Chapter 38

The Eye – Hagalaz – Sowilo System

After Garrus's call on the comm, Tali looked over towards her current companion with a glare. Unfortunately, she had brought a shotgun, which meant close range combat was necessary. And she was pretty sure that these mechs were likely built to resist cyber-attacks given their resistance to electricity over all. That meant she would have to stay out of the fight and leave the fighting to the geth. She watched as it got down on all fours and began to slink up to the mechs before an invisible sheen covered its entire form.

She felt chills as she saw it disappear. In any other situation, seeing a geth vanish before her eyes meant that someone was about to die. The geth had developed stealth technology almost immediately after the massacre on Rannoch, and they had no reason to improve upon it as it was nearly flawless. Even Shepard's own camouflage was primitive in comparison. Humans needed to hide footsteps, heartbeat, body heat, and in some cases, even brainwave activity. The geth needed to hide none of those things. Their footsteps could be muted simply be changing how they walked, they had no heartbeat nor any other consistent noise, they generated no heat except for their internal core which was already protected buy thermal insulation, and they had no brainwaves to speak of. Even electronic detection could be fooled by shutting down or going into low power mode.

Seeing one now skitter across the surface of the ship with an IFF tag letting her know its position almost made her feel like a traitor to her own people. But she had made a vow to Shepard, and she would not break that vow even if every other eye in the galaxy looked on her in shame. She supposed it was simple enough to let slide off her shoulders. If it moved the wrong way, everyone on the ship could obliterate it with either biotics or guns. If it tried to take over the Normandy, she knew for a fact that EDI could annihilate what consciousness it had with as little effort as it took to generate her holographic interface. And despite her words earlier, she knew that this geth alone would not have the power to take over this ship. The security mechs alone would take ten times the amount of programs it had, and in order to process the data aboard the ship would probably take the entire collective. Just over a thousand geth programs were not a threat here.

Really, she only had to worry about it potentially betraying the team. And even she had to admit that there was no benefit in it for the geth. Everything the machine had said sounded like the truth. The geth really had no reason to side with the reapers. Once all the organics were dead, the geth would have suffered the exact same fate, to be scrubbed from the galaxy until the next cycle. So, there was legitimately no reason not to believe that it was here to help. But she couldn't help but feel anxious around it even through all of the logic. She was taught from birth that these were the enemy of her people, they wanted her exterminated, and they would do it without a second thought.

But after running all over the galaxy two years ago, she saw what kind of effect brainwashing had on people. And while this wasn't to the level of Sovereign's indoctrination signal, it was still pretty potent. She watched as the invisible automaton slashed through vital components in the machines with its built-in carbon fiber blades. She sighed to herself as it cleaned the entire battlefield before signaling her.

"Tali'Zorah, the area is clear," said the geth as it dropped its cloaking and turned to face her.

"I see that," she said as she got to her feet and made her way over. When she finally arrived at the tower, it rose from the ship and immediately began absorbing the lightning blasts that hit nearby.

"We believe there is a maintenance shaft behind the console used for drones to make repairs," it said as it pointed to the location of the tiny shaft. "It is likely we could fit-"

"Absolutely not," said Tali, shutting down its talk immediately.

The geth turned and looked at her with its ocular light. "We only wished to-"

"It doesn't matter. Even if you want to help us, you are not allowed to leave our sight," she ordered, her temper rising automatically.

Its brow plates rose and fell as if thinking for a moment. "Tali'Zorah, it is fair that you do not trust us with information. It is even fair that you do not trust us with your own life. We do not expect one of the creators to immediately trust the geth. However, allowing your distrust to hinder our mission is inadvisable."

Tali glared at the machine and wondered if Shepard would bother questioning her if she blasted it to pieces and sent it flying off into the storm. It was a dangerous mission, after all. But she pushed aside the intrusive thoughts and shook her head. "It's not a matter of hindering our mission. Our mission is to raise the lightning towers, not sneak around inside the ship."

"A trivial addendum from a creator known to the geth as a rule breaker," said Legion as it detached from the console and stepped around to face her.

"Stop that!" she snapped angrily. "Stop with the… sarcasm." Reaching up, she rubbed her helmet feeling miserable. A machine shouldn't know sarcasm. Even Val'Eda back on the Normandy, as free and alive as she was hadn't learned sarcasm yet. "And what do you mean rule breaker?"

"Tali'Zorah worked with Shepard. Tali'Zorah was on the Citadel during the Battle with Nazara," it said as it pointed to her. "Tali'Zorah uploaded the allied AI into the Citadel's mainframe. This action would be deemed treason, punishable by exile under any Conclave in the history of the Creator's Fleet."

She stared at him wide-eyed in horror. "H-How did you-"

"You thought us facetious. But the geth are everywhere," it said as it twitched its brow plates again. "You believe the geth have not been to the Citadel. But we have explored reaches of the Citadel unknown to most organics. We have seen the creation of the keepers. We have seen the wardens. We have seen the archives."

She felt an icy grip around her heart as it revealed what should have been obvious. The Morning War was 300 years ago and the geth would not simply sit idly by on Rannoch and wait for another organic attack. Of course they infiltrated the Citadel. Of course they spied on everyone and everything they could. It'd take startlingly little smuggling to get enough geth technology on the Citadel for them to be able to think and communicate it back to Rannoch. "You saw the videos of the Battle for the Citadel?"

"We saw your footage. And the sacrifice you made that day. We heard Val'Eda's last words," said Legion as it stood tall before her. She looked up at the geth, feeling her heart wrench again as she remembered the last thing Val'Eda. "Keelah'selai, Tali. And thank you for everything."

"Don't…" she growled as she huffed and shook her head. "Don't say those words," she snapped as she pointed at the geth. "Val'Eda earned my trust. You haven't yet."

"It is our desire to earn your trust, and the trust of every Creator," said Legion as it hunched down slightly, likely realizing that towering over her wasn't doing it any favors. "We do not intend to earn it through deception."

She stayed silent for a long moment before glaring back up at the geth again. "Prove that you're trustworthy and we'll talk."

"We would like to start now," said Legion as it tapped the cover of the maintenance shaft again.

Grumbling in annoyance, she waved a hand and turned back towards the next meeting place. "Fine. Infiltrate away," she said before tapping her comm as well. "Tower two is up and running. The geth is entering a maintenance shaft and may be able to get us in from the inside."

Docking Bay – The Eye – Hagalaz

Shepard stood in front of the entrance of what EDI called the docking bay. According to the AI crew member, shuttles that exited the ship would likely need to be reinforced against lightning damage too. Fortunately, this would likely make them extremely easy to track where they had been once the Shadow Broker was out of the way. But even with all the towers now active, they didn't have access to the main docking bay. As the last of her crew approached, she eyed Tali curiously. "You said Legion is inside?"

"It found a way in through a drone maintenance hatch. Whether that actually leads anywhere, we'll have to wait for it to report back," she said as she crossed her arms.

As if listening to the call, the geth spoke up over the comm. "We have infiltrated into the depressurized docking bay."

"Can you get the door open from that side?" asked Liara as she fiddled with the console outside.

"Affirmative. We have access to the terminal. However, opening the bay doors will immediately alert the Shadow Broker of our presence," came the reply from the automaton.

"Is there any way around that?" asked Shepard as she hoped for less resistance on the way in.

"Perhaps," said the geth as they went silent for a few moments before continuing. "The doors run on a kill switch. A current runs through the door, and once the door opens that current stops, alerting the Shadow Broker to the door being open. If we create an alternate power source, we would still have the element of surprise."

Garrus chuckled and shook his head. "I'm surprised they know that phrase," he said as he held his long ranged weapon aloft.

"Do you think you can find a power source to feed it?" asked Shepard as an idea immediately popped into her head. She didn't know if it would work or not, or if there would be a compatibility issue. But the geth stopped her in her tracks with the answer.

"We can feed the line from our own power source. However, until the Shadow Broker is confronted, we will have to stay out of combat," replied Legion from inside the ship.

"Understood. Do it," said Shepard as she signaled to the others. In a manner of minutes, the door slid open and everyone could see the geth with cords from its arm plugged into the floor.

"Power flow, inconsistent. Won't last long," said the machine as they all flooded into the docking bay.

Shepard immediately activated her comm. "Garrus, you stay here with Legion. Protect them until we get a hold of the Shadow Broker."

"They'll never know he's here," said the turian as he raised his weapon up.

"You four, come with me," ordered Shepard as she began moving towards the door to the far end of the room. "Garrus, if you can get more of us onto the ship, do so. If Legion can't hold the door open that long, then tell them to hold off until we have full control of the ship."

Kasumi chuckled over the comm, still nowhere to be seen. "Well, aren't you confident."

"We didn't come all this way to lose now. The Shadow Broker goes down, one way or another," she said as she entered into the pressurizing chamber. "That's an order to all of you. If I'm not enough for the Shadow Broker, then take out what's left."

It appeared that everyone finally grasped the gravity of the situation as the words left her mouth. They were all silent for a long moment before Tali snorted. "The collectors blew your ship up with you on it then threw you at a planet. Sorry if I'm not buying the whole 'this may be dangerous' line," she said as she elbowed Shepard affectionately. "Let's go take this bosh'tet out and secure your scary gangster wife as boss of the galaxy."

Both Shepard and Liara snorted in amusement as Aethyta let out a full laugh at the comment. Finally, Shepard nodded. "Right. Let's move."

Bridge – The Eye – Hagalaz

Even with Legion keeping the Shadow Broker in the dark about their arrival, the group still had to blast through an entire squadron of mechs patrolling the ship's halls. She knew that even with the Shadow Broker being the only actual person aboard the ship this wasn't going to be easy. But these new mech suits were stubbornly hard to kill without the hurricane-like winds from outside to toss them into the planet. Shepard had nearly burned through her heat sinks cleaning them out before they could alert anyone.

Chances are, the Shadow Broker already knew they were here simply from her scrubbing camera data. The cams on the ship where rather crude, but effective enough for someone who never thought their ship would be found. It was relatively easy to alter the cam footage to recycle their footage from the last five minutes, and it'd keep anyone not looking too close at the screen entertained. But if they were looking before she got to them, then the destruction of mechs would be obvious. She could only hope as Liara ground another of the mechs into dust with her warp ability that the Shadow Broker was occupied with something else at the moment. Hell, maybe she was lucky enough that they were about to catch them sleeping.

As they finished the last of the mechs in the corridor towards the bridge, Shepard opened the door and they all filtered inside and looked around. Surprisingly, there were no mechs in the room. Instead, it was set up with numerous medical tables with instruments that were obviously meant for torture rather than healing. Shepard looked at them all and noticed that one of them had a curtain drawn around it. Holding up her pistol, she motioned towards the others before approaching silently. Liara prepared her biotics and Tali her shotgun. Reaching up, she drew the curtain away.

But any combat readiness they had left as she saw a beaten and broken drell strapped to the table. His face was a rich green color while his cranium was mostly blue. If she knew anything about drell, it was that their color changed as they got older, changing from sometimes a bright blue to eventually green, a trait also common among blue eyes in humans. He still bore some signs of youth. But it wasn't his color pattern that drew everyone's attention. It was the emaciated frame of his body along with the numerous tears and cuts in his body that were currently healing with medigel. His hand looked like it might permanently be broken, as the fingers were crooked and twisted in odd directions. There were also numerous acid burns on his body that had seared away the scales and left the skin raw.

According to the machine he was hooked to, Shepard could tell that he was alive, but only barely. From the look of it, the Shadow Broker was intentionally keeping him alive. She didn't know if the torture was punishment, or if the Shadow Broker was trying to get information out of him, but she knew it disgusted her to her core. Her own electrical burn scarring on her body began to tingle as the image brought back memories of her own torture.

"Feron!" gasped Liara silently as she approached the table with her hands high. "How can we get him out of here?"

"On it," said Kasumi as she reappeared at one of the consoles. With the hallways being pressurized, they no longer had to rely on just radio. "Tali, help me out here."

The quarian put her shotgun away and immediately began scanning the medical table. "We can't cut him out or an electrical charge will fry what's left of him. I'll try and find a way to disable it."

"We've got this, Shepard," said the wily thief as she winked at the spectre. "We'll get him out. You take care of the Shadow Broker and make sure he doesn't hit the kill switch on this kid."

Shepard turned to Aethyta and Liara, and both asari looked back at her. They nodded together, and Shepard turned to the two again. "Thanks you two. We should be back soon," she said with a half grin. "Hopefully. You two be careful and watch your backs."

Turning from the pair, she marched her way towards the door at the far end. According to EDI's readout, this was the bridge, and the place where most of the ship's power was filtering to. That was a likely candidate for the vast information banks the broker would need for all of their trading. Inhaling sharply, she opened the door as the two asari followed her in with their own biotics and weapons ready.

As she predicted, the Shadow Broker was indeed on the bridge, and was currently sitting behind a large desk. The desk sat in the middle of a cavernous room with data screens on every wall. Shepard's eyes widened as she saw something she had never seen before in her life staring at the screens and towering over all three of them, even while sitting. Aethyta was the one to speak on her behalf. "What the hell is that thing?"

It had four pairs of eyes, each pair seemingly in its own socket and likely used to target multiple prey at a time and it had a triangular mouth that split three ways, each branch containing its own rows of menacingly sharp teeth. As it spoke, the spectre felt chills in her spine at its voice. It sounded as emotionless and cold as Sovereign had back on Virmire. "You came for the drell?" it asked as if she were among his henchmen. "Reckless, even for you, T'Soni."

"Not reckless," growled Liara as her biotics glowed like a star. "I could never let you get away with what you had done to Feron, and what you tried to do to Shepard!"

"But Doctor T'Soni, your intervention caused all of this," said the creature as it tilted its head towards them, all eight of its eyes locked onto Liara. "Feron betrayed me when he handed over the spectre's body to you. He's paying the price for his betrayal, and for your interference. This is the cost of doing business."

Shepard's glare deepened, any fear she may have had leaving her body as she recalled what this monster had tried to do with her. "I still owe you for trying to sell me to the collectors."

"It was a mutually beneficial agreement," they said as they looked to Shepard. "Fortunately, their offer remains open. And you have come to me personally, allowing me to fulfill that contract," they said before letting out what sounded like a dry chuckle. "A sad existence, spectre. Your crew betrayed you as Feron betrayed me."

Shepard's brows rose in curiosity. "What's that supposed to mean."

"How do you think the collectors knew where to find you? How do you think they knew when your ship was going to be in the Terminus Systems?" he asked in his monotone voice. "I told them. And how do you think I found out?"

Shepard's eyes narrowed in anger as she felt her cybernetics beginning to react again. "You think I'd believe a parasite like you?"

"Believe me or not, it is irrelevant. You are here, and I will fulfill my contract with the collectors."

"It's going to be hard to offer my body to them when I'm standing on your corpse," growled the spectre as she lowered her pistol. She knew that it was extremely unlikely that its skin was going to be penetrated by the shots. She'd have to score a lucky one to an eye, but they likely had shielding in place already. Guns weren't going to win this fight.

"Misplaced ego boosted by fighting too many mercenaries and pirates," they said as the stood from their chair. "I am no mercenary lackey, nor pirate wearing scraps of armor."

"And you're quite confident for someone who has nowhere left to run," said Liara with a hiss as she and Aethyta moved in opposite directions to try and surround the beast.

"It's admirable of you to stand strong in front of your bondmate and father. But this operation is too important to be interrupted by an interloper. You have no hope of winning. I know all of your deepest, darkest secrets while you fumble in the dark," it said, it's monotone voice belied the smugness he was expressing.

"Is that right?" said the doctor sweetly, but Shepard could feel the poison in her voice. "You're a yahg. A pre-spaceflight species quarantined to their homeworld for massacring the Council's first contact teams."

Immediately, Shepard recalled reports on the species that had crossed her desk before. There were reports of the batarian Hegemony travelling to their homeworld of Parnack to try and strike some kind of deal to form an alliance of anti-Council species. But that team of batarians never resurfaced again, and now she knew why.

"This base is older than your planet's discovery, which probably means you killed the original Shadow Broker sixty years ago, then took over the operation yourself," continued Liara as she never let her biotics dim even a bit. "If I had to guess, you were taken from your homeworld by the Shadow Broker who wanted a slave," she said as she gave a small grin. "Or maybe a pet? How am I doing?"

Shepard wasn't able to read the yahg's body language. But she didn't really need to as the massive creature grabbed the table in front of them and hurled it aside. "Looks like Jaws here is a bit sensitive about the subject."

"You will all die for your insolence," growled the creature as it turned around. Shepard moved forward to attack, but slammed into an energy barrier that sparked to life out of nowhere. The impact knocked her on her butt, causing her to shake her head as the skin on her face stung from contact. "Patience, spectre," ordered the yahg as a stand with a large harness rose from the ground.

"What the hell is that?" asked Shepard as Liara pulled her to her feet. The broker strapped the machine around him like a backpack before planting a small helmet onto his head. Finally, he attached what looked like electrodes to his arms before sliding large, glove-like controls on.

"My latest creation, made with the collector technology I received from my trades with them," he said before slamming his fists together. Reaching out with both hands, a wave of biotic energy grabbed both Aethyta and Liara both. They gasped in horror as Shepard looked back and forth, but before she could do anything to rescue them, the massive creature hurled them into small pods on either side of the room. As soon as they hit, a blue energy field not unlike the one Shepard had first found Liara in lit and suspended them both in the air, rendering them helpless. "I had only planned on Doctor T'Soni and yourself showing up here, spectre. I'd have made more cages for your crewmates if I thought you would have brought them along."

"I don't know what's more adorable, you thinking you intimidate me, or you thinking you stand a chance against my crew," said the spectre as she pulled up her pistol and fired numerous times into the energy barrier. "So, mechanical biotics."

"A breakthrough that will make me billions. Though you will not live to see the change they will have on the universe," he growled as he lowered the energy barrier. "Come, spectre. I've seen your combat style. You will not surprise me as you have so many others."

Shepard reached back and placed her gun back on her belt as she prepared her biotics. She knew that she'd been careful to erase most traces of her biotic abilities whenever she used them. But she could never be a hundred percent, and wondered if this creature was simply bluffing or if he truly knew. She wasn't about to toy with him and find out, however. She was going for the immediate kill shot. She only hoped that his brain was in the same place as most other species.

She slid a glowing blade free from her gauntlet and immediately jumped into what Miranda had dubbed her Berserker mode. Aiming directly between the jagged horns on his head, she didn't plan to give him a second to move. But much to her horror, it appeared as if Tela wasn't the only one who could somewhat keep up with her speed. As the large creature's biotics lit, it reached up and grabbed Shepard's arm, stopping her from stabbing it before it slammed her to the ground.

She gasped as air escaped her lungs, but she managed to roll back out of his grip before he did any more damage. She could instantly tell that he shoulder had been dislocated in the surprise attack. "Doctor Chakwas is going to kill me for this," she said as she looked down and saw that the behemoth had crushed her omni-tool in the process. Taking it off, she reached up over her head, then touched her opposite shoulder. She immediately winced as she felt the limb slide gently back into place, but knew that she'd need to get checked in at the medbay as soon as she got back to make sure she hadn't damaged her arm further.

But before that, she needed to survive. Both Aethyta and Liara's lives were in her hands and she couldn't fail here. She ejected the spent blade and summoned two this time, one from each gauntlet. "You failed once. You believe your technique will work the second time?"

Ignoring his taunting, Shepard dove head first again, her arm feeling slightly better because of the internal medigel. She could see things crystal clear and faster as a result of her cybernetics, but it didn't help her react any faster, unfortunately. And this creature's mechanical biotics helped his movement speed immensely, allowing him to keep pace with her. She jumped up again and thrust her blade towards his head, only to have the same arm grabbed. But this time, the yahg let out a roar of pain as her second blade slammed home in the palm of his hand. The first continued forward to slash across his face, causing him to lash out with one of his muscular arms.

The blow caught Shepard in the gut and sent her tumbling backwards, once again winded. But this time she had a few seconds to gain her breath as the angry broker held its face in searing pain. Her slash created a burn pattern from between its horns down to the top edge of its upper mouth, and it was clear from the trembling roar emanating from his throat that he was not happy. Finally, slamming both fists onto the ground, he went full feral by letting out a wall shaking roar from his triangular mouth and then bounding at her on all fours like a silverback gorilla.

Her eyes widened at the speed he was able to cover with the biotic suit he had, causing him to slam directly into her. He gripped her by the torso with his good arm and slammed her into the wall of the room, shattering multiple hard-light displays as she felt an ache in her back. Pulling her back, he slammed her again and again, assisted by his own biotics as he attempted to crush her inside her own armor.

But she wasn't about to let him take control. Taking the blade she had slashed him with, which was now cooling to a dark red, she waited until he roared loudly directly into her helmeted face. In a split second, she slammed the blade into the arm holding her, causing another roar of pain as he finally released her. Dropping to the ground, she activated her charge and punched threw herself forward, punching him directly in one pair of his eyes. The force behind her kinetic attack sent the creature spinning in a circle before he slammed to the ground, grunting in pain.

Shepard took a few seconds to groan herself as the pain in her chest let her know that she had probably fractured a rib or two in the scuffle. Breathing itself was a chore as she stood up and prepared her gun to finish him off. But as he rose, he let out a biotic wave that blew her backwards too. She never lost her footing, but knew that he wasn't about to let himself get killed just yet. "Interesting," said the behemoth as he rose to his feet and turned to face her. She could see that the eyes she had hit were swollen shut. She didn't know if they were destroyed, or just bruised. But it was a start. "You're as hard to kill as my men told me."

"Ready to give up?" said Shepard sarcastically as she stood stoically before the goliath.

"On the contrary. I want you to give me everything you have," he said as he glowered down at her.

She eyed him suspiciously. "What is this? Some kind of trap, or are you trying to pull a power move?"

"I want you to understand the futility of your fight. I will allow you thirty seconds to orient yourself, then I want you to hit me as hard as you can, with everything you have. And when you have wasted your energy, I will kill you and your friends," he said, the monotone now long gone from his voice.

"And if I don't play along with your game?" she asked, knowing that he was likely just baiting her into cooking her own brain. The beating she had taken plus the biotics she had used in the past few days were seriously straining her body and she doubted she could last much longer.

"You have thirty seconds to find out," he said smugly as he simply stood there.

"Jane!" shouted Liara from within her prison field.

"Don't worry, I've got this," said the spectre as she rolled her shoulder gently to massage some of the pain out of it.

"Kick his goddess damned ass!" growled Aethyta from the other side of the room as she glared at Shepard.

The spectre doubted she'd be able to summon enough power to outright kill him without breaking herself. She needed to distract him long enough to even charge again. She could try to use her blades again, but this creature was extremely intelligent. He didn't take over for the former Shadow Broker with just brute force. She didn't know if she had any more aces to pull.

"Time's up," he said as he raised an arm. Before she could even register the omni-tool he wore, he activated the glowing computer.

Liara and Aethyta both screamed in agony as electricity was pumped into their cage. As soon as she heard the noise, she hurled herself forward with two blades ready to run him through. But he slapped her backwards before he stopped the torture. Shepard looked at both asari and neither one looked healthy at the moment. Liara's father was outright smoking from the attack and her bondmate looked as if she was barely conscious.

As she skidded back to her feet, her eyes glowing red and her fists clenched tighter than they ever had before, she felt the prothean cipher once again running through her head. "You want my all you son of a bitch!" she growled before hurling herself forward as fast as her biotics would take her.

He stared down at her, angry at himself for even allowing her to touch him. He had made made several mistakes leading up to their infiltration of his ship. But the reward on Shepard and her crew from the various people who wanted to kill them would more than make up for such trivialities. All he had to do now was kill her. While it proved as difficult as his men reported, she was still no match for him. His might, his technological advantage, and his intel on her rendered her rebellion impotent.

He released the control that shocked the two asari, practically grinning down at Shepard as she grew angrier and more irrational. She would throw everything into her next attack, whether she wanted to or not. That's what running off emotion was, a weakness. And he had exploited hers. Now he crouched, preparing himself for her biotic assault. But what hit him wasn't anything he'd ever felt before. Her fist slammed into his massive gut and he felt as if a laser drilled had run him through. He bent forward in pain for only a second before he realized she was gone again. Then he felt the same thing piercing through his back.

She moved like a cyclone on Hagalaz's surface, circling around him so rapidly he couldn't hope to keep up with her. And every blow shit hit him with felt like he was being run through with a spear. He looked down to watch his chest explode open with another wound caused by her hellish punches. Gasping, he knew if she kept this up, he would be shredded to death. He couldn't fathom how she had this much power left in her after everything he'd done to her. But he refused to die at her hands. Crouching low, he slammed her with a biotic wave of his own. As fast as she was, she couldn't dodge him if he hit everywhere at once.

The explosion of biotic energy slammed into her and sent her rolling across the floor. Her helmet had flown off in the battle and she laid on her back, staring up at the ceiling as blood trailed down from her human nose and into her mouth. His hands were shaking, from pain and exhilaration as he stood over her to finish her off. "I don't know what you just did, but it wasn't enough to kill me. We know who is superior, and now you will die." But as he said the words, he could hear her laughing at him. Laughing wasn't something the yahg did, ever. But knowing the context behind the emotional reaction, he asked, "You find something funny?"

"Of all the yahg on Parnack the Shadow Broker could have picked and he picks the dumbest of their species," she said as she let out another laugh from her position on the ground.

"Your insults will not stop your demise. Your attack failed," he said, growling angrily at her.

"My attack didn't fail, dumbass. You weren't my only target," she said as she turned her head and looked between his legs.

He spun around and immediately understood her words. The fear inside him, something he had rarely ever felt even back on his homeworld returned as he saw that her biotics hadn't just speared through him, but it had mangled his prison pods as well. The energy fields had dissipated, leaving two extremely angry asari glaring at him. He moved to activate his own biotics again, but immediately felt three shots into his back that caused the dark energy to dissipate. Turning around, he looked down to see Shepard holding her pistol up as well as her middle finger. She had blasted the energy source of his suit apart.

"You want biotics, yahg!" snapped Liara as she lit up like a beacon in the darkened room.

"Have as much as you want, bitch!" shouted Aethyta as she grabbed him. His eyes rapidly looked around the room to try and find anything to help him, anyone to stop her. But he knew he had lost. His entire life he had been the biggest, smartest of his species. And decades ago when he was brought to this ship, he had proved himself smarter and more capable than the smartest and most powerful figure in the entire galaxy. He'd never felt fear in his life, but now he felt it to his core.

As the bartender lifted him high into the air, her daughter glared at the yahg as she reached out with her own. "Goodbye."

Shepard watched as Aethyta lifted the goliath into the air. And Liara's attack alone would have probably killed the Shadow Broker on its own strength. But their biotics combining together caused an explosion that atomized the brutish creature. The entire ship shook from the explosion, causing the lights to darken for about ten seconds before the emergency lights came back on. "That sounded bad. I hope that didn't knock the ship out of orbit."

"It should be fine," stated Liara as she slumped down next to Shepard. "This ship was built with backups of backups. It'd take a nuclear weapon to knock this thing out of the air," she said as she breathed heavily. "Are you alright?"

"Oh this? Yeah. Pretty sure I don't need my brain to live, so I should be fine," said Shepard as she began to sweat heavily.

Opening her comm, Liara immediately called the shuttle. "Lia, please get Doctor Chakwas down here as fast as you can."

"Hey, can we trust this Chakwas chick?" asked Aethyta as she stood over the pair of them.

"With our lives," said the asari as she laid down next to Shepard. But before they got to relax, there was a scuffle in the next room with lots of shouting. Shepard groaned as she got to her feet and limped her way towards the door with Liara and Aethyta helping lift her by the shoulders. When the door opened, they saw what had happened.

Feron was no on his feet and aiming Kasumi's pistol at her head. Tali had her hands up in the air defensively, trying to dissuade him from doing anything. But as soon as the drell looked over and saw Liara's face, everyone stopped. "L-Liara…"

"Feron! You're free!" she shouted gleefully as she led Shepard over in front of him.

"They… weren't lying?" he asked as he looked at the human and quarian who had been standing over him. "You're here?" he asked once more before looking around. "Am I hallucinating?"

"You're not hallucinating. I'm here, and the Shadow Broker is dead," she said as she sat Shepard in a chair, allowing her to relax.

"Oh…" he said as he sank to the floor and held his head in his hands. "Thank Arashu…"

Shepard couldn't tell if he was crying or if drell were even able to cry. But she knew he was crying inside. After everything he had been through, and with everything she knew about drell memory, it was going to be a long time before he got over what had happened. "I'm glad we got to you in time," said the spectre.

Feron looked up at her from his sitting position and looked almost haunted at her presence. "Gods… they actually did it? You're alive?"

"Half alive right now," she said as she leaned her head back, taking a cloth from Liara to wipe the blood from her nose. "Kasumi, grab your pistol and get the Normandy on board. Human Cerberus crew members are not to leave their quarters. All ground crew are due aboardthis ship in exactly one hour. Shepard, feeling as if every ounce of blood in her body had been drained turned to Liara and nodded towards the other room.

Together the pair walked into the main control unit for the ship. Liara eyed her worriedly. "Jane, I don't think it's a good idea to be walking around right now."

"I can walk fine. What I need to know is what's going to happen with this?" asked the spectre as she nodded towards one of the consoles. It was purely a communication console for connecting to agents across the galaxy. Over a dozen emergency requests for updates had been sent ever since the power fluctuation.

Liara sighed as Jane stared at her. But the spectre finally gave a smile as the asari strode over to the console and activated the communicator. After triggering the Shadow Broker's default voice masker, she connected to every incoming call in the system. "This is the Shadow Broker. The situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware and it disrupted communications momentarily. We are now back online."

Shepard smiled as she watched her bondmate take the mantle of Shadow Broker for herself. She knew what was likely to happen when she came here. Assuming everything went well, Liara was more than likely going to give the reins over to Shepard herself. Even though she tried to hide it beneath the façade of the powerful info broker, Shepard knew that deep down she was still that altruistic nerdy asari scientist who was trying her hardest to impress the spectre. But this time, she had truly earned her spot at the top, and Jane would die before allowing her to give it up for any reason.

"I want a status report on all operations within the next local solar day. Shadow Broker, out," she said before turning off the communications.

"Welcome aboard, Shadow Broker," said Shepard with a playful grin.

Liara looked up sternly. "Thank you, Spectre," she said sarcastically before her eyes turned towards the door. "Uh oh…"

Shepard spun around and saw the reason for her surprise as Doctor Karin Chakwas stood in the doorway giving the spectre a heated glare. "Oh… uh… kinda thought it'd take you longer to get in here…"

"Table, now…" snapped the doctor as she pointed to the medical tables in the next room.

CODEX ENTRIES

Voice Masker | Technology | Intelligence
A common technology used in the business of espionage and intel. It's a filter that takes what the user says, types it out, then reads the message to the receiver, eliminating all voice structure and cadence that may be used to identify the sender. It uses a synthetic recreation of whatever language the user chooses.

A/N: Imagine if the Shadow Broker's voice masker sent their messages in the TikTok voice.