Chapter Text
Prologue
Liara sat on the couch with a glass of Asari wine in her hand. Shepard had a bottle of whiskey in hers. They were a couple hours into some well deserved girl time. Time neither of them had been able to find until tonight.
“I miss Ashley, what she would say about all this.” Shepard began. “But you know she’s not the only one. Pressley, Jenkins, Talitha. All of them were valuable members of my crew. I’m still shocked that no one died on the collector base. Dumb luck I guess. With what’s coming we’re going to lose more. People I know and care about are going to be sacrificed to defeat this enemy.” Her face showed how weary and worn she was. She took a large swallow directly from the bottle not looking at Liara.
“Shepard, I have nothing to offer you as comfort. This is a monumental task we have before us. Others have tried and failed, and from what we know, over and over again. But I know you, your drive to never give up. To make sure as many survive as you can. These things will help. All of us are willing to do what is necessary to end this. You’ve got people that have your back. Garrus, Tali, Wrex, me, even Joker and Chakwas; we’ve known you since the beginning of this madness. We’re here for you, offering what we can.” Liara smiled “You’ve even managed to amass several more in the last few years. Thane, Mordin, Miranda, Grunt and I believe even Zaeed to name a few.”
“But it won’t be enough. We need the entire galaxy united to end the Reapers and I can’t even get the council to acknowledge they exist. If I see Councilor Sparatus use air quotes one more time there won’t be any hope of the Turians joining any alliance we manage. I swear that turian thinks that by using a human gesture he can be related to better. All it does is make me…” Her omnitool beeped interrupting her tirade. She glanced down to read the message. “Dammit! This spam file keeps coming through!” Exhaustion and exasperation in her tone “Liara, I’ve paid good credits to firewall my tool. Several different anti-spam programs and this message keeps on getting through.” She looked at her friend clearly at her wits end.
“Well have you tried to open it?” Liara asked amused at the look of exasperation on Shepard's face “I doubt with all the safeguards you have in place and the friends…” She cleared her throat meaningfully “…you have that it can really do any damage.”
“I’ve tried that, all I get is a file name; nothing else. No attachments or any context for the message. Here let me forward it to you.” Shepard hit some buttons and Liara’s tool beeped.
Liara looked at her omnitools, disbelief on her face as she scanned the message. “Shepard, this is Prothean. Why would you be getting spammed with Prothean mail?”
“What?! Prothean?! Shit!” Shepard cringed “The only thing I get out of this is FILE# M0RG1Z1. Does that mean anything to you?”
“Not a thing. I can send out feelers for anything further on it though. I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Have you tried replying to the message?”
Shepard nodded her head yes. “I’ve tried answering, I’ve tried blocking, I’ve even tried changing my extranet address and rerouting through several anonymous servers. It still manages to find my omnitool, not my terminal, just my tool. I’m getting beyond frustrated, it’s almost like the Beacon, someone is trying to tell me something and I’m too dumb to figure it out. And they are going to keep hammering at me until I get it.”
Liara gave her a piercing look then just nodded once and took a drink from her glass. Avoiding that quagmire she smiled “So what were you saying you wanted to do to the Turian Councilor?”
“Liara, you know me too well.” She sounded sheepish, but not enough to avoid the question. “I want to break his talons off one by one and shove them up his ass; while yelling ‘we have dismissed that claim’, in a condescending voice.”
Liara laughed out loud, a full, joyous laugh that Shepard hadn’t heard in years. She had become far too serious since taking on the mantle of the Shadow Broker. As helpful as that title was to Shepard and her crew, she still missed her young and idealistic friend.
Serious talk over for the time being, they both focused on their respective drinks and gossiped about their mutual friends for the remainder of the night.
Shepard woke alone in her quarters, her terminal beeping with the new message tone. She looked at her clock next to her bed with bleary eyes. When the numbers focused she saw it was twenty minutes before her alarm was set to go off. She groaned and rolled out of bed walking over to her desk. She logged in and clicked on the new message icon on her screen. Admiral Hackett greeted her with a look of surprise.
“Shepard, I’m sorry for waking you. I’ll keep this brief. We have a deep cover operative out in Batarian space. Name’s Doctor Amanda Kenson. Dr. Kenson recently reported that she had found evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion.”
“Why call me?” Shepard asked
“Just this morning I received word that the Batarians arrested her. They’re holding her in a secret prison outpost on terrorism charges. I need you to infiltrate the prison and get her out of there. As a favor to me I’m asking you to go in alone.”
“Alright, I’ll make this a priority.”
“Sending the coordinates now; we’ll debrief you on your return.”
The mission to rescue Kenson went badly. She managed to get her out of the prison without too much trouble. The trouble came after. Kenson and her crew on the asteroid were indoctrinated by one of the Reaper devices littering the galaxy. By the time Shepard had that all sorted out over 300,000 Batarians were dead and the Alliance was looking for a way to avoid war.
Enter Shepard the scapegoat; until the Reapers showed up. Then she was the most important person in the galaxy; AGAIN…