Liara T'Soni and the Ring of Life

by nakati7

Liara T'Soni is a very determined archaeologist who isn't worried to do a little tomb raiding to discover ancient knowledge. Cam Shepard is an ex-Alliance mercenary with a thing for people much smarter than she is. There's no way they'll get up to anything dangerous together, right?

7. Chapter 7

"I still don't see why I have to stay behind."

Shepard grunted as she carefully maneuvered one leg through her climbing harness. "Liara didn't bring enough harnesses for everybody." Garrus scoffed, but Shepard cut him off before he could butt in. "I don't care how good you think you are at climbing ropes, you're planting your ass up here until we get back."

His argument thoroughly trounced, the turian grumbled darkly as he turned away from the cliffside. To his side, Tali crossed her arms as she whined, "Okay, but why do I also have to stay out here in this muggy jungle heat?"

Having successfully pulled the harness around both legs, Shepard quickly started yanking on various straps to tighten it around her hips. "You're keeping Garrus company in case any more of those soldiers show up. Also, your suit is literally climate controlled."

A petulant huff briefly distorted the speakers on Tali's helmet, muttering as she turned away, "It's not climate controlled enough."

Shepard turned back towards Liara, still shimmying around in the harness as she tried to get comfortable with the straps digging into her thighs. Across from her, the doctor had already hooked the group's rope into the large loop of her own harness and was checking for any loose clasps, her hands now covered by thick climbing gloves. Trailing away from her, the end of the rope was wrapped several times around the nearest tree trunk, and as Shepard watched Garrus moved over to it to check the knots holding it fast.

Moving her gaze back to Liara, she stepped forwards and clapped her shoulder roughly. Trying to keep her voice airy and casual, she remarked, "Be careful on the way down, yeah?"

A sweet smile appeared on Liara's face as she averted her eyes. "Thank you, Shepard, but I'll be perfectly fine. I've had to climb to reach a lot of the more remote dig sites I've visited." Looking past Shepard's shoulder, Liara held up a thumbs up to Garrus, who leaned back from the rope and replied with a thumbs up of his own. Nodding her head resolutely, she squared her shoulders, let out a deep breath, then in one powerful push of her legs threw herself backwards off of the cliff.

Shepard's chest seized in a sudden flash of worry, but as she leaned forwards towards the drop she saw Liara arc gracefully back towards the cliff wall, where she landed a good twenty feet below the ledge with a dull impact. Letting out a sigh of her own, Shepard rolled her shoulders out backwards in an attempt to relax her nerves while pointedly not thinking about various crewmates falling to their death.

Choosing instead to stare forwards at the beautiful bird's eye view of the jungle sprawling out below, she began clenching and unclenching her fists as Garrus slowly made his way to stand next to her. Peering down at her silently for a few seconds, his mandibles twitched ominously until at last he let out a chuckle. "Relax Shepard, you'll get to see the pretty asari again in a couple minutes."

Refusing to give him the satisfaction of eye contact, Shepard began to work her jaw as pinpricks of heat appeared in her cheeks. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

Appearing on her other side, as if summoned by the premise of tormenting her employer, Tali cooed, "Oh she's in denial, that's even more embarrassing."

Garrus slapped Shepard on the back, his voice now tinged with humor. "I'm just saying, I think this is the fastest I've ever seen someone develop an interest in ancient archaeology." Looking away from her out towards the scenic view in front of them, he shrugged. "Or maybe it's in the archaeologist."

Letting out a groan, Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose as Tali burst out into laughter. "Maybe she read something about plundering secret caverns and got some nasty ideas."

Garrus barked out a laugh as Tali fell over backwards, now wheezing at her own joke. Cheeks now fully burning, Shepard grimly glanced down over the cliff as she contemplated just how long it would take for her to fall to her death. Surely it would be less painful than this, right?

Her earpiece suddenly crackled as Liara's voice mercifully interrupted her train of thought. "Alright, I've just reached the bottom, you're clear to come down."

From the ground, Tali whimpered, "Reached the bottom, keelah," before falling back into a fit of giggles.

Rolling her eyes, Shepard keyed her earpiece. "Got it, I'm on my way." Turning towards Garrus, she punched him in the shoulder as she drawled drawled, "You're both assholes and I regret hiring you."

Flaring his mandibles in a turian grin, Garrus slapped her shoulder. "See you soon, boss."

Looking away as she attempted to hide the grin begrudgingly forming on her face, she grabbed the rope now attached to her waist with her now-gloved hands. Giving it one final tug, she planted her feet, squared her shoulders towards the jungle in front of her, then leapt backwards.

The roaring of air filled her ears as her stomach immediately flew up into her throat. Her arms instantly went rigid as her hands locked tightly around the rope binding her to the cliffside, but before the terror truly had time to set in she found the stone face rushing back towards her. Sticking out both legs, she slammed into the cliff roughly, nearly bashing her forehead against the rock as her boots scraped across the rough stone.

A stuttering breath squeezed itself through Shepard's teeth, and as she adjusted her grip on the rope she took a moment to look upwards to see the top of the cliff only fifteen feet away. With a frown, she looked back below her to see the many triangular stone Prothean structures still far below, with the open hole directly beneath her little more than a dark spot on the mountainside. Feeling bands of tension begin to tighten around her chest, Shepard forced herself to look back up and focus on her hands in front of her as she grumbled, "Damn, this looked way easier when she did it."

Shaking her head once, Shepard allowed herself one more indulgent moment of panic before locking her emotions down into a familiar state of pure concentration. Death was always right around the corner, as her old Alliance drill sergeants were so fond of saying, but worrying too much about it was like riding a bike. Spend too long staring at the thing you were trying to avoid, and oftentimes you'll end up riding right into it.

Planting her feet firmly between her and the wall, Shepard pushed off once more as she soared down towards the opening below her. Bracing her legs more strongly this time, she landed with little more than a grunt, taking only a moment to check her footing before jumping once again. Now purely focused on achieving her task, Shepard found her fear siphoning away, instead leaving her with a thrilling rush of adrenaline that made her heart race and her skin buzz with each progressive drop down the cliff wall.

Finally, after what felt like it could've been either hours or maybe thirty seconds, Shepard swung back into the wall to find her right foot now planted at an angle against the rock in front of her. Looking down, she saw the very top of one of the strange stone protrusions built into the rock now directly level with her position. Allowing herself to rotate away from the wall for a moment, the world below her spun as the hole punched roughly into the stone surface revealed itself only twenty feet below. Quickly extending out one arm to right herself against the mountain, Shepard executed two more quick jumps to find herself perched directly over the opening into the mountainside.

Deciding that the time for reckless advancement had probably passed, she loosened her grip on the rope clutched between her hands to begin a slow descent into the hole below. Darkness quickly engulfed her as she passed through the opening, and looking back up towards the light as it receded above her, she found herself overcome with the feeling of being eaten by a mountain. Shrugging off the idea, Shepard turned her gaze downward to see Liara standing only forty or so feet below, and as she watched the doctor waved up at her.

Swiftly lowering herself down the final stretch, Shepard found herself letting out a deep sigh of relief as her boots touched the floor. Rolling her shoulders once to try to work out any tension in her arms, she quickly began to unclasp herself from her harness as she looked over towards Liara. "Gotta say, doc, pretty handy of you to just carry around a climbing rope this long."

Looking up from her satchel as she packed away her own harness, Liara smiled wryly. "I've found there are very few problems in my line of work that cannot be solved by a standard sixty meter rope."

Shepard chuckled as she finished peeling off her own harness. Quickly swinging off her backpack, she stuffed the harness away next to her canteen of water, but paused as she reached for the straps on her climbing gloves. Tilting her head to one side, she rubbed her fingers together, appreciating the solid grip she felt as the material rubbed over itself. "You know, these gloves are starting to grow on me."

"Yes, I know what you mean." Liara strode over to stand next to Shepard as she peered towards her with an appraising eye. "They do go quite well with your sleeveless aesthetic, it's quite fetching." Immediately, her eyes went wide and her cheeks flushed violet, her mouth falling slightly open in mortification.

Shepard's stomach flopped over itself as heat started to spread out across her neck. "Oh, uh, thanks." Scratching the back of her head, she found herself flexing her arms more than was strictly necessary. "I think your aesthetic is," she began, suddenly losing confidence as she trailed off. "Fetching, too?" She stared awkwardly into Liara's eyes, feeling her face slowly shrivel in on itself as Liara regarded her with an expression that spoke faintly of wishing she could turn invisible.

Realizing it was up to her to put this horrible, doomed conversation in the dirt, Shepard sniffed loudly and clapped Liara firmly on the shoulder as she turned to face the cavern they now stood in. "Right, anyways, any good ruins in here so far?"

The cavern extended forwards a good fifty feet before them, forming a vaguely spherical interior with the ceiling a good thirty feet above them. The floor was slanted slightly downwards and riddled with small stony protrusions and large cracks in the ground to form a minefield of potential sprained ankles. The entire space was dimly lit by the daylight filtering in from the hole they had descended through, giving the cavern a rather gloomy atmosphere.

As Shepard scanned this new space, she did a sudden double take as she frowned towards the far wall of the cave. Slowly raising a hand to point forwards, she asked, "Wait, what is that?"

Set into the opposite side of the cavern was what appeared to be a rectangle of neon blue light, very softly illuminating the stone wall around it. Looking over towards Liara, Shepard saw her frown before quickly moving across the cave towards the light. Stumbling forwards across the treacherous ground, she moved to follow Liara who apparently had no issue gracefully making her way across the cavern.

Finally coming to a stop a few feet away from the rectangle of light, she saw Liara carefully examining the stone wall around it as she pulled her large notebook out of her satchel. Looking back towards the light itself, Shepard saw that the neon lines formed a rectangle approximately seven feet tall and three feet wide. Peering forwards, she squinted as she tried to stare into the lines of blue before her. The sound of turning pages filled the air as Liara flipped through her notes, but as Shepard continued to gaze into the light she suddenly blinked and tilted her head to one side. "Hey, this almost looks like it's backlit somehow."

Liara quickly looked up from her notes, looking towards the wall before turning to Shepard with a confused expression. Gesturing forwards, Shepard continued, "Look, there are little grooves in the wall where the light is, almost like it was carved or chiseled or something."

Looking back towards the lines of light, Liara frowned as she snapped her book shut and swiftly tucked it back into her bag. Reaching forwards, she gently traced a finger over one of the neon lines, carefully wedging her fingertip into the wall as she found the grooves Shepard had pointed out. Biting her lip, she quickly began to move her hands all around the rectangle as she methodically ran her finger all the way around it. After inspecting the entire shape, she stepped backwards a bit and began to tap her lip as her brow furrowed in thought. Finally, just as Shepard started to open her mouth to speak, Liara quickly stepped forwards and slammed her shoulder into the center of the rectangle.

A sharp crack rang out, followed quickly by the sound of crumbling stone as the entire rectangular chunk of rock slid backwards several inches before falling over and shattering into pieces on the floor. Bright blue light flooded through the now open hole in the cavern wall, painfully searing Shepard's eyes before her pupils could adjust. Liara turned back towards her with her hands on her hips and a wide grin on her face. "I believe we just found the 'good ruins'."

Feeling a goofy smile appear on her own lips, Shepard gestured forwards towards the new opening. "Well, after you, T'Soni."

Liara quickly spun on her heel and stepped through the now open hole in the wall, nearly vibrating with excitement as she moved. Following closely behind, Shepard stepped into the opening to find the wall only to be about a foot thick before it opened up once again. Raising up a hand to cover her eyes, she squinted forwards before letting out a slow whistle. "Damn, I think you're right."

Stretching out before them was a massive cavern carved into the mountain, easily dwarfing the previous room as the walls ran easily several hundred feet from side to side and high enough for the ceiling to disappear into the shadows high above. A smooth, stone walkway shot forwards from their current position, lit by more grooves of neon light that flanked the passage on either side, bathing the space in cerulean light. This pathway curved lazily forwards, meandering back and forth, before abruptly transforming into a set of stone stairs that ascended quickly in several sets of switchbacks. Finally, sitting atop a large, leveled-off portion of the cave thirty feet above them was a single massive stone structure, with walls rising up fifteen feet as they curved back out of view and a large central archway revealing the way inside.

Liara immediately started forwards, swiveling her satchel around to her front as she walked. Having to jog a couple steps to catch up, Shepard pulled up alongside her to see Liara pull her notebook from her bag once again, and as she flipped open to a blank page Shepard let out a soft chuckle. "Not even waiting until we get there to start making notes, huh?"

Without peeling her eyes away from the ruins in front of them, Liara absentmindedly responded, "I'm simply trying to be efficient, Shepard."

Swiftly moving down the stone walkway, the two reached the bottom of the first set of stairs and began to climb. As they hiked up the beginning switchback, the impact of their boots on the stone echoed out around the cavern, and as Shepard climbed she began to feel the weight of the cavernous silence pressing down on her. Glancing once again towards Liara, Shepard saw that the doctor was still nose-deep into her notebook while still somehow avoiding tripping over the stairs underfoot. Even still, something about the stillness of the air started to make Shepard's skin tingle, and figuring she was in need of a good distraction she gestured towards Liara's journal. "I've been meaning to ask, where did you even get a paper journal like that? I haven't seen any predigital pads in years."

Liara quickly looked up from her journal, blinking in surprise as if she had forgotten she wasn't alone. She looked back to the book in her hands for a moment, before closing it for the moment and turning towards Shepard as they walked. "It was a gift from my mother, actually. She gave it to me as a graduation present for finishing my degree."

Shepard nodded slowly, finding herself relishing the opportunity to learn more about Liara without having to resort to looking her up on the extranet. "Were your parents supportive of this whole archaeology career you've got going, then?"

A bitter chuckle filled the air, causing Shepard to raise a brow as she glanced over towards Liara, whose face now bore the beginnings of a scowl. "I can see how one might think that, but no." Drumming her fingers nervously on the cover of her notebook, she mulled over her words for a bit as they began the next set of switchbacks. "Not to say that I have been cut off or anything like that, but my mother has never fully accepted my current line of work. Even during my time at Serrice, she would constantly pester me with gentle implications that one day I would realize the error of my ways and choose a more respectable profession."

Wincing, Shepard scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "So she's not the biggest fan of academia, I take it."

Sighing, Liara shook her head. "It is more like she regards Prothean history as a quaint, but ultimately pointless talking point for social gatherings." Running a finger across the grip of the pistol strapped to her hip, she paused a moment before continuing, "Also, she disapproves of the amount of danger I often find myself in trying to get to the more remote dig sites I visit."

"Ah, yeah, that'll do it." Gently nudging her with one shoulder, Shepard grinned. "Good thing you hired some very reputable mercenaries to help with that part." Liara quietly laughed, glancing over towards her shyly as a smile broke through her scowl. Feeling her own grin widen, Shepard quickly looked away to avoid the sudden temptation to stare at Liara's lips. "Not that you needed to, you've been kicking just as much ass as the rest of us."

As she spoke, the pair climbed up the last set of stairs and found themselves standing in the huge open archway set into the stone wall. Through this opening, Shepard saw the wall ran a good five feet back before opening up into a large space on the opposite side. To her side, Liara opened up her notebook once again, and as they strode through the arch she replied with a smirk, "Maybe we should stick together anyways. I'm becoming a fan of you exploding all the time so the rest of us don't have to."

Rolling her eyes with a good-natured scoff, Shepard swiveled around to take in the scenery inside the outer wall. The two sets of glowing blue grooves that had lit their way so far shot forward into what appeared to be a large central courtyard, where they ran into a circle of blue light that sat in the center of the space. The courtyard itself appeared to at one point have featured tiered seating, with several partially crumbled stone benches sitting in several rows around the center, with more sets of stairs descending down into the middle.

Looking up, Shepard saw that scattered around this courtyard were several structures, all of which were made from the same dark stone of the outer wall. Each building ranged in size from what looked to be single rooms to much larger structures stretching fifty feet across and a hundred feet back. All of these buildings were in various states of disrepair, with several displaying crumbled walls or massive holes in the roof, while others lay almost completely destroyed in piles of rubble scattered around the courtyard. Directly across the courtyard, Shepard saw a single building without any visible structural flaws; a large, cylindrical building that dwarfed any other in this space. Peering further upwards, she saw the far wall of the cavern walling in the back of this ruin, with the cylindrical building being built partially out of the cave wall itself.

"By the Goddess, Shepard, this is incredible!" Turning to her right, Shepard saw Liara already furiously sketching away in her notebook. Looking up from her work, Shepard found herself suddenly short of breath as Liara looked back towards her with eyes sparkling and a massive smile that scrunched her cheeks up below her eyes. Gesturing forwards, Liara gushed, "This is one of the largest finds I've ever made in my career! So much architecture still relatively intact, and all of this evidence of Prothean artistic styling!"

Shepard smiled and patted her firmly on the shoulder. "Congrats, T'Soni, this'll make one hell of a dissertation." Walking past Liara to move further into the courtyard, she began to frown. "Wait, do doctors with degrees still make dissertations or is it called something else at that point?"

A rush of air blew past Shepard as Liara ran past her and began to frantically begin to catalogue every stray piece of shattered bench and ruined wall. Grinning and shaking her head, she casually stuffed her hands into her pockets and began to walk around the perimeter of the courtyard. Keeping an eye out for any fancy-looking pieces of rock on the ground, Shepard started around the first set of benches set into the ground, before stopping and tilting her head curiously. Standing before her, set into the ground at the end of the row of ruined benches, was a large stone statue. This sculpture had a three foot tall stone pedestal, upon which sat a lifesize relief of a humanoid figure kneeling with their hands held out before them. Sitting in its grip was what appeared to be some sort of sword, with the blade extending out four feet and featuring a notched blade that slightly curved across its length. The figure holding the sword was leaning forwards, with a smooth but featureless head stuck out and its neck held to the edge of the blade.

Feeling a sudden chill run down her spine, Shepard frowned and turned back towards the courtyard. Glancing around the other rows of benches, she saw that every tier of the courtyard was bookended by a pair of identical statues, forming a periphery of figures kneeling over their blades. Turning towards Liara, she called out, "Hey doc, have you checked these things out yet?"

Looking up from the half-collapsed room she had been inspecting, Liara frowned as she too noticed the ring of statues around the courtyard. Quickly making her way over to Shepard, she began to draw the sculpture on a fresh page. Glancing around the ruins as she drew, she remarked, "I don't think I've ever seen art like this in a ruin before." Her hand paused for a moment as she peered towards the smooth stone head of the statue. "Or even read about something like this, now that I think about it."

Standing back from the statue, Liara quickly made her way down one tier of the courtyard to begin inspecting another sculpture. Following behind, Shepard called out, "Maybe they've all just fallen apart by the time you found them?"

Liara shook her head. "It's possible, but I doubt it. We would have at least found shattered statues, or perhaps some of these stone blocks they sit on if they really were part of a widespread artistic movement." Still speaking as she began to circle this second statue, she continued, "No, I think there's something unique going on here."

After making a few more scribbled notes around her sketch of the statue, she snapped her journal shut and looked back towards Shepard with a cryptic expression. "Does anything about the layout of this place stand out to you?"

Frowning and crossing her arms, Shepard turned back towards the main courtyard as she slowly swept her gaze across the several ruined structures, all gathered around this central open space. Tilting her head to one side, she began to chew thoughtfully on her lower lip as a sudden memory popped into her head. Quickly scanning the environment again, she nodded to herself before turning back to Liara. "Actually, yeah. This place is built just like this one science station I got assigned to back in my first year or two with the Alliance."

An impressed smile appeared on Liara's face as she quickly nodded her head in response. "Exactly, yes. I was thinking that it looks very similar to the quad outside my office at Serrice, but essentially I think we're on the same concept."

Shepard slowly began nodding her head as she turned towards the nearest sculpture. "Alright, so some Protheans decided to come way out here to the middle of nowhere and build an underground complex decorated with weird ominous statues."

"Not to mention, they built this place behind two solid walls of rock and stuck it under a mountain." A devious grin split Liara's face as she wiggled her fingers mysteriously. "Whoever built this place had something to hide."

Shepard snorted as an easy smile slid into place on her own face. "Oh, you're having the time of your life, aren't you T'Soni?"

Saying nothing in response, Liara instead scrunched up one side of her face in an exaggerated wink before starting to walk off towards the cylindrical building on the far side of the courtyard. Shaking her head with a grin, Shepard stepped forwards to follow as she willed her heart to stop beating quite so fast.

Moving through the tiered courtyard, Shepard and Liara moved to stand directly in front of the rearmost structure of the entire ruin. Reexamining it's cylindrical shape, Shepard found herself still unable to find any sign of damage on its curving walls. Letting out a low whistle, she muttered, "Damn, they must've built this one out of the good stuff."

The two stepped forwards towards the single visible opening at its base; a large opening that might have at one point contained double doors, now just an open passageway inside the building. Flanking the opening on either side were two more of the kneeling statues, and as Shepard followed Liara between them she felt another tingle of unease drip down her spine. Shrugging it off, she squinted and peered forward into the dark room ahead.

The space the two moved into was nearly pitch black, lit only by a dim blue glow from the courtyard outside. There were, however, several thin slices of cerulean light shining down at various angles from the curved wall of the room, as if the light from outside was filtering in through small holes perforating the structure. While offering next to nothing in terms of illumination, these rays of light spread out across the entire room, displaying that the dark space must be easily thirty or so feet across in any direction.

"Shepard, look." Glancing over towards Liara, Shepard saw that she had lifted up a hand to point towards the far side of the room. Leaning past her to follow her finger, she saw that set into the far side of the curved wall was another blue rectangle, this one barely bright enough to be seen from the entrance.

Shrugging, Shepard stepped forwards into the room. "What are the odds that that's another door?" Looking down towards the dark floor, she approached the first beam of light filtering in when a firm hand wrapped around her bicep. Stopping and turning back over her shoulder, Shepard found Liara staring past her at the ray of light with a hesitant frown. Feeling her shoulders begin to tense, she carefully stepped back from the light while still looking towards Liara. "What's up, doc?"

Her gaze flickered over towards Shepard for a moment before returning to the light in front of them. "Shepard, this building is the only intact structure in the complex."

Nodding, Shepard crossed her arms. "Yeah?"

Slowly stepping around her, Liara began to cautiously move closer to the blue beam like someone might approach a snake. Without turning back to look towards Shepard, she continued, "There are no holes in the walls for this light to be coming from."

Reaching down towards the floor, Liara ran her hands across the cracked stone surface of the floor until her fingers ran over a small, cracked section. Biting her lip in concentration, she dug her fingers into the crack trying to find purchase before pulling backwards with a quick yank, a small chunk of stone now grasped in her hand. Closing her eyes, Liara's body quickly became wreathed in gentle blue light as her biotics flared to life, and in her hands the chunk of stone started to glow. Slowly pushing her hands forward, she released the rock to float smoothly through the air on its own, drifting ever closer towards the ray of light as Liara quickly backed away to stand next to Shepard.

A moment later, the rock glided directly into the beam of light, where immediately a blinding flash of light filled the room as a deafening blast of sound shattered the quiet of the room. Shepard instinctively stepped back and covered her ears as fragments of stone pinged off her armored vest, cursing under her breath as the afterimage burned into her retinas slowly faded away. Blinking away the tears beginning to form, she lowered her hand and peered forwards to see the only remaining sign of the rock was a glowing hole burrowed into the floor at the foot of the beam of light.

Turning back to Liara, she saw the sudden apprehension she felt reflected on the doctor's face. Bringing her hands together nervously, she began to loudly pop the various joints of her left hand. "Okay, light is bad, got it."

Looking back across the room, Liara muttered, "This doesn't make any sense, there's no way any sort of structure down here should still have power for a trap like this." She fell silent for a moment, tapping her lip thoughtfully before looking back to Shepard. "We need to go deeper."

Grinning, Shepard stopped popping her knuckles to clap her on the shoulder. "Let's go dig up some secrets, then."

Carefully moving forwards into the room, Shepard gave the first ray of light a wide berth as she skirted around to the side. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Liara following closely behind with her arms tucked tightly into her sides. Returning her gaze towards the glowing blue rectangle at the far side of the room, Shepard let out an annoyed sigh as she began to count the many blue streams of light between her and the far wall, all at different angles as they shined down from the outer wall.

An image of Chakwas' face suddenly appeared in her mind, frowning down at her as she sadly explained how she had gotten shot by a creepy old building. Shuddering at even the imagined ire of the doctor, Shepard shrugged off the tension creeping into her shoulders as she ducked down beneath the next ray of light and carefully scooted underneath it. Standing slowly, she stepped around two of the more vertical beams before lifting a leg up over a particularly low one. Blinking, Shepard found herself for a brief moment standing directly over this beam of light as it passed directly between her legs, but with a smooth rotation of her hip she swung her second foot up and over the potential death trap.

A small patch of open floor appeared in the room, allowing Shepard to take four steps forward unimpeded before coming to a final streak of blue light, slashing downwards at a forty degree angle. Figuring there was no rush, she lowered herself to the floor and quickly crawled the last distance on her stomach as it scraped over the stone floor. Pulling herself back up to her feet, she turned back around just in time to see Liara simply walk around where the light hit the ground with plenty of room to spare. Seeing her raise one brow skeptically, Shepard shrugged. "Thought I'd take the direct route, I guess."

Rolling her eyes with an amused smile, she turned towards the back wall of the room and stepped towards the neon blue rectangle set into the wall. Behind her, Shepard began to roll her shoulders out as Liara once again reached towards the glowing grooves in the stone. "If you need to bash the wall in again, I could give it a go–"

As she spoke, Liara's fingers brushed up against the light outlining the rectangle, and immediately the sound of stone grinding stopped Shepard in her tracks. Yanking her hand back quickly, Liara retreated a few steps as the stone in front of them jerked downwards a couple inches and allowed another flood of blue light to flow into the room. Frowning, Shepard crossed her arms as she watched the stone continue to smoothly sink downwards until finally it disappeared completely into the floor. Now fully exposed before them was a rectangular passageway carved into the stone, lit with more grooves of neon blue set into the walls as the path curved gently out of sight.

After quickly jotting down a few notes in her journal, Liara turned towards Shepard with a questioning look. Looking back towards the new hallway for a moment before returning her gaze to Liara, Shepard simply shrugged and started down the passageway. Behind her, the telltale sound of boots on stone confirmed that Liara was following, along with the signature scratching of a pen across paper.

The air of the tunnel, compared to that of the rest of the ruins so far, was incredibly stale and packed with an irritating amount of dust. The sound of each step forwards bounced flatly off of the rough stone now boxing them in, accompanied nicely by the quiet huffs of Shepard's own breathing. The pathway itself slightly curved around to the right and stayed relatively level, but with the walls built just barely large enough for a person to pass through, Shepard quickly found herself looking forwards to finding the exit.

Thankfully, only a few moments later Shepard rounded a corner to see the passage exit out into another room. Quickly striding forwards the last few steps, she eagerly moved forwards out of the hallway and into this larger space. Behind her, Liara shuffled out of the hallway to stand next to her, eagerly looking around this new room before pausing with a frown.

Looking back towards the room in front of her, Shepard saw that this new space was the smallest they had uncovered so far, with the far side of this square room only being twenty feet away. Up above, the ceiling arched gently upwards in a smooth dome that peaked only fifteen feet above the floor, and as Shepard glanced around she noticed no other entrances or exits to this place. Returning her gaze to the center of the room, she saw that there were four more of the kneeling statues, each spaced equally around the edge of a circular depression set several inches into the floor. Leaning forwards, Shepard blinked as she saw that carved into this floor were several more grooves, each of which arced across the stone and interlaced with other grooves to form a labyrinth of carved lines.

Turning back towards Liara, she saw the doctor was still frowning towards this new chamber with an almost pouty expression. Smirking, she nudged her shoulder lightly. "Is this not what you were hoping for?"

Liara flinched as she realized she was being addressed, before turning towards Shepard as she bashfully clutched her notebook. "Well, any extra ruins we find at this point are just even more additions to an already incredible find. I already could think of months of work from just what we've seen so far."

Crossing her arms, Shepard lazily raised one brow as she waited for Liara to answer the question. After a poignant pause, Liara rolled her eyes with a huff. Turning back to face the room, she reluctantly continued, "However, it doesn't really give us any clues about why this place was built."

The sound of stone grinding across stone suddenly cut into the conversation, and with a sinking feeling Shepard whipped around to face the way they had come. Her jaw dropped as she saw that the floor of said hallways was now rising rapidly, with their exit already halfway blocked off. Lunging forwards, she slammed her hands down on top of the rising rock surface to try to slow its pace, only to feel her palms scrape across the stone as it relentlessly continued its journey upwards. Her blood now racing through her veins, Shepard found herself hanging on by the tips of her fingers as she futilely tried to use her body weight to slow it down, until finally she was forced to yank her hands out of the way as the stone slammed back up into the ceiling above.

Silence filled the dead air of the room as Shepard backed away from the now sealed wall in front of her. Her stomach sinking, she turned back towards Liara, who was staring towards the wall with an incredibly tired expression. Figuring she needed to bolster both of their spirits, Shepard clapped Liara hard on the shoulder. "Well, this seems as good a time as any to find some more secret tunnels or something, right?"

Liara blankly stared at her for a moment, before inhaling sharply and nodding. Spinning around she approached the circular depression in the middle of the room. Shepard watched her begin to poke around the various grooves in the floor before turning back towards the now-sealed pathway behind her as she keyed her earpiece. "Tali, you reading me?"

One second passed in uncomfortable silence, and then another, until a blast of static filled Shepard's ear. Wincing, she grimaced and tilted her head to one side uncomfortably until the distortion resolved itself into Tali's voice. "We read you Shepard, what's going on?"

Striding up to the wall in front of her, she absentmindedly kicked the tip of her boot into the wall. "How long would it take you to potentially blow through, let's say, forty or fifty feet of solid rock?"

A pregnant pause filled the air before Tali's voice crackled in her ear once again. "I mean theoretically with my drone I could probably make that happen in, uh, three hours? Maybe four? Assuming, of course, that you and Liara aren't stuck in some position where exploding forty to fifty feet of rock wouldn't cave in some ancient ruin on top of you."

Swallowing thickly, Shepard glanced up to the domed roof above her. "Right, well, let's keep that plan on the back burner then. Just in case, you know."

"Whatever you say, Shepard."

Huffing out a sigh, she deactivated her earpiece and spun back around to see Liara slowly moving her hands across the arms of one of the kneeling statues. Walking over to join her, Shepard called out, "Find anything good?"

Liara quickly glanced over towards her before returning her gaze to the statue, continuing to move her hands across it as she replied, "Nothing concrete yet, no." Moving her hands up to start poking around where the shoulders attached to the torso, she continued, "I just had this feeling about these statues we keep seeing everywhere. It can't be a coincidence that four of them were placed in a chamber as hidden as this." Circling around to the sculpture's back, she began pushing firmly on various points across its spine, slowly working her way up to the base of the neck. The statue itself, however, remained unmoved by her efforts, refusing to budge in any way as Liara effectively massaged its entire upper back region.

Letting out an annoyed huff, Liara clasped one hand over the other and smacked them loudly against the back of the statue's head. Immediately, the head jerked forwards two inches with a mechanical click as its neck sank onto its outstretched blade. From where the blade touched it, an oily black fluid began to pour out of the statue and run down the length of the blade, where it finally dripped downwards into a groove carved into the floor below.

"Holy shit." Leaning towards the blade, Shepard watched as the dark blood of the statue continued to flow, quickly filling the groove in the floor as the fluid began to race through the interconnected mesh carved into the ground. Feeling a morbid fascination begin to bubble up in her stomach, she quickly looked back up towards Liara. "We gotta try the rest of these, right?"

Liara tore her gaze from the fluid spreading below to look back to Shepard with a slowly spreading smile. Without saying a word, she quickly ran to the next statue in the circle and firmly slapped the back of its head. As they watched, its head immediately sank forward onto its blade, and a moment later the same pitch black liquid began pouring down its blade. Looking back towards Shepard, Liara called out, "Quick, do the two on your side."

Quickly breaking out into a jog, Shepard blew past the first sculpture as she slapped the back of its head firmly without stopping. Running straight on to the final statue, she placed both hands firmly on its head and shoved downwards, feeling the mechanical click jolt through her forearms as its head also fell forwards onto its blade. Stepping around the side of it, Shepard quickly squatted at the side of the circular depression as she watched the oily fluid spread out quickly across the floor, each statue providing a flood of black ichor to fill all of the interlocked grooves across the floor. In seconds, the liquid from the first statue ran into the fluid from the second, doubling the progress across the maze carved into the floor, then combined with the third, then the fourth statue's fluid until in less than a minute, the entire grooved recession in the stone was full of this dark liquid.

Across the recession, Shepard heard a soft gasp. "By the goddess." Looking up towards Liara, she saw her slowly point down to the now filled in mosaic carved into the floor. "Shepard, it's the starchart we found."

Looking back to the ground, Shepard's spine began to tingle as the interlocking grooves and arching curves resolved themselves into a shape identical to that of the mural she had discovered back in the vorcha mines. Slowly standing up, she uncomfortably began to scratch the back of her head. "Hey, so in your professional experience, is it normal to find coordinates painted into the ground with statue blood?"

Before Liara could answer, the ground beneath them began to vibrate as the sound of scraping stone once again filled the air. Looking down, Shepard saw the entire circular recession split down the middle with a loud crack, and as she watched each half slowly pulled away from the other as the black liquid poured into the widening breach in the floor. Peering forwards, she blinked as the blue light of the chamber slowly revealed a wide staircase descending down out of sight as each half of the floor slid completely out of sight beneath the edges of the circular opening.

Looking back up to Liara, Shepard saw the doctor slowly shake her head as she returned her gaze. "Definitely not normal, no." Stepping down onto the first step of the staircase, she continued with a smile, "Isn't this incredible, though?" With that, she turned and began to make her way down through the floor.

Suddenly unwilling to be left by herself, Shepard sighed and popped her index fingers with her thumbs. "Right, just checking." Carefully stepping down onto the slick upper steps, she cautiously followed Liara as they both descended into the dark.

---

Liara huffed in annoyance as she opened her notebook for the fourth time in ten minutes. Looking down, she once again frowned as she saw that the nearly complete lack of light made reading or writing impossible, so with a sigh she closed the notebook again. Glancing to her right, she saw the shadowy silhouette of Shepard walking beside her, her face nearly indistinguishable from the dark wall behind her. Realizing that she would likely just have to wait to continue her notes, she sullenly shoved her notebook back into her satchel.

The two of them had discovered this dark, barely lit hallway at the bottom of the stairs uncovered in the statue room. Running perpendicular to the exit, it had seemingly extended off infinitely in either direction, with the only light being a faint blue glow off in the distance down the hallway leading to the right. They had looked at each other and shrugged, both figuring walking in the dark towards a light source was probably the better idea.

At present, however, Liara was beginning to regret not packing a flashlight along with all of her climbing gear. Biting her lip, she did her best to not think of all of the possible architectural detailings or works of art engraved into the walls they could be missing. Still, even just the ability to read her own notes would have been better than this monotonous slog through the dark.

A sudden cough broke the silence, startling Liara out of her thoughts as she looked back over to Shepard. Still shrouded in shadows, she saw what she assumed was Shepard scratching the back of her neck again as a moment later her husky voice hesitantly began, "Oh, by the way, I wanted to apologize for making you talk about your mother earlier. It seems like that's a sensitive subject, and I didn't mean to pry."

Frowning quizzically, Liara replied, "I appreciate your concern, Shepard, but honestly it's fine. I don't really mind talking about it with you."

There was a moment of quiet, before Shepard shifted uncomfortably. "Alright, I just don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything. I swear I'm usually very professional with all of my clients."

Bewildered at this sudden bashfulness, Liara shook her head. "If I was uncomfortable with the subject, I wouldn't have told you about it. Besides, you've already caught me looking up your trauma on the extranet, so I think this is more than fair." She paused, before slowly reaching out to what she thought was Shepard's shoulder. After fumbling around for a second, she found her mark and proceeded to squeeze it reassuringly. "You've saved my life several times already, Shepard. I think it's safe to say I consider you to be more than a work acquaintance."

"Oh." Clearing her throat, Shepard let out a hoarse chuckle. "Well, if all standards of professionalism are getting thrown out, now I can start telling the good jokes."

Softly laughing, Liara released Shepard's shoulder. "Oh, I'm looking forward to it." Looking forwards again, she saw that the blue light in the distance had finally resolved itself into a door frame, lined with interweaving lines of neon light to guide the way. "You may have to wait, though. I believe we've finally arrived."

Stepping through the door with Shepard close behind, she found herself standing in a decently sized room, with more stone benches placed into neat rows across the floor. Looking forwards, she saw what appeared to be large windows spanning the entire far wall, though by this point any glass that had filled them had long since been destroyed. Turning over her shoulder, Liara saw that the leftmost wall of the room had another door frame set into it, this one actually containing what appeared to be a heavily rusted metal door.

Stepping up to stand next to her, Shepard crossed her arms as she took in the room. "Well, now the question is where have we arrived to?" Tapping her lip thoughtfully, Liara began to weave through the rows of benches as she approached the window. Placing a hand on the empty windowsill, she leaned forwards and felt her jaw drop in awe at the view now before her.

Extending out for what must have been hundreds of feet was another massive cavern, this one easily dwarfing any underground space Liara had ever seen before. The entire cave seemed to form some sort of triangular shape, with the walls on either side tilting towards each other as the ceiling expanded ever upwards into the shadows above. Across the base of this massive cave seemed to be some sort of stone plaza fifty feet below, occupying the entire left half of the cave with a smooth, but otherwise featureless empty space. Across this plaza, several neon blue grooves ran across the floor, providing the same dim, melancholy lighting that had illuminated the rest of the ruins so far.

Looking to her right, Liara saw the flooring abruptly cut off as a gaping abyss took its place, spanning the entire remainder of this huge cavern. The blue light shining over from the left half of the cave offered just enough illumination to show that this abyss fell a good hundred, hundred fifty feet before it too fell out of Liara's sight. Craning her neck even further as she leaned out of the empty window frame, Liara felt her breath catch as one more point of light appeared in her vision. Peering forwards, she could just make out what appeared to be some sort of small raised platform or dais, sitting atop which appeared to be some sort of object too small to fully make out from this distance.

Liara's heart began to pump in her chest as excitement coursed through her veins. Pulling herself back from the window, she turned towards Shepard with a wide smile as she pointed towards the platform. "There's something down there, Shepard! This could be huge, oh goddess, we need to go check it out right now. As soon as possible. Immediately?" She slowly trailed off, twisting the strap of her satchel between her hands awkwardly.

Shepard stared at her blankly for a moment, before turning her head to one side as she barked out a laugh. After a few solid guffaws, she managed to compose herself and began stepping towards the door on the far side of the room. As she passed Liara, she clapped her on the shoulder with a smirk. "I love seeing you all worked up, T'Soni. I think I could get used to this."

Liara blanched, her cheeks immediately flaming into a horrible blush as she attempted to sputter a reply. Still chuckling to herself, Shepard walked up to the metal door and gave it a push, only to nearly walk right into it when the door refused to budge. Frowning, she pushed on it again with more force, the metal still refusing to cooperate. Scoffing, she tilted her head to one side, then suddenly flashed bright with a crackling biotic aura. Lifting up one leg, she slammed her boot heel into the center of the door in a detonation of light, and with a metallic screech the door crumpled in around her foot like an empty can as it flew fifteen feet back from the impact.

Standing back up from her kick, Shepard turned back towards Liara as her biotics fizzled out. Awkwardly scratching the back of her neck, she shrugged and gestured to the now ruined door. "It's, uh, open now."

Liara stared silently, one brow raised as Shepard slowly began to grimace. Finally allowing herself to smile ruefully, she stepped past Shepard and through the door as she called back, "Seems I'm not the only one who's worked up."

Moving past the ruined door, Liara turned a corner to find another staircase heading winding downwards. Appreciating that this one wasn't covered in the strange statue juice, she quickly descended the steps as she heard Shepard follow closely behind. After traversing several flights, she finally found the bottom as the stairs exited out through yet another blue-framed doorway.

Stepping through the door, Liara felt her pulse quicken as she found herself stepping out into the massive chamber she had seen through the window. Slowly spinning around in a circle, she found that the cavern seemed even more titanic now that she stood inside of it, with the walls coming together to form a point several hundred feet above her and the far wall seeming nearly half a mile away. Turning to look across the huge stone plaza that extended across this half of the cave, Liara blinked as she now noticed two other doors exiting out into the cavern, with one to her left and one set into the far wall across the cave.

Frowning to herself, she thoughtfully began to chew her lip as she turned to examine the cavern again. Looking around to scope the staggering size of the walls, she realized with a start that this place was simply too big to have fit into the same triangular outcropping they had dropped into originally. As Shepard descended down the stairs and came to stand next to her, Liara spoke, "Shepard, the size of this place, it's too big." Turning to look at her, Shepard frowned quizzically. Gesturing forwards, Liara continued, "Look at how high up this place goes, or how far away the end of the chamber is. That dark hallway must have led us through the mountain into a different one of those triangular structures."

Eyebrows raising, Shepard looked back out to the sprawling empty space before them. She slowly began to nod in response, before turning to look at the other two doorways exiting into the chamber. "We must have only seen a fraction of what's down here so far."

The sound of an explosion suddenly thundered through the air, and from the doorway to the left the sound of crunching metal rang out. To Liara's side, Shepard immediately whipped out her pistol as she swiveled around to completely face the door, and Liara quickly followed suit as her heart leapt up into her throat. Feeling bands of nervous tension start to constrict her chest, she shakily thumbed off the safety on her pistol.

Through the still doorway, she heard a harsh voice grunt, "Stupid fuckin door, god damn it." Moments later, two figures slowly appeared in the dim light beyond the chamber, and as they walked into the light Liara let out a slow exhale, her pulse pounding. Targeting the figure on the right, her finger began to slowly squeeze down the trigger, until at last the figures stepped fully into the chamber and resolved themselves into a familiar woman in a tight catsuit and her heavily tattooed friend.

Upon seeing Liara and Shepard, both women swore and drew their own weapons, their biotics flaring instinctively. Blue light flickered around Liara's hands in response, but to her side Shepard quickly stood with her hands raised upwards. "Woah, okay, hold on a minute." Holstering her pistol, she moved to step in front of Liara with her hands still raised. "We really have to stop meeting like this."

After a tense pause, the long-haired woman copied Shepard and stowed her weapon as her biotics faded away. Sweeping a lock of hair out of her eyes, she planted her hands on her hips as she regarded Shepard and Liara curiously. "I'm surprised we met you again at all, to be honest. I wasn't really expecting you two to make it this far."

Lowering her own weapon, Liara crossed her arms. "I could say the same for you two." Tilting her head back towards the way they had come, she continued, "I have a feeling that the Protheans who built this place didn't want very many visitors coming by."

The two women turned from Shepard to face Liara, and with a sinking feeling she noticed that the tattooed woman was still holding her pistol menacingly in front of her. Her companion, however, simply stared at Liara, her eyes flitting up and down her form silently. Shifting awkwardly in place, Liara found herself feeling like a specimen being examined by a scientist shortly before a dissection. Suddenly desperate to not break eye contact, Liara raised her chin and stared back at the woman with as much confidence as she could muster.

The woman blinked, before one corner of her mouth quirked slightly upwards. A moment later, she reached out to lay a hand on the tattooed woman's shoulder, prompting her to finally holster her pistol with a snarl. Releasing her companion, the woman took a step forwards towards Liara and held a hand outstretched for a handshake. "It seems introductions are in order, then. My name is Miranda Lawson, and this is my associate, Jack."

Liara stepped forwards to accept the handshake, firmly shaking it once. Stepping back to stand next to Shepard, she turned and nodded politely towards Jack, who simply scoffed with a mildly disgusted expression. Looking back to Miranda, she replied, "My name is Dr. Liara T'Soni, and this is–"

She paused, suddenly remembering her earlier conversation with Shepard. Reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder, she continued, "This is my friend, Shepard." Briefly glancing over to her right, she saw Shepard regarding her with a strangely difficult to read expression as her cheeks developed a slightly pink tint.

Flicking her gaze forwards again, she saw Miranda regarding the two of them with the same intense focus she seemed to apply to everything she looked at. After a moment, she seemed to shrug off whatever had been occupying her mind as she turned back towards Liara. "So, Dr. T'Soni, you're obviously searching for the Ring of Life. Why?"

Liara stiffened as her eyes widened, but before she could respond she heard Shepard grumble, "I still like Eternia Disk."

Ignoring her, Liara let out a sigh and contemplatively chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before responding. "My entire life has been spent in pursuit of knowledge of the Protheans, to the point that it was my life's passion even before I got a doctorate in the subject." Swallowing nervously, she glanced over to Shepard to see her watching intently. As they made eye contact, she nodded reassuringly, her mouth quirking into a crooked grin. A sudden bubbling energy appeared in Liara's stomach, and feeling briefly emboldened she turned back to face Miranda. "If these masterworks exist, then not only would they revolutionize the entire academic field of Prothean history, but they could change our collective grasp on how we interpret galactic history as a whole."

One brow on Miranda's face arched upwards slowly, but other than that nothing on her face changed the entire time Liara spoke. Once she finished, the woman nodded contemplatively before turning towards Shepard. "You, Shepard, you're clearly the leader of whatever little organization you seem to have going on. Where did the turian and the quarian go?"

Casually shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Shepard crossed her arms. "You sure do ask a lot of questions, don't you?"

Miranda's eyes narrowed slightly, before she shrugged. "I suppose it doesn't matter as they clearly aren't here now." Pointing past the group towards the far wall of the cavern, she continued, "Our path through these ruins only served to bring us into this cave, and I'm assuming you both had a rather similar experience." Liara nodded in confirmation, and in response Miranda stepped between her and Shepard as she briskly started walking towards the massive chasm. Jack quickly stepped forwards to follow behind as Miranda called back, "Let's see what the Protheans had to hide, then."

Liara glanced over to Shepard, who simply shrugged as they both turned to follow. As a group, the four made their way across the empty expanse of stone floor, with Liara peering down to peer into the large glowing stripes of blue light set into the floor. Despite how close their destination seemed, it took over a minute to make it all the way to the edge of the yawning abyss filling half of the cave, and Liara found the atmosphere of the cavern suddenly much more strained with these two strangers now accompanying them. Shepard, however, seemed perfectly relaxed as they walked, her hands casually shoved into her pockets as she kept pace with Liara.

Finally approaching the drop off point, Liara looked down to see the floor simply stop and disappear into the seemingly endless pit before them. Now standing directly next to it, the chasm had an almost magnetic atmosphere about it, and Liara found herself starting to lean forwards towards it before she caught herself and quickly took a step back. Looking towards the rest of the group, she saw Jack fearlessly perch herself on the edge and point out across the abyss. "So, that shit over there's what you've all been talking about, right?"

Looking towards the distant wall, Liara saw the small platform she had spotted from the window above, now separated from her by a solid hundred feet of empty space. At this distance, the dais atop the platform was clearly visible, with twisting lines of neon blue spiraling down from it and creating a distant point of bright light in the cavern. Now, however, Liara could just make out the general shape of what appeared to be a stone lectern sitting atop the dais, seemingly taunting her from across the chasm.

Looking up towards the side walls of the cave, she began to look around for any easy handholds or crevices that could be used to climb. "Whatever that is, we need to figure out a way to get over there to investigate." Turning back towards the group, she looked towards Miranda and Jack. "I don't suppose either of you would happen to have any pitons or ice axes on you?"

The two women exchanged a brief glance, before Jack brusquely responded, "What the fuck is a piton?"

Sighing, Liara waved them off and turned back towards the platform glowing in the distance. Frowning in concentration, she began chewing on her lower lip as she racked her brain for any way to cross the gap. Theoretically, her climbing rope might be long enough to string out across the chasm at least once, but that raised the issue of how to actually get one end all the way over there, much less anchor it in place. Perhaps with some liberal usage of biotics, they could fling somebody across the gap?

"Hey doc, check this out." Turning back towards Shepard, Liara found her staring down at the stone floor a few feet behind them. Following her line of sight, she realized that several of the blue lines of light running across the floor intersected at a point five feet away, all combining to form what appeared to be a single square of stone on the floor about three feet across. Scratching her neck, Shepard asked, "Does that seem peculiar to you too, or am I reading into this too much?"

Cautiously, Liara moved towards the square. Stopping a good few feet away from it, she leaned down and carefully inspected the ground around it to look for any more traps or nasty little hidden features. Instead, she discovered a groove carved into the ground around this square, causing the light to once again appear backlit instead of right on the surface like the rest of the blue strips in the ground. Standing back to her full height, Liara quickly mulled over the various risks in her head. After a moment, she shrugged to herself before striding confidently forwards to stand directly on the square.

As soon as her boot landed, the square sank downwards into the ground an inch with an audible click. Almost instantly, a strong tremor shook through the ground, nearly throwing Liara off her feet as the sound of rocks grinding over each other echoed out across the cavern. Spinning around towards the chasm, she saw the rest of the group similarly struggling to keep their balance, with Jack in particular windmilling her arms as she teetered along the edge. Finding herself rooted to the spot in horror, Liara watched as Jack's back foot slipped out from under her, sending her tipping back almost in slow motion in an inexorable fall into the abyss.

A sudden flash of movement flew across Liara's vision as Shepard exploded into action, diving forwards onto her stomach with her arms outstretched. Slamming onto the ground and skidding forward nearly an entire foot, the tips of her fingers snagged onto the straps of Jack's harness right as she fully tumbled backwards. Shepard let out a pained grunt, suddenly finding herself supporting all of Jack's weight, and with a hoarse voice she yelled, "Can I get some help here?"

Blinking out of her stupor, Liara lunged forwards to grab onto her right arm, and across from her she saw Miranda grasping her left. As a group, they began to heave upwards, Liara feeling the muscles in her back protesting as they painstakingly raised Jack up inch by inch, until finally she could reach up and desperately grab onto the ledge above her. With a snarl, she pulled herself upwards as the rest continued to pull, and in moments the four of them collapsed backwards with Jack finally planted back up on solid ground.

Instantly, she slapped away Shepard's hands, standing up with her fists balled and murder on her face. Turning towards her with biotic sparks crackling off of her, she yelled, "Don't you fucking touch me!"

Shepard rose slowly, her hands once again raised before her in a pacifying pose. A quizzical frown on her face, she blinked before responding, "Okay, got it, that's my bad." She hesitated a moment, watching Jack carefully without relaxing her arms. Blinking, Liara realized with a start that she had subtly maneuvered herself between Jack and the rest of them without her even noticing.

Jack hesitated, apparently noticing Shepard's position at the same time as Liara. The corona of energy swirling around her abruptly died off, but Liara pointedly noticed that her hands remained in fists as she continued to glare at them. Shepard, for her part, relaxed into a more casual pose, awkwardly gesturing towards the ledge behind them as she continued, "I just was trying to help, is all."

Scoffing, Jack rolled her eyes. "Shit, you sound like a pussy." With that, she stalked away several feet before stopping to kick at a rock sticking up out of the floor.

Shepard slowly turned back to Liara and Miranda, her brow pinched in confusion as she shrugged. Liara simply shook her head in response before turning to Miranda, who was still staring after Jack with a frown. She blinked after a moment before turning back towards the chasm behind them. Spinning to face the dais in the distance herself, Liara's brow shot upwards in surprise. "Oh, that's new."

Where once the two side walls of the cave had been flat, craggy surfaces gently sloping to meet each other high above, two enormous sections of stone had slid downwards to reveal new chambers on either side of the chasm. Now clearly visible in the blue light shining out across the cavern were two sets of statues, each easily over a hundred feet tall and twenty-five feet wide and carved from towering pieces of sculpted stone. Peering forwards, Liara saw that each set of statues depicted two featureless individuals, similarly to the kneeling statues they had seen several times already. On each side of the cavern, one statue was standing tall with a familiar looking blade held aloft in their hands, and before them kneeled the second statue with their hands on the ground and their head stuck out, awaiting the blade.

Miranda gasped next to her, bringing up a hand to partially cover her mouth. "My god, it's an execution."

Striding over to stand next to Liara, Shepard drawled, "So the Protheans really had a whole 'death and sacrifice' thing going, huh?"

Whipping her notebook out of her satchel, Liara quickly began flipping through the pages. "No Prothean ruins I have ever heard of had records of anything sculptures like this, and especially not of this size. Something about this place, specifically, is very different from what the rest of Prothean society was doing."

Miranda hummed contemplatively. "Perhaps that's why this ruin is so carefully hidden away from prying eyes."

Still scanning quickly through all of her scribbled notes and sketches, Liara frowned as she suddenly found a faint blue light shining from behind her book. Lowering the notebook, she looked down over the edge of the chasm to see a new source of light glimmering up from a ways down the wall at the edge of the abyss. Squinting and leaning down to try to make out more details, her brow raised as she discovered the shape of a lever jutting out of the wall, fifteen feet down and silhouetted by the new light source. Quickly scanning the rest of the visible surface of the wall, she spotted a second lever, this one also fifteen feet down and spaced out twenty feet across the wall from the first.

Standing back up, she quickly tucked her notebook back into her satchel as she called out, "I found something." Pointing out the levers, the other three gathered to peer down towards these new discoveries while Liara continued rifling around through her bag. She quickly grabbed onto the coiled up rope and pulled it out, proceeding to then unwind one end and tie it several times around her waist. Once she fastened, then double checked, a thick knot around herself, she tapped Shepard on the shoulder. As she spun around with a questioning expression, Liara held out the rest of the rope. "Help me down?"

Quickly nodding, Shepard took the rest of the rope as Liara approached the edge. Before she could lower herself down, she heard Miranda command, "Give me the other half of the rope." Looking over towards them, she saw Shepard swiftly unspool the other half of the rope before handing it off to Miranda, who copied Liara and tied the rope around her own waist. She then held her half of the rope out to Jack with an expectant expression, and after a moment of hesitation the tattooed woman snatched the rope out of her hand with a snarl.

Refocusing on her own task, Liara kneeled down to slowly begin lowering herself backwards off of the ledge. Briefly looking up, she saw Shepard right in front of her as she spread her feet wide and wrapped the rope across her broad shoulders to brace herself. Seeing Liara looking up at her, Shepard briefly winked before returning her focus to the rope. A shy smile danced across Liara's lips for a moment, before she too refocused on the rope in front of her.

Grasping the rope with both hands, she slowly slid herself completely off of the ledge, and immediately it cut uncomfortably into her waist as the rope took her weight. From above the ledge, she heard Shepard softly grunt with effort, but she let the thought slip from her mind as she calmly but confidently walked herself further down the wall. Descending several feet in only a few seconds, she briefly peered over to her left at the sound of scrapes across the stone. Looking over towards Miranda, she found her also descending the wall in a similar manner, already nearly even with her as she continued to climb. Impressed with the woman's tenacity, Liara turned back to her own rope as she continued the last five feet of the descent.

Within moments, the shape of the lever appeared off to Liara's right as she halted her descent. Reaching out with one hand, she cautiously gripped what appeared to be the handle only to find her fingers suddenly coated in a cold and strangely viscous fluid. Briefly shuddering from the unpleasant texture, she adjusted her grip and firmly grabbed onto the lever. Twisting to her left, she looked over just in time to see Miranda reach out and grasp her own lever before turning to Liara and holding out a thumbs up.

Responding with a thumbs up of her own, she craned back her head and yelled, "Be ready to pull us up quickly!" A grunt of affirmation echoed down from above, and with that Liara turned back towards Miranda. The two nodded, and as Liara turned back towards her lever she let out a shaky breath. Readjusting her grip, she paused for a moment before shouting, "Now!" and yanking her lever down as hard as she could.

The lever slammed down into the stone wall, and immediately the sound of rumbling stone filled the air and the wall across from her began to shake. A half-second later, both she and Miranda shot upwards as their respective partners heaved backwards on the rope, and in moments the two shot up and over the ledge before spilling out onto the stone floor. Quickly rolling herself over, Liara found Shepard leaning down with a face flushed from exertion and a hand extended. "Come on, T'Soni, you're not gonna wanna miss this."

Grasping onto Shepard's thick forearm, Liara found herself yanked effortlessly to her feet. Spinning around, her jaw fell open in shock as across the chasm from her, each set of statues sprang to life. Quickly flicking her gaze between either side, Liara watched, stupefied as in each pair of sculptures, the sword-bearing figure slowly brought their massive blade down in an arc towards the victim at their feet. The sound of stones grinding across each other continued to echo out as two blades found their mark, carving downwards through the neck of each kneeling statue and passing completely through to stop as they struck the ground beneath them. Immediately, the heads of the kneeling figures tilted forwards, before with the splintering sound of cracking stone, each head fell completely off its owner and spun forwards as they fell into the abyss below.

Liara watched dumbstruck as the two colossal heads fell out of view, the cavern falling silent as each set of massive statues came grinding to a halt. Several seconds passed in silence, until a twin set of splashes echoed up out of the chasm. Frowning, Liara opened her mouth to comment on the unusual sound when a sudden rumbling shook the ground beneath her once again. Stepping back from the chasm cautiously, Liara looked up just in time to see each headless statue suddenly explode into a spraying fountain of pitch black, oily liquid. Sharp cracks rang out through the air, and peering forwards Liara saw the titanic statues start to shudder and splinter from the sheer amount of this black blood now torrenting from their severed necks and flooding down into the abyss below.

Shaking her head in wonder, Liara slowly began to untie herself from her climbing rope as the flood continued to endlessly pour forth. Turning to face the rest of the group, she found Miranda and Shepard displaying similar expressions of mixed wonder and revulsion at the display, and across from them Jack simply looked vaguely impressed as she muttered, "Damn, that's kinda fucked up."

To her side, Miranda tilted her head as curiosity seemed to slowly beat out any disgust she felt. "What could be the point of all this?" She paused, then finally turned away to look towards Liara. "Where would someone even get this much of whatever liquid that is?"

Finding herself at a loss for words, Liara simply shrugged and shook her head. Looking over to Shepard as she started to coil the rope up, she saw her blink and suddenly peer forwards. "I think I figured out how we're supposed to get across the pit."

Frowning in confusion, Liara turned back towards the chasm to find the empty space before her suddenly gone. In its place, there now was a small ocean of black ichor, slowly rippling in waves and reflecting rays of dim blue light up across the walls of the cavern. Spotting a sudden shape in the murky waves, Liara found herself staring at two huge shapes as they bobbed up to float on the surface, the black liquid sluicing off of each to reveal two stone platforms, each a flat and vaguely circular surface about fifteen or twenty feet across.

Staring towards these, Liara tilted her head to one side in confusion until, in a horrifying flash of comprehension, she understood. Turning back to Shepard, she whispered, "We have to cross on the severed heads."

Judging by the grim look on Shepard's face, Liara gathered that she had come to this conclusion as well. Behind her, Miranda and Jack both frowned before looking out towards the now floating heads, Miranda looking slightly uncomfortable while Jack actually seemed to perk up at the idea. Turning back towards the heads herself, Liara bit her lip while taking in the ten foot gap between her and the first head. Shrugging, Liara muttered, "Well, here goes nothing."

Her biotics flaring to life, Liara took two running steps forwards before leaping as far forwards as she could. Assisted by her biotics, she gracefully arced through the air over the black waves beneath, before landing lightly on her feet just past the edge of the first platform. A second later, her feet shot out from beneath her on the now oily and incredibly slick surface, causing her to slam painfully onto her side. Forcing herself upright with her face burning in embarrassment, she turned back towards the group and held up a shaky thumbs up.

Across the waves, the other three all shared a look before simultaneously igniting their own biotics. Figuring it would be best to move out of the way, Liara carefully stood back to her feet and reactivated her own biotics before running across the rest of the platform and leaping on towards the next. She once again soared over the gap between platforms, and this time as she landed she sank into a deep crouch with her feet spread wide to keep her balance as she slid several feet across the oiled stone. Not stopping to look behind her, Liara rode the momentum forwards and raced across the second platform before planting her foot and leaping out towards the final stone platform emerging from the back wall of the cavern.

The air rushed past Liara loudly, until finally she slammed back to the ground with a grunt as she landed just past the edge of the platform. Turning back towards the rest of the cavern, she watched as Shepard, Jack, and Miranda all leapt across the gaps themselves, each of them soaring through the air wreathed in crackling spheres of blue energy. Making sure to back out of their way, Liara bit her lip and watched anxiously as they each struggled to find their balance on the shifting surface of the floating platforms, until finally each one made the final leap to land on the stone platform next to her. The last to arrive was Shepard, and as she stood from the impact of landing she moved to clap Liara on the shoulder reassuringly on the shoulder.

Turning back to face this platform they now all stood on, Liara found the raised stone dais to only be about five feet across, with a small stone lectern standing at the top. Stepping forwards as everyone else caught their breath, she carefully stepped up onto the dais. Leaning down to inspect the lectern, she found herself looking at essentially a smooth stone podium, with only a small rectangular indent carved into its center.

"Got any idea about this one, doc?" Turning to her left, Liara found Shepard standing by her side and peering over her shoulder towards the lectern. Returning her gaze to the indentation, she shook her head.

"If I had to guess, it seems like this was crafted to place some sort of object here. Maybe as a sort of display, or another hidden mechanism perhaps?" As she spoke, Miranda and Jack came up to stand on her other side as they looked down on the lectern. "There are several things this could be, honestly."

A sudden memory flashed into Liara's head, disrupting her train of thought. "Unless…" Slowly reaching into her satchel, she dug past the rope until her fingers brushed across a smooth, metal surface. Withdrawing the object from her bag reverently, she found herself once again holding the small Prothean sculpture she had rescued from the mine, its rectangular base still smoothly twisting up and around itself to form a metallic plume of fire. Slowly extending her hands as the rest silently watched on, she brought the sculpture to rest directly over the indentation before gently pressing downwards.

The metal base of the sculpture slid perfectly into the lectern, sinking down an inch into the stone before coming soundlessly to a stop. Near immediately, the metallic flame composing the top half of the sculpture pulsed once with blue light before fading back to its usual gray. Behind the lectern, a soft scraping sound emerged, and leaning past the sculpture Liara peered downwards to discover a small hatch sliding open in the ground behind the dais.

As all four watched, an object began to rise up out of the new opening in the floor as if being pulled up on a string. Her brow raised, Liara stood back as up out of the ground floated a curved piece of stone, about eight inches across from end to end and covered in intricately carved runes and symbols across its surface. At either end, the stone broke off in jagged shards, as if it had once been attached to something larger but had been forcefully snapped into pieces.

Liara found herself letting out a shuddering breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding. To her surprise, the air in front of her fogged as she did, and as a sudden shiver ran down her spine she realized that the air around her had seemingly cooled by several degrees. Looking over to Shepard, she saw her skin suddenly covered in odd little bumps, and to her right she heard Miranda's teeth begin to chatter from the sudden cold. Returning her gaze to the fragment floating before her, she found herself almost transfixed as it seemed to radiate out an encompassing presence; the sort of subtly dangerous aura that one would feel around a naked blade or a loaded gun.

Opening her mouth to speak, Liara stopped as a sudden whisper danced around the edge of her perception. Frowning, she tilted her head to the side to listen as the sound appeared once again, a faint teasing of sound at the very limits of her hearing. Slowly leaning towards the stone, she strained her hearing to pick up any discernible detail when suddenly the floating stone before her flashed a vibrant gold. Immediately, what sounded like thousands of voices appeared all around her, countless whispers all overlapping and interrupting and overwhelming in a wash of sound from every direction. Frantically looking around for any source of the sound, Liara saw only the faces of her three companions, when suddenly the voices all merged into one choir chanting in unison, repeating the same word over and over again. "T'Soni. T'Soni. T'Soni."

Her heart racing in her chest, Liara clutched at her satchel and began to back away from the stone fragment floating before her. Taking a step backwards, she suddenly bumped into something solid and warm, and whipping around she found herself standing nearly nose to nose with Shepard. Instantly, the voices around her disappeared, and with a confused frown Shepard asked, "You alright?"

Still feeling the rush of panic surging through her, Liara grabbed onto Shepard's arms. "Didn't you hear that?"

Still frowning, Shepard shook her head. "Hear what?"

Spinning around towards Miranda and Jack, Liara gestured towards the curved stone where it continued to float in midair. "You saw it flash gold, right?"

Now looking equal parts concerned and suspicious, they both shook their heads silently. Beside her, Shepard gently placed a hand on her shoulder as she asked, "Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

Feeling suddenly impossibly confused and frustrated, Liara shook her head and took a deep breath. Clearly, something had happened to her merely seconds ago, but as always all she could rely on were the facts in front of her. Turning towards the stone fragment, she cleared her throat to try to erase the shrill tension infused into her voice. "Well, either way, I think it's pretty clear what this is."

The others all stared at her silently, still looking incredibly confused. Huffing out an annoyed breath, Liara pushed through the silence. "This is the Ring of Life. Or rather, part of it."

Immediately, the temperature seemed to drop even further as Liara's words rang out in the silence. Swallowing thickly, Miranda turned to stare at the floating stone for a moment before asking, "Why is it broken?"

"I think they thought it was dangerous." Liara and Miranda turned to look towards Shepard, who shrugged as she continued, "That's sort of what that riddle we found said, right?"

Nodding, Liara gravely recited, "The Ring of Life has been sealed away, never to see another day. If you wish to hunt each part, then this is where your search must start. Through the jungle and inside the tomb, this is where you must face your doom."

As she finished the recitation, her voice rang out and around the cavern, ringing like the toll of a bell between the stone walls. When the echoes finally fell silent, Jack scoffed before stepping back from the lectern. "Right, fuck that thing, I'm not getting near it."

Rolling her eyes, Miranda admonished, "Very mature, Jack, it's literally just a piece of rock." Turning back towards the curved stone, she began forwards before suddenly hesitating. After a moment of deliberation, she turned to Liara with a grimace. "However, perhaps we should let the professional handle the artifact. For safety purposes, of course."

Memories of golden light and overwhelming whispers filled Liara's mind, and shaking her head frantically she turned to Shepard, who merely sighed. Stepping forwards, she began to reach out towards the fragment, calling back as she did, "If I break this somehow, we're all agreeing that it isn't my fault, yeah?"

With that, she reached out and grasped the fragment firmly in one hand, then immediately froze in place. Frowning, Liara watched her stand in place for a moment, before realizing that every muscle in her body had gone rigid, with the tendons in her neck standing out like iron rods as her arms began to shake with effort. Stepping forwards to place a hand on her back, Liara suddenly doubled over as a painfully intense wave of nausea swept over her. Suddenly debilitated with pain, she collapsed to her knees as to her right, Miranda and Jack began retching as they struggled to stand upright.

Groggily looking upwards, Liara blinked as she realized the stone fragment was glowing once again, the various grooves and runes carved into its surface now blasting thin beams of blue light across Shepard's upper body. Distantly, the sound of frothing, roiling waves swept over her, but Liara hardly noticed as she weakly reached out towards Shepard.

Just as quickly as they had appeared, the lights glowing from the fragment extinguished themselves, with Shepard collapsing into a heap on the ground a moment later. Mercifully, the debilitating feeling of intense nausea vanished a moment later, and with a pained groan Liara crawled over to Shepard's prone form. Rolling her over with a heave, she found Shepard laying on the ground with her eyes closed and her mouth slack, the curved piece of stone still loosely clutched in her hands. Ignoring the soreness now spreading out from her stomach and up across her body, Liara swept her satchel around and opened it wide to safely sweep the stone into the bag without touching it herself.

"Oh, what the fuck!" Spinning around, Liara saw Jack recoiling from the dark waves washing up against the stone platform. Turning to look past her, Liara frowned as several shapes began to bubble up in the liquid around them. Staring down towards one such shape surfacing only a few feet away, Liara suddenly gasped and flinched backwards as she found herself looking at a desiccated and heavily mutilated corpse as it bobbed limply upon the surface of the fluid.

Looking up towards the rest of the chamber, the vague shapes appearing all across the waves resolved themselves into countless corpses, all intertwined and spread nearly wall to wall as what must have been thousands of these horrid, ancient dead bodies surfaced everywhere she looked. Feeling her earlier nausea begin to return in force, Liara managed to choke out, "We need to get out of here."

Turning away from the sea of bodies before them, Miranda stared at her blankly for a moment before slowly nodding. Looking down towards Shepard, she swallowed before asking, "What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know." Gently laying one hand on Shepard's cheek, Liara softly shook her in an attempt to rouse her. Instead, her head limply moved side to side under Liara's hand, looking like a corpse except for the rapid movement of her eyes beneath their lids. Giving up after a moment, Liara looked back up to Miranda. "I think she needs a doctor, but I can't carry her out the way we came in."

Miranda stared intensely towards the two of them, the wheels turning in her head as she considered the situation. Just as Liara started to feel tears begin to prick at the corners of her eyes, she nodded. "Alright, we'll carry her." Turning to Jack, she waved her over as she stood and held a hand out to Liara.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Liara took her hand and stood to her feet as she carefully avoided stepping on Shepard. "Oh goddess, thank you."

Waving her off, Miranda quickly pushed her to the side as Jack took up position on the other side of Shepard, both of them looping their arms underneath her before heaving her roughly up off the floor. Grunting with sudden exertion, Jack gasped, "Damn, why the hell do muscles weigh this much."

Groaning, Miranda replied, "Stop complaining and just take her out the way we came in."

Spinning on her heel, Liara quickly reached out and plucked the small sculpture out of the lectern and tucked it back into her satchel. Turning to watch Jack and Miranda, she bit her lip as they simultaneously spread a glowing blue biotic field around Shepard. Satisfied that she wouldn't be dropped onto the stone, Liara reached up to touch her earpiece. "Tali, Garrus, this is Liara. We'll be out soon, but Shepard needs medical assistance immediately."

A moment later, Garrus' voice crackled into her ear, "Copy that, we'll get Joker to pick you up so Chakwas can get at you ASAP."

Nodding in response, Liara keyed off her earpiece and turned to follow Miranda and Jack. Reaching down, she absentmindedly patted the side of her satchel, the stone fragment securely inside. Frowning slightly, Liara huffed a sigh and stepped off the dias and started after the others. Whatever she had to do to make it happen, she would ensure that Shepard got out safe.

---

A/N: god i love jack so much, she's so good. anyways hey gamers, this one took way longer than i thought but also it turned out literally over twice as long as i expected so that kinda evens out right? plus every good adventure story needs a good spooky ruin temple type thing, so i hope you enjoy!

also did i put a looney tunes reference in this one? yes. do i regret it? not yet at least