Chapter 4.
I have no doubt in my mind now, these memories are of Liara, a result of the meld perhaps.
Footsteps resonated through the ancient ruins as a young asari ran through them, she was being chased by several mindless creatures, bent on carrying their master's will.
Liara was running through the crumbled rooms of the prothean building, throwing biotic blasts at her pursuers. She got separated from Shepard, when one of the Thorian's anchor tentacles got dislocated. Now chased by several Thorian creepers, she was looking for a way to meet up with the rest of the team. She heard gunshots on the above level, Shepard and Garrus must have ran into trouble as well. There was an explosion above and Liara saw several more creepers fall down to their doom, she turned left into a room with the stair leading to the upper level, as she ran up several stairs, she turned around and threw down a singularity.
"That should hold them off for a bit." Liara spoke to herself, the comm came alive with Shepard's voice "Liara are you alright?"
Shepard sounded more concerned then he should have shown, the thought of that brought a smile on Liara's face, she responded "I'm alright Shepard, keep going, I will meet you on the next floor." Liara headed for the top of the staircase, the exhaustion from using the biotics in the last several hours started to set in.
Liara reached the top, ran around the corner and was immediately met by a biotic blast in her abdomen. The blast knocked the air out of her lungs and threw her back several feet back into a wall, with the impact leaving her barely conscious. Standing in front of her was a green skinned asari, a clone created by the Thorian to annihilate its enemies. "You shall be destroyed, the old growth will have your meat to feed upon." Her voice sounded monotone, almost lifeless, a VI had more of a personality then this doll. The clone walked up to Liara, several creepers trailing it, she raised her arm with another biotic blast flaring up. But Liara would have none of it, this was her first mission, her first time to prove to everyone on the team that she was worth more than a Prothean database, she wanted to show Shepard more than anyone else.
Liara quickly extended a biotic field around her, a trick her mother taught her well, forcing both the clone and the creepers away from her and knocking them back a few feet, as the clone stumbled a bit, Liara unloaded the whole clip of her special issue Kessler IV handgun into the it. Green liquid splashed in several directions. However the creepers were now on their feet and were about to charge Liara, she prepared for the worst.
A rifle shot quickly silenced one of the creepers, a powerful biotic blast took care of the second one, and the last one was torn apart by a shotgun blast. Liara let out a loud sigh of relief.
"You just can't stay out of trouble can you Miss T'Soni." Shepard walked up to Liara smiling, his arm still glowing with a biotic energy, he has been practicing his biotics with Kaidan ever since he had the L3 implants installed, he was surprisingly good at it, a rare trait for humans.
Shepard reached out and gave Liara his arm to help her up. "Thank you Shepard, I you haven't shown up..." a loud screeching noise interrupted Liara, the Thorian was preparing for another assault.
"No time to talk, we need to finish this fast Commander!" said Garrus, turning around and looking into the scope of his sniper rifle.
Shepard nodded, headed across the room into the next one, Garrus and Liara followed closely. They walked into a rather large room, another anchor tentacle was in the middle of it, surrounded by several more creepers and another clone of the asari.
No words were spoken, the squad unleashed gunfire and biotics on the enemy, tearing them to shreds. As the dust settled down, Shepard walked up close to the tentacle and took a point blank shot at it, causing it to tear off the wall. A howling sound resonated through the whole facility, all eight of the tentacles tore one by one and the alien plant dropped down into the abyss, the Thorian was dead.
The team was about to leave when the nearest pod on the wall burst open, an asari dropped on the ground, she looked just like the clones, but this one was of the normal asari blue, she was the original from which the Thorian made copies of. She stumbled for a few moments regaining her balance and adjusting to the light, finally she could see her saviors, it seemed as seeing another asari gave her a bit of confidence, so she spoke to Shepard.
"I thank you for freeing me from the Thorian, I presume you are Commander Shepard." she looked at Shepard awaiting for a response.
"Yes I'm Shepard, how do you know my name, and more importantly how did you end up in the Thorian's possession?" John asked, still holding an assault rifle in his arms.
"My name is Shiala, I am... was one of Matriarch Benezia's followers." Liara's eyes widened at the mention of her mother's name, she could not contain herself.
"What do you know about my mother, tell us!" she blurted out, before realizing it, however there was no look of disapproval from Shepard, he only nodded acknowledging Liara's words and then turning back to Shiala.
"I do not know much, all i can tell you is that Saren has some sort of power over people. The effect is subtle, but absolute, the longer you stay near Saren, the more you start to agree with him, this indoctrination affected the Matriarch and me, before I was given to the Thorian."
"Given?" Shepard raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, Saren traded me to the Thorian in exchange for the Cipher." Shiala nodded.
"What is the Cipher?"
"The Cipher is the collective knowledge and understanding of the Prothean culture and language. The Thorian lived for more than ten thousand years, it absorbed several Protheans into itself to gain this knowledge. It carried this information till this day. Due to our unique ability to meld with other beings' minds I was ordered to extract the Cipher from the Thorian, and once I had it I gave it to Saren, afterwards I was left to the Thorian and Saren left, not before attempting to destroy the Thorian. That is when you arrived and destroyed his geth." Shiala explained.
"We need the Cipher in order to get an understanding of the prothean vision, can you give me the Cipher?"
"Yes, this will require a meld."
"I am ready." Shepard agreed before Liara could say anything, she knew that the team needed the Cipher, but John had to meld with another asari to get it. Liara took a deep sigh and turned away as Shiala approached Shepard.
"Relax Commander, clear your thoughts, embrace eternity!" Shiala's eye turned pitch black and the meld begun.
A few seconds later, the meld was over and Shiala stepped back from Shepard, he was holding his head, and had to sit down on a large chunk of debris from the wall.
"Are you alright Shepard?" Liara walked up and knelled next to Shepard.
"I'm fine, it's just... so much information." John kept rubbing his temples, "Give me a moment."
"I am going to go see if the place is clear for a return trip." Garrus said heading down the stairs.
Shepard stood up, still rubbing his head with one hand, "I... understand some of the vision now, it is all broken up however, I will need some time to think about it."
"Is there anything i could do to help Shepard?" Liara asked, failing to hide her worry from him.
Shepard looked at Liara, "If you could get into my brain and sort this mess out, that would be nice." John smiled.
Liara's face changed color, she couldn't pronounce a word: "I... I..." she said, hyperventilating.
"Relax Liara, I was only joking." John said with a smile, enjoying Liara's reaction.
Liara took a moment to collect herself, "Actually Shepard, asari can do that..." she stated, her cheeks still radiating with blush.
John's eyes widened, "Really?"
"Yes, once we are on the Normandy, I could help you sort the vision out Shepard."
"That should help us on our mission, perhaps we will learn about the Conduit, and why Saren wants to get it. Liara why didn't you suggest this before?"
"Because... Because I never..." Liara was stumbling with her words, her blush became brighter, she avoided to look into Shepard's eyes.
"Liara I..." Shepard was interrupted by a loud rumbling noise. "That can't be good..."
Garrus ran up the stairs leading to the lower levels, "Commander, we got problems, those things that the Thorian was suspended on, were holding the whole place together, this whole area will collapse at any moment."
"We need to get out of here." Shepard looked at Shiala "Now what should we do with you?"
"I would like to stay with the colony and help them, they have suffered enough from our actions."
"A noble thought, alright everyone move to the upper floors, quickly!"
Liara was sitting in the conference room, this was one of the few times when she saw Shepard's whole team in one place. Shepard just finished bringing everyone up to speed on what happened on Feros.
"So what about the vision Commander? Were you able to figure it out?" asked Lt. Alenko.
"No, the vision has only bits and pieces and even they don't make much sense, I need a Prothean expert to sort this mess out, so I asked doctor T'Soni to give me a hand."
Liara could not force a word out of herself, so she just nodded, suddenly the horror of the thought that Commander is going to ask her to meld in front of everyone kicked in, causing her to go pale again.
"Liara will perform the meld later today, if I learn any new information i will let everyone know. Crew dismissed, Joker patch me through to the council." Shepard stated and turned towards the nearby console.
Liara let out a sigh of relief, it was bad enough that she never performed a meld before, even simple melds for the purpose of the exchange of information, at least now she did not have to do it in front of the whole crew. She slowly got out of her chair and went toward the exit from the conference room, a sudden female voice behind her caused Liara to jump.
"So, you are holding a private session with the Commander huh?" the voice was cheerful and a bit distorted because of the voice modulator.
Liara spun around, "Oh thank the Goddess it's you Tali, for a second there I thought it was Chief Williams." Liara made a weak smile.
Tali chuckled as the two exited the conference room and took a right down the stairs, "Anyway, tell me about this meld Liara, how does it feel?" she asked, leaning a bit towards Liara.
"I... I don't know." Liara lowered her head in despair. "I've never had a meld before."
"So you never?..."
"No."
"And you didn't?..."
"No."
"But didn't you go to a university?"
Liara looked at Tali with confusion, "What does that have to do with the matter Tali?"
Tali let out a laugh and told Liara not to worry about it, when the two reached the elevator Tali said: "Don't worry Liara, this is not a meld between bond mates, it's a meld to exchange information so it should be no problem, didn't that asari on Feros meld with Commander to give him the Cipher?"
Liara made a sour face, "Ugh, don't remind me."
"You know the theory right?"
"Yes."
"Well then pretend that Shepard is a dig site, and your objective is to figure out what happened to the Protheans."
Liara smiled, recognizing her own words "Ok I will do that, thanks Tali."
Liara turned left from the elevator and went into the med bay. She greeted doctor Chakwas and headed into the lab, she sat down at her work station and powered up the console, as the holographic display lit up, Liara quickly made a search on melds and tips for beginners, she started reading paragraph after paragraph, reading the comments of other readers and taking note of all the details. Liara was so submerged into the research that she didn't notice as Shepard walked into the lab.
Shepard let out a cough to let his presence be know, the effect was instantaneous. Liara jumped in her chair, frantically shut off her console and turned around to Shepard with bright lavender blush on her face. There was an awkward moment of silence as two people, a human and an asari, were staring at each other, "Goddess! What do I say, what do people say in situations like this?" Liara opened her mouth, unable to say anything.
Finally, Shepard broke the silence, ending Liara's torment "Liara, I know this is your first exchange meld, don't worry, everything will be fine. Just... try not to mess with my head too much." Shepard smiled, giving Liara chuckle.
"Commander, your jokes are as bad as Joker's" she said with a smile.
"Hey I take offense to that, my jokes are never as bad as Joker's." Shepard with a feigned offense.
Both of them started to laugh, the tension disappeared, Shepard walked up to Liara and sat on a nearby chair, Liara gestured him to move in closer. Liara looked into Shepard's eyes, her confidence rose as she prepared to start the meld. She realized that this is not something to be scared of, but something to experience. Excitement replaced apprehension and now she was looking forward to it.
"Relax Shepard, clear your thoughts, embrace eternity!" as she said those words, it seemed that the meld started instinctively. Liara's mind plunged into a vortex of Shepard's thoughts, vivid images appeared and disappeared before her, it was as if she was looking at a galaxy. Liara never dreamed the experience would be so intense and yet so relaxing, she felt the very middle of Shepard's galaxy pulse, it was the core of Shepard's being. It beckoned her, attracted her, her instincts were telling her to go towards it, meet it, combine with it, Liara knew that she could not do that, at least not yet. She caught the trace of the Cipher, as her mind reached for it, it exploded with information, pouring it into Liara's mind, the understanding of Prothean culture and language erupted into her mind, the amount of information was overbearing.
Liara raised her hands and put them against her temples as they were starting to ache, Shepard reacted almost immediately. Liara felt the amount of information throttled down, she felt Shepard's presence in her mind, the feeling was indescribable. She knew what kind of information Shepard was looking at, she knew she could stop him from looking at certain parts of her mind just like he could do the same. Liara finally found the Prothean beacon message, she looked through it over and over, picking up all the details and hints, but it was not enough, the message was just too broken up, they will need more information, or perhaps another beacon to figure out what it means.
Liara was about to end the meld when she noticed a strange anomaly in all the information, it was if a huge black hole was present in this galaxy of information. Liara understood that it was something Shepard did not want Liara to see. Against her better judgment Liara reached out for the black void in Shepard's mind, she only got a small glimpse of what was Shepard covering before the meld was interrupted.
It was a few seconds before Liara realized that Shepard got up and was no longer in front of her. Before Liara could say anything, Shepard said "Thank you for your help Liara." his voice was cold, almost emotionless. Shepard turned his head towards Liara for a second, there was no expression of anger or disappointment, and only his eyes showed one emotion, pain. Shepard walked out of the med bay and Liara was left alone.
Tears were rolling down Liara's eyes, she was upset that her curiosity got the better of her but she was even more upset that she intruded into a part of Shepard's mind that she was not supposed to. It was clear to her now that Shepard was not hiding that part of his memory from her, but he was hiding it from himself. The glimpse that she got was enough to understand what was inside, she read Shepard's biography, she knew about Akuze but never gave a lot of meaning to it. Now she stirred something inside Shepard's mind that was not supposed to come out.
Later that evening Doctor Chakwas stopped by and asked how the first meld went. It was clear that she already knew the answer just by looking at Liara, she told Liara that the Commander went straight to his quarters and has not come out since, making Liara's eyes start tearing up again. She hugged the asari and told her that it wasn't her fault and that she should get some rest. After she left Liara wanted to get up and head to over to Shepard, to try to explain everything and apologize, but she was too fatigued to do anything, the meld was both mentally and physically exhausting. She decided to take a short nap and then go talk to Shepard. With those thoughts, Liara went to bed and fell into a deep sleep.