to their own employees but she's done worse, believe me she's done far, far worse before."

"I've heard as much. One of her sisters contacted me with a similar offer. She spared no detail."

The salarian tries not to show surprise, but he can't help it. Emotion pours from his face like a supernova—fear and surprise, a worry that the contract he's offered won't be accepted, that no other options exist save to remain at the mercy of a madwoman.

"T-they did? Um…h-how much?"

"It wasn't the asking price that made me decline, don't worry. It was the reason behind the contract. I didn't believe—I still don't believe—that someone being a 'black sheep' is sufficient reason to employ me."

It was…frightening to see how proficient his body had become at lying.

Thane blinked the memory away but couldn't keep its content from lingering in his mind. He knew, at one point in his life, that what he had said was true: someone being a 'black sheep' was not sufficient reason to kill them. Indeed, very few circumstances were "sufficient" enough for call for the death of someone else, a lesson that Irikah had taught him through patience, love, defiance. The hanar's training and history itself couldn't match her strength, but he was a fool to think that his body had fully rejected the person he once was. With her presence now reduced to a memory, his training—his past—returned, hungrier than every but no-less sharp. And now it was rebelling against him, punishing him for having thought that he was free. It was telling him, in the quiet moments where the mind had room to speak, that the compact was severed, and it had been all his doing—his choices.

Thane had taken the contract to kill Nassana Dantius two years ago from a rival businesswoman, and his body had led him to meet with the salarian worker. It had instructed him to lie and claim that he was acting on behalf of the worker's; it had even convinced his mind that this was, in fact, his intention all along. And then, as a final insult, his body had allowed the memories to return, so Thane would stand naked against the tearing winds of his own words. The mind knew when to recede and allow the body to do its work; if those terms no longer applied, then the body would not hesitate to fill Thane with delusion after delusion.

When he had entered Dantius Towers, he had fully intended to listen to his body's warnings. The mind was silent: "Thane" existed only as a sleeping spark while his body become one with the weapons he carried on his back. Creeping through the crisscrossing metal beams nearly one hundred feet above the main concourse area, Thane continued to let his body do as it may—as it was trained for. There was enough awareness to regard the civilian hostages and send a signal to his limbs that they ought to be protected—that his intentions, while not guiding his works, were more than mere delusions—and his body acknowledged. An Eclipse mercenary had a salarian worker's head pinned under her gun after he had tried to bite her leg, and with motion as natural to him as a planet-stem bending in the breeze, Thane's eyes guided his scope to the mercenary's head.

Another work managed to wrestle a gun way from one of the security mechs, though, and he caught the mercenary off guard long enough to destroy her shields. Bullets from the submachine gun spat wildly and would not hit their target again—not with the grip the salarian had on his confiscated weapon. Thane prepared to pull the trigger and shifted his weight in preparation to move to a new target…

…but then there were interlopers, their weapons drawn and their fire precise. There had been four Eclipse mercenaries in the concourse, alongside five LOKI mechs: these new individuals took each combatant down with clinical efficiency. One of the workers had suffered a wound in his leg from a stray round, but that was the only casualty.

Interesting.

The spark grew, and Thane watched these two Alliance soldiers (he recognized the patterns in their armour; they were not intended to be special forces, by the looks of it, but their skills certainly matched the most highly trained commandoes found in the galaxy) as they checked and double-checked their surroundings. One of them readied the salarian for medical treatment. Interesting indeed…they had to be after Nassana too.

A contest, then—one final game before the end. This was the end, wasn't it? His body may reject that idea, but his mind knew: he hadn't entered these towers under the impression that he would leave it whole.

They would challenge him; they would push him. Hopefully, they would make him move swifter, cleaner, more efficiently going from target to target. He wouldn't abandon the other hostages that may be locked in the towers, but he wasn't going to allow them to kill Nassana either.

A good challenge before a good death. That would be acceptable.

Thane took in as deep a breath as his body allowed and sprinted silently back into the shadows. The spark faded and let the body do what it needed, and the mind thanked Amonkira for what she had sent.

3.

Kaidan finished applying the medi-gel to the salarian worker's leg. When he ran his and Ashley's entrance back, he was pretty sure it wasn't one of their bullets that'd hit the poor guy. No way to be sure though, so…extra incentive to be careful, since god knows how many other hostages Nassana had inside the tower.

This Thane guy wasn't gonna be too happy. As tiny of a firefight as that'd been, it probably screwed up every plan he'd set in place.

"We'd better move double-time," Ashley said. Kaidan turned around and watched her pull a shotgun from the magnetic clamps on her back. "Nassana might try and clean house before she disappears. How's the patient?"

"Lemme ask," Kaidan said. "Sir, you doing okay?"

The salarian nodded. "She's…she's right, though. If Nassana thinks she's cornered then she's gonna make everyone suffer as much as she can."

"Double-time it is, then," Kaidan said. He pulled out his assault rifle, nodded at Ashley, and then motioned to the most composed looking worker he could see. "The medi-gel should hold for a while. You good to get him to a hospital?"

The workers looked at each other like Kaidan had just asked how many fingers they'd like to have cut off.

"Can we afford a hospital?" one of them said.

"Not a good one," another said.

Kaidan saw Ashley pull up her omni-tool. "Here," she said, "Two thousand credits—is that enough?"

"Y-yeah, yeah that'll work," a worker said. "Um…t-thank you. For uh, everything."

"Just stay safe out there," Kaidan said.

"We'll need more than two-thousand credits for that."

The worker who said that got a hand to the back of his head and, after registering a complaint, he helped the others move their wounded friend towards the door. Ashley and Kaidan kept an eye on them until they hit the street, and then it was go-time—too many floors to clear and not enough time.

"Hostages are the priority, right?" Kaidan said.

"Yeah," Ashley said. "Much as I wanna unload with explosive rounds, we can let Thane handle Nassana."

"If he's still around."

"True enough."

The first few floors were sparsely populated—and mostly by mechs, at that—which made a sick sort of sense. You wouldn't want to keep all your hostages on the bottom floors, because if an attacker actually cared about saving lives, you'd want to keep them guessing. Sure the floor could be empty, but if you miss one locked room, one group of hostages with bombs strapped to their chests, then that was it—you failed and you'd have to carry that around for as long as you still had a conscience. If there was any indication that all the hostages had been dealt with, however, then you could do exactly what Ashley had said: grab some explosive rounds from the mini-fabricator and let rip, so to speak.

Nassana was clearly thinking that way, but a big wrinkle in her plan made itself known on the 10th floor. Ashley and Kaidan had found one of those locked rooms on that floor. It was surrounded by dead Eclipse commandoes.

Cleanly killed Eclipse commandoes, more specifically. Headshots, all of them. Ash was looking at the rafters—and as she spoke, he could tell there was a bit of awe in her voice.

"With all this construction, I don't think you could get a clear sight-line from any of the neighboring buildings."

"So Thane's still here?"

"And he's good—really good. Alliance Scout-Snipers wish they had aim like this."

Kaidan was working on the lock on the door. "Maybe he caught them off guard."

"He probably did, yeah. But hell, look at it—that's, what, five or six bodies? Catching an entire fireteam by surprise is more impressive than beating them in a straight firefight. I guess…I guess Liara knows the right kinds of people."

"She'd have to, living on this planet."

"You're probably right about that too."

The door opened and, inside the room, were more workers—each one of them alive but frightened. One of them was covered in blood but, he insisted, it wasn't his own.

"T-the human one, by the back of the pile. He was, um, he was getting ready t-to…y'know. A-and his head just…it just exploded. I'm, um…I guess I'm wearing his…his…oh god I need to lie down."

He didn't lie down so much as drop onto his face. The other workers revived him and sat him with his head between his knees while Ashley distributed some rations and Kaidan checked for a concussion. Somehow, the poor guy'd managed to dodge that bullet too, figuratively speaking.

"Did you see who took the shot?" Ashley asked the more with-it workers. The one closest to her shook his head.

"Nope—nothing. Didn't even hear the guy. It was…it happened quick. Unbelievably quickly."

"We heard a voice though," one of the others said. "After everyone was dead—kinda…gravely, I guess? I dunno, it wasn't a salarian or a human or anything like that. Not a turian either. He told us to get inside and he'd lock the door; once the place was clear, someone would let us out."

"Which someone?"

"Didn't say…I thought he meant himself but…but I guess he'd've just said that, wouldn't he?"

That made sense in Kaidan's eyes.

The workers told them that only a handful of workers got grabbed by Nassana's thugs (and were never seen or heard from again, obviously, because dead workers told no tales) and that the biggest group was probably the bunch in the main concourse, but they couldn't be sure—sorry. They also confirmed that, yeah, they'd thought about hiring an assassin before they realized she liked to take hostages; so if nobody managed to kill her that night, they'd forgo eating for a month and splurge for that Death's Head guy that apparently could take out a whole army on his own.

"I'd like to feed my family, though, so you two feel free to give it your all," one of the workers said.

"Hostages first," Ashley said. "If she's still around, we'll see what we can do."

"Make sure you aim for the head though. Because she doesn't have a heart."

The workers disappeared and Ashley and Kaidan boarded the nearest elevator. They could afford to speed it up a bit, then, if most of the hostages were already rescued…which meant they might actually have the opportunity for an unsanctioned assassination whilst wearing full Alliance kits.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there, like you said." Kaidan rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling a bit of pressure dissipate.

"I just can't believe Thane's still here. A guy who's just in it to kill or…or make money? Rescuing hostages isn't the kind of thing he'd be doing. Hell, I'm surprised he hasn't gone after us for fucking up his hit." Ashley was rubbing the back of her neck, too. Headaches all around, by the looks of things.

"Well," Kaidan said, "I mean, Liara probably picked Thane because he's not your typical assassin. So maybe this is exactly the kind of thing he'd do. Maybe he's just as worried about the hostages as we are."

Ashley was silent for a bit, looking down at her boots. "Sounds like wishful thinking but…hard to argue with what we've seen so far."

"Why bother arguing then, right?"

Ashley chuckled. "Sure, Skipper. Read you loud and clear."

4.

The blonde idiot that called himself "Conrad" pointed at a purple asari in nice clothes at a big kiosk that said "Gateway Personal Defense." Visibly pointed at her, too—in the most obvious fucking "I am pointing you out to other people" way imaginable. Jack roughly slapped Conrad's arm down to his side.

"Ow! Oh, sorry—I guess I wasn't being very stealthy, was I?"

"No fucking shit," Jack said.

"Do…do all Alliance Rangers swear like that?"

"Only the officers: you gotta hit Lieutenant before you even get to say 'damn.'"

"Really?"

"…sure Conrad, why the fuck not?"

Jack took another look at the asari now that Conrad wasn't telegraphing everything for the next fucking solar system, and Jesus, this guy must've been one of the biggest saps in the entire galaxy. Which meant whoever the "undercover cop" was had to be the biggest sap: did Conrad look like someone who could keep it together? Trusting him to help you out with your genius plan was like hiring a cult to babysit your kid.

A truly massive grin broke out on Jack's face. This was interesting. This was gonna be fun. Either this woman was smart enough to come up with a plan and stupid enough not to realize how fucking dumb it was, or she was desperate to get richer. The perfect kind of desperate.

"That ain't a cop," Jack said.

"Really?" Conrad said. "How can you tell?"

Besides the fact she's standing next to a fucking weapons kiosk? Well, there was the old standby of actually looking closely at people, for one thing. "Cops have a swagger to 'em, like, 'sure, try and fuck with me—lemme ruin your entire fucking day.' She doesn't have that. Her swagger says 'I'm smarter than all of you and I'll never have to watch my back because of it.'"

"Oh. Oh! Like, y'mean how you've got that swagger?"

Jack just barely kept her biotics in check. "Which one, Conrad?"

"Ah! Um uh—t-the first one! T-the 'sure try to'…y'know, that one!"

"Good answer," Jack said. After a second or two more of watching him piss himself, Jack chuckled and slapped Conrad hard on his fake-ass armoured back. "And sort of, yeah—you're close. But see, when you get up close to me? You'll still see that look. Get up close to a cop? Unless they've got back-up, that swagger goes away real quick."

"Oh…" Conrad scratched at his beard again. "Um…so the Alliance Rangers aren't like cops, then? Are they like…Spectres or something?" There was hope in his eyes, like he was fulfilling a childhood dream. A shitty childhood dream.

"No, we ain't cops. Spectres? Maybe. But listen," Jack motioned in the asari's direction with her head, "we can't have someone impersonating law enforcement, can we? We'd better go investigate, right? See what they're trying to pull?"

"Uh, yes. Oh, yes! Yes I agree, ma'am!" Conrad shot off a crisp salute that he probably practiced about fifty times in front of a mirror every morning. Jack roughly slapped his arm down again and the two of them started towards the asari "undercover cop"…

…who saw them coming and then mouthed something like "what the fuck," which yeah, made sense. Half-naked tattooed woman coming at you with who you thought was the dumbest bastard on the planet? Jack would've been a bit shocked too.

Wasn't much of a surprise when the asari took off through the crowd, either—back towards the Nos Astra spaceport.

"Oh shit, she left her kiosk unattended," Jack said. "That's mighty dangerous of her."

"Wait…wait no," Conrad said. "No she's getting away! Wait I'll try to—HEY! HEY LADY, IT'S ME? YOUR CONTACT, REMEMBER? YOUR CONTACT ABOUT THE RED SAND DEALERS? HEY LADY WHERE'RE YOU GOING?"

"Hey quit making a scene," Jack said. "Now c'mon, let's see what she's got in her—"

"I'll go after her, don't worry!" And Conrad did, in fact, go after her, knocking over more than a few pedestrians and stopping every single time to apologize. Which gave Jack just enough time to see that this woman had absolutely fuck-all of interest at her kiosk so…so guess the fun was still with Conrad, then. Oh well—plenty of good loot with the dominatrix and her fancy ship.

Jack caught up with Conrad near the twenty-fifth person he'd knocked over and taught him the mystical art of "watching where you're going." And once that was sorted out, they started making their way back towards the spaceport.

5.

Jacob and Miranda found Samara in a small, private docking bay just a few alleys away from Detective Anaya's station. It'd been a relatively painless trip—the on-scene officers were more than happy to let someone else deal with the Eclipse mercs, and those few mercs that were still alive didn't put up much of a fight—so Miranda assumed, from the onset, that the hard part would be convincing Samara to come with them.

Her instincts happened to be right yet again.

"Tell me what I need to know," Samara said, an Eclipse mercenary's throat under her heel, "and I will be gone from here. Where did you send her?"

"Y-you're…fuck—you're not as scary as she is," the mercenary said.

"Then name of the ship, Lieutenant. Your life hangs in the balance."

"B-better you…than her."

"This is your final answer?"

"Just do it already!"

Miranda watched Samara close her eyes. It looked like she was…sighing, the way a very old and weary soldier might do. But then those eyes opened again, and all Miranda could see was cold acceptance.

"Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess," Samara said.

With a twist of her leg, the Eclipse Lieutenant was no longer anyone's problem.

"Yeah, so," Jacob said, "let me just remind you what I said back at the station."

"Save it," Miranda said. She started walking towards Samara (Jacob followed too, albeit very slowly) and saw the asari woman look up with a hint of surprise—but only a hint.

"My name is Samara, a servant of the Justicar code," she said. Grace and beauty and the quiet authority of a thousand-year lifespan flowed through every part of her. "My quarrel is with these Eclipse sisters, but I see two well-armed people before me. Are we friend? Or foe?"

"You really expect anyone to say 'foe' to your face?" Jacob said.

"If they are honourable, then yes. If they are not, then my question has already been answered."

"We're friends," Miranda said. "Don't mind the skepticism."

"Or do mind," Jacob said, crossing his arms. "That merc was helpless, as much of a bastard as she probably was."

Samara didn't speak right away; the way her eyes moved from Miranda to Jacob and back again, you could tell that she'd be willing to wait until the heat death of the universe if she thought she had to. Made you wonder what exactly a Justicar was; Anaya hadn't been very forthcoming with that information.

Eventually, Samara said: "I answer to a code, with clearly prescribed courses of action. If I am true to my code, then my actions are just; if I deviate, then my actions are unjust. What you just saw was allowed within the rules that guide my life. So," she took a step to the side, as if she wanted a better sightline for Miranda and Jacob, "what about you two? How do you determine what is right and what is wrong?"

Miranda thought she might need to throw a statis field at Jacob, just to keep him quiet (obvious though that might be), but he wasn't making a move to speak. He looked…lost in thought, more than anything else. That suited Miranda just fine.

"We're not so different," Miranda said. "If our actions protect those who most need it, then we're doing the right thing. If we step in the way of that progress? We're a part of the problem."

"You fight for the powerless?"

"We do," Miranda said. "Right now, we're fighting for humanity's colonies—the ones that are at risk of disappearing. We know why that's happening, and we're working to stop it."

She let Samara digest what was said. Don't push her—overwhelmingly powerful biotics being completely beside the point.

Eventually, Samara nodded. "Then you are indeed honourable. And you rightfully call yourself a friend. You are here…to recruit me, correct?"

"That's the plan," Miranda said.

"I am humbled. But I am also occupied with a mission of my own."

"The stuff you were asking the Eclipse about?" Jacob said. Looks like he'd pulled himself out of his own thoughts—not that his expression was any less unpleasant. "The ship name and everything?"

"That is correct," Samara said. "I seek a dangerous fugitive, and the Eclipse are my only hope of finding her. Many people would like me off this world, but I cannot leave until I have the name of that ship."

"Understood," Miranda said. She turned to Jacob. "Get a hold of Jack—tell her we have a mission."

Jacob didn't move.

"Now, Jacob."

Jacob, this time, moved.

"If we help you get the name of this ship," Miranda said, "will your code permit you to work with us?"

"It will," Samara said. "It will be satisfied. And I will be able to leave this planet without any further disruption to its inhabitants."

"Music to my ears," a voice said from the alleyway. Anaya, naturally enough, walked into the docking bay. "They tell you I've got orders to arrest you? I guess this is their solution to all our problems."

"Ah," Samara said. She turned back to Miranda. "You are assisting many people today. It is good to know your actions match your words."

"We do what we can," Miranda said.

"I'm trying to do that too," Anaya said. "So, in that case…what's our next move, here? Between you and me, Samara, I mean."

"My code permits me to cooperate for a day. After that, I must continue my investigation."

"All right, so, you two've got a day to sort this out." Anaya didn't look particularly relieved. "Hope you're as good as Dr. T'Soni implied."

"You are acquaintances with Liara T'Soni?" Samara said to Miranda.

"To an extent," Miranda said. "We've been known to work together a few times."

"She is…a brave woman. Few go through the kind of trauma she endured without giving in to their worst impulses. She is not perfect…but I know she has helped innocents in the past." Samara regarded Anaya again. "If Dr. T'Soni has faith in these two individuals, then you have little to worry about."

"Don't make me feel better or anything," Anaya said. "All right, well…c'mon then. We can finish up introductions at the station. I'm supposed to detain you so…try not to leave my side or anything."

"Thank you, Detective."

Samara and Anaya headed for the alley, and Miranda pulled up beside Jacob. He looked…as cheery as before.

"You actually believe everything you just said?"

Miranda sighed. "I joined Cerberus for those exact reasons, yes."

"Lotta wiggle room in those principles of yours."

"Jacob," Miranda said, more tired than angry, "you used to trust me. What've I to do to gain that back?"

Jacob went to say something but shut his mouth before anything could come out. They started walking.

Eventually, he said: "I trust you fine. The people we're taking orders from? Sorry, the person we're taking orders from? That I'm not so sure of."

"If The Illusive Man was half the tyrant you thought he was," Miranda said, "you'd be buying his every word, no questions asked—not at all like what you're doing right now." And quite a bit like what I seem to always be doing, but I won't be diving into that question while we're on a mission, thank you very much.

For a second, Miranda thought Jacob might've heard her thoughts—or they'd been less internal than she originally thought. But he just shook his head. "Maybe…maybe…" he said.

"Did you get a hold of Jack?"

"Yeah."

"And?"

"And she told me to go fuck myself. Then she gave me some pointers on how to do it."

"It's for the best if she stays away."

"On this? You and I are in perfect agreement."

6.

A beeping on Gianna's omni-tool pulled her attention away from her beer and her datapad. She put the datapad down, pulled out her omni-tool, pretended to laugh at a pretend image that her pretend friend had sent her.

Message from Noveria, of course. Damn micromanaging suits.

Is target still in Nos Astra?

Gianna started typing. Yes, would tell you otherwise. Would request money to go somewhere else if that was case.

Any updates?

Just that something's going on with Liara T'Soni.

And how does this affect Noveria's corporations and said corporation's stockholders?

I don't know Boss: how does it affect Noveria's corporations and said corporation's stockholders?

A delay. Gianna hoped her superiors were drilling holes in their desks with their foreheads.

Update with only useful information. Stay focused.

Stop messaging me and I promise I will.

No reply. Good. Please, please leave me the fuck alone—I did white collar crime because I hate the sight of blood, not because I wanted some asshole with an MBA looking over my shoulder every two seconds.

Gianna grabbed her datapad and took a swig of her beer when, over by her target's kiosk, a purple asari in nice clothes nearly took out a line of customers. Then the purple asari got up and started frantically talking to her target, and Gianna's target…seemed like she was trying to calm this other woman down, rather than telling her to get lost weirdo.

"Huh," Gianna said. "Well…shit. How'm I supposed to know if this is useful information if there's nobody around to breathe down my neck?"

Gianna finished her beer and started recording the two women with the camera in her datapad.

7.

There—Liara had everything she needed for when Kaidan and Ashley returned. There were a thousand different ways that she might be able to hack Nassana's security feed in order to make sure the deed was being done, but she wanted Kaidan and Ashley to confirm it for her. When they said it was over, she'd know it was real, and another great evil had been removed from the universe, never to return no matter what.

One down, a billion more to go.

She hadn't thought about the Reapers in nearly forever. They were just the abstract things that had taken her mother from her, an inky shadow that spilled forth from everyone in the galaxy who preyed on others for fun, profit, or ideology. The Shadow Broker was as much a part of that shadow as the Reapers were. Liara didn't pretend to assume that was healthy or reasonable or made sense to anyone except her, but it did make sense to her. The Reapers and the Shadow Broker had taken so much from her: why weren't they, essentially, the same thing?

The question remaining? Was Cerberus a part of this shadow too, or had they legitimately stepped away from the darkness? It sounded utterly idiotic to even ask that question…

…so that was her answer, wasn't it? Cerberus had tried to bring Shepard back, yes. And the Shadow Broker was responsible for yet another Cerberus-led failure, that was true too. Was it just personal bias that led Liara to believe they shared responsibility with the Shadow Broker? Or was there some nugget of truth there?

It didn't matter. No matter the answer, it didn't mean Cerberus was free from a reckoning—not at all. It just meant that Liara wasn't thinking clearly. Like on Noveria when Shepard had to...like back then. Otherwise, she might've been in a position to figure out a way to get both Cerberus and the Shadow Broker to destroy each other before Kaidan and Ashley returned. Returned to…to continue on their hunt for Shepard.

Hmm…Nyxeris still wasn't back. That was…unusual.

Liara had a pistol in her desk. Maybe she'd better find the key to its drawer…

8.

Two human commandos; one krogan. From the Blood Pack—almost never saw Blood Pack and Eclipse working together. Thane had heard that the Blue Suns were in trouble, and that might be the cause of a team-up—but none of that matter. A few more floors, no more hostages to rescue, and the Alliance officers picking up speed. They were skilled; they were pushing him faster than he'd moved in nearly two years.

A silent drop. Broke the neck of the nearest human commando. Pressured-sealed armour muffled the sound, dragged the body into the shadows. Back into the rafters—krogan and human partner noticed they were down one member of their squad, but can't tell where the attack came from. Another drop, quick roll, kicked the legs out from under the krogan. Right up close to the second human: pistol shot up through the chin isn't the cleanest but it does the job quickly. Biotics kept the krogan on the ground long enough for Thane's knife to slice an important artery. Thermal clip emptied into rest of throat from point-blank range; regeneration factor can't outpace the blood loss. The krogan was tough but overconfident. Thane was too quick for him.

The spark registered three more souls arriving at the sea's shores; the body continued climbing towards Nassana.

9.

Samara had said that Pitne For, a volus merchant that was conspicuously trying to leave Nos Astra, knew of the Eclipse dealings in the area. Whether that included the organization's trafficking operations or not, she wasn't sure; but he was a lead, and Samara's target was quiet literally fleeing at the speed of light. If Miranda and Jacob thought it worth their time, they could interrogate him, see exactly how far his knowledge of the Eclipse extended.

"Just so everyone's clear," Anaya said, "any interrogation that involves blood loss is, uh, frowned upon on Illium."

"We're only planning on talking to him," Miranda said.

"Well, if it helps…you could mention that he's free to leave, finally. If he helps you, I mean."

"You would let a suspect in your investigation leave?" Samara said. "Despite what he has done?"

"If it means putting a dent in Eclipse operations? Look, Pitne'd be small fry even if the Eclipse weren't involved. Besides, if I arrested every merchant with shady dealings in my jurisdiction, we'd need to convert Nos Astra into a prison-city."

"I hope you understand now, Detective, why I was drawn to this place."

"And uh, no offense, but I hope you understand why nobody rolled out the red carpet."

Miranda and Jacob found Pitne lounging with his bodyguards not too far from the police station, if by "lounging" you meant "desperately packing his bags and openly speculating whether the police would chase him if they just took off." It took some cajoling (mostly because he didn't believe Miranda when she said that Anaya said he could go the moment he helped them), but eventually they got it out of him that he'd pissed off the Eclipse and was suffering "disproportionate retribution."

"Though my partner suffered that a bit more than I have," he said. "So far, anyways."

Pitne created a copy of the pass card the Eclipse gave him "when they still were on good terms with one another," and he knew they only shuffled out the codes on that card every quarter, so it should still work. And that was all he was going to say about his past association with those, err, spirited young women.

"And that's all we're going to ask," Miranda said.

"But maybe pick better clients next time," Jacob said.

"Trust me, stranger—I'm planning to. Getting into business with the wrong people is bad for, erm, business."

"I guess that counts as a lesson learned," Jacob said.

Jacob and Miranda informed Anaya and Samara of their plans (and double-checked to make sure no cowboy cop tried to pull something and got the entire station killed), and then they were off. This local chapter of the Eclipse was led by a "Captain Wasea," so if they wanted the information that Samara desired, she'd be the person to "ask."

"We're outnumbered," Jacob said on the skycar ride over to the warehouse district. "By a lot."

"We've come through worse."

"What're y—no we haven't! The last time we got pinned down in a firefight, we had half of Shepard's team backing us up."

"We'll be fine, Jacob. We're not going to take them head-on."

"Yeah, I'd appreciate that. But what the hell's the plan, then?"

"It's simple," Miranda said. "We'll offer to help them with their Justicar problem."

Jacob shuffled in his seat. "Meaning…?"

"Meaning that we have an interest in keeping the Justicar occupied, so we'll be willing to feed her false information, if Wasea is willing to cooperate."

"Jesus Christ…"

"If we see an opportunity to get Samara accurate information, then we'll take it. But our obligations are to humanity's colonies—not whatever personal grudge Samara has."

Jacob stared out the window, watching the fang-like skyscrapers of Nos Astra pass him by.

"Jacob, you objected to recruiting Samara in the first place. Who's to say the person she's chasing after is even dangerous? Who's to say she's not hunting someone who doesn't deserve it?"

Jacob pulled himself away from the window. He was too tired to scowl by this point. "You know what'd be great?"

"What, Jacob?"

"It'd be great if you had a tell for when you're actually speaking from the heart, instead've just trying to make me your patsy." Now, he found the energy to scowl. "That'd be just swell."

Miranda stared straight ahead, focusing on the traffic, and told herself that not two hours ago, Jacob had said he trusted Miranda just fine.

She told herself that and ignored the voice in her head that reminded her of how he said it was the people she took orders from that he didn't trust, even though, if she was doing her job properly, there wasn't much separation between her and them.

Go ahead and square that circle, Ms. Lawson. Go ahead and try…

10.

"Movement left."

"Got it." Muzzle flash, recoil, then: "She's down. Room's clear."

"Roger that."

Kaidan and Ashley kept moving. Their pace had sped up a hell of a lot since they found the body of that Blood Pack krogan a few floors down; Nassana's defenses were getting thicker and they'd gone a long while without seeing any hostages. They'd pulled a final group of workers out of a literal hole in the wall and had heard the same story from them as they'd gotten from the workers locked in that room: someone that they couldn't see killed the commandoes holding them hostage and then shuffled them off to a safe location. At this point, with this much chaos, Nassana had to know people were coming for her—and if she was paranoid enough to routinely take her employees hostage, she had to be cooking up a plan to flee the city. Or, hell, the entire planet. But this Thane person was still going out of his way to save the hostages, even with all that pressure on him.

It was off-putting as hell. Ashley could think of a number of situations over the years where Shepard had led them into a situation like this and had done the same thing: prioritized innocent lives, and said "fuck you" to any flag officers who told her she'd done the wrong thing. Kaidan was thinking of one incident in particular: he was remembering the rescue of Chairman Burns and how everyone, including the biotics that'd taken him hostage, were prepared to see a massacre take place.

"Stairs—I see three."

"Copy. Looks like standard armour. I'll take their shields, you do the rest."

"On three."

"Roger. One, two…three."

An electric blast, three bursts from an assault rifle, three bodies.

"Clear."

"Clear—moving up."

Ashley still felt rusty, even though her own eyes were telling her it was like she'd never been off the field. Still felt like she was distracted, though—like she was fixating on the assassin and how every other one she'd encountered was either a sadist or an ice cube with good trigger discipline. This Robin Hood "care about the poor, the sick, the wounded," act wasn't the kind of thing she expected to find, back in Liara's office...even though it made a hell of a lot more sense now, Liara trusting Thane the way she did.

But think about this in a different way, Williams: what if you took Liara's plan and twisted it? You see a guy with a self-made license to kill who's saving instead of murdering and you think, screw that, an ice cube might just give us some teflon-coated overwatch anyways. If Thane's a saint? You've lucked out and found the rarest gem in the universe. If he's a bastard with steady hands? Your duty to put down the thing wearing Shepard's skin gets done with prejudice. Bravo Zulu marine, the Good Idea Factory wants a word with you now. And your team's out there too, telling you thanks, because none of them knew how to put down a friend—the phoenix of the century—just like you.

Garrus and Tali were out there...just realized how much their lives were at risk right now. No way they'd take down something like Shepard. Survive it? Sure, but take her/it down... and Jesus, she really gonna pull someone else into the crossfire like that? She really gonna risk Thane—a hired killer with a conscience—looking at her offer and telling her that what she were asking him to do was unimaginable, unconscionable, evil, in more ways than one? Ashley wondered if she'd have to confront the full implications of what Anderson had asked them to do and have every doubt she'd ever felt spat back in her face, with more acidity and bile than anyone could be expected to bear. And, hell, she was smarter than this: just 'cause the guy had no reason to act like a Saint didn't mean he had no reason to act like a demon later, and then it'd be on her for causing more pain and suffering in a world too fucking full of it already.

As they continued moving, Ashley looked at Kaidan. She wondered what he was thinking.

Kaidan looked back. He wondered if Ash felt like it'd been only two days since the last time Shepard had taken them on a mission like this...and if she'd been busy wondering whether all the things between then and now were just stories dreamed up somebody with a penchant for cruel irony.

"Three more targets. Same plan."

"Roger. On three: One…two…"

11.

Jack figured the "undercover cop" was booking it for the spaceport, but she'd stopped next to a stall in the little market not too far from the security gates instead. And she was talking with some other asari, in that really noticeable way where one person's trying to make it seem like you don't know each other and the other one's just not getting the fucking hint. Some other asari had started walking away nervously—up the steps to some offices or whatever—but that was probably just 'cause she saw Jack coming. These two though? The purple asari from earlier and the blue one that looked like she owned this stall? Oh, they looked perfect for a little reappropriation.

"Well lookit that," Jack said. "We've gots ourselves a meet-up at the saloon."

"What?"

"Someone else's involved, Conrad."

"Oh." Conrad looked around worriedly. "Should…should we call in some backup? Y'know, some more Rangers?"

"Nah," Jack said, giving the two asari the kind of look you'd see on a hungry thresher maw, "why share the fun?"

"Um…"

Jack started walking and it took all of three seconds for the two asari to see her coming. Which probably meant they were deep in panicked conversation since who the fuck wouldn't just immediately notice Jack? Conrad was tagging along at a safe distance but, honestly, he could piss off if he was so scared. Jack didn't babysit; and she was serious about not sharing the fun, too, so at this point Conrad meant as much to her as a used tampon.

"Evenin' ladies," Jack said. The two asari just stared at her. "So, one of you fucked off before I could ask you something. Either of you too busy to hear it?"

"Who're you working for?" the 'undercover cop' said. Her partner shook her head.

"Oh for the love of—Eaiyla, why the hell would you lead with that?"

"Trust me, lady," Jack said. "Just getting right to it is gonna save you both."

Eaiyla blinked. "Save us both what?"

Jack smiled, all teeth and murder eyes. "Don't know what you mean—I was done talking."

Conrad caught up and shot the mood right in the fucking face.

"Now—uh, now we've caught you!" he said. "Trying to, um, trying to trick me, make me think you're a cop—you, uh, you can't have expected that to work!"

A bit of fear disappeared from Eaiyla's face, goddamn blonde idiot fuckhead.

"I did and I still would, if it wasn't for your friend here." She looked at Jack. "So I dunno what you want but—"

Jack grabbed her by the throat and dared the other asari and everyone else in the fucking universe to tell her to let go.

"First: I want you to take that back. This guy's some dirt stuck to the bottom of my boot—nothing more."

Conrad whimpered.

"Second: you guys clearly have an operation going. I'd believe you if you told me you're too fucking stupid to be making anything off it, but I'm gonna ask anyways: what's your take?"

"W-we—"

"Third—I ain't fucking finished yet—third, whatever number you give me, it'd better be close to the truth, because I'm taking off a limb for every decimal point you get wrong. We clear?"

Neither Eaiyla nor the other asari said anything. Good—back to Jack's home turf.

"I'm done now," she said. "So feel free to start talking."

The other asari was about to say something—and, fine, whichever one of 'em wanted to talk could talk—but Conrad, fucking Conrad, tapped her on the shoulder.

"U-uh we've got—we've got company," he said.

Jack looked over Eaiyla's shoulder and saw a human woman in a red dress walking their way.

"For fuck's sake," she said. She let go of Eaiyla but made sure to push her into a corner with her partner, where neither of them had a clear shot to escape. Go ahead and use your biotics—maybe the shockwaves'll splatter whoever this fucking asshole in the red dress is.

"Hey, lady—stall's closed," Jack said. "We're settling a disagreement."

"Yeah," the woman said, "me and Hermia have one of those to settle too."

The other asari—Hermia, apparently—sure as hell recognized this woman after that.

"Shit, fuck—seriously? Now? Now you're gonna come after me?"

"Paperwork," the woman in red said. "Trust me, I'd've left Noveria a year ago if it was up to me. But I'm here now, and you," she looked at Jack, "are harassing a wanted fugitive of the Noveria Development Corporation."

"Whoop-de-fucking-do," Jack said. "Only thing that scares me less than real cops are the fake ones working corporate."

"Wait," Conrad said, backing away. "Wait wait…Noveria. Oh man, that's where—that's where Shepard was two years ago, right? With the…with the geth and Matriarch Benezia and whatever else happened there that we're not being told about." He looked at the woman in red with total and complete fear. "Are you—did you…?"

"Conrad," Jack said, "can you not bring up Shepard for five fucking minutes, please?"

"But what if she worked with Saren?"

"Hey, listen buddy," the woman said. "I'm Internal Affairs—I helped Shepard with Saren. Name's Gianna Parasini if you feel the need to look it up. So you can calm right down."

"You…helped Shepard?"

"I'm gonna fucking kill all of you, I swear to god," Jack said.

Before Jack could fucking kill all of them, gun fire and an explosion (sounded like a grenade, what the fuck?) could be heard from the direction of the offices next to the market. Then the window of one of the offices blew out and hunks of glass that were thick enough to stop a dreadnaught's main cannon sent shoppers and merchants running for cover. And—fuck—the two asari were fucking slippery, really fucking slippery. In the two seconds it took for Jack to check whether she was gonna be shish-kabobbed by glass they managed to sneak under her arm and, of course, Conrad was useless as all fucking hell. Great—two merchants? Conspiring together? On a fucking free-for-all world? Low effort, high payout—that was exactly what this haul would've been.

This Gianna person was acting like she was a real fucking cop on top of everything else, too.

"Jesus—anyone hurt?"

"We're fifty fucking yards from the explosion—unless Conrad's licking the glass, there's no way we wouldn't be fine."

"I meant, are there any civilians down."

"Who fucking cares?"

"Fucking psychopaths." Gianna pulled a gun out of a holster on her thigh. "Anyone asks, I didn't have this on me."

"Nobody's asking."

And then Gianna started sprinting through the market, towards the office that'd just lost is main window. Gotta love idiots that think they're heroes. Speaking of which…

Oh fuck me, seriously?

Conrad was following Gianna—like actually fucking following her through the crowd and glass and all that shit—and he had the same stupid look on his face now that he'd had in the bar earlier. Something was fucked up with that guy; Jack wasn't sure if there was some kinda Shepard-specific hero-worship syndrome, but if there was? Then it'd fucking metastasized inside Conrad—clearly it had.

Fine, whatever—she'd just go to the bar again. Maybe the bartender would give her a discount for dragging Conrad to his death. Cuz the guy clearly had a death wish, that was…that was just obvious.

Shit, three more people were heading in the direction of that office too now. One asari, one salarian, and one batarian—a fucking rainbow. Did Illium hire anyone except asari for law enforcement? Scratch that, those weren't cops—she could tell from the movements.

So that Gianna person had to deal with three more mooks plus however many were already in that office when it exploded. And she'd have two hands tied behind her back trying to look after Conrad. Easy enough odds for Jack but for some rent-a-cop…?

Ah hell, maybe they'd give her a reward.

Jack took off towards the bombed-out office, through the crowd and the glass and all that shit.

12.

The moment Miranda said "Justicar" was the moment Jacob realized she had the Eclipse right where she wanted them. Which was fine, because that meant he could spend his time looking for a way of actually getting Samara the information she wanted. Well…looking for the space to do that: Miranda made a fair point about knowing nothing about who her target was and what she'd done to piss a Justicar off.

So he guessed he was mostly doing this to make Miranda realize what giving her word actually meant to people. Something they didn't stress in Cerberus, apparently. Words didn't mean shit to them; the only thing that mattered was whether you could turn the universe into a chessboard.

The Eclipse commandoes led him and Miranda through their warehouse, towards the office of Captain Wasea. She looked pissed.

"Everything's gone to hell since we smuggled that filthy creature off-world," Wasea said. "I'm awfully keen, then, to put all this behind us."

Filthy creature? God, the…the disgust she said that with. What the hell did that mean?

Jacob looked over at Miranda. Surprise surprise, she didn't seem the least bit curious.

"Then we can be of some assistance," Miranda said.

"I know. My people told me you want the Justicar for yourself. I'm guessing you're not doing this out of the goodness of your hearts."

"We have a mission—an important mission—and Samara would be a powerful asset. That she'd finally be away from Illium is something you're more than welcome to take advantage of, provided Samara believes that we've helped her."

Captain Wasea put down her datapad and a drink she'd been nursing and walked closer to the two Cerberus operatives. "Understand, here, that we're not in a position to just give this…thing up."

"Samara just has to believe it's genuine—that's all."

No real space to get accurate information so far—and that window was closing fast. Dammit Miranda, no matter what The Illusive Man says, you can't build a team this way.

"Pretty sure I heard some of your people call this thing a 'she'. Who the hell is Samara gunning for?"

If Miranda was giving him a look, then he wanted her to know he was ignoring her.

"How much do you two know about the asari?" Wasea said.

"Suppose we're about to find out," Jacob said.

"Hmph. All right, then here's what you need to know: we smuggled a black mark on the asari species off world, and these…creatures we've been cursed with are very, very similar. She didn't need to threaten us into silence: we were well-aware just how dangerous she was the moment we laid eyes on her." Wasea, for a brief second, let her composure slip. "So nothing—absolutely nothing—can be traced back to us. And the only way to ensure that is for you to accept whatever it is we give you."

"So long as it looks genuine," Miranda said.

Jacob sighed. What was the damn point anymore? You'd think the speech that Wasea just gave them would be enough to make Miranda realize what the right thing to do here was, but nope—she didn't care. Christ, EDI was less of a machine than Miranda was.

Jacob watched Wasea and Miranda create the information they needed—complete with all the bells and whistles of top-secret Eclipse communications—and continued to watch as Wasea ordered her troops to beat the shit out of each other to make it look like a fight had happened. And then, that was it—business was concluded. Miranda and Jacob headed back to their skycar, and weaving through the towers of Nos Astra they went.

"You can speak your mind, Jacob," Miranda said after a long, long silence.

He kept his mouth shut.

13.

The door to Nassana's office opened, and in walked Kaidan and Ashley. Both of them expected to find Nassana's body in a massive pile with the rest of her guards, but that wasn't the case. Nassana was sitting at her desk, fuming, and around four senior-looking Eclipse commandoes—decked out in tech armour and everything—were flanking her. They looked…highly confused.

"So my camera's weren't malfunctioning," Nassana said. "You two really are here to kill me."

"We've met?" Ashley said. "Sorry, can't put a name to your face."

"Don't jerk me around," Nassana said.

"Well whoever you are, she clearly struck a nerve," Kaidan said.

"You absolute—" Nassana looked like she was about to rip chunks out of her desk but, somehow, she managed to calm herself. The hyper-paranoid and unhinged career criminal still had some self-control—imagine that.

Still didn't really explain why her guards hadn't opened fire. And it didn't explain what the hell Thane was doing.

Another deep breath, and Nassana started talking again: "Just admit it, you two. Admit that you're here to kill me. Shepard said I'd get what was coming to me—even in death, I should've known she'd try to fulfill her promise."

"Wait, I think I remember you now," Ashley said. "Yeah, yeah I do. You're that pathetic diplomat from the Citadel. The total louse that thought she could con a Spectre into doing her dirty work." That brief moment of calm on Nassana's face disappeared: there was a hurricane brewing there now instead. Ashley pushed the knife deeper. "Pretty sure Shepard forgot about you the moment we walked away."

They expected her to blow up. They expected they'd have to dive into cover. Hell, even the guard's looked ready to open fire. But something pulled Nassana back from the brink.

It looked like fear.

"Tell me what you want," she said. "Credits, resources—troops. You're fighting a war, aren't you? Is that it? You're on Illium looking for something that the Alliance can't provide? Well I can. We can make this problem go away if we work together."

"I don't think so," Kaidan said. "Sorry, Nassana. I don't think anyone can stop what's coming."

"What do you—what? You just have to…"

Yeah, it was fear. Nassana looked awfully desperate right now.

"At least you admit you remember me," she said. "But all you have to do is tell me what you want and—"

A shape landed behind her. One kick knocked the gun out of the hands of the closest guard; a knife to the throat sent him to the ground. The shape moved like it was a rogue shadow, attaching itself from body to body until one Nassana remained. Kaidan and Ashley watched her reach for a weapon and then slump over, something having been jabbed into her abdomen with great force. A bullet passed through her and embedded itself in the floor near Kaidan and Ashley's feet. Nassana began to fall.

"Please…" she said.

The shape—a drell in a black coat—guided Nassana's body to her table, crossed her arms over her chest, closed her eyes.

Thane began to pray.

Ashley saw Kaidan move forward and look like he was about to speak. She put her hand on his shoulder and pulled him back, shook her head, gave him a look that said "wait." Some things couldn't be forsaken.

Silence, then Thane looked up from his hands and regarded Kaidan and Ashley.

"Apologies," he said. "I didn't mean to aim the bullet so close to you."

"Was that for her?" Ashley said. "The prayer you just recited?"

She watched Thane blink. His expression was unreadable.

"I prayed for her before I struck, when I was still out of sight. When you two were still talking with her. What you just saw, that was for myself. Prayers for the wicked must not be forsaken."

Ashley nodded. Kaidan looked around at the bodies in the room.

"You saved a lot of people today," he said. "The hostages, I mean. I can think of a few things to call you, but 'wicked' isn't one of them."

"Were it not for you two," Thane said, "I would've been too slow. Those innocents might have suffered. I nearly wasn't fast enough, and that can't be allowed to happen again." Thane, too, looked at the bodies lying around the room. "All the same, a life taken is still just that: a life taken. Circumstances and necessity don't change that."

"We understand," Ashley said.

"I had a feeling you might." Thane walked out from behind the table, stood just in front of Ashley and Kaidan. Light from Illium's setting sun—now just a glowing sliver above the forest of Nos Astra's skyline—gave him an almost angelic appearance.

Hell of an entrance. Hell of a set piece, too: Kaidan figured that even the best movie director in the galaxy would have a hard time setting a scene like that up. Not without copious CGI, anyways.

"I assumed you two wanted to speak with me, as well," Thane said. He crossed his arms behind his back. "I may have assumed wrong. But you went to great lengths to follow me here."

"We uh…" Kaidan scratched at his neck. "We're friends with Liara. T'Soni, uh, the woman that hired you. We…more or less came here just to make sure everything went off without a hitch."

"Yeah," Ashley said. "Leaving aside what we said, we did remember Nassana. A life taken is a life taken, no argument there, but some people make other people's lives miserable. Nassana was definitely one of those people."

"Indeed she was," Thane said. He looked back at Nassana's body, then returned his gaze to Kaidan and Ashley. "Dr. T'Soni didn't hire me, but she did put me in touch with some of Nassana's employees. I'd like to thank her in person for that. If you two have business with her, maybe I can join you, if that's all right."

Kaidan looked at Ashley; Ashley looked at Kaidan. "Fine by us, I think," Kaidan said.

"No problems here," Ashley said. "We made sure the hostages got somewhere safe. Nobody should bother us on the way out."

"That would be preferable," Thane said. "I'm not one for the spotlight."

"Yeah," Kaidan said. "I can see why you'd say that."

The three of them left Nassana's office, now just a gravesite for her and the remains of her guards.

14.

Half a city away, Miranda and Jacob had "sorted" everything out with Samara and had officially welcomed her to their "human-led mercenary group" that was leading an investigation that the Alliance was too occupied to bother with. Samara had criticized the Alliance for failing its species and had even performed a loyalty pledge that Anaya stated was a hell of a big deal. It made Jacob sick to his stomach.

They were making good progress in their skycar—traffic seemed lighter—and Miranda stated that they should be back at Dr. T'Soni's office in no time at all.

Liara's office, however, had its own thing going on. Liara had unlocked her desk drawer and pulled out her pistol only a minute before a shape started shooting at her from the staircase outside her office; she had about thirty seconds to realize it was Nyxeris before her less-than-loyal assistant tossed a grenade into her office. Under normal circumstances, flipping over your desk and hiding behind it was utter suicide: desks didn't block even light projectiles, and grenades had powerful concussive blasts in addition to heat damage and shrapnel. Liara's desk was built by paranoid people for paranoid people. She hated feeling like she needed it.

She didn't hate it so much anymore.

Once the dust settled and Nyxeris (who had to have known that Liara's desk was designed to withstand a significant amount of punishment) poked half her head in to see if she got lucky, Liara rose from her prone position and glowed purple. She could've just shot Nyxeris; she could've fired a single bullet into her traitorous assistant's unguarded head and just been done with it. But Liara was in a bad mood.

She hit Nyxeris with a stasis field instead and then, after vaulting over her desk, grabbed her assistant by the throat and flung her into the nearest wall.

Liara was about to shove her heel into the throat of Nyxeris when two other individuals—one of them armed—sprinted into her office. She recognized both of them.

"Help! Help me, please she's gone crazy!" Nyxeris said.

"Oh shut up," Liara said. She hadn't intended for her kick to snap Nyxeris' neck, but it did. Goddess this…this was…she needed to calm down.

Liara took a moment to compose herself and was delighted to realize that Gianna Parasini hadn't opened fire (she hadn't expected Conrad Verner to either, for a number of reasons). "Gianna, you're still on Illium. I…hope this situation speaks for itself."

Gianna lowered her weapon. "Uh, kind of, yeah. I'm surprised you recognize me. It's been, what, two years?"

"It's very hard for me to forget Noveria, Gianna."

"Oh, right—Jesus, sorry Liara. Really I'm…sorry."

Liara gave Gianna a weary smile that had far more warmth in it than she was actually feeling at the moment. It wasn't Gianna's fault, it was just everything else in the universe that was pushing down on her. Being reminded of Noveria multiplied all those feelings by a factor of twenty, as it always did.

"So you…weren't lying about the Noveria thing?" Conrad said. That shook both Gianna and Liara out of their own heads.

"I've got no idea who this guy is," Gianna said.

Liara's smile was a touch more genuine now. "That's Conrad Verner. He and Commander Shepard met a few times on the Citadel."

"People…remember that?" Conrad said.

"Huh, so you weren't lying about Shepard either? Weird." Gianna shook her head, looked down at the body of Nyxeris. "So um, any idea why this woman attacked you? With overwhelming force, by the looks of it?"

Liara's smile disappeared. "I have a theory about that, yes. And I'd recommend that the two of you…sorry, do you hear something?"

Liara heard the ruckus in the stairwell first, but now Gianna and Conrad could hear it too. It sounded distinctly like someone screaming OH SHIT OH SHIT OH FUCK OH SHIT over and over again. Then it became very clear that that was being said by someone, only for it to be cut-off by the sound of a loud splat, since whoever was screaming those words was now a messy red stain against the wall closest to Liara's office door.

A woman covered head-to-toe with tattoos (and little else) started climbing the stairs.

"Well shit," Gianna said, "the circus freak is back."

"Yeah, and she just saved all your asses," Jack said. "At least one of those guys was packing enough heat to take out a frigate. Everybody should be fucking worshipping me right now."

"Please don't hurt me," Conrad said.

"Yeah whatever," Jack said. "Close enough, I guess. By the way, Dr. T'Soni, right? Whatever you did to piss off the Shadow Broker, feel free to tell me. It sounds like a good fucking story."

What little smile remained on Liara's face evaporated, replaced by something else entirely. Everyone in the room—even Jack—couldn't help but feel a chill.

"That, would confirm my theory," Liara said. Behind those eyes, the inky shadows of every evil thing in the universe writhed under Liara's heel. Stars blinked forever out of existence as she hunted down the last of them and watched them suffer. And were it not for the final lessons her mother taught her—before those shadows claimed her too—Liara would have no doubt obliterated everyone in the room when Miranda rounded the corner and made salient just why Liara's office had been so busy the last few hours.

"What in the bloody hell happened here?" Miranda said. Behind her, Jacob tripped over an arm that used to belong to a batarian Shadow Broker agent. Samara moved through the carnage like she was made out of steam.

"Hey boss," Jack said, a smirk back on her face. "How'd it go?"

"You did all this?" Miranda said.

"Hey, woah, watch the tone. I'm a fucking good Samaritan—these assholes were trying to kill that asari over there." Jack looked at Nyxeris's dead body and Samara's live one and decided she'd better point directly at Liara, just in case. "That one."

"Liara?" Miranda said. "You were attacked?"

"Evidently," Liara said, "I'm harder to kill than people assume."

"You're welcome," Jack said.

"You are an N7 soldier?" Samara said to Conrad. "From the Systems Alliance?"

"Eep," said Conrad.

Miranda cleared her throat and, as intended, all eyes fell on her. "Dr. T'Soni, we still have a matter to discuss. If you're up for it, of course, given the circumstances."

And Liara…Liara's mind cleared. It had to; she had to think this through. Nyxeris may, indeed, be the final straw; Nyxeris may have, indeed, made Liara's decision very clear. If anything, the part that Liara was unsure of was whether the data package she had put together should be delivered to its intended target at all. If there was a chance that…that the impossible could happen again…

If there was a chance, she'd take it. If not, then she could avenge Shepard—atone for all the evil Liara had caused. The way forward seemed clear enough; it certainly seemed clearer than when Cerberus initially approached her. Keep moving forward, keep trying to get the galaxy ready. It wasn't just about vengeance—the Reapers were still out there—but this…this would help move the galaxy forward, wouldn't it?

It had to.

"You and I need to speak alone, then," Liara said to Miranda. She looked at the rest of the crowd. "Conrad, if you'll stay close, I have a favour to ask. Once I'm done in here."

"Um…"

"It's incredibly important. You'd be helping some very important people."

"I'll stick with you, super soldier," Gianna said. "Better you than Noveria's Board, anyways. I'm probably out of a job."

"I…sure," Conrad said. "Yes, I'll, uh, stay put."

Everyone except Miranda cleared out.

"So," Miranda said, "about Thane—"

"I'm going to be perfectly transparent with you," Liara said. "Thane is with Ashley Williams and Kaidan Alenko right now—two people whom, I know, you really don't want to cross paths with again. You have Samara: it would be in your best interest if you cut your losses and left Illium."

"I beg your pardon?" Miranda said. "I'm not sure you're in any position to say what our best interests are."

"I'm not?" Liara closed the distance between her and Miranda. "The Alliance is more than incompetent politicians and generals. Much more. If you honestly believe that Anderson and Hackett don't know Cerberus is involved, then you're incomparably deluded."

"And you'd have evidence of this?"

"I would. I do. How do you think I knew Kaidan and Ashley would be here?"

"There's nothing to suggest you did."

"The spaceport records say otherwise. Their ship's docking fee was paid for well in advance." Somehow, Liara leaned in even closer. "Do you know what their ship's name is? I do. And I know where it is right now, too. I asked around, Miranda; something on Horizon required half the team's attention. I wonder if your Illusive Man knows anything about that."

Miranda's face was almost unreadable. Almost. But there was enough there to tell Liara what she needed to know. Enough to convince her to keep moving forward.

"Is this a bargain, then?" Miranda said. "Are we negotiating? I'm not sure what over. Perhaps you'd like to fill me in."

"Leave Thane and take me instead," Liara said. "And for your information, no: this isn't a negotiation. This moment right here isn't a negotiation, because you'd be foolish not to take me."

"Would we."

"I have contacts, I have resources—I'm still on every listserv at the University of Serrice. In fact, I'm on listservs for every major university on Thessia. Those are my upstanding contacts: I've accrued for more than that since I came to Illium."

"And?"

"And I know the Alliance better than you do. Better than Cerberus does. You've been working against a mirage, Miranda; The Illusive Man is so desperate to be the sole saviour of humanity that he's ignored the people inside that can make his life utterly miserable. I know how to maneuver around them."

Silence.

"If you truly care about those missing colonists, you'll take this offer—and do whatever you can to get The Illusive Man on board with it too."

"If this isn't a negotiation," Miranda said, "then what is? What will be negotiated?"

"Just one thing," Liara said. "But even here, too, you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you say no."

"And what's this?"

Liara looked at Nyxeris' body, at the bodies of the others in the hallway too. The images of tearing the inky shadows to shreds returned. "If I join, I want to track the Shadow Broker down. And I want to kill him."

"That's all?"

"For you, yes. For the Shadow Broker? I have two—years—of torment that I want to collect on. And if I can't physically turn him inside out for it, then I'll find something he loves that I can."

Silence again. Liara almost worried, for a second, that she'd pushed too hard.

But then Miranda extended a hand. They shook on it—nothing more was said.

Liara and Miranda descended the stairs, headed back towards the market, and split off; Liara would join Jacob, Jack, and Samara on the ship. She approached Gianna and Conrad and tried to wear as neutral of a face as she could possibly manage.

"When two Alliance officers come by," she said to them, "I need you to give them something…"

15.

When Ashley, Kaidan, and Thane finally got back to Liara's neck of the woods, Liara was nowhere to be found. Her office was nowhere to be found, either; past the cops and the firefighters and everything, all that could be seen of her office was a smoking hole and some nasty looking blood stains.

The initial shock of panic didn't go away for a very, very long time—even after they were approached by someone in N7 armour who, after a second, they realized was that Conrad guy from the Citadel. And Gianna Parasini from Noveria.

"Liara's fine," Gianna said. "But she uh…she had to leave."

"She went with another group of humans," Conrad said. "And another asari. Hmph, the one in the tattoos—I can't believe she thought we were friends. What a nasty person she turned out to be."

"These other humans," Kaidan said. "They wearing black uniforms? With a black and orange logo?"

"That's them, yeah," Gianna said. "Why?"

"Bastards," Ashley said. "They're stooping that low? They're kidnapping former squad mates now?"

"It looked like she went willingly," Gianna said. "Or, seemed like to me—dunno about you, Conrad."

"No no, I thought so too."

"Christ, what're you planning, Liara," Kaidan said.

"Oh! She said to give you guys this." Conrad handed them a satchel, filled with datadisks. "Not sure what all that's about, but she said it was super important you got them."

Ashley and Kaidan figured they knew what was in the satchel.

"Thanks…Conrad," Kaidan said. "We appreciate the help."

"You too, Gianna," Ashley said.

They looked tired. So goddamn tired. Gianna hadn't seen people this tired since…well, two years ago, when all of them were heading back from Peak 15.

"Well, um…I guess that's it," Conrad said.

"Yeah, guess so," Gianna said. "We'll uh, leave you three to it." She looked at Conrad. "C'mon super soldier—I'll buy you a beer."

"Oh, um, thanks!" Conrad said. "I'll buy you one too!"

"Heh, all right, deal," Gianna said.

The two of them walked away, leaving Kaidan and Ashley with Thane and Liara's satchel full of datadisks.

"Bastards," Ashley said again.

"Liara's gotta have a plan," Kaidan said. "She wouldn't just go with Cerberus for the hell of it. She's planning something—she has to be."

Thane looked up at the smoking ruin of Liara's office. That wouldn't have been a good death, but…it would've been a conclusion all the same, had he been there when the bomb had gone off. It would have been something—at least Liara was still alive, though. Alive but lost, by the sounds of it. Oh, how he could relate to her.

"I'd heard that Liara was an important source of information," he said, "but I gather she was quite a bit more important than I initially realized."

"She helped save the world," Ashley said. "Goddammit, we really could've used her."

"If you don't mind me asking," Thane said, "what mission are you two on? I get the distinct impression that it has little to do with Nassana—or Illium in general, for that matter."

Ashley looked at Kaidan; Kaidan looked at Ashley. They were pretty sure that both of their instincts told them to shut up. For Christ's sake, Thane was an assassin! You didn't tell an assassin what you were doing—that's just…insanity!

Except they were assassins now too, weren't they? That was the sick truth about all of this: They, Tali, Garrus, they were assassins now, and Anderson was the one signing the contract. Take all the formal military bullshit away and that's basically what their orders were: Shepard had gone rogue, was too dangerous to be left alive, and the order had been sent that someone had to take her out.

Kaidan couldn't help but focus on the parallels with two years ago; Ashley couldn't help but think about those intrusive thoughts in Nassana's tower, about how someone like Thane would be a nice backup plan for when sentiment and history conspired to prevent her from taking the shot.

"I…apologize," Thane said. "I've put you both in an awkward spot. I can tell."

"No use in denying it," Kaidan said. He sighed. "It's not your fault. The whole thing is…hard to explain."

"And even harder to believe," Ashley said. "Christ, we're short a man now too. This whole thing is rapidly becoming FUBAR."

"I think it's already there, Ash."

"I won't take up anymore of your time, then," Thane said. "It was a pleasure meeting both of you. I hope the way forward becomes clearer for you."

He turned to leave; Ashley's voice stopped him.

"Wait wait, hold on a second." She turned to Kaidan. "We're staring a pretty obvious fact in the fact here."

"What fact?" Kaidan said.

"That we need him."

"Pardon?" Kaidan gave Thane a once-over. "Ash we're…we're…" He'd hoped an objection would come. His brain refused to provide one. "We're doing exactly what he does every single day. What he's really good at doing every single day."

"We're short staffed now, too."

"Yeah, we're on the same page, Ash. We're on the same page."

"I…think I'm missing some crucial context," Thane said.

Ashley sighed, Kaidan sighed. Then there was silence between the two Alliance officers, a silence that lasted a good long while. Thane stayed still but, the longer Ashley and Kaidan refused to speak, the louder the crowd bustling outside Dr. T'Soni's bombed-out office got. For reasons he wasn't entirely sure, it was like the sounds of Nos Astra were consuming them.

Then, finally, Ashley spoke.

"What's your retainer?" she said.

16.

"All right Mr….um…"

"Just call me Delan."

"Right, Delan. This is…quite a story you and Mrs…um…"

"Just call her Lilith. Look, keep the names as vague as possible, all right? N7's and shit, they're nothing but trouble, you understand?"

"We understand. But, so, you can confirm that N7 commandoes were deployed to Horizon, even though Horizon is outside of Alliance jurisdiction."

"Yeah, I can. But you care more about the one specific N7 I saw, don't you?"

"That we do. We just want to be sure. Westerlund News tries to rigorously fact-check all our stories, however, before we go to air."

"Sure ya do."

"Why don't you say what you and Lilith have both told us already again? We're recording, now, so this is officially on the record."

"We're on the record? All right, yeah, I'll repeat what I said. Lilith and I and everyone else in Bashaw saw somethin' we clearly weren't supposed to, based on the people the Alliance sent after it was over."

"What did you see, Delan?"

"We saw the first human Spectre herself, Khalisah. We saw Commander ******* Shepard."

---

Jinkies, Scoob - that was a long chapter.

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed reading it! I guess you can say this is the end of the Illium arc, so who knows what kinda shenanigans the crew is gonna get up to next!

Brian Taylor - who if you've read Daria fanfiction, you might recognize the name - made some really interesting observations about Liara, and those observations have influenced the direction she took in this chapter (and the last chapter too, but especially this chapter); they'll probably keep on influencing her as the story goes on. Hopefully her choice seems organic - I think it does but I'm not in a position to say one way or another - but uhhh yeah.

Annnnnd that's about it, I think. See you all at the next update!