Chapter 12

"Goddess!" Liara gasped.

She was sitting up in her bed, cold sweat was running down her forehead. The same nightmare has been keeping her awake for the past week now, of the old Normandy exploding and Shepard burning up in the atmosphere. Liara checked the clock, it was five in the morning, she knew there was no way she would fall asleep now, so she got out of bed, put on her night gown and walked over to her terminal. She scanned through her usual mail, nothing of interest was in it, aside from her work emails that piled on overnight. She sighed and started to go through them, compiling them into data sheets for use later. One particular email stood out, however. One of her agents informed her that a drell assassin has arrived at the port on Illium. Liara frowned, a lot of painful memories came flooding back. She thought of Feron and their brief partnership, his double cross and finally capture by the Broker. She has been working tirelessly to track him and the Broker down, but the man was always one step ahead of her. That was her only mission for these past two years, she wanted to make it right, especially now that Shepard was back. She made up her mind that she would see this through, that she would not let another friend behind. Shepard will understand, she hoped.

But thinking of Shepard quickly brought up another difficult question that has been stuck in her mind like a thorn, what if Shepard is Cerberus' puppet after all, and all she has been seeing by now is just an act. Liara wanted to believe that those were all just the products of a tired mind, but she had no proof to back it up. She spent the next couple of hours getting ready for work and sorting through the rest of the mail.

After arriving at her office Liara skipped her now routine read of the report about Shepard's activities and went straight for her daily duties. Answering calls, brokering information, tracking Shadow Broker's agents, even a bit of shakedowns on some clients who refuse to pay for the information. One of the clients was a very sleazy trader named Trent Tenor who recently received some expensive information from Liara, and now refused to pay. Liara decided to talk to him herself. An exercise of upholding her reputation and venting her frustrations. She walked over to her holographic display and called Tenor.

"Ah miss T'Soni, I thought I made my statement clear the last time we spoke." Trent quipped, going on the offensive right away.

"The information I gave you is expensive Tenor, either you will pay, or you will have problems." Liara replied calmly

"That information did not help my business, and I'm not afraid of you, T'Soni!" his voice trembled.

"Oh really?" Liara glared at the human, "Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have." Liara heard her office doors open, but she gave no thought to it. "I'll make it simple. Either you pay me, or I flay you alive. With my mind." Liara powered down the display and turned around. She could not have prepared herself for this, John Shepard was standing in front of her, alive.

"Shepard!" she gasped, "Nyxeris, hold my calls." She waved her to leave the room and Nyxeris quickly exited the room, Shepard's squad did the same. Liara couldn't help but notice Garrus's grinning face.

As the doors closed, Liara could not stop herself, she walked up to Shepard, the two embraced each other, sharing a passionate kiss. For a brief moment, Liara felt as in the last two years never happened, everything was the same, the scent, the touch, the feel. Liara knew right away, it was the real Shepard, no substitutions or changes, the bond they shared so long ago came back like it was never severed. All the walls that she has put up nearly came crumbling down.

She forced herself away from Shepard, he was looking at her, puzzled. Liara just shook her head, she could not look Shepard in the eyes, it was just too painful for her. She walked over to her window, and took a deep breath. She did not want to break down, not when she still had a job to do.

"My sources said you were alive, but I... it's so good to see you." Liara turned around to face Shepard.

"You have sources now?" John replied, crossing his arms, it was clear he did not expect their reunion to be like this.

"A few. Sources, contacts, even a little hired muscle. I've been working as an information broker." Liara turned around and walked to the window again, "It's paid the bills since you... well, for the past two years." Liara sighed, this conversation was not easy for her, just the simple fact that Shepard was still alive was just not settling in her mind right now, even though she knew about it for weeks now, she turned around again, "And now you're back, gunning for the Collectors with Cerberus."

The two sat down at Liara's table, John quickly asked what he wanted to ask the moment he entered her office, "If you know that, then you know that I could use your help."

"Goddess, Shepard, why do you make it so difficult for me?" Liara was not mentally prepared to leave with John, no matter how much she wanted to. Not to mention her promise to herself, to find Feron and get back at the Broker, for all he did to her, for all he put her through.

Liara wanted Shepard to understand that she couldn't leave, not yet, "I can't, Shepard. I'm sorry, I have commitments here. Things I need to take care of."

The reply must have sounded colder then Liara intended it to be, the smile disappeared from Shepard's face, but his voice gave no sign of his disappointment, "What kind of things do you need to take care of? Are you in trouble?"

Liara got up again and walked to the window, "No, no trouble. But it's been a long two years. I had things to do while you were gone. I have debts to repay." she sighed and turned around, "Listen, if you want to help, I need someone with hacking expertise, someone I can trust." Liara did not make it up, she really did need help gathering information, but did not have anyone trustworthy enough to help her out, Shepard was the ideal candidate. She walked up to her desk and sat down again, quickly looking up the data on her terminal, "If you could disable security at key points around Illium, you could get me information I need. That would help me a great deal."

John lost his patience, his voice was starting to pitch a bit higher now, "What's this all about Liara? Can't you just talk to me?"

Liara snapped, "Don't you think I want to Shepard? This isn't because I don't trust you. This is Illium. Anything I say is probably being recorded." It wasn't a lie, Liara knew that her office was bugged by a spy from Thessia.

John sighed and replied more calmly, "Hacking a terminal sounds pretty easy. Why do you need me?"

Liara told Shepard an honest truth about her life on Illium, "I don't know anyone else I can trust." she continued, "Hacking the security node won't get you the data. It just creates a minor glitch in the system. You'll have a short time to find a local server left vulnerable by the glitch and upload the data to my system. I am leaving my own system vulnerable so that the data can be imported during that short time."

John nodded, "If it will help you, I will take care of it."

"When you hack one, a server will open somewhere nearby for a short time. you can download the data from there, if you hurry." Liara suddenly realized just how much this will help her out in the hunt for the Broker, she hasn't made any progress in months, and this data will give her more room to operate in. "Thank you Shepard, this may help me pay a great debt." she smiled.

Shepard, however, did not share her enthusiasm, he just nodded, "I'll talk to you later Liara." stood up and walked out of her office.

Liara took another deep breath, that conversation took more out of her than a week worth of talking to clients. Shepard's visit caught her completely off guard, but she gained so much from it, just like before, Shepard's arrival gave her hope and helped her keep pushing towards the goal. She only hoped that Shepard would understand in time.

Liara started preparing her system for an upload, it didn't take long before the first stream of data began downloading. Soon all three of the servers were uploading data to her system, and Liara called Shepard to let him know she got it, "Shepard, I've got the data. Come see me when you've got a moment."

John arrived soon after her call, Liara knew that Shepard had other obligations here on Illium, and it meant a lot to her that he decided to help her first.

"Thank you for getting me that system data. Do you remember the Shadow Broker? With that data you got me I may be able to find information caches from his agents."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "Are you on the run from the Shadow Broker? I can help you."

Liara smiled, "Actually, it would be more accurate to say that the Shadow broker is on the run from me." Liara paused for a second, thinking if she should tell Shepard all that has happened, "We crossed paths not long after you died. Since then I've been working to take him down. With this data, I am a step closer."

"You can't come with me because you're after the Shadow Broker? What if I help you find him?" Shepard replied.

Liara quipped, "I'm sorry Shepard. The galaxy doesn't work that way. I need to find leads, trace information. I need to work." she quickly realized how backwards her statement sounded, considering that Shepard never worked the way the rest of the galaxy did. "I can't work on the Normandy. I wish I could."

Shepard, however reacted differently, he got a worried look on his face, "I've never seen you ready to execute someone in cold blood. What did the Shadow Broker do to you?"

For a minute, there was silence, as Liara pondered if Shepard should know the whole story, finally she decided that he should know at least some for now, "I was on a job with a friend. The Shadow Broker's people caught us. My friend didn't escape. I don't know if he's dead or being interrogated, but I need to find him. I owe him my life." Liara frowned, "And I need to make the Shadow Broker pay for what he did."

John replied, "I understand, is there anything else I can help you with?"

Liara nodded, "Yes, I had a chance to look through the data you gave me. It was extremely helpful and it gave me a target. The Shadow Broker has several contacts here on Illium. The most powerful is someone called the Observer. Taking down the Observer will put me closer to the Shadow Broker. I could use your help."

"I'm listening."

"Your data pointed me at logs kept by Shadow Broker agents. The logs were deleted, but it may be possible to reconstruct some of it. The Shadow Broker is cautious. His agents are referred to only by their title and race. Nyxeris will give you the list of the agents, if you can refine it, I'll know where to strike."

"I'll reconstruct the data and tell you what I find."

Liara nodded, "Thank you Shepard. When you find something, call me on the radio channel we used in the old days. I can't risk handling this in person."

John bid farewell and left Liara's office. After some time, Shepard finally called, "Liara, I've checked out all five of the suspects, they are all male. The Observer is female. Something's not right. Who gave you this lead?"

Liara was caught off guard by this information, "My assistant, Nyxeris. She got the information... Nyxeris gave me the information."

Liara paused for a second, when everything clicked, "Shepard, I will talk to you later." she hung up and turned on her local comm., "Nyxeris, could I see you in here for a moment?"

"Yes, miss T'Soni." The comm. replied.

Liara quickly got up from her table, she did not hesitate for a second, and charged two biotic blasts with both of her arms. As the doors to her office opened, she quickly threw both blasts through the door. It seemed that Nyxeris was prepared for something like this to happen, both blasts missed their mark, with the second one slightly grazing her right shoulder. Liara powered on her biotic field and dodged a biotic blast from Nyxeris, to Liara' surprise Nyxeris was a very potent biotic, but not potent enough, the blast she took to her shoulder left a breach in her biotic barrier. Liara tumbled to her left and threw down a singularity. Loose objects started to lift and get pulled towards the singularity, while Nyxeris was distracted by it, Liara ran up to her, with her fist bioticly charged and punched through her shield, once her hand was past the barrier, she released the blast, sending Nyxeris straight into a wall, crushing her with kinetic force, it was over. Liara let out a sigh of relief, walked up to her desk and called in a couple of her hired bouncers to come get the body, while she was cleaning up the rest of the mess. But before she did that, Liara walked over to Nyxeris' terminal and started looking through all of the files. Shepard arrived just as Liara finished fixing her office, however, the dents on the walls clearly indicated a fight, Liara already ordered replacement panels.

Shepard sat down at Liara's desk as Liara spoke, "Nyxeris had some interesting data hidden away. Thank you, Shepard. I wouldn't have caught her without you. I am one step closer to the Shadow Broker, thanks to you."

John looked around Liara's office, taking note of all the fresh dents, and objects that were out of place. "Did you have any trouble with Nyxeris?"

"She was very talented. I imagine that had she been ordered to assassinate me, I'd never have seen her coming." Liara smiled, "But her barriers needed practice. Practice I'm afraid she won't be getting."

"So what's the next step in your hunt Liara?"

"Now I gather information, peel away layers of lies, and shine light into the shadows." Liara's voice became stone cold, "And when I find the Shadow Broker. I hit him with a biotic field so strong that what's left of his body will fit into a coffee cup."

Shepard nodded, "Is there anything else you need from me?"

Liara shook he head, "No. You've done enough. If I find anything useful, I'll let you know. For now, I need to do what I do."

Shepard's look did not hide his disappointment this time, but he did not say anything.

It was painful to see Shepard like this, she quickly looked down at her terminal, just so she didnt have to look Shepard in the eyes, "Now, is there anything I can help you with?"

It looked like Shepard was about to say something important, but instead just sighed, after a brief pause he asked, "Yes, I'm here to recruit two people on my team, a Justicar named Samara and an assassin named Thane Krios."

Liara nodded, "I uploaded the information to your omnitool Shepard, good luck."

"Thanks Liara." John got up and walked out of Liara's office, the doors closed behind him.

Garrus and Kasumi were standing next to Liara's old assistant's desk, the two looked at Shepard, then at each other, Garrus broke the silence, "That bad huh?"

Shepard gave Garrus a cold look, he was in no mood for jokes, "I never thought she would change so much. She is dodging my questions, there is something she is not telling me."

Kasumi spoke, "Bummer. Just give her some time Shep, maybe she has her own reasons for avoiding your questions. Plus you were dead, she might be still in shock."

John nodded, "You're right, she will tell me when she feels it's time, right now we need to go take care of business."

Garrus walked up to Shepard and hit him on the back, "Come on Shepard, lets go kick some ass. I'll buy you a drink later."

John made a faint smile, "I think I'll take you up on that offer."

The doors opened and load music poured through immediately, Shepard took a quick look around, spotting the bar quickly. The day was hard and Shepard needed to take a break. Garrus and Jacob caught up to him.

Jacob took a look around, "Nice, it's been a while since we had decent shore leave." He turned back to Shepard, "No offense Commander."

"None taken." John smiled.

Garrus noticed the focus of Shepard's attention, "Easy Shepard, I don't want to drag your sorry ass back to the Normandy."

John let out a laugh, "A turian out-drinking me? You've got to be joking Garrus."

"I'm not, you go on ahead and start, I will catch up later. I think I see some asari dancers over there." Garrus made a grin and headed over towards the dancers.

"Commander, I'll go make sure Garrus behaves." Jacob smiled and followed the turian towards the dancers.

John shook his head, and headed over to the bar. It was almost empty except for a couple of customers and one particularly loud human. John walked up closer and to his dismay, he recognized him, it was Conrad Verner, an annoying fan he met on the Citadel back in the day of chasing Saren. John sighed, and walked up to Conrad.

Conrad was talking to the asari bartender, "You want to see how far I'll go? I learned how to shove a gun in people's faces from..." he turned around and spotted John, "Co... Commander Shepard?"

The bartender seemed very irritated, she called out to Shepard, "Hey! If you know this idiot can you rein him in before I slap his ass with a singularity?"

Conrad ignored the last statement from the asari, "Shepard? Is it really you? It's me Conrad Verner! We met on the Citadel, I wanted to become a Spectre. Oh.. And then you shoved a gun in my face. You showed me what it meant to be truly extreme, I learned that lesson well." he continued to ramble, "So you're alive huh? I hear to goes like that in the biz. Why don't you sit back and watch how it's done."

John was listening the entire time with the palm of his hand on his face, "There goes my relaxing evening."

Shepard finally spoke, looking at Conrad's N7 armor, "Conrad, I never shoved a gun in your face, and why are you acting like me?"

Conrad quipped, "What? Are you kidding? I am not a Spectre working for the Council. I'm on my own backed only by my wits and my nerves. No rules, no laws, just whatever it takes to get the job done. I am not like you at all."

Shepard lost his patience, "What are you even doing here Conrad?"

"I'm trying to get the deed for this place. It's actually a front for a red sand dealer. I need to take it over to crack the ring."

The asari bartender spoke again, "What? Who the hell told you that?"

Conrad turned around, "The owner of that weapons store near the car port. She's an undercover cop. She told me about it when I introduced myself."

The bartender was losing patience fast, "Listen, crap-for-brains. First, we don't sell red sand. Second, red sand is legal on Illium, you just need a license."

Shepard sighed and looked at the bartender, "I'll go talk to the "undercover cop" to settle this down."

The asari nodded, "Thank you, if I kill annoying customers it usually makes property damage. That comes out of my pay."

John hesitated for a moment visualizing what might happen if he didn't go, but finally deciding to save Conrad's sorry ass. A quick trip to the car port and a chat with the "cop" revealed all the details Shepard needed to know. It was a scam that the merchant was trying to pull by making the owner sell the club. A quick talk and a persuasion convinced the merchant to go and collect the deed from the owners. John followed soon after to watch the show of the merchant being apprehended for an extortion attempt.

John walked over to Conrad, who looked confused, "What happened? The undercover cop from the weapons store just got arrested."

Ignorance is a bliss and John decided to keep it that way, "She wasn't a cop Conrad. She was a deep cover operative from a terrorist cell. I would've never found her if not for you."

Conrad's face brightened, "Really?"

John replied, "Really. You did a great job Conrad, now please go home, let me take it from here."

Conrad nodded, "Can do, Shepard, and thanks! It's really good to have you back." he then proceeded to leave the club, much to Shepard's relief. A part of Shepard was concerned that this encouragement would only come back to bite him in the ass later, but right now he didn't care.

He walked up to the bar, the bartender smiled, "Thanks for taking care of that crazy guy. Saves me having to beat him to death with his own spine." Shepard almost regret his decision to help Conrad, "That makes the other customers nervous. Anyway, this is Eternity, and I am Aethyta, matriarch and bartender, can I get you anything?"

Shepard sat down on one of the stools, "You're an asari matriarch? I thought matriarchs served as honored advisers."

The bartender nodded, "Right, which I do right here at this bar. I know, not what you'd except, but nobody on Thessia wanted to listen to my wise council so here I am. Dad was a krogan who fought in the rachni wars, my mother fought in the Krogan rebellions. I've pretty much seen it all."

Shepard got curious, he never actually had a conversation with a matriarch before, except for Benezia, but it was short and she was indoctrinated. "Your mother fought in the krogan rebellions?"

"I don't know whether she "fought", she scouted, sniped a few people and blew up a couple of space stations, you know, commando stuff. She would put her old commando leathers for special nights with Dad. Goddess that was embarrassing." the matriarch replied.

She was very straight forward, in fact she reminded Shepard of Wrex, "You said your father fought in the rachni wars?"

"Yeah, when he was young. Loved showing off his war scars, krogan think they're sexy. Me, I go for asses." she replied smiling, "When I was a girl he would tell me about landing on this poison filled world and stomping a rachni queen into muck. Scientists say, all that stuff about getting the genetic material from the father is crap, seems that I got a bit of his mouth though."

Shepard heard about those studies before, he always regarded them as rumors, now he knew for himself that those were all just a hoax, he had proof right in front of him, "If your mother fought in the rebellions and your father was a krogan, didn't that cause tension?"

Aethyta shrugged, "They didn't meet until after a few hundred years after the turian put the boot in with the damn genophage. As far as either one knew they were both just warriors. Dad boasted, mom stayed quiet. Mom was a matriarch herself, dad was near on a thousand when the truth came along."

John continued to listen carefully, "What happened when he found out?"

Aethyta looked down on the bar stand, "I was about a hundred, shaking my ass in some sleazy bar. They got me on a link, told me that they were gonna have it out. Made me promise to love whichever one survived. Turned out to be damn easy, since neither one did." she shook her head, "Family, huh? What a kick in the quad."

Shepard was a bit taken aback and decided to switch topics, "What's it like, living for nearly a thousand year?"

"Violent, wars break out, colonies get destroyed. Sometimes you hear good news like that colony of Feros surviving." John couldn't help but smile as she said that, "That's the exception though. You find peace in whatever arms will hold you. Turian, elcor, hanar, even had a pureblood daughter." she looked away again, "I was the father, didn't work out. And one day you wake up, your figure has gotten matriarchal and everyone else is too young to remember how the quarians looked inside those suits."

Shepard finally decided to ask the question that was bugging him, "Why is a matriarch at a bar serving drinks?"

Aethyta leaned forward, stomping with her hands on the bar stand, "It's better then what the other matriarchs are doing. Look at that screw-up with Saren and his geth a few years back. Our ships were hanging bare-assed in space when Saren started shooting. If not for you humans we would have bought it right there. And I warned them, told people on Thessia what was coming and they didn't want to hear it."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "What didn't they want to hear?"

"That art and philosophy and political prowess wasn't gonna cut it. We can't go a single asari lifetime before a big war breaking out. We need to get our daughters working earlier, not spending their wild maiden years stripping or in merc bands. When I started talking about making new mass relays ourselves, they laughed the blue off my ass. So now I serve drinks."

John replied, "Thanks for telling me about that, you gave me a lot to think about."

Aethyta smiled, "That's what I am here for, babe. Can I get you anything else?"

"I'd like something to drink." John replied with a smile.

"Sure, I'll set up the tab for you, knock yourself out, literally if you want. Just don't drink anything for turians or quarians, does nasty things to your insides. Once saw a krogan drink liquefied turian on a dare, six or seven centuries back. Nobody came back out of that one looking pretty. Oh and don't eat the nuts in the red bowls, they are for turians and quarians, you'll get cramps."

Shepard was just about to ask how quarians eat the nuts with helmets on, but decided to just have a drink instead. He paid his tab and headed back to the ship, "Thanks again Aethyta, it's been a pleasure talking to you."

"The pleasure's all mine Shepard." the matriarch gave a faint smile, while wiping the counter.

John quickly found Garrus and Jacob, both enjoying the dancers and pulled them out, "Come on, that's enough fun for one day."

Garrus looked surprised, "I thought you'd be wasted by now, what happened?"

Jacob quickly picked up, "Yeah Commander, you look like you barely had a drink."

"I got to listen to an asari matriarch bartender." John replied.

"What?" both squad mates asked in confusion.

"Never mind, let's just get back on the ship, I'm sure something needs calibrating." John replied with a smile.

"Hey, that was a low blow, Shepard." Garrus said with a grin. "Besides the show just started." he nodded towards the dancers.

Shepard turned to Jacob, "Fine you two stay, just remember we are heading out in the morning."

"Yes, Commander." Jacob nodded.

As Shepard passed by the trading floor, he couldn't help but look up to Liara's office, it was late, but the light were still on. He fought off the desire to go up and talk to her. He knew that once she sets her mind on something it was pointless to try and get her stop. She was as stubborn as a krogan. He missed her dearly but both of them head a job to do, he simply hoped that both of them will be there once it was over."See you later, Liara."